Mercury Meltdown Revolution

Rating Everyone Genre puzzle Publisher Ignition Entertainment External Links Official Mercury Meltdown Website

The Wii finally has a budget game at a budget price, thanks to Ignition Entertainment’s Mercury Meltdown Revolution. For the pretty price of $19.99 MSRP, Wii gamers can add another title to their collection.

Building off of the game play established by Marble Madness, this new incarnation has the player navigating a little glob of mercury through color-changing spray machines, gates, and slipways to solve puzzles and reach the goal. Gates and goal points can be color-specific, and particular colors can only be achieved by joining two different colors together. This becomes one of the more challenging and fun aspects of the game. By splitting your mercury into more than one part, you can carefully guide each glob into a different color sprayer, and then recombine to create a secondary color and solve the puzzle. Through the levels you will heat up and cool down, effecting your rate of movement and ease of navigation on a platform. There are also anti-gravity mazes, ramps, launch pads, helper blocks, and enemies strewn throughout the game, providing variety throughout game play.

Graphically, Mercury Meltdown Revolution is nothing to call home about. Not much attention was paid to making this an eye-pleaser. The conservative art fits the budget. To keep some kind of visual stimulation, the backgrounds are brightly colored, the stages have varied textures and gaps, and the color system staves off the monotony of staring at a grey blob for hours on end. Naturally, this will look better on the PSP’s smaller, crisper screen. Worth noting here is the music, which cycles through a small spattering of tunes that changes every level. While not the most aurally stimulating of any game out there, the differing styles keep interest and manage to avoid being boring or repetitious.

What really makes this game is the game play, much like many titles on the Wii. If there was any game where tilt-control seemed like the natural next step, this is it. The kind of tilt-control allowed by the Wii controller works seamlessly. So well, in fact, that it seems silly to play it any other way. The further you tilt your Wiimote, the further the platform tilts, and the faster you go. The controller is held NES-style, which is surprisingly comfortable and works well for the title. On-screen indicators tell you which way to head for the goal, and off you roll. The concept is simple but oh so fun. And, just in case tilt gaming is not your thing, you can plug in the classic controller for some old-school arcade action.

As you progress through the game, you unlock party games and more levels to play. With over 150 levels, there is plenty of content to work through. Depending on how competitive you are with scores and level bonuses, you can find yourself with at least ten hours of game play. That may not seem like a whole lot of replay value, but for $20 you definitely get $20 worth of gaming.


Features:
  * Full interaction using the Wii remote motion sensor
  * Support for the classic controller
  * Bonus features to unlock
  * Over 150+ challenging levels
  * 480P support
  * State of the art blog physics