Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2888 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2005-09-01
• Rating: Universal, particularly children
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Sony PSP
• Dimensions: .50 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Created by Archer MacLean, Mercury puts you in control of ultra realistic liquid mercury which you have to steer through 72 levels spread over six challenging worlds. Using your brain and balance, control the mercury around various obstacles and puzzling scenarios as well as keeping everything intact. Blob control is important; keeping your liquid mercury together and not spilling is the key to completing your goal as well as identifying the colours you need to move through certain areas. Once you've achieved your goal you'll face the end of level boss who won't be a walk in the park. Can you handle the challenge?

Customer Reviews

Another Archer Maclean Masterpiece
I purchased my first Archer Maclean game around the mid-80s, Dropzone for the Atari 8-bit computers. It was an arcade quality video game on a home computer.

Well here is another Maclean classic over 20 years later. It is original, highly addictive and makes excellent use of the PSPs capabilities. I would happily pay £35 for this game.

A surprise gem for the skill-based puzzle fan
When I first heard about Mercury back before the PSP came out, I thought it sounded boring. However, I am a huge fan of Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube and many of my friends told me that they thought I'd like Mercury because it has that same element of highly refined skill that Super Monkey Ball has. So I picked Mercury up cheap and was indeed pleasantly surprised by the depth and elegance of the title.

Each level is a maze with a blob of mercury in it which you move by effectively "tilting" the maze with the analogue nub. The other buttons provide detailed camera control so that you can position the view to show exactly where the mercury is going. Some levels involve pressing switches, some guiding the mercury through a tricky maze in as short a time as possible, and some demand that you lose as little mercury as possible (it is easy to split the mercury so some falls off the maze). A lot of the later and secret bonus levels are a combination of these objectives.

What I like so much about Mercury is the way that the levels require you to work out a strategy (it is not usually obvious exactly how best to get through a level) and then develop the skills, over many attempts, to carry out that strategy. In the same way that Monkey Ball was challenging and offered extra specially difficult levels for those willing to put the time in to master it, so too does Mercury offer steep challenge in the form of competitive in-game score boards which encourage players to work out the best possible way through a level. By getting to number 1 in the rankings, extra levels are unlocked with more exciting gimmicks and more elaborate designs.

Mercury belongs to that school of video games like Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball and board games such as Labyrinth and Screwball Scramble: it's a test of strategy and skill that is immensely satisfying to master.

If you like games of high skill then you'll love it. If not, then try first and see if the Mercury buzz hooks you.

Some have criticised the game for being too short, but I don't agree with this criticism because there are lots of levels to be unlocked, they just require mastery of the basic set - Mercury isn't about rushing through doing the levels to a mediocre standard, it's about putting in the time to be perfect. In this way, the game offers great value for money.

Shiny but SHORT....
Come on - a game like this is meant to have a bit of life to it.

While it was very enjoyable, the stark fact is it is too short. Do not even think to compare this to the likes of Tetris or some other puzzle clones.

Nice idea, very well presented but at the end of the day it is an expensive game with a very very short lifespan. Don't even think that you will enjoy replaying this one.

Once completed that is it. Shaving a second off your last best time might work in a racing game but in floating a glob of mercury around a small (yes small) map, well - I think I prefer to go out for some fresh air.

As to all those magazines that rated this so highly - shame on you. Continuing to hype a game that in the end detracts from the quality we gamers deserve will only result in more short or poorly made junk.

Have I said this is SHORT!!!