Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Eiconic Games
UTV Ignition Games
Available now
Puzzle Action
PS3, Xbox 360
Score: 4 / 5
When I was a child I had one of those little plastic mazes that you tilted around in order to get the little ball bearing in the hole. It was small, simple, and a game that I loved. Mercury Hg has rekindled those wonderful old memories. But that wasn’t the only game I used to play, for I remember, staying up late at night, searching for those level answers.
Mercury Hg is a puzzle game where you tilt the environment in order to move a blob of mercury to the exit in the fastest time possible. It’s a sequel of the PSP games Archer Maclean’s Mercury and Mercury Meltdown, however this time it’s been done in HD and on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Both the environment and menus are simplistic and easy to navigate which makes this game easy to pick up after work to play a few levels. This game also holds no pressure on the player, if you find a level too hard you can skip right on to the next one.
What I found to be really enjoyable is the fact that you can play your own music in the game and your little mercury blob will bop to the beat of it! Even though it doesn’t contribute to actually completing a level, it makes the experience so much more fun when you can listen to your favourite tunes and your character reacts to them.
There are extras such as pick-ups that offer extra atoms (awards) and bonus level challenges that were a lot of fun. One in particular is a bonus level challenge where you play the same level you just completed, except that you start as a small blob of Mercury and you need to collect more to make yourself grow. Also be sure to check out the Ghost Mode that allows you to view your playback and try to beat your own past score.
There are 60 levels (you can get through them quite quickly) so I would love to see more levels as some kind of DLC later on (Matt’s Note: There is DLC planned later in 2011). All in all though it’s a great game for casual players and I would recommend it for anyone who loves pickup-and-play puzzle games.
