Mercs

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The original arcade version of the game has up to three available combatants to choose. They are members of a covert anti-terrorism team known as the "Wolf Force". The aim of the game is to choose the combatant of your taste and rescue the former President from the rebel forces that swarm the fictional African country of Zutula that bears resemblance to the Apartheid regime of South Africa. The game is divided into six main levels and the final level where your mission is to rescue the president from Hercules Transport. The game's weapons include machine guns, grenades and flamethrowers as well as futuristic plasma launchers! There are also ground and air machines to ride (i.e. the armored Jeep). Note that the game is the successor of the good old Commando game released in 1985 for both the 8 and 16 bit platforms.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The CPC version is colorful with plenty of details but fails on the framerate and scrolling sectors. The terrains have groves of palm trees, army barracks crawling with soldiers and mountains and waterfalls on the background. The level guardians (the Harrier, the huge battle tank and so on) are nicely designed but the "jerkiness" of the game's 8-directional animation renders this conversion very difficult to survive. On the 8bit comparison department, the C64 version runs way smoother. To the game's sound, the Amstrad CPC version features a good gameplay tune along with a few basic sound effects like gunfire and explosions.

GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Sega Master System, Atari ST and Sega Mega Drive versions of the game. The Amstrad CPC version is at 05:37.