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 C64 version is colorful with nicely animated sprites, quite smooth scrolling and beautifully drawn backgrounds (sometimes though the colors can be a little confusing). The terrains include groves of palm trees, army barracks crawling with soldiers and more. The level guardians (like the Harrier for instance) are nicely designed and the game runs way smoother compared to the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum counterparts, a factor that makes the game more playable and more fun. As for the sound, the C64 conversion has a different from the original, "catchy", gameplay tune along and no simultaneous sound effects(!) Quite odd for this SID based machine I guess!

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 Commodore 64 version is at 10:19.