Mercs (Capcom, 1990)

[Randorama]

This review focuses on Capcom’s Mercs/Senjō no Ōkami II, an interesting top-down action game that also qualifies as a freely scrolling shmup. The game acts as a sequel to Senjō no Ōkami/Commando, as the Japanese title implies. The game received quite a few ports back in the day (e.g. MD, Super Famicom/Nes, the Saturn Capcom collections: read the wiki below) and was popular with arcade crowds, in my experience. The PS2 Capcom Collection, PS4/Switch Capcom Arcade Stadium are arcade-perfect and run on more modern formats, however. The arcade version has a 2P and a 3P version, with the 3P version usually including controls specific to each of the three mercenaries in-game. As we are going to discuss in detail, this game is possibly a pinnacle of 1980s Hollywood-style action, even if it saw its release in 1990. Be sure to pump your steroids pack, get bare-chested and be ready for some extra-judiciary manly action. The squib version of this review is here, for those who like to read some extra details. For those who care, the review is 4.8 pages long in a times new roman, size 12, single space format (i.e. 1929 words long).

Mercs/Senjo no Okami II (Capcom, 1990) is a top-down, (ro)TATE hybrid of action game and free-scrolling shmup. Players control mercenaries (“mercs”) Joe Gibson, Howard Powell and Thomas Clarke, who must enter the African country Zutula and rescue the former US president from the clutches of power-hungry militias. The game is notable for having smooth and highly detailed graphics, and peculiar approach to action scenes and bosses, and for offering perhaps the easiest and fastest counter-stop in a shmup. The game might feel intimidating at first glance, since even basic soldiers can land considerable damage by throwing hand-grenades. Boss fights pit the three fearless mercs against some huge vehicles and weapons of destruction, so they can strengthen this impression. My goal in this review is to convince my readers that the game is relatively easy and quite more enjoyable, exquisitely designed, and even a satisfying challenge for scoring purposes.

Before I define the reasons behind these claims, let us define the Facets of a context within the micro-genre’s boundaries and Capcom’s releases. In 1990, Capcom produced several interesting titles such as HORI(zontal) shmup Carrier Airwing/U.S. Navy, Action/Platformers Chiki Chiki Boys/Mega Twins, Nemo, and Magic Sword. The CPS-1 had already seen future legendary titles such as Ghouls’n Ghosts, Strider, Final Fight, Warriors of Fate and Forgotten Worlds. To arcade customers, Capcom was offering a diverse and brilliantly solid array of great videogames. The top-down type of shooter, however, was perhaps already a micro-genre destined to fade away. Taito’s Land, Sea, Air Squad, SNK’s Ikari Warriors and S.A.R., Konami’s Gangbusters, Sega’s Alien Syndrome, Toaplan’s Outzone, Data East’s Heavy Barrel were solid representatives of the genre’s parable, with SNK also offering rotary joystick experiences. The micro-genre of “action games without a jumping button” had thus a thriving if shortly-lived number of releases.

Capcom decided to release a new game in this micro-genre via Mercs, also to display the ability of this board regarding highly defined graphics. The company billed the game as a sequel to their moderately popular Senjō no Ōkami/Commando game from 1985 in Japan, though in both versions the focus is the trio of titular “mercs”. These three mercs must infiltrate Zutula, an affluent African country, and save the former US president from the militias who have made a coup d’etat during the president’s visit. The militias know that by keeping the president hostage, they will have leverage against the world. The US government and the CIA will have none of this nonsense: hence, the three mercs infiltrate the country to save the president and the day. If this plot reads like a marvellously trite Hollywood action flick from the 1980s, it is because the inspiration was clearly this one.

The plot’s triteness notwithstanding, the game has simple and intuitive mechanics. Players control each merc with the joystick and can move them in eight directions. The A button controls main shots, and the B button controls bomb attacks. Players can collect up to ten “Pow” icons and thus max out the power level of their characters’ weapons. Characters can use machineguns, flamethrowers, spread-shot rifles shooting funny-looking green bullets, and grenade/shrapnel rifles. Each weapon has its own power level, range, and effectivity: for instance, the shrapnel rifles have low shooting frequency but do area damage and can be devastating at maximum power. Characters only have one life, in the form of a green bar showing H(it)P(point)s. The “HP bar” power-up increases the HP limit, and food plus first-aid kid add HPs when needed. If characters collect all eight HP power-ups, they will roughly double the number of HPs at their disposal.

