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Ignition Entertainment briefly showed off the sequel to last year's hit PSP puzzle game, Mercury. In the last installment, you controlled a blob of liquid metal as you split it, changed its color and manipulated it to the goal, but this new game will have you doing all that plus more.
Mercury Meltdown's most noticeable difference are the graphics. For those of you that played the last game, you will remember the very realistic style and feel. The developers felt that the dark and sterile look scared away too many gamers, so they altered the look of the game to be more appealing to a wider audience. Now the game has a cel-shaded, almost cartoony feel to it.
Not only have the graphics of the game changed, but what your blob can do has also had a revamp. Meltdown introduces three new states for your mercury to change into. Each state has a different level of solidity, for instance the Ball Bearing state will have your blob form up into a perfect sphere so it can run along guide rails, but in this state it can't slosh through small openings. The Frozen state is not quite as solid as the Bearing, but it is a bit stickier than the normal mercury. The last state is one that allows you to zip around the map a bit faster, but this one also allows your mercury to be a bit more runny and harder to control.
With these new states come new puzzles and obstacles and more levels. Some areas can only be accessed by turning into a Bearing, while others require the speed of the least solid state. With two times the number of levels as the first game, Mercury Meltdown is bound to keep you solving puzzles for a long time.
Another of the changes that will be introduced in this game, is the slightly less strict level progression. Now not only is it easier to get to more advanced levels without getting all of the points in precursor maps, but the time-limit restriction has been lifted as well. That's not to say that there isn't a time goal, but it isn't required to pass a level, instead finishing within that time yields you a bonus.
Ignition really seemed to listen to the gamers when designing this title. For one thing, it seemed a lot of people got frustrated at the game when they finally arrived at a goal only to find that their mercury was the wrong color. Now the arrow showing you where your final destination is will be colored to match the desired outcome. The game also provides a color-mixing quick-reference guide in the upper corner of the screen so that you know what you will get when you combine any of the seven different mercury colors.
Mercury Meltdown will also support several 2-player modes including races, painting and a rodeo game (to see how long you can stay on a platform). All of these mini-games must be unlocked in the regular gameplay mode and are accessible via ad-hoc connections only.
Expect to see this puzzle game on PSPs this September. |
