556th played so far
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Playstation 2/Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Ignition Banbury
Publisher: SCEI/Ignition Entertainment/Atari
Mercury Meltdown and its sequel Mercury Meltdown Revolution are games that have intrigued me from the first time I saw them on the list. Moving blobs of mercury around a field sounds like an odd game on its own.
Our Thoughts
In Mercury Meltdown, you tilt a game board to make a blob of mercury move around a playing board. It’s like those plastic games with a metall ball inside that you had to put through a maze or past hills to get it to go through a hole. I remember them mostly with logos of different companies on the side. This being a videogame, there is of course more to it. The blob can split in parts, you can lose part of it by it falling off the playing field, and there are points where it changes colour and the like to up the difficulty further.
With the PSP having no tilt controls, the game doesn’t quite play as naturally as you’d expect, something I’m sure will be different once we get to the sequel (which we have a Wii version of). Even so, the control sticks sort of simulate the feeling already.
A bunch of puzzles come in that deal with making your mercury have different coloured blobs. As much as that sounds like an interesting twist to the game, it actually annoyed me slightly. There’s enough challenge in the different room designs, challenging you to get through them. A bit of colour mixing makes them more interesting, but often it made the game’s controls just more frustrating in a way that isn’t any fun. There are a few places where it became a bit too much a bit too soon.
Final Thoughts
Sure, the puzzles in this game are a bit more difficult than I would have wanted – some more variety and slower ramp up would have been appreciated, as moving the blobs around the stages is a lot of fun on their own. It still plays as a good game, looking nice with a sheen you want. I’m looking forward to playing the sequel.
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[…] the stage, the monkeys roll ahead and they can’t fall off, and you continue. Think of it as Mercury Meltdown with a cuter skin and larger feeling levels that really focus on you not falling off. Completing […]