Archer Maclean's Mercury is a 2005 puzzle-platform video game developed by British company Awesome Studios and published by Ignition Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It was conceptualized by the eponymous British game programmer Archer Maclean.
In Mercury, the goal is to guide a drop of mercury to its appointed destination by tilting the stage, in a similar fashion to Super Monkey Ball. Levels come in different varieties that prioritize unique methods of completing them. The game was conceived when Archer Maclean used a minigame from Jimmy White's Cueball World and added liquid metal physics. It was originally designed to have motion controls by using a tilt sensor peripheral for the PSP, but this version was never released due to technical constraints.
The game received positive reception for its original concept and level designs, but was also criticized for its difficulty. The success of the game resulted in two sequels. The first, titled Mercury Meltdown, was released for PSP, then revised and ported onto PlayStation 2 and Wii. The second, titled Mercury Hg, was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Gameplay
thumb|left|One of the Task levels. The droplet of mercury can be split, changed color, and merged to create a new color.
Mercury is a puzzle video game. The player guides a drop of mercury in the desired direction by tilting the stage with the PSP's analog stick. The player uses the directional buttons to toggle between focusing on all mercury droplets or the largest droplet. The objective of each level is to navigate the mercury around the stage and reach the goal. During the playtesting stage of development, Awesome Studios noticed potential shortcuts in the level layouts and adjusted the level design to allow more of them. The game was originally advertised to be released with a tilt sensor peripheral to use motion controls, but it could not be implemented due to cost and technical issues. Maclean chose to release the game on the PSP as it could make it more noticeable for consumers. it was followed by an Australian version with its release date of 21 September.
Reception
Mercury received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
The game was praised for its level design and physics. Eurogamer praised the level designs, calling them "ingenious". GameSpot noted that the game was not impossible even at its most difficult, but criticized the difficulty pacing, stating "The game pretty much throws you off the deep end almost immediately after you've completed the idiotically simple tutorial."<br />73/100<br />77/100
| game2 = Mercury Hg (PS3 & Xbox 360)
| mc2 = 74/100
Archer Maclean's Mercury inspired two sequels. The first sequel, titled Mercury Meltdown, was released for the PSP. The game features new puzzles and modes, as well as a more vibrant and cartoon-like style of graphics. The game was ported to the PlayStation 2 titled Mercury Meltdown Remix and to the Wii called Mercury Meltdown Revolution.
Another sequel, titled Mercury Hg, was developed by Eiconic Games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game includes 60 new levels, an online leaderboard, and a music feature which allows the mercury blob and stage to pulsate to the player's music. The game was announced in E3 2011. Eiconic chose to go back to the core elements of the original and added a style in which the developers described as "clean and stylish". Ignition Entertainment released the game on September 28, 2011. The game also features ghost racing, the ability to share replays, and Sixaxis tilt controls for the PlayStation 3 version. Two downloadable content (DLC) packages were released for the game. The first DLC titled "Heavy Elements" was released on October 19, 2011, and contains thirty discovery mode levels, ten bonus levels, and five challenges levels. The second DLC titled "Rare Earth Elements" was released on November 29, 2011, and contains the same amount of content as the previous.