Ignition Entertainment’s ‘Archer Maclean’s Mercury’ to be Released in Japan for PlayStation®Portable
Ignition Signs an Agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment Japan for its Japanese Release
Monday 4 July 2005/... Ignition Entertainment's highly-rated action puzzler 'Archer Maclean's Mercury' will be available on PlayStation®Portable as a first party title to be published by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ) on August 2005 in Japan.
The game will be re-titled [Hg] Hydrium and will be slightly re-worked in order to meet Japanese tastes, but the core of the game will remain, ensuring Eastern players enjoy the game as much as their Western counterparts.
Computer and videogames.com said: "Mercury could - and we don't say this lightly - become Tetris for the PlayStation® generation," a thought echoed by Official PlayStation®2 Magazine, who proclaimed the game: "Really could be the new Tetris."
"From the beginning, we've always believed the game had real potential in the future of handheld entertainment," said Kaz Takeshita, Ignition Japan. "We're delighted Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has chosen it for a first-party distribution deal in Japan."
Mercury is a fresh innovation in puzzle games. Providing an addictive challenge across its 72 levels, its simple gaming mechanic merely requires players to 'tilt' each level in order to manoeuvre the blobs of mercury, with various switches, platforms, obstacles and hazards standing between level goals.
Powering Mercury is a ridiculously sophisticated engine which calculates every gloopy part of the liquid metal as it bends and melds around everything in its path. As the digitised mercury smoothly ebbs and flows under such simple controls, players experience the purest form of gaming imaginable.
Despite requiring no complicated controls, the game itself is grinningly taxing. Puzzle elements vary from needing to split the mercury into several coloured component parts - each of which will be affected by the degree of tilt - in order to open gates, activate switches, etc. The maze-like environments require lateral thinking in order to navigate the mercury from start to finish - with the sprawling 3D levels often requiring devilish-yet-hit-yourself-when-you-work-it-out solutions.
[Hg] Hydrium will be published in Japan by SCEJ in 4th August 2005, priced 4,800 Yen.
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® 2005 Ignition Entertainment Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Awesome Studios (UK). Published by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.