| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Mercury
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
I wish puzzle games were more popular. If it was up to me everyone one of you reading would rush out and buy Meteos and Zoo Keeper for the DS and Lumines for the PSP and Super Monkey Ball for whatever console you have. If you played all of those, you might be ready for Mercury. Why? Because it's hardcore. It's not as accessible to newcomers as the aforementioned games; in fact it's frustrating in that delicious way only this kind of puzzle game can be. Do you like screaming at your handheld? Is a sharp increase in your blood pressure worth the enormous challenge? Well, then Archer McLean has got a game for you.
What kind of puzzler is it? Remember Marble Madness? Monkey Ball? How about going way back to the wooden game Labyrinth? That wooden maze game where you tilt the board and guide a marble away from holes? Mercury is like that. But instead of holes and dials with which to tilt the board, you have to use the tiny and imprecise PSP stick (or the direction controls) to control your progress and instead of a monkey, you're controlling a pile of slippery goo. I've got to give credit to the development team. The mercury in question, and the game itself, is startlingly beautiful. I'd love to see this game on a big screen. The mercury shimmers silver as it slip-slides around and when it changes color, it's vibrant and memorable. The look of the game and the various boards is as tranquil as the excellent soundtrack and that helps a lot when you die ﾖ again and again ﾖ in this game's many perils and pitfalls.  The idea is simple, by using the PSP analog stick or direction pad you tilt the game board and cause a silvery pool of toxic goo to slide around corners, onto platforms, and into contraptions that split the pool into multiple pools or change their colors. Early levels have safety walls to make things easier, and generally you need to activate pressure pads or change the color to get through barriers. Typically you're timed and there's always a limit to how much goo you can lose. Later the color challenges get more complex (transform one pool into blue and another into yellow, maneuver them together to make a green pool so you can leave through the green portal. Each level requires very precise tilting and making the challenge almost unbearable is the fact that this stuff acts like... well, it acts just like Mercury. A single error and you'll watch as 50% of your goo falls off the map. The game does feature an excellent camera system, but that doesn't prevent a few too many "deaths" due to unseen hazard while you're adjusting the camera. Several times playing this game I wished it had a tilt sensor (like the Game Boy Advance WarioWare Twisted game), or that you could get it for the PS2. Why? Because the analog stick ﾖ engineering marvel it may be ﾖ is just not subtle enough for this game. Far too many deaths come by way of falling into an unseen hole or because you couldn't finesse multiple globs through the levels. The good news is that the level design ranges from decent to excellent and the game offers a completely unique handheld experience. Serious puzzle game fans are going to eat this one up with a spoon I think. 
Nope, nothing offensive here. If anything the game might be too difficult, too abstract, too bizarre or maybe just too complicated and frustrating to younger kids. But if you have a patient and co-ordinated child who is clever and a good problem solver ... good luck getting them to stop playing this addictive puzzler. Really, just like I think it's a shame more of you aren't playing games like this. It's even worse that most kids don't play them either.
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Mercury" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Mercury |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
