Mercury Meltdown

aka: Mercury Meltdown Revolution, Mercury Meltdown: Remix, Tama-Run
Moby ID: 26356
PSP Specs
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Description official descriptions

Mercury Meltdown is the sequel to Archer Maclean's Mercury, a puzzle game where your job is to guide a blob of mercury, or several blobs, along various mazes, by tilting the game world, while hazard try to zap, attract, repulse, eat, or blow you up.

Mercury Meltdown features a new vibrant visual style, a lot of completely new stages, a free-look camera, ghost mercuries and replays for your best times that can be saved, and much more. The game's original realistic graphics have been turned into a more cartoon style. The mercury now has a black line around the outside of it.

The main change in the game is the ability to change the mercury into 3 more states. Besides normal state now you can turn the mercury into the "Fast" or "Slow" using a heater and a cooler, and using a solidifier you can make it unto "Solid" state, a round, non-breakable ball. The mercury can still be split using a splitter, needed to solve certain puzzles.

Unlike the original Mercury, the game is split into themed "Labs" rather than “Worlds”. There are 10 Labs, with 16 initial stages: Astro, Bio, Chemical, Electro, Geo, Atom, Aero, Hydro, Micro, V.R. (Virtual Reality). The PS2 version adds two more: Chrono and Cryo, as well as twin analog control, support for the rumble feature, improved graphics and all the levels from the original Archer Maclean's Mercury. There are 168 stages in the PSP version and over 200 in the PS2 game. Unlike the previous game, there is no strict order to play the levels. Once a Lab has been unlocked, you can play all the stages included right away.

Attributes show how well you do in the games. The best performance is awarded with a golden cork, based on four conditions: a high score (a 1 sticker), all bonus items found (a star sticker), 100% mercury (a corked test-tube), and complete the level within the time limit. While playing, your progress is measured in faces that replace the time clock. The time limit cannot cause the game to end anymore, instead it just turns into a sad face and players can still complete the level. The mercury limits have also been removed, but 100% mercury is still needed to access some of the later stages.

The top right corner shows a color chart, to help with mixing colors in the game. This can also be done in the paintshop. This release adds multi-paintshops, triangle base pyramid shaped constructions with 3 different coloured gates on either side.

In addition to the main game, there are now five party games, which are unlocked by collecting the bonus stars in the main game: Metrix*: puzzle games where coloured blocks need to be fit inside a pre-defined grid.

  • Paint: move the mercury to paint the tray as much as possible against your opponent.

  • Race: guide mercury around speedy track with boost pads and avoid falling off.

  • Rodeo: tilt the playing area to keep the mercury on the field, while a fan tries to knock you off.

  • Shove: aim the mercury for the center spot of the target, just like curling.

All the party games can be played in multiplayer over Wi-Fi on the PSP. The tutorial is now separate from the main game, and there is an additional Playground mode where you can test the different items in the game.

Spellings

  • タマラン - Japanese PSP spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (PSP version)

92 People (48 developers, 44 thanks) · View all

Managing Director
Sales Director
Marketing Director
Head of Operations
Printed Materials Manager
Product Managers
UK Sales Manager
International Sales Manager
Information Technology
Logistics
General Manager
President
Director of Product Development USA
Account Representative
Head of Studio
Head of Art
QA Manager
Design
Art
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 67 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 11 ratings with 1 reviews)

Severely Underrated Retro Fun Comes To The Wii

The Good
No doubt, the Marble Madness comparisons have ultimately occurred before. This game could also be compared to Super Monkey Ball in some aspects. The great thing about this title is the challenge. What separates this from other "ball games" is that your ball can actually break apart adding a new layer of difficulty to the already intense maze environments you'll encounter.

The sheer challenge of completing this game - I mean really completing everything - will seem staggering. This is especially true for casual gamers who may get a lot of mileage out of the game due to the difficulty. There are a ton of levels each containing their own unique challenges.

One of the many blessings about this game is also the controls. They sure do feel tight when you consider how many Wii games had motion control that felt iffy. No one is to blame in this game if you die except you - the controls feel great.

The Bad
This is one scenario where I'm not a fan of the cel-shaded graphics. I normally stand behind and love the style, but just something about the way they are done in this game isn't that great. Don't get me wrong - the mercury itself looks quite cool, but the levels and the mercury just don't mesh graphically for me.

Another aspect that I wasn't pleased with was the music. It's quite repetitive and, to maximize the experience, you'll probably end up turning it off from the options menu. For an arcade game, the music is what you'd expect, but some nice ambient music would've really complimented the overall vibe of the gameplay and not distracted from the experience.

The Bottom Line
A retro gem in a sea of re-hashes and knock-offs. This game can probably be found relatively cheap since, as far as I know, it bombed upon release. Fans of Super Monkey Ball, Marble Madness, and the like will absolutely love playing this game. There are plenty of levels and things are challenging from the first set (called "labs" in the game). Attempting to 100% everything will keep players busy for countless hours too. It's truly a shame that this game will no doubt go under the radar when it comes to the fond Wii back-catalog most remember years from now. I would, however, strongly recommend this game to any retro gamer looking for a challenge as they will be stumbling upon one of the great unknown Wii games!

Wii · by Steve Thompson (87) · 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Mercury Meltdown appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Stratege.

Wii added by Corn Popper. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, Sciere, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added February 3, 2007. Last modified March 9, 2023.