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Mercenary Kings on PS4: It's Contra/Metal Slug meets Monster Hunter

I've been waiting since its supposed release date of December. Finally we have a date.

As for the dead nation rumor, y just release it with no hype behind it at all? I love some dead nation just don't see it happening til fall.

I do love plus tho, just the thought ofa NEW free games makes me smile.
 
Love this game. I put about a dozen hours into the early access version last year around this time. But I've been waiting for the full release to go back to it. Its a ton of fun!
 
xXDGFXx said:
They're really stretching things by relating this game to Monster Hunter.
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Reminds me of a 2D side scrolling Warframe.

A lot of things are reminding me of Warframe these days. But its solo and co-op, mission based, with craftable lootstuffs to create new weapons, right?

Is there any randomization? Or are the missions hand crafted?
 
I was just playing a Metal Slug game and this seems almost nothing like it. It is also nothing like Monster Hunter. Terrible comparisons like this get under my skin.
 
NullPointer said:
Is there any randomization? Or are the missions hand crafted?
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No, the missions mostly just boil down to collect X of this thing or kill this thing. There's a number of missions per environment and then you move on to the next environment and repeat. Feels pretty lazy from that standpoint.
 
xXDGFXx said:
They're really stretching things by relating this game to Monster Hunter.
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Riposte said:
I was just playing a Metal Slug game and this seems almost nothing like it. It is also nothing like Monster Hunter. Terrible comparisons like this get under my skin.
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The game structure is extremely similar to Monster Hunter; it's very obvious where they've got their inspirations from.

From the hub/lobby system to the crafting system to the mission structure (complete with the nonsensical time limit, shared x3 lives and respawning at base camp), it's a very faithful copy of the Monster Hunter game structure. It even has bosses you have to kill in the first mission and capture in the next (by throwing shock bombs at them when they're weakened).

If you're playing Mercenary Kings for more than an hour, it's impossible not to be reminded of Monster Hunter.

Aside from the kill/capture/gathering, the actual gameplay part is where the Monster Hunter comparisons end and Metal Slug begins. It is slower paced, yes. But again, the structure (this time of the moment to moment 2D platforming/shooting gameplay) is extremely similar. Same limited movements. The ranged weapons are similar to Metal Slug (haven't seen a Laser yet, though!), the close combat melee (though produced by a dedicated button press instead of automated at close range) is similar and it has the same kind of ridiculously detailed animations going for it. For fuck's sake, you rescue crouched bound prisoner sprites by slashing their ropes once and they stand up and audibly say "Thank You". Homages don't get more obvious than that. :p

If you're playing Mercenary Kings for more than an hour, it's impossible not to be reminded of Metal Slug.

I know where you're coming from, and uninformed, superficial comparisons to other games are a blight on videogame writing - but this one's pretty much nailed it. Mercenary Kings is a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeves, and Monster Hunter x Metal Slug was clearly, clearly the pitch here.
 
Looks really good, i had it on my radar to get my Metal Slug dose, but suddenly it disappeared, like if it was delayed. I wonder what is SNK up to these days.
 
Not impressed so far. This game has longer load times than any 16 bit style game I've ever played. It's shameful. The controls feel a bit unresponsive. It may be intentionally like that, but these type of games need perfect controls. Decent though, but no way I would have payed $20 for it.
 
family_guy said:
Not impressed so far. This game has longer load times than any 16 bit style game I've ever played. It's shameful. The controls feel a bit unresponsive. It may be intentionally like that, but these type of games need perfect controls. Decent though, but no way I would have payed $20 for it.
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The load times are a bit much. The first boot just showed a static screen for so long I thought my PS4 froze up. The loading after that makes the sound skip too.
The controls feel good to me, but the jumping isn't instant. The character bends their legs before a jump so it adds a delay. I only played a few minutes, so I can't really judge yet, but it does look like it could be pretty fun. Too bad there's no shared-screen co-op.
 
After playing it, i kinda find it fun. Still stretching things by relating it to monster hunter. The "hunting" and gathering aren't as fun. The way they set the time limit is just annoying, something I've never bothered to pay attention to when playing monster hunter. Enemies respawning immediately after panning just a bit over the area make it a pain to navigate about. This probably comes from the Metal Slug influences but the Monster Hunter influences really don't show at all when I play.
 
Dislike the load times but loving the rpg systems n the game. I'll b playing this for a while if it maintains its depth. With all the ranks and guns I seen this is right up by alley
 
MMaRsu said:
No shared screen coop whut. Time to tweet some devs.
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wat?

I think youre mistaken... the very first sceen has 4 spitscreen character selection... i dont have 2 controllers... but...

i5tFaDZwdWOTX.jpg



is this not shared screen co-op? fuck all this time i was lied to!
 
There's a few key issues that are preventing me from getting into the game:

- The jumping isn't good. There is a slight delay before you jump. It's kind of like walking in mega man (which I hated).

- If you die, you restart at the beginning of the level, but the timer doesn't reset. This doesn't make any sense. Imagine dying in a mario level and having to re-play it with the time left from before.

- There are infinitely respawning enemies. If you kill an enemy and then leave that area, just enough so that it's off screen, the enemy will re-spawn. This is really bad with the flying enemies. I had to run away from one a fair distance as I was having some trouble killing it. Finally did, and when I ran back to where I first encountered him, he was there again...

