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Archer Maclean's Mercury (PSP)

Status: Stopped playing - Got frustrated
I started playing this game on Wednesday 4 November, 2009  //  I stopped playing this game on: Friday 6 November, 2009
Current opinion of this game
Didn't start well. Couldn't get past the tutorial. Sigh.

November 6, 2009 09:21:56 PM
I guess I knew I was in trouble when I wasn't able to finish one of the
tutorial levels. Unfortunately, all the other levels were locked so I
decided to call it a day and move on.

However, why wasn't I able to clear the tutorial level? Part of me
things that I came to the game with the wrong assumptions. I thought of
this game as essentially a variant on Marble Madness (or Super Monkey
Ball). Roll something around to reach the goal. Don't fall off.

Mercury is, however, a little more complicated than that. You have to
trigger switches and change colors. The biggest wrench (in my mind) is
however the ability to (sometimes) split your mercury in two (or more?)
blobs that are then controlled together. This was the killer for me. I
can save one or the other...

Another wrinkle in my experience has to do with the fact that its a
liquid blob rather than a ball. In Marble Madness, say, you can roll
pretty close to the edge and JUST barely not fall over. It's a binary
result: drop or not. Mercury is more nuanced. If you get too close to
the edge you end up dribbling over (losing mercury). While this isn't a
deal breaker since you can often finish anyways, it ends up posing an
additional limit you have to play against that isn't clearly outlined.
How close is it that you can get to the edge without dribbling exactly?
I lost the tutorial many times over due to dribble loss...


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria