ic-games Review - Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii) - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii) - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii)

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Ignition
Publisher: Ignition
Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Puzzle
UK Release: 08th Jun 2007
Article Date: 03rd Jun 2007
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
0

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 90%

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Pros

Works great with the wiimote

Mercury manipulation

Fun

Cons

Some may struggle

Screenshots

3 of 10

At first glance it’s debatable if the Wii really needed another game like Mercury Madness. After all, we have already got access to the likes of Super Monkey Ball where you control a ball like cage that you have to navigate around a course, or let’s not forget Kororinpa, where you control a maze, to move a ball around a course (or was it that other way around). In Mercury Madness you’ll not be surprised to learn that you control a blob of Mercury, around, yes you guessed it, another course. The only difference is, as far as rolling balls around courses goes, Mercury Meltdown Revolution is miles ahead of the rest.

Mercury Madness originally saw success on the PSP and due to Ignitions love of the series it’s already seen life in many different guises. The original, Archer MacLean’s Mercury and then Mercury Meltdown both received positive acclaim when they were released early in the PSP’s life and shortly after, PS2 owners were treated to more of the same, just slightly remixed. And so that brings us to the fourth official version, Mercury Meltdown Revolution, perhaps a slight nod to the Wii’s codename, or a cynical reason to believe that Ignition prefers, like we do, Nintendo’s original name.

Once again the magical Wiimote is called into play. When placed in the classic NES position your controller is set up to control the blob of mercury that you must guide to the mission goal. An in game tutorial teaches you the essentials and guides you through the first few levels and then it’s onto the game proper, allowing you to break new records and discover sly and clever ways of manipulating that blob of metal. If you’re mad enough to prefer to use the Classic Controller rather than the motion detecting Wiimote your wishes have been answered. The game plays the same but half of the fun has instantly been extracted, hardly the fault of the developers and at least they do give you the option.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (MMR) is almost identical to the other titles in the series, if you have played either the PSP or PS2 versions you’ll know just about all you need to know to jump straight in. In MMR the idea is simple; you control a blob of mercury and must guide it around the map to the ‘goal area’ in the fastest possible time. Of course there are multiple hazards and objects to help you complete your task that are added to the levels as you go along.

The magic of MMR is the many different ways you can manipulate the mercury. Since some pressure pads require a certain amount of mercury to be present, not only do you have to be careful about not spilling too much from the playing field (unlike the aforementioned games, spillage is possible) but at times you will be forced to split the mercury up to proceed. Colour pots allow mercury to be mixed into different colours, especially useful when only certain types of mercury is allowed past sensors and teleporters whilst treadmills allow access past trickier parts of the levels but almost always you’ll have to work at it to gain access to these sections.

The graphics aren’t brilliant but Wii games rarely are of course. Fortunately the playability factor keeps you enthralled, where often eye candy graphics of the Next Gen powerhouses are required to do a similar job. Timed levels and high score tables are the order of the day and with five profiles able to be added we can see some frantic mercury controlling fights in households, as players do their best to top the tables. It’s this sort of playability which set the gaming world alight in the eighties and it’s great to see Ignition and others keeping it going.

We will probably get in trouble for saying it but if you already own Super Monkey Ball or Kororinpa, or dare we say it, both, trade them in immediately for MMR. If playing with your balls get’s you off, Mercury Meltdown Revolution is the best way to go about it, at least, on the Wii.

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