The bomb attacks work much like other bomb attacks in other games, but with a minor game. Using a bomb will cancel all bullets on screen, kill all foot soldiers, and damage all vehicles as well. However, damage lowers with distance. When characters shoot a bomb, they trigger an animation approximating the use of a grenade launcher and obtain roughly a second of i-(nvicibility) frames. The area roughly half a screen of (vertical) length in front of a player receives the maximum damage. Other areas received less damage, based on the distance from the animation signalling the bomb’s detonating area. Irrespective of the detonation area and its location on the screen, all bullets and enemies’ attack disappear. This entails that bomb attacks act as screen-wide defensive tools but must as offensive tools they require proper aiming. Use bombs with precaution and, if possible, as the most brutal close-range attacks.

The game also has a mechanic appearing in the first title of the series and in Taito’s Land, Sea, Air Squad, and the subsequent Metal Slug series, among others. The three mercs can enter various types of vehicles, depending on the Stage and section. When they enter the vehicles (e.g. the tanks on Stage two and five, the water jet sleighs on Stage four), they can shoot powerful attacks via the A button and absorb bullets via the vehicle. Vehicles do have their own HPs and cannot move beyond certain sections: the sleighs only allow the mercs to cross a swamp section unscathed. Although players can avoid using the vehicles, the possibility of slaughtering enemies’ armies via their own weapons is too good: use it with abandon. The game thus offers some robust if not indispensable vehicle action, as befits titles in this micro-genre.

Let us now move to the audio-visual Facets and the aesthetic presentation. Most vehicles and backgrounds in the game implement highly detailed, pseudo-realistic graphics that for the time looked quite gorgeous and highly defined. Furthermore, many vehicles are based on real-life military models (e.g. the final C-130 Hercules boss), and thus offer a strong sense of realistic, gritty action. Sprite characters are also well-animated and detailed, and mesh well with the vehicles. Stage design is highly engaging: the three mercs land on a beach (Stage one) and move in the jungle to reach one of Zutula’s key cities (Stage two). From here, they assault and disable an enemy’s frigate (Stage three), move to Zutula’s capital and then enemy’s secret base in the Veldt (Stages four to six), and stop the enemy from fleeing with the president (Stage seven). Add an ultra-detailed colour palette and massive boss vehicles: Mercs is a gorgeous, well-designed game.

The audio by then Alph Lyla member Manami Matsumae offers a solid if not indelible aural experience. As in the case of Dynasty Wars, lady Matsumae created a solid set of themes that match the action-rife visual presentation. As in the case of Carrier Airwing/U.S. Navy, this composer chose a mix of styles oriented towards the “Hollywood blockbuster” style, given the cinematographic presentation of the game. Perhaps the most notable themes are Stage five’s Destroy the enemy’s supply line and Stage six’s Country R’s Air Force, which follow an epic style and against the backdrop of Zutula’s capital city and then the rebels secret (and immense, of course) underground base. Sound effects are also impressive: explosions are loud, mercs’ grunts when hit hilarious, and vehicles are incredibly loud when moving. The game has an overall cool, realistic, and highly detailed aesthetic presentation, and a good atmospheric OST with great sound effects aptly capturing the intense on-screen action.

With an overview of the game’s audio-visual Facets at our disposal, we can discuss difficulty as our next Facet. The game’s difficulty stems from three sources: Game mechanics, Stage design/layout, and rank. A fourth emergent mechanic lies in how players can play the game for score. Simply put, players must not use bombs (i.e. a game mechanic Facet) and therefore clear critical sections via standard attacks (i.e. a Stage design/layout Facet). The game’s mechanics offer a compact list of difficulty Facets: players may learn how to use the weapons at their disposal, and possibly rotate weapons based on their efficiency in clearing a Stage/section. Players can then learn how to use the vehicles on offer to easily clear sections and possibly avoid bombing. Learning how to use bombs in the most devasting manner becomes a key skill, at least if players do not wish to pursue score-driven runs.

