Reviewed: November 12, 2007
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
Ignition Entertainment
Developer
Ignition Banbury
Released: October 15, 2007
Genre: Puzzle Action
Players: 1
9
8
8
9
8.5
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Mercury Meltdown Revolution is that classic coffee table game of a maze and ball only the Wii remote is now your knobs and the ball is made of mercury. The name of the game here is moving your blob of mercury successfully through a bunch of puzzles using the Wii remote to tilt your puzzle surface.
The Wii system was simply made for games like this and Ignition Entertainment has done a superb job with Mercury Meltdown Revolution. This is one of those addicting games that you find yourself playing just a few more minutes of, into the wee hours of the morning.
Starting with a quick tutorial that is not really necessary you find yourself in control of your world in Mercury Meltdown Revolution, or at least the small one on the TV screen. You use your Wii remote playing on the ends, a racing wheel is great for control here, and tilt the whole puzzle surface to move your blob of mercury around.
The puzzle parts of the game start out easy enough and quickly you graduate to the really difficult stuff like changing your mercury color and having to match that color in order to get through doors. You also have the added difficulty of splitting your mercury into two pieces then color each piece before recombining them to get another color.
This is just one section of puzzles using the mercury and various things you can do to make a unique and difficult puzzle game. There is the usual buttons you have to sit on before a door will open and a fan that will gently or forcefully push your blob depending on the fan speed but they have added a whole slew of different objects to make each puzzle different and challenging.
The game for the single player starts out small and quickly builds into a difficult time with over 150 puzzles in all. The sets of puzzles are grouped appropriately enough into test tubes and labs with each lab being a new set of puzzles. Fill a test tube up and you get to progress to the next lab of puzzles but you don’t need to complete each puzzle, just get enough points to fill the tubes up.
During your game play you will unlock five party games for each lab you complete which the best is probably rodeo but the others are fun as well. Rodeo is just like the name implies, keep your blob on the platform for as long as possible while it tilts and a fan tries to blow you off. There will be a bonus pickup that will slow the fan appearing randomly so get that and your time will be easier. You can play the party games against another player but they are for points and not a same time multiplayer game though.
The graphics are really very good and lively for the simplistic game and do not make the game harder to play. The colors on the blobs when you change are easily seen and they have added helpers in the color wheel for mixing your blob colors when appropriate.
The other elements of the game like the effects of electricity and energy forces look very good without being to flashy or cheesy. Overall the game looks very good and they have struck that nice middle ground balance of being bright and cheerful and not too colorful or flashy.
They have a pretty good background theme music playing and the games effects like force fields and electric sounds realistic and good. They have added a personal touch and try to give you some heartfelt feelings toward your blob of mercury by a little peep or yell as some slides of the edges during game play. It kind of lets you know how the poor blob feels when you don’t try your best to get him through the maze of his life.
The game will take several hours with the many puzzle mazes and it is very rewarding to return for another try and better times at many of the puzzles. For many of the puzzles there is only one way to run through them but time is always a factor and several have a different route or style to solve them so a repeat of the entire game is fun.
Ignition Entertainment has done a great job with the gamer’s sense of style and keeping with the simple design so you don’t get bored or frustrated easily. The game will be a good one to keep around, as it is a quick pick up and play type game that does not require lengthy load times.
Mercury Meltdown Revolution is a great game and definitely worth the effort of trying to solve all of the puzzles. They have done a great job of using the Wii remote to control the platform of the puzzle and hence your mercury blob and have kept the frame rates and control very steady and workable. Mercury Meltdown Revolution is a great game and a definite Wii hit for me.