NXUS Review: Mercury Hg

You’re a blob. No, I’m not calling you fat, it’s exactly what you are when you play UTV Ignition’s metallic puzzler Mercury Hg. In a nutshell, the game relies on the player tilting the game world so as to guide the blob from start to finish via perilous paths, colour-reliant switches and moving platforms. Spanning a total of 60 levels (and 30 bonus levels) the game starts off simply enough in a series of tutorial stages separating the core elements that compose the game into easy bitesize chunks.

Once you properly enter the levels you’re met with the task of combining the skills you’ve learned. Each level comes with 4 targets to meet – completing the level, reaching the end with all your mercury intact, beating a set time limit, and collecting a number of bonuses scattered throughout the level.

VISUALS

From the half-futuristic, half-minimalistic menu through to the vibrant, crisp, colourful levels, the game oozes style. In the background of each level, rhythmic geometric animations accompany you as you guide your shiny, reflective friend on its way. The bright hues aren’t just for show, they are part of the way you have to play the game where you must hit floor-panels when your blob is the appropriate colour.

SOUND

As with a lot of puzzle games, Mercury Hg uses fairly generic dance / beat music that fits perfectly with the visual theme of the game. Where it excels though is the merging of music and graphics in the form of level components and background animations pulsing in sync with the beat. This is improved upon greatly by the added ability to use your own music library to provide the mood as you play.

GAMEPLAY

The controls are easy to pick up and consist of using the left analog stick or sixaxis motion control to tilt the level. Other controls allow you to move the camera, zoom in and out, and to pull your blob back into one piece should it get separated.

There are 3 main modes to play the game: discovery, challenge and bonus. Discovery is where you start, unlocking challenges and bonus levels as you go through the various stages. From the start you have 15 levels available to you in the first group of elements on the periodic table. You unlock each new element group by collecting 25 atoms, which are gained by meeting the 4 level targets mentioned above. Each new element group presents different challenges and greater difficulty.

Each level you complete has two scoreboards that rank you against the other players of the game in terms of points scored and fastest time. Both add that time-devouring incentive to play again (just one more go!) to beat your best and climb the rankings.

Challenge mode sets you the task of completing multiple levels from discovery mode in succession with a number of criteria to meet such as: bonuses collected, percentage of mercury left, etc. If you fail on any target or fall off the level it’s back to square one to start over.

The bonus levels mix the gameplay up once more, making you navigate the levels collecting vials of mercury until you reach the full 100% capacity, and then finding the finish. Lose any of the mercury over the edge and it’s back to the start.

Finally, all 3 modes allow you to toggle a ghost blob which lets you race against your best time or anyone you select from the leaderboards. It’s not an original feature by any means but it’s a great way to benchmark your performance.

CONCLUSION

Mercury Hg is a fantastic little puzzler that stretches your mind and your dexterity all for the small price of £3.99 / $4.99 (£3.19 for PS Plus). You can also find it on Xbox Live Arcade for 400 MS points.

The 60 levels of discovery mode will last you a good few hours and the bonus levels / challenges add more lifespan to the game. The most amount of time will be spent beating high scores / best times and trying to collect all the atoms to get 100% completion and gain all the trophies / achievements.

A quick look at the trophy list on the XMB reveals future level packs in the form of the ‘Heavy Elements’ and ‘Rare Earth Elements’ expansions. At the right price or as part of a bundle they will add more to an already fun and challenging game.

Mercury is definitely worth a look if you enjoy pick up and play puzzle games – 9/10.

If you’d like to see the game in action check out the trailer below: