Mercs review - Sega Master System

Poor old Mr Reagan. He's finished being president of the USA, but still those terrorists won't leave him alone. They've gone and kidnapped the senile old duffer and are threatening to kill him if all America's nuclear missile codes aren't handed over to them. Obviously, the government aren't going to waste any of their proper soldiers on the inevitable rescue bid, so they hire you, a top mercenary, to do the deed.

This means you wander up the screen in the style of the old game Commando and shoot everything. This includes enemy soldiers, enemy tanks, enemy jeeps and even enemy trees! A fair smattering of collectables are yours for the taking, should you find them, and these should doubtless aid you in your battle against a huge piece of war machinery at the end of each level, such as fighter 'planes, battleships, helicopter gunships and a giant bomber.

Can you save the ex-president and dispose of the terrorist threat? Remember the entire free world is depending on you.

What the Mean Machines staff thought

This conversion of Mercs is well decent, with some of the smoothest scrolling I've seen on the Master System. The action is tough and addictive, with plenty of things to blow up and enough enemies to make life difficult and death rather easier! The graphics and sound aren't outstanding, but it's the gameplay where this is strongest, and there's certainly plenty here to keep a Master System blastaholic happy for quite some time.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by this version of Mercs. The scrolling is super smooth, there are plenty of things to shoot and some cool power-ups to collect. The graphics are good with plenty of variation between each level, and the sound, although not brilliant, is pretty functional. The only problem I really have with it is that there's not much in the way of enemy soldiers to blast to oblivion, and some of the bosses are a tad weedy to say the least. However, although it has its faults, there's no denying that Mercs is very enjoyable, and well worth investing in if you're after a decent shoot 'em up.

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