towwang's Full Review: Mercury Meltdown: Revolution for Nintendo Wii
Contents: review of gameplay, controls, graphics, audio and more.
[Introduction]
"Mercury meltdown revolution" (MMR, in short) is a puzzle-and-action game developed by Ignition Entertainment for the Nintendo Wii.
In short, this game is about tilting playing fields, levels in the form of assorted graphical platforms/floors/walls, to guide a blob (big drop) of mercury from its starting position to a finish position. You tilt the playing field through the most natural of gestures possible: holding the Wii remote horizontally, its long edge parallel to the TV screen (and remote sensor). Tilt the remote left, the blob slides left, tilt it forward, the blob moves farther away from you, etc.
Along the path from start to finish in each level, you will have to overcome various obstacles that either block your way to the goal, or threaten to destroy the blob of mercury. "Mercury meltdown revolution" combines an element of strategy, the need to look at the big picture of each level and find a path, with an accurate physical model that regulates how your blob of mercury slides around, how fast it slides, whether it splits up, falls down, climbs up, or even soars into mid-air.
[Gameplay: 8/10]
The main goal of MMR is to beat all 16 levels in each of the 8 "labs" (worlds?) of the game. The earlier levels presented to the player are mostly flat surfaces drawn horizontally, such that if you hold the Wii remote perfectly flat (parallel to the floor), the blob of mercury can stay put in its position on the floor. These levels will have walls that block passage, holes where the blob can fall through and "die", narrow corridors that you have to navigate through carefully, and gates that the blob can pass through only if it is of a certain color or exceeds a certain amount (mass).
For the most part, your blob of mercury is modeled very accurately. It really feels like a big drop of liquid mercury at room temperature: it slides around as you tilt the floor, it can split into two or more droplets if it runs into any sharp edges, it has viscosity and cohesion that changes when the mercury gets heated up or cooled down, etc. It can change color when you slide the blob under paint showers, but for the sake of sanity, it can be repainted completely, and thus can only take on a limited number of hues.
At each level, your primary goal is to reach a finish area. You want to achieve this in the least amount of time possible. The game allots a variable amount of time, called "par time" to each specific level; if you can finish before par time runs out, you earn extra bonus points. Also you want to reach the finish area without losing too much mass of your blob. Letting portions of your blob fall through holes, get zapped, evaporated, etc., will lessen the bonus awarded to you at the end of the level. When you pass sufficient levels in one lab, the game unlocks all levels of the next lab, so you can try your hand (literally!) at increasingly difficult playing fields.
Your secondary goal at each level is to collect bonus gems, usually located in positions that are hard to reach, or away from the path to the finish area. The game keeps track of how many bonuses you have collected; every time you fill the bonus meter, the game unlocks a new side-feature, such as party games and "skins" (default color and appearance) for your blob. (I will go over some of the party games further below.)
The first time you play this game, you will create a profile and be invited to play through the tutorial. The tutorial is a sequence of 5 easy levels that teach you the mechanics of the game, basic information on how to overcome various obstacles, and an introduction to various enemies and hazards that can destroy your blob. This tutorial is very well designed and helpful; take this 10-minute tour, and avoid hours of frustration later on!
One of the greatest charms of MMR happens to be its non-continuity. You can play any level in any of the labs currently unlocked, in any order you want. If one level seems too hard, you can put it off and try other levels until a light bulb turns on above your head. You don't spend hours frustrated at not being able to defeat a major "boss" in order to progress through the game. This game will serve well the needs of both casual gamers, who only need to play 5-10 minutes at a time and beat one or two levels, and of hard-core gamers addicted to mercury poisoning (*grin*), waving their remotes maniacally to beat every high score down to the last level.
MMR's premise is very abstract: sliding a blob along platforms that resemble nothing in real life. It would be hard to write a story line for this game, and there is no need to add a corny one to this premise. Thankfully the game developers did not try to, unlike the senseless back-stories that piggy-backed onto classics like "Breakout" and "Arkanoid". Calling the groups of levels "labs" seems to take a nod at the mad chemist inside some of us, though.
My only complaint about the gameplay is that, in the levels that require or "facilitate" splitting the blob into multiple smaller blobs, the screen defaults to zooming out so you can view the entire level (and all the separate blobs on it). Problem is, some levels are intricate and you cannot play effectively when zoomed out. Then you have to press the A and B buttons to zoom in onto one of the multiple blobs. Compounding this problem is the fact that you can't control effectively the point of view to zoom to the blob you are most interested in; you can only scan through them back and forth, with A and B.
