Mercury Review

Platform: PSP

Publisher: Ignition Entertainment

Developer: Awesome Studios

Rating: Everyone

Players: 1-2

There isn't another game on the market quite like Archer Maclean's Mercury. Sliding a blob around a screen may not seem so difficult to some, but this game is more involved than they think. In this task-oriented puzzle game you must have your wits about you as you venture into the blissful world of Mercury.

Mercury Gameplay

With seventy-two levels in all the challenges are relentless. Mercurys brilliant tutorial walks you through the basic strategy of the game and in the process teaches you valuable lessons that you need to learn to be able to unlock all six of Mercurys worlds.

Levels

The furthur you advance in the game the rapidly more difficult the mercury becomes to play with, but with patience the gameplay itself will continue to teach you by pushing you to the limit. Racing levels will test your speed, percentage levels will challenge how well you can keep your blob intact and task levels force you to use grace to slip and slide through the mazes and their obstacles. Combo levels prepare you for the boss levels by providing you with several levels of tasks to perform so that when the third level of gameplay is added you are up for the challenge.

Obstacles

Thirty different incentive items will keep you on your mental toes. Sometimes they will help and sometimes they will be the bane of your existence. Mixing colors with paint shops and color switches sounds easy enough until you realize the colors you need to mix are separated by doors, platforms, vacuum pipes and sometimes even a creature or two. Some levels create a whole new kind of puzzle when your mercury blob is denied any sort of wall to cling to giving you an edge you do not want thave in this game.

2 Player Vs. Mode

Without a WI-FI connection between two PSP systems and 2 game discs you won't be able to take advantage of this feature in the game, but those that are able should know that everything, but your timers are separate. Transparent mercury blobs represent your opponant's place on the board and how close you are to winning. Or losing. Have fun with that if you have the means, I'm sure I would highly recommend it if I could.

Difficulty

I'm not going to lie to you - this game is not easy to play. It is not a game for young children regardless of the "E for Everyone" rating. Read the instructions all you want, but mastery of the game is only gained by honing your skills. Mercury demands that you to maintain extreme control to command your blobs and will prove to be a challenge for even the best puzzle-solvers. Rotating camera angles is helpful, but when your metallic mass of quicksilver is sliding out of control turning the cameras around is that last thing you want to deal with. Gamers who enjoy the rewards of a highly challenging game will be thrilled with Mercury, but those gamers who enjoy less mind-boggling puzzle fun should stick to Lumines.

Graphics and Sound

Just looking at Mercury's cover art is visually pleasing, but actually playing the game is even better. The mercury blobs are shiny, brightly colored drops of liquidy joy sliding within the confines of the different mazes of the levels. Each world is stylistically designed right down to the incentive items that are placed into their specific environments. Menu screens are fluid and flow into each other almost as nicely as the blobs themselves.

Music is a dreamy mix of ambient beats and melodies and compliments the atmosphere of fluidity vs. structure in Mercury like chocolate milk on a winter's day after school. There is a track of music for every level of the game and, as with any PSP title, the best listening experience must include headphones.

Summary

Visually stunning and creative in every aspect of its dimensions, Archer Maclean's Mecury is on the cutting edge of 3D puzzle games and PSP technology. There is rumor of an adapter for the PSP to grant users the ability tilt the system itself to manuvuer mercury blobs across the screen, but I have yet to find visual, written proof.

If your interest has been intensified look at more screenshots via the Mercury Website to see for yourself why someone like me who doesn't like 3D puzzle games of this type wants to play Mercury more and more.