PSP World

Archer MacLean's Mercury

As a portable platform, the PSP was bound to see its share of puzzle games, and three in the first few months of existence seems like a “fair share.” Archer MacLean’s Mercury is one of the three, and once again delivers a completely different puzzle experience than Lumines or Smart Bomb. In Mercury, you tilt the boards on which your glob of Hg sit in order to manipulate it through mazes and various puzzles, sometimes trying to spill as little as possible, and at other times simply racing against the clock.

At first, we liked Mercury — it reminded us of Marble Madness, and that was a good thing. Unfortunately, the nostalgia wore off quickly as increasingly difficult stages took much of the fun away from the game, and that is the game’s biggest problem. Graphically it’s fine, and the controls aren’t bad — there just isn’t enough to do in the game when the puzzles get too frustrating. With no side games or quests to get your mind off of the problem levels, you may find yourself turning the game off way too often and too quickly. Simply put, it’s not a bad game, but there just isn’t enough going on to warrant a near $40 expenditure. Do yourself a favor and wait until this one’s about $20 to pick it up.

Review Round-Up:

IGN: 7.7
“Mercury is a great big idea inside about a medium-sized game.”

GameSpot: 7.8
“For PSP puzzle fans on the hunt for another game to complement their current Lumines addiction, Mercury is a solid choice.”

1UP: 7.0
“If you’re a competent gamer with a steady hand you’ll be able to complete every challenge eventually, but beating the game “clean” is going to require quite a specific skill set that may ultimately not make this entertaining for everyone.”

Net Jak: 6.2
“The combination of no replay and insane difficulty means that there’s no good reason to buy Mercury.”

Aggregate Rating: 7.2