Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (Nintendo 3DS)

Great!!! I love the RE World, and the game was so cheap!! I love so much! I will play a lot.

What on earth are Capcom up to?

Charging full price for what is in effect a mini-game (with many issues touched upon by other reviewers) is just wrong.

As an add on to Revelations this would have been ok but as a full price game it's a complete con.

I feel like asking for my money back and I've never done that in 25 years of gaming.

Avoid like the plague and wait for Revelations is my advice.

Hope sales are poor and Capcom learns a lesson.

As a big RE fan I was very excited when this new portable version of the shooting franchise was released and all in all I wasn't disappointed.

The style the gameplay requires you to kill as many enemies as you can in a limited amount of time. It's an addictive and action filled game that you are bound to like if you enjoy head shotting enemies against the clock. The attraction of beating your previous high scores will have you playing through this relatively short game a good few times.

Essentially Mercenaries is just a slightly expanded mini-game. There's no story mode and just six groups of missions to play. Also, there are only eight characters to choose from each with only one alternative costume. This lack of variety is slightly disappointing from a game which retails at the price of a full release.

The aiming and shooting system works well - you use the circle 3DS pad to aim which feels very intuitive. However, the feature that allows you to move while shooting by pressing L to strafe is useless as you cannot adjust your crosshairs whilst moving. This is a disappointing flaw but it can always be overcome by just stopping and then lining up the headshots.

The graphics of this game are very good and possibly even the best I have seen on the 3DS. However the frame rate is poor which is very annoying as in places the game can stutter. Also enemies can randomly disappear during gameplay which can be infuriating.

A nice feature of the game is the ability to unlock skills and up to three of them to your character. Also there is the ability to play with a buddy on certain missions via a local or online link. Although this does require both players to own the cartridge it does make for a fun addition to the gameplay.

Finally, this game comes with a complementary Resident Evil Revelations demo which is due to come out sometime next year. The demo is only a couple of minutes long and does not really give you a great feel as to what this game is going to be like.

Overall, Mercenaries 3D feels like it has been rushed through production due to the slow frame rate, flawed moving controls and enemies which disappear randomly. But despite the fact that this game has the depth of a kiddie pool it is an excellent ride. If, like me, you enjoy shooting monsters then you will overlook problems and just embrace the addictive and action-filled nature of this game.