LogFAQs > #949661985

#93 Mercury Hg (Xbox 360, 2011)


Mercury Hg was possibly the last in the Mercury series, a collection of physics-based puzzle games where you guide a blob of mercury through a bunch of micro-levels. I've played other games in the series, but Hg was easily my favorite.

You don't actually control the mercury but rather you tilt the environment. The mercury takes time to pick up speed, so you have to keep it tilted in the direction you made it travel is you wish for it to go faster. Figuring out the right balance of tilt control might be jarring at first, but the game does an excellent job at getting you accustomed to the physics and even as the game gets more hectic, the difficulty never feels cheap.

The game was impressive for its constantly fresh ideas. Including the DLC, there were around 120 levels total (all named after an element on the periodic table, but that is not important). and they went above and beyond making each one distinctive. They had mercury-splitting corners, color changing devices, magnetic devices that attracted or repeled mercury, many of the tried-and-true objects such as ramps and rising/falling platforms, and so much more. I know that they didn't use every combination possible, but it seemed like they did.

I think what made this game even more special was just how replayable it was. You could unlock all of the main levels through simply beating them, but in order to unlock bonus levels and challenges, you had to complete other tasks. They asked you to beat it under a certain time, beat it with all of your mercury intact, and grab all of the collectibles. Due to levels usually taking under a minute, tackling on levels again and again was a low time-investment that led to a great sense of accomplishment when you could get so much done in under an hour.

I was also heavily into getting great placements on the leaderboards. They had ones for score and time. Even after I had fully beaten a level, it wasn't uncommon for me to go through again and again until I got a ranking (usually just shooting for time) in the hundreds. With the player base being in at least the hundreds of thousands, finishing in the hundreds was something I felt proud to achieve.

I tried very hard selling how great this game was to B8ers for several years to avail, but it has since been delisted. I assume none of you bought it, and I blame all of you it going away!

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu