Mercury Meltdown
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| Mercury Meltdown | |
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| Developer(s) | Ignition Banbury |
| Publisher(s) | Ignition Entertainment (US) Atari (EU) SCEI (JP) |
| Designer(s) | Rich Hancock Mark Walden |
| Release date(s) |  October 3, 2006 October 6, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer (2 players) |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) PEGI:3+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation Portable |
| Media | UMD |
Mercury Meltdown is the sequel to the 2005 Playstation Portable title Archer Maclean's Mercury. Like the first game, the idea is to tilt the playing area, guiding one or more blobs of mercury to the finish destination.
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[edit] Gameplay
As in the first game, players tilt a substance known as Mercury. The aim is to guide the mercury to one or more finish posts in the level.
The main change in the game is the ability to now change the mercury into 3 more states. As well as the normal state, using a heater will turn the mercury into the 'Fast' state, a fine and easily splittable liquid. Using a cooler, the mercury will change into the 'Slow' state, a thick and hard to split semi-solid. Finally, using a solidifier, turns the mercury into a 'Solid' state, a round non-breakable ball, which can be used to traverse rails.
The mercury is still splittable (apart from the Solid state), and it is still a requirement in order to complete some levels. Splitting is normally done using a splitter (a sharp triangle shape built into walls), but it can also be done using sharp corners, or sitting underneath a standard or fast piledriver.
Colors still play a part in the game, and so a new color chart is implemented in the top right corner to help with mixing colors. It can be turned off in the options menu. Mercury colors are changed by mixing two together, or using a paintshop to color the mercury. New to Mercury Meltdown are multi-paintshops, triangle base pyramid shaped constructions with 3 different coloured gates on either side.
Hazards will try to knock or destroy the mercury, some of these include the Jacob's Ladder (an electrical generator, capable of zapping your mercury), pendulums, attractors and repulsors, Mercoids (creatures that eat mercury) and their relatives Jerkoids (zaps mercury with lightning like the Jacob's ladder), Spectroids (Mercoids that only eat a specific color) and Schizoids (explodes on impact with mercury).
[edit] Labs
Unlike the original Mercury, the game is split into themed 'Labs' rather than 'Worlds'. There are 10 Labs in total and 2 exclusive to Mercury Meltdown Remix.
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Each Lab is split into 16 initial stages, and each stage is represented by a test-tube. Depending on how well the player has done the test-tube will gain attributes to show this. A 1 sticker represents a high score, a star sticker represents all bonus items, and a corked test-tube represents 100% mercury. A golden cork will appear if all three of these conditions are met, and the level has been completed within the time limit (represented by a smiley face in the stage information).
During the lab levels, faces represent your current progress, and they replace the time clock during play to show you what has happened.
- Wink - Level complete within time limit
- Smile - Level complete after time limit
- Sad face - Time limit has run out (whilst still in play)
- Wince - All mercury has been lost
- Surprise - Inability to complete the level with mercury still on the playing area
The Tutorial mode is now separate from the main game, as well as a new feature known as the Playground. The Playground puts you into a circular V.R. arena, with most of the items found in the game to play and test around with.
[edit] Party Games
In addition to the main game, there are now five party games, which are unlocked by collecting the bonus stars in the main game. All the party games can be played in multiplayer over Wi-Fi.
- Rodeo - Tilt the playing area to stop the mercury from falling off. A fan constantly tries to knock you off.
- Race - Race mercury around a track, hitting boost pads on the way, trying to avoid falling off.
- Metrix - A puzzle game requiring you to make coloured blocks to fit inside a pre-defined grid.
- Shove - The equivalent of 'curling', aim the mercury for the center spot of the target.
- Paint - Move the mercury to paint the tray as much as possible against your opponent.
[edit] Graphics
Instead of sticking with the previous style of graphics in the original game, the team at Ignition Banbury decided to go for a more cartoon style in Mercury Meltdown. This has earned a bit of criticism from some fans of the first game, since it does not look as realistic as it's predecessor. The mercury now has a black line around the outside of it. One reason for the change is to give the mercury more clarity.
[edit] Improvements
The first game was released to a tight schedule, in time for the US launch of the Playstation Portable, and so the game wasn't as refined as it could be. This time around, the game has had a number of various improvements to the core game to rectify the problems, as well as extras taken from feedback of the first game.
As well as a new progression system (see Difficulty), the levels are specifically designed to minimize as many camera problems as possible. Mercury Meltdown has also been upgraded in terms of levels, offering a total of 168 stages, compared to the 83 in last year's game.
In terms of extras, the game now supports the ability to save both ghosts and replays. Since the game promotes high score competition, this was one of the requests of players, and Ignition Banbury delivered. Ghosts can also be saved for the Race party game. Also the game takes use of the unique features of the Playstation Portable by implementing game sharing, and promising downloadable content, although what the content may be has not been announced.
[edit] Difficulty
One of the major criticisms of the first game was the difficulty slope that players faced. The progression was very linear, and as such, being stuck on a level means you could not progress any further, prompting some players to give up on completion. To rectify this, the progression system has been tweaked. All stages in a lab are now accessible when the lab is unlocked, meaning players can decide to try another stage to progress.
The time limit has also been scrapped from the game, but a set amount of time still remains, and has to be beaten to stand a chance of earning the top score on that stage. When the time has run out, the clock face turns into a sad face, yet the player can still carry on with the task at hand.
Also, mercury limits are mostly scrapped from the game also, however 100% mercury is now one of the requirements to progress to the later stages of the game. Limits only apply when at least one weighted switch is present in the level, and disappear when the weighted switch(s) are activated.
The stages are designed to be as difficult, if not more difficult than the first game, which provide gamers who managed to get far in the first game, with a decent challenge.
[edit] Remix
On the 15 September 2006, Ignition Entertainment announced a version of Mercury Meltdown for Sony's Playstation 2 console known as Mercury Meltdown Remix. The remix version features twin analog control, with rumble feature, and two news labs exclusive to the PS2 in the form of Chrono and Cryo, which makes the total number of levels increase to 200+. As the game is called 'Remix', one feature of the game is the inclusion of levels from the original Archer Maclean's Mercury, as well as sporting better lighting and special effects due to the extra power of the PS2.
