A classic arcade shooter (Mercs)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Mercs
Date:	22/09/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice visuals and sound, varied enemies, simple fun gameplay

Disadvantages: nothing startlingly original

Released back in 1990, Mercs is a classic top-down shooter in which you play the part of a mercenary taking on an entire army consisting of myriad troops and varied military hardware.

You have a varied range of weaponry at your disposal, including a plasma gun, laser, rocket launcher, homing missiles and flamethrower, and each of your weapons can be powered up multiple times throughout the game, increasing strength and range. The animation is rather nice, and enemies have multiple death animations, falling to their knees in a ball of flames when attacked with a flamethrower or flying up into the air and landing in a crumpled heap when killed by rockets.

The level settings are varied, as are your opponenets, with rocket and machinegun troops pouring out of tanks and apcs and the huge end of level baddies including a harrier jet, gunboat, attack chopper, tank, and a missile battery. The graphics are colourful and appealing, with plenty of large scale explosions and general wanton destruction throughout, and the entertaining sound effects and dynamic music complement the visuals nicely. Gameplay wise its nothing startlingly new, but remains a great arcade blaster in the vein of its predecessors Ikari Warriors, Who Dares Wins and Purple Heart.

Summary: A hugely entertaining top down arcade shoot em up