Stage design/layout offers another compact list. Stage one is simple and the boss, an Harrier VIII-like plane, can go down easily by exploiting a safe spot. Stages two to six, however, require that players carefully learn where vehicles and enemies with powerful attacks (e.g. missile-shooting turrets in Stage three’s air carrier setting). Bosses all have powerful attacks and tons of HPs, but all their attacks can become trivial once players learn their patterns or safe spots within these patterns. Stage seven is a boss fight in which the mercs must destroy the engines of the militias’ C-130, and then rescue the president. Once players learn how to (easily) dodge the planes’ attacks, the Stage is mostly a victory lap. Rank is based on survival time: enemies become more aggressive and shoot more often. Since this Facet maxes out by Stage three, it plays a minor role.

The fourth Facet offers a nuanced view about how difficulty works in this game, and how it interacts with scoring opportunities. Players start with three bombs and can accumulate one bomb per Stage (two on Stage six). If they use (up) bombs, they will recover three units once the new Stage stars, along with roughly 30% of HPs. If they do not use the bombs, they will start a Stage with the left-over bombs. By Stage six, thus, players can start with eight bombs in stock. Bombs give 3k points per unit as an end-of-stage bonus, along with remaining Stage time. If players never bomb and destroy all enemies and vehicles, they can score 999900 points (possibly, more) and thus max-out the score. This is however only possible if players learn how to clear critical sections and bosses without bombing, which is not an easy feat.

For these reasons, I propose that the four Facets respectively attract 15, 15, 5 and 15 points. For the first Facet, I assign a 5/15 difficulty value, and for the third Facet a 1/5 difficulty value. Once players learn how to clear Stages by using bombs tactically, then they can have a good control of Stages and bosses. I thus sign a 6/15 difficulty value to the second Facet for this reason. Even simple foot soldiers can throw hand grenades and deal heavy damage, and bosses can kill the mercs with two well-placed attacks. Thus, only once players also learn how to clear Stages by not using bombs, can they fully master Stages, bosses and scoring opportunities. I thus assign a 10/15 difficulty value to this Facet, because players must learn how to handle Stages two to six, plus their bosses, without bombing.

The difficulty value I propose for this game is thus 12/50 difficulty points if players forsake scoring opportunities (i.e. stock up bombs). It however raises to 22/50 difficulty points if they go for the no-bombing, score counter-stop route. Mercs/Senjo no Okami II is a low-tier game for intermediate players, if players forsake score opportunities. If players push for the counter-stop, however, the game is considerably more difficult: it is a low-tier game for expert players. Nevertheless, players must keep in mind that good 1-CC’s with a tactical use of bombs will result in certainly solid scores (in my experience, around 700k points). Only the pursuit of counter-stop 1-CC’s considerably raises the difficulty ceiling, with the proviso that the increase is incremental. A “simple” 1-CC is a 12/50 difficulty level: players will progress to 22/50 points as they learn to clear each Stage without bombing.

Let us summarise. Mercs/Senjo No Okami II is a top-down, (Ro)TATE free-scrolling shmup that acts as a sequel to Capcom’s Commando. The game features a vaguely jingoistic plot in which three mercs rescue a former US president from bad guys in African country Zutula. The game also features a classic action game approach with players always pushing forward and strafing soldiers plus vehicles of various size into oblivion. The game is notable because it allows credits with 3-players in co-op mode and is not particularly difficult if players want to 1-CC it. Players can counter-stop the game’s score in a relatively easy manner, but such a goal requires quite more practice. Whatever approach players decide to pursue, the game offers an entertaining challenge, highly detailed graphics and a good OST, and a general great gaming experience. Try it out and enjoy Capcom’s excellent approach to Hollywood-style bare-chested, merc-crazied manly action.