I recently posted this over at TouchArcade, but thought this title is so deserving of an iPhone and iPod touch version, I’d give it some front page love over here too. With the recent release of tilt-based title ‘Hydro Tilt’ [App Store] and me previously owning a PSP (PlayStationâ„¢ Portable), My immediate association of Hydro Tilt, was with Archer Maclean’s Mercury. A gaming title which actually sealed my initial purchase of the device. Now, I’d like to see it come to the iPhone …
Designed by Ignition Entertainment (http://www.ignitionent.com/home.htm), and based entirely on the same concept as Hydro Tilt, Archer Maclean’s Mercury sees you guide a molten blob of Mercury around various puzzling environments – and in order for you to complete certain levels and situations, you’ll have to change the properties of your Mercury, including it’s colour, weight, form and other controlling properties.
You’re presented with a blob of mercury (or, in some cases, multiple blobs), and you’ll tilt the platform on which it sits in any direction via the PSP’s analog disc. The game starts with only one available “world” unlocked. This world consists of a number of tutorial stages where you can learn about the various pitfalls and obstacles you’ll encounter while playing.
Stages themselves are armed with a wide variety of crazy contraptions, like moving platforms, conveyor belts, launch pads, jagged corners that split your blob into multiple pieces, and even electric bolts and evil little gremlin spheres that take away some of your blob’s mass. The basic objective of each level is usually to light up a series of switches, or even just get to one switch at the end. However, how you get from beginning to end often requires quite a bit of concentration, skill, and luck.
Hydro Tilt, at the minute lacks what attracted me to Mercury in the first place, polish. It’s highly unpolished. Yes the basic fundamental game play factors are present, but the finish and gel of the overall user experience need a lot of work – plus it could do with some sensitivity controls. This is why I’d like to see the official version of Archer Maclean’s Mercury from Ignition Entertainment tilt it’s way into the App Store.
The important thing to take from all of this, is that the control system for Archer Maclean’s Mercury is based entirely on ’tilt’ alone. With the iPhone and iPod touch having an accelerometer built in, I think this game is a no-brainer.
Any of you guys played this? Anyone agree this would be pretty much another perfect title to port to iPhone? Would you like to see it arrive? I’m going to go as far as saying, if this is done right, by the right people, we could be looking at a title which could go head-to-head with the likes of ngmoco’s famed Rolando [App Store].
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