Mercs Longplay (Arcade) [60 FPS]

Developed and published by Capcom in 1990

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Commando was one of the best-known shooters from arcades during the mid 1980's. Blessed with great graphics (for the time) and frantic shooting action, it was a sure-fire hit that went on to receive conversions to numerous home computers and consoles of the day. Developed as a successor to the previous game, Mercs doesn't stray too far from the formula of the previous game.

According to the game's backstory, a former president of US has been captured by a terrorist faction whilst on a peace-keeping mission in a fictional South African nation. Unable to instigate official military intervention, a group of elite mercenaries (the titular Mercs) are enlisted to save the day and rescue the former prez from danger.

Following in the footsteps of action flicks of the late 80's and early 90's, you can almost smell the testosterone oozing from it's very pores. The level of machismo shoots off the scale when you're introduced to the three, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jocks that make up the Mercs (all of whom appear to have had no lessons in firearm safety). The fact that there are three characters is significant in that the cabinet could support simultaneous cooperative play for up to three players, something relatively unique for this particular genre.

Once the game begins, the player moves his or her Merc using the control stick and fires by tapping the fire button. Enemies appear from all angles of the screen, so you'll need quick reactions to deal with all bad guys before they become too much of a problem.

Scattered around the battlefield are wooden crates that can be blasted open to reveal bonus items and new weapons. There's quite a decent selection of guns on offer, including a spread cannon, grenade launcher and, my personal favourite, the flamethrower! Each weapon has it's own unique strengths and weaknesses and it's up to the player to decide which weapon is best used in the battles ahead.

Instead of implementing a standard 'lives' system, the player has a health bar that is drained whenever they take damage - lose all health and the game is over. Fortunately, some of the crates contain health bar extenders that provide the player with more maximum health and improving chances of survival. Whilst the player should try to avoid getting hit at all costs, it's important to note that bullets do less damage than grenades or explosives.

In terms of visuals, the game is quite the looker. The background artwork is highly detailed, boasting vibrant colours and looks excellent. The character sprites are relatively small (given the perspective), but all are quite detailed for their size and the CPS1 hardware throws around quite a lot of them at once without too much in the way of slowdown. The various vehicles, especially the attack choppers, are easily the best looking things in the game and look superb.

One of the more curious aspects of the game's visuals is the fact that, despite being supposedly set in South Africa, the architectural style of the buildings is all over the place. For example, level two feels more like you're waging war in a Bavarian village than anything else!

Although the graphics are top-notch, the audio is something of a mixed bag. The music sounds much closer to the chip-tune, FM synthesis of Capcom's older titles, and some of the gun effects sound oddly 'squishy' and 'poppy' - not particularly convincing. It's not a terrible-sounding game by any means, but it's not up to the quality that would feature in later CPS1 and CPS2 hardware, backed by QSound chips.

Whilst Mercs is a fun a shooter, the difficulty is pretty overwhelming for the lone player. Understandably, being a coin-op, arcade operators want players to spend money (be it on continues or cooperatively), but it's still something of a shame that it's quite so unforgiving.

Ultimately, Mercs is a game that's at it's best when played with others. Bring along a couple of friends and you'll be sure to have plenty of fun.
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