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

As a Resident Evil fan I pre-ordered this game month's before it became available, and I waited with great anticipation.

I love playing the Mercenaries "extra" that came with the Resident Evil 4 game (my first RE game and the reason for my obsession), even though I still can't get the 5 stars with Leon and Ada on the Castle level. Strangely it hadn't occurred to me that this game would be based on that.

Unlike other Resident Evil games there is no story to follow just a series of timed games where the objective is to shoot enemies and collect items.

The game starts with a limited number of characters, missions and weapons. As you play and reach certain targets you unlock various items.

Enemies come from RE4 and RE5 and vary in difficulty to dispose of.

It took me a while to get use to the controls, but this is my first 3DS game so that's not really surprising,

There is a problem with game play. The game seems to jump at times, rather than running smoothly - this means that you can line up a shot and just as you take it the scene shifts slightly resulting in vital headshot points being lost.

There is also the problem of the sudden appearance/disappearance of enemies at close range - one second the enemy is in the distance and the road ahead is clear and the next moment you're face to face with one who wasn't there, or vice-versa. So far they are the main problems I have encountered.

The "bonus" item is a very brief look at RE: Revelations - I can't really tell much from this tiny fragment of game play, but I hope they iron out the bugs before they release it.

In order to play the dual game each person must have a RE:Mercenaries cartridge.

One thing which is a major disappointment is you cannot restart the games. There is no way to reset it. I'm one of those people who likes to restart a game from the beginning rather than keep going with all things maxed out (as far as I can get them), so not being able to reset the game is a let down.

There is no option of changing save slots either - there is the one slot and that's it. With no overwrite facility, no reset ability and no way of changing slots Nintendo and Capcom have, for me, taken away some of the replay-ability from the game.

I realise that Capcom and Nintendo are trying to stop disappointed, "bored-with" players and second-hand dealers selling it on, but it has been a big disappointment for me as restart-replay is important to my game play.

I hope that this doesn't isn't the start of a new trend. Without the ability to get a game second-hand I would never have tried RE4 (Resident Evil 4 (Wii)) and never discovered the franchise, so Nintendo and Capcom may be blocking newcomers to the franchise who don't want to, or can't afford to, buy new games at a high price.

As a "game", and after playing as many of the old console and DS games as possible (the older ones were pre-owned), I can say that, to me, it feels like an "extra" rather than a game. It just feels like something is missing. I'm so used to the playing RE with a story behind it so to have a game which has no story left me with a disappointed feeling.

Yet the game, when you think of it as a portable version of the enjoyable Mercenaries game, is great fun (bugs ignored). So one star off because I cannot reset the game and start again from the beginnings, along with the bugs and play problems.

If you can ignore the bugs and love the Mercenaries "extra" games then this is the game for you. I'm not sorry I bought it as the game is fun enough to make me pick it up again. I just wish they had included the ability to reset the game.

From a personal point of view, I really hope that Capcom are developing something for the console player and not just for the 3DS system.

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.