[Party games (in lieu of multi-player capabilities): 6/10]
Collecting the optional bonuses in the main levels of the game will unlock several side games. Even though they are called "party games", unfortunately they do not support multi-player mode, hence my lower rating for this section. I will describe them briefly here...
PG1) Rodeo. You have to tilt the platform to keep the blob from getting blown off its edges by an evil floating fan. Would be more fun if they had designed a blob-ette wearing a cowgirl costume. This is all about reflexes, very little strategy.
PG2) Shove. It's like curling, but with a blob. You aim the blob in a direction, choose how hard it gets propelled, and hope it stops sliding as closely as possible to a target area. The control scheme is sub-par.
PG3) Race. A futuristic racing game, where your blob is propelled through several three-dimensional race courses. The challenge is to go as fast as possible without flying off the race track. This showcases the power of the MMR graphics engine, perhaps more so than the main game. I like it, but it really screams for a multi-player mode.
PG4) Paint. You want to roll your colored blob all over the playing field, painting as much of the floor as possible with your color. A computer-controlled opponent is doing the same with his own blob. Power-up items will split up your blob (so you can cover more area simultaneously?), erase all paint in an area, etc. This is one game where they really could have implemented multi-player mode, since it does not involve panning around a large playing field.
PG5) Metrix. Feels like Tetris-meets-Bejeweled. You create an arrangement of 3 blobs in a 3*3 grid, and drop that arrangement onto a larger grid with walls and obstacles. If you form several blobs of the same color in a row or column, you win points. Here there is no panning involved either, so how about multi-player mode?!
With the understanding that it would be hard to implement local multi-player mode in most of these mini games (screen size limitations being one factor), I am lowering my rating for this section due to its lack of network support.
[Controls: 10/10]
MMR does not require you to point the Wii remote at the TV (or more precisely, at the remote sensor thereon) AT ALL. This is a welcome change for those of us with tired arms and sore index fingers, after having spent too many hours playing first-person shooters. You navigate through the game's menus using the directional pad on the Wii remote, and several of the buttons thereon.
During actual game play, you don't even have to press any buttons (unless you want to pause). All you do is tilt the remote along two axes: left-right, and forward-backward. The responsiveness of the playing field is excellent; the level tilts at the same angle and speed as you tilt the remote in your hands.
Also noteworthy is the fact that you can pause the game at any time, and scroll along, rotate and tilt (without moving the blob during pause) the playing field, so you can examine it from various angles and devise a winning strategy. This is especially helpful in those levels that require you to split the blob into two or more droplets in order to finish the level.
Lastly, on a more technical level, using just the accelerometer and not the infrared component of the Wii remote will drain the batteries slower.
[Graphics: 7/10]
There are no complicated textures, clouds, fog, etc. on this game. What you get is level after level of smooth-scrolling polygonal shapes and objects that visualize accurately the mechanics of the game. Tilting and rotating the entire playing field, at any zoom level, is extremely smooth and responsive.
One shortcoming is that you cannot pan the view effectively along some levels that are positioned in extreme angles. (I'd rather not say too much and give out spoilers.) I would have liked the game to allow rotation along all three axes during pause mode.
MMR does not push graphical realism to the limit on the Wii. Its visual aspect is subservient to the physics model, and I think this is a very good design for this type of game.
[Audio: 5/10]
Audio is rather basic in MMR. There are distinctive sound effects when the blob splits apart, merges back into one, a portion of it falls off or otherwise gets obliterated, etc.
The music tracks are mostly electronic music of decent to good quality. Some of them play in tempos that feel a little too fast, for example those chosen for the bonus 17th level, compounding the sense of urgency as you try to beat the clock.
The one thing that Ignition could have done to boost its audio rating would be to provide 3D positional audio, to let you hear what some of the objects/enemies are doing, especially when they are far off the screen. Proficient players could use these audio cues to their advantage and perform fast stunts to dazzle the audience.
[Conclusion: 7.2/10]
Solid gameplay that is friendly to both casual and expert players, paired with an excellent control scheme, makes MMR a good game to have when you need a high dosage of fun without necessarily becoming addicted to it for hours on end.
Editorial note: real mercury is a toxic substance. If you buy this game for young children (a perfectly appropriate choice), be sure to at least mention that they should not play with Hg in real life!
[Revision history]
2008-11-06: Initial revision. Copyright Tow Wang 2008. 2008-11-07: Added my impressions on the party games.
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