I'm still gonna play some more though, it's quite a challenge. I imagine it will be a lot more fun when I get a friend to play with me.

Edit: There's a bug with remote play, but there's not much the developers can do about it. When you get hit, your character flashes rapidly. However with the drop to 30fps over remote play, it means your character just turns invisible for a while. Remote play just happened to drop the 30 frames where the character is drawn lol
 
whitehawk said:
There's a few key issues that are preventing me from getting into the game:

- The jumping isn't good. There is a slight delay before you jump. It's kind of like walking in mega man (which I hated).

- If you die, you restart at the beginning of the level, but the timer doesn't reset. This doesn't make any sense. Imagine dying in a mario level and having to re-play it with the time left from before.

- There are infinitely respawning enemies. If you kill an enemy and then leave that area, just enough so that it's off screen, the enemy will re-spawn. This is really bad with the flying enemies. I had to run away from one a fair distance as I was having some trouble killing it. Finally did, and when I ran back to where I first encountered him, he was there again...

I'm still gonna play some more though, it's quite a challenge. I imagine it will be a lot more fun when I get a friend to play with me.
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If you die you restart at any infirmary you last entered...
 
KiraXD said:
wat?

I think youre mistaken... the very first sceen has 4 spitscreen character selection... i dont have 2 controllers... but...

i5tFaDZwdWOTX.jpg



is this not shared screen co-op? fuck all this time i was lied to!
Click to expand...

Oh man, I'm almost done downloading now. Seriously no same-screen play?
 
Either this game is made for 4+ players or the maps are convoluted messes. The second mission that requires you to find 8 hostages is basically a nightmare by yourself. Is there a arrow / pointer that shows the next objective?
 
KiraXD said:
wat?

I think youre mistaken... the very first sceen has 4 spitscreen character selection... i dont have 2 controllers... but...

is this not shared screen co-op? fuck all this time i was lied to!
Click to expand...

No that's split screen. Shared screen would mean that the players all share the same big screen, not 2-4 small ones. I was hoping to play this with my wife, but she doesn't like split-screen.
 
Agree with whitehawk about the jumping delay, but it's pretty much a (very) slight delay for any button press action.

I really don't like the gun reload sound coming from the controller either. I hope I missed that option somewhere?

And, having to press a button and actually stop to pick up items is a nuisance.

$20 seems very steep but thankfully it's free for PS+.
 
I've got about 10 hours into the PC version, and while I enjoy it, I feel like there's something missing. There hasn't been new gameplay elements introduced over time other than 'shit gets harder', and it's starting to get a bit stale.
 
Dezzy said:
No that's split screen. Shared screen would mean that the players all share the same big screen, not 2-4 small ones. I was hoping to play this with my wife, but she doesn't like split-screen.
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oh wow i wasnt even thinking one screen shared... yeah no, its splitscreen... yeah i hate splitscreen too... which is why i bought my wife her own console and hdtv so we could just play fullscreen games together lol /spoiled.
 
I like the game, but man, the map needs to color in huts and areas you've entered. It becomes a real mess of going into the same places over and over again when the counter gets down low. With the audio hitches, too, it's a little iffy for the time being, but that doesn't hamper that the game is fun and a great callback to the oldies.
 
kevin1025 said:
I like the game, but man, the map needs to color in huts and areas you've entered. It becomes a real mess of going into the same places over and over again when the counter gets down low. With the audio hitches, too, it's a little iffy for the time being, but that doesn't hamper that the game is fun and a great callback to the oldies.
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my game stutters at loading screens and even crashed once after finishing a level...
 
KiraXD said:
my game stutters at loading screens and even crashed once after finishing a level...
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Yeah, the stuttering in the loading screens can be pretty rough. It didn't impact gameplay but it is a little rough. And speaking of crashes, mine crashed on the splash screen on startup, the first game on PS4 that's ever crashed for me. Did it at least save before it crashed on you?
 
Not a big fan this, glad that some are liking it though.
Just too slow loading with choppy music and the excessive talking and trudging around, everything should be bam-bam-bam in this game. No loadtimes at all, somehow speeding up all the tedium. I dunno, the videos where the two people had machine guns and were shoot-jumping all over the place looked pretty cool, guess I was hoping for more of a pure action game than something with all these RPG elements.
 
RedRooster said:
Not a big fan this, glad that some are liking it though.
Just too slow loading with choppy music and the excessive talking and trudging around, everything should be bam-bam-bam in this game. No loadtimes at all, somehow speeding up all the tedium. I dunno, the videos where the two people had machine guns and were shoot-jumping all over the place looked pretty cool, guess I was hoping for more of a pure action game than something with all these RPG elements.
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Yeah, some linear levels with cool set pieces to break up the gigantic maps would be cool
 
Yep I love this game. I made it to the city area so far am starting to get some real nice pieces for my gun, the music is great, and I love how wide open the game is. If I had any complaints it's that I would like to know "where" the bosses spawn on the map because search for them can be a pain in the ass especially when they run away and you have to chase them.

Other then that the game is great imo, the jumping feels about right for a game of this style, kind of reminds me of Castlevania in that way. Challenge is nice and solid,and it seems like there is some good depth.

Protip: farm snails for sulfuric acid and get the caustic ammo asap it's really helpful in the jungle because it ignores the armor of the snails/drill girl/and melts the shields that some of the guards carry.

The guy in the red suit has a bestiary that tells you what mats enemies drop, and what their strong/weak against.
 
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