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Mercury Meltdown - Hands On Mini Preview
Jon Wilcox
09/08/2006
Mercury may have lost Maclean, but the franchise is far from experiencing a meltdown...
Alongside the likes of Lumines, Archer Maclean's Mercury was one of the rare titles to really stand out during the European launch of the PSP in September 2005. The probable love-child of Screwball Scramble and Marble Madness - with a colour wheel thrown in for good measure - Mercury was engaging thanks to its simple (if sometimes frustrating) gameplay. Nearly a year on, and a lot has happened, not least the sudden departure of Maclean (which actually occurred before the release of the first Mercury) and the subsequent name change of developer Awesome Studios to Ignition Banbury. It's under these circumstances that a follow up to Mercury is being developed...without Maclean's name, of course.
Currently slated for a release on PSP in September, Mercury Meltdown is shaping up to be a re-boot for the franchise, with a new interface and an overall change visual style, pointing the way forward. Split across eight 'Labs', each designed to a particular theme including Astro, Bio, Chem and Hydro, the core gameplay remains the same: get a blob of mercury from one end of a track to another, and navigate past numerous obstacles along the way. Breaking away from one of the key criticisms of the original game, that it was too linear and that difficulty progressions where haphazard, Banbury is evidently working hard on creating a more free-flowing title (much like the mercury itself). Players of Meltdown will find themselves unlocking new Labs before completing the previous one, so that if they encounter a particularly challenging level, they won't find themselves overly frustrated and stopped from going any further. Collecting bonuses within levels will also unlock various Party Games for quick bursts of gameplay too.
Five party games are there to be unlocked in the game, all offering something a bit different to the usual gameplay of a Mercury title. Race is pretty self-explanatory, whilst some of the others are a bit more obscure. Rodeo sees players trying to keep their blob of mercury on different shaped surfaces, Metrix has the aim of popping blobs of mercury according to their colours, Shove is the Meltdown equivalent of Curling, whilst Paint sees players paint a board in their own coloured blob - whilst an opponent tries to do the same...
This streamlining effect on the structure of Mercury Meltdown is also set to sweep into the overall interface, with the permanent addition a colour wheel in one corner helping those who struggled with remembering the colour combinations. That said, there are sure to be some gamers who'll regard the addition as something that over-simplifies the experience, but playing through the preview build we found that it actually allowed us to concentrate more on completing the main task in hand. Meltdown will also include a Freelook Mode, which lets players pour over their next challenge from all angles.
Building upon the core gameplay of the original title, Banbury has implemented four physical states for the mercury to take on, Normal, Solid, Fast, and Slow. Implementing these new states will certainly allow the developers greater scope in the overall design of the levels themselves. Changing the blob of mercury to the different states is accomplished with 'Coolers', 'Heaters', and 'Solidifiers', set out across the levels, together with 'Attractors' and 'Repulsors' - gravity warping fields that also affect the movement of the all-important mercury.
Right from the beginning of the game however, there's one change that looks set to determine the success of Mercury Meltdown: the new cel-shaded visuals. In a dramatic shift away from the original title, Ignition Banbury has taken a leaf out of the Metal Gear Ac!d franchise in releasing a sequel with heavily-stylised cel-shaded graphics. Where the visual shift may impact, however, is in the gameplay - with its black-outlined shaped, it's a much more delicate operation trying to work the mercury around some of the more complex levels. If there's one downside to the title, it could turn out to be this.
Despite revamping the overall structure and interface of the game, the dramatic change in visual style may become the major Achilles heel for Mercury Meltdown. That said, the rest of the game looks set to eclipse the groundwork laid down by the original title, which makes it frustrating that the graphics could end up being the sticking point of Mercury Meltdown when it's released in September.
dasher
Date Added:Mon 8th Jan 2007 05:46
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 8th Dec 2006 18:43