Mercs (Genesis) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
209A playthrough of Sega's 1991 run-and-gun arcade port for the Sega Genesis, Mercs.
This video shows both modes played on the normal difficulty level. The arcade mode is shown first; the original mode begins at 24:50.
Mercs started life as a 1990 Capcom arcade game designed for their then cutting edge CPS1 arcade hardware. It was the second game in their "Wolf of the Battlefield" series, the direct sequel to the 1985 hit Commando, and followed up by Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 in 2008 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Like Strider and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Mercs was one of many Capcom games that appeared on the Sega Genesis that had been ported and published by Sega themselves. Unlike most of their other Capcom ports, however, Mercs was substantially reworked for the port, and was a much-improved game as a result.
Mercs is a politically charged, top-down run-and-gun shooter of the variety that was particularly popular in the late 1980s. Commando laid the groundwork, and Mercs incorporates many of the improvements that other developers had made to the formula in the intervening years in games like Heavy Barrel, Jackal, and Bloody Wolf. The object is to rescue the US president from terrorists in South Africa.
The game never directly says that, but the story features a "country" in Africa named "Zutula" that is embroiled with tensions over the issue of apartheid. So yeah, South Africa. It's the same kind of hilariously hokey, thoroughly transparent cover that we saw used in games like "Rush'n Attack" (which of course had nothing to do with Russia with a name like that!) or "Guerrilla War" (clearly taking on Cuban Cold War politics, despite the English translations best efforts to say otherwise).
The Genesis port of Mercs is, like Sega's other home-grown Capcom ports, surprisingly true to the original arcade title. All of the stages, enemies, an weapons are here, and the graphics and music are surprisingly close given the wide difference in power between the Genesis and the CPS1 hardware. As was common for the time period, the second-player option was removed from the game, but to make up for this, a brand new "remix" mode of sorts was also included.
The original mode creates what is essentially a brand new title from of the assets of the arcade game. It features a new storyline a new set of eight stages, which is two more than the original game had, and branching paths within the missions themselves.
Rather than picking up weapon icons to switch guns, as you fight through the stages finding other allies, you'll gain the ability to switch between them on the fly, and each comes with an individual weapon that can be leveled up. Since you aren't relying on specific item drops to use a particular weapon in this mode, you have a lot of leeway in creating your own strategies to tackle difficult spots.
Besides acting as weapon changes, the switchable characters can also get upgrades to their health bars, armor, and walking speed, introducing a lot of depth to what was originally a somewhat shallow shooter. These items can be grabbed from enemy drops, or they can be bought from shops that accept medals as payment. The extra characters also act as a replacement for extra lives. If you lose them all, it's game over, but if any of them go down, you can buy an (expensive) elixir that will bring them back to fighting shape.
Mercs was a fantastic arcade shooter, and it was an important addition to the Genesis library when it launched in 1991. It would've been great if they had just ported the original game and left it as it was - a short-lived but thoroughly enjoyable hi-octane 80s action movie in video game form - but the extra hours that Sega put into creating something truly special here paid off in spades, giving us a meaty campaign with a far more variety, replayability, and challenge than the coin-op original. More than enough to stave off any disappointment over the lack of co-op play.
If you enjoy Capcom arcade shooters or Sega's Genesis arcade ports, you'll really dig this one. It represents some of the best of both companies coming together to produce something truly special, and is still very much worth tracking down if you still have a Genesis.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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