Mercury Meltdown Revolution rolls onto Wii

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 14th 2006 at 3:15PM }

Ignition Entertainment has announced that the Mercury series of puzzle games will arrive on the Wii next Spring, in the form of Mercury Meltdown Revolution. As it involves you tilting the playing field in order to guide a blob of mercury to its intended destination, it doesn't take any sort of scientist to make the mental connection between the game and the Wii's unique controller. Ignition president (and non-scientist), Paul Robinson, explains that "the original game design was intended for a tilt controller. Now gamers can fully interact with the Mercury blob, navigating through the labs with precision and unprecedented speed."

The press release is quick to note other key features, such as the presence of over 150 levels, "advanced rendering techniques" and most importantly, "state of the art blob physics." Admittedly, we initially read that last one as something else entirely.

Tags: Archer Maclean's Mercury, ArcherMaclean'sMercury, Ignition Entertainment, IgnitionEntertainment, Mercury, Mercury Meltdown Revolution, MercuryMeltdownRevolution, puzzler, Super Monkey Ball, SuperMonkeyBall, tilt gameplay, TiltGameplay

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Keeko_ca @ Dec 14th 2006 3:25PM

I hope they spend most of their dev time on improving load times. They RUINED the PSP version...

the real steve @ Dec 14th 2006 3:39PM

if it is anything like marble blast ultra, it will rock the wii owners' socks off. Finally a sweet use of the wiimote.

White Rose Duelist @ Dec 14th 2006 3:49PM

Marble Madness called. It wants its gameplay back.

In all seriousness, looks like a great addition to the Wii lineup.

Erik Novak @ Dec 14th 2006 3:57PM

Good call! My friend and I always said this is a game dieing for tilt functionality.

Patrick @ Dec 14th 2006 4:02PM

Next-Gen Marble Madness with the wiimote? I sure hope so!

pattyblades @ Dec 14th 2006 4:02PM

*cough*marbleblastcameoutaftermercuryifanythingsupermonkeyballcalled

Mr Blonde @ Dec 14th 2006 4:16PM

Marble Madness does not equal Marble Blast.

Iscariote @ Dec 14th 2006 4:22PM

I played Mercury on the PSP... what a turd.

White Rose Duelist @ Dec 14th 2006 4:23PM

pattyblades - you may want to get that cough looked at.

Marble Madness - 1984
Super Monkey Ball - 2001
Marble Blast - 2003
Mercury - 2005

justin @ Dec 14th 2006 4:46PM

Marble Madness?

syco @ Dec 14th 2006 4:57PM

I want this. I love monkey ball but there's a difference between MB and marble madness. MB is more about moving precisely across thin strips of land and moving platforms and such. Marble Madness, and hopefully this game, has more of a maze aspect to it, with more agressive obsticles but less tightrope walking.

Number One @ Dec 14th 2006 5:13PM

Games like this arent helping the Wii shed its party-game/gimmick portrayal by most video game media. Dont get me wrong. I'm loving the living daylights out of my Wii. It just seems that no one wants to invest time in a worthwhile project that wont loose its appeal after 30-40 minutes, or in development thinking up more interesting ways to take advantage of the Wii controllers. Im still worried the Wii wont be getting decent 3rd party support outside of VC. Developpers for games out so far are coming off as hell-a-fucking lazy and short sighted. Too many party games. I see a game like Mercury Meltdown and I think "well, duh!" but I'm not impressed.

The Wii should be the most appealing platform for shooters or RTS games or even more creative games but few people are wising up. Its sad.

page @ Dec 14th 2006 5:15PM

I liked http://psp.ign.com/articles/601/601517p1.html

haven't tried http://psp.ign.com/articles/738/738092p1.html

Mr. Khan @ Dec 14th 2006 5:29PM

Thank god the default title for Wii titles is "revolution" and not "Wii"

While wii is a passable name for a console at worst, at best adding the word Wii to a game title would really devalue it

this looks like it may be worth a rent

On the second day of christmas my true love gave to me
2 Cell Processors ($600*2 = $1200)
http://www.tunatronics.com/hp-e4209b-gr2.html
And 1 Nintendo Wii

ackmondual @ Dec 14th 2006 5:56PM

I LOVE these types of games, provided they implement them correctly. While many of these types of puzzle games I've played didn't have any longterm replay value, they were a blast to play noneoftheless

NES:
Marble Madness - no explanation needed

PC:
Ballance - like Marble Madness, but with 3 different ball types (wooden, stone, and paper), full 3d environments, more adventurous (levels are more like platform type layouts than arena style), and puzzle aspects.

Palm OS:
Gloop Zero - use your stylus to draw platform lines to guide radioactive "Gloop" blobs to their target

Amazing World - more like a Rube Goldberg type game than marbles and mercury, but still fun in concept

.

# @12
""Games like this arent helping the Wii shed its party-game/gimmick portrayal by most video game media""

This is Joystiq's word on games that'll be out by the end of the year for Wii. Assuming all these titles will be released by then... my count is 5 shooter games vs 2 party games. I don't count traditional sports and racing games as party games, but even if you do the shooters count is still right up there.

Activision:
Call of Duty 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Rapala Tournament Fishing
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions

Atari:
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Atlus
Trauma Center: Second Opinion

EA:
Madden NFL '07
Need for Speed: Carbon

Konami:
Elebits

Midway:
Happy Feet
Rampage: Total Destruction
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Ant Bully

Sega:
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

SNK:
Metal Slug Anthology

Tecmo:
Super Swing Golf

THQ:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Barnyard
Cars
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Creature from the Krusty Krab

Ubisoft
Far Cry: Vengeance
GT Pro Series
Monster 4X4 World Circuit
Open Season
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Red Steel
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent

Vivendi:
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

amj @ Dec 14th 2006 5:58PM

um...

I think they "announced" this months ago.

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2006/06/19/mercury-games-wii-bound/

MikeG @ Dec 14th 2006 6:49PM

Well, I've owned the PSP version of Mercury and while it was fun, it was hurt by the fact that on every level you had to blast through at an incredible speed to beat the clock. I understand that making levels timed is a crucial part of many of the levels. But I would've really liked to have gotten to take my time at some point and really play with the mercury. Maybe they'll include some levels that are just challenging without having to "beat the clock".