Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a fantastic experience...while it lasts. Sadly, as with other impressive titles such as Nintendo's own Pilotwings Resort and Steel Diver, Capcom has delivered a high quality product with plenty of thrills and spills, but lacking in the vital longevity stakes for anyone other than die-hard score chasers.

As it stands, it's barely an improvement over the console version, and aside from the handheld portability, there's no real advantage to playing The Mercenaries 3D instead of The Mercenaries Reunion mode in Resident Evil 5. While there are not a lot of better choices for the 3DS at the moment, this game is for fans only. Everyone else should avoid it.

The enhanced interface and new skill system make this 3DS version more than the sum of its borrowed parts. Given the choice between Mercenaries and Resident Evil 5's Mercenaries mode, I prefer the handheld version to its high-res but lumbering ancestor.

Bereft of new content and lumbered with a seriously flawed save game system, it would be easy to dismiss Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D as a waste of plastic, but the action-packed, score-based gameplay is undeniably engaging.

The Mercenaries gets off to a promising start, and in the short term it can be a thrilling blast, but by refusing to augment or develop the core idea from its mini-game roots, Capcom has doomed it to second tier status.

It's also worth noting that unless you're keen on repeatedly playing levels to boost your overall rating, you may tire of the game quite swiftly.

The addition of Resident Evil 4 takes up Niintendo 3DS. It's a game not very long, very repetitive and unattractive. Chris, Rebecca, Jill and many others shoot anything that moves, without argument.

The Mercenaries 3D is nothing more than a portable version of a collateral game mode. How can it be fun for more than a few hours?

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D delivers a simple but addictive experience. It's a game for fans and 3DS-owners looking for a shot of pure portable action.

A boring minigame stretched to full lenght boots. The idea should have been scrapped at the development table. [Sept 2011]

None of the problems seem too large or frustrating, but together, take away from the entertaining base experience. The arcade action, variety of characters and shooting aspect all work so well that it's disappointing to see the skill system not fully polished nor is online expanded upon further. That's why Mercenaries 3D is merely a good game, with the future prospects of becoming great on 3DS.

At its core, The Mercenaries 3D is an intense and frantic action shooter, dedicated to those who love the "old school" of gaming and its score system. But there isn't almost anything that one can't find in the Mercenaries mode of RE4 and 5, so why should one buy one mode for the price of an entire game?

So yeah, the game has some issues that keep it from being a great RE handheld experience. But at its core it does get the whole Mercs experience down pat, and playing online with random partners is still immensely fun.

If you're not into the whole arcade style of play where zealously gunning for high scores (that can't be shared) is the whole point, $40 is far too steep of an asking price.

This latest Resident Evil game only gives you five missions to play over and over. The controls are far from perfect and so this game isn't worth full price. The 3D-images do look great however, and the co-op mode will entertain you for hours to come.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D offers addictive, score-attack action, but lacks the content to make it more than a fun minigame.

A case of trying to flesh a mini-game into a full experience. It simply fails to offer enough content to warrant the hefty price tag, and I found myself coming back to it less and less as time wore on. The concept is fantastic for a portable game, but the amount of content and execution kills it dead in its tracks.

Mercs 3D is a pretty fun title, and diehard Resident Evil fans will no doubt eat it up like candy while waiting for Racoon City and Revelations. However, if you're not a Resident Evil junkie, you should stand clear.

Despite its considerable flaws, at its core, Mercenaries is a ton of fun. From the moment I started playing it I couldn't put it down.

There's not quite enough meat on this bone to satisfy the appetites of starved 3DS owners, so resist the temptation to bite. Capcom's certainly capable of delivering a better game than this quick and dirty rush job.

The action is there and it's solid, but the package as a whole isn't enough to fully satisfy. The lack of story brings a hollow feel to this Resident Evil experience, as well as other small factors here and there. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D delivers non-stop action, but it just can't bring enough substance in the gameplay to make the entire experience enjoyable.

An expanded multiplayer mode cobbled together from the console experience doesn't make for an engaging handheld title. Mercenaries 3D is simply not worth your $40.

A disappointment. The game seems like a test project on the 3DS for Capcom with the end goal of checking how the engine works on the 3DS hardware.

Easy and entertaining adrenaline run for score and chain-kills is fast paced but short. It shows what happens when you change series motto "Survive!" to simple "Kill!". [Issue#207]

There is a lot of potential in Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D. The actual concept and implementation of the mercenaries mode is great, but, as it stands, only as an addition to a more complex game. It simply didn't make the transition from mini-game to full game successfully; more attention was needed to bring it up to the high standards players expect.

What should be a bonus game mode has been made into a full price game. Although it's fun at times it's really short and lacks content.

While Resident Evil's gameplay is a little on the clunky side today, it's still wholly enjoyable and packed with thrills, and it's just a shame that it's short-lived and awkward to get to grips with.

An accurate port of the Resident Evil Mercenaries minigame - and that's all it is.

Needs fresh ideas, more new content and less recycling of old material. You can make a good game based on a great extra mode like Mercenaries, but this 3DS game is just not that.

Mercenaries 3D feels more like an oversized tech demo rather than a full game. Capcom has made serious efforts to deliver something decent, but it is obvious that a mode packed as an extra in Resident Evil 5, cannot justify its full price tag.

The Mercenaries 3D is a fun game that will provide you with hours of fun. But, unless you're a huge fan, there really is no incentive to keep playing this game after you complete it once.

Fun in short bursts, but there simply isn't enough content in this unbalanced action game.

If you're not entirely sure whether you're going to enjoy The Mercenaries 3D or not, ask yourself this: is £35 too much to spend on a mini-game ripped out of Resident Evil 4?

It can't entirely compensate for the lack of depth, but wading together into a throng of the undead, guns blazing and fists flying, leaving a trail of dissolving bodies in your wake, is without question a grisly pleasure.

Quality gameplay squandered by clumsy design, The Mercenaries 3D misses the opportunity to become the definitive The Mercenaries game, instead settling for a passing distraction.

The Mercenaries 3D had the potential to be an awesome expansion to Resident Evil's popular survival mode. But due to a severe lack of new content, it's not worth $40, and it almost certainly won't hold your attention once you complete the all-too-brief missions.

On paper it's a cynical cash grab while everyone waits for Revelations, but despite the price this is a fun and addictive score attack shooter.

It's simply a shame that this full-priced retail title based on a bonus mini-game still feels like, well, a bonus mini-game. The Mercenaries 3D almost feels like a project Capcom used to test the 3DS waters for what's sure to be next year's more complete Resident Evil experience.

The underlying mechanics are a lot of fun and the new characters, maps and Skill system make it a more robust offering than anything that's been on a console. But even these additions don't justify the hefty pricetag, and with no online leaderboards to spur further playing, we suspect most will move on not long after the five-hour game is complete.

Again, it's more of a misunderstanding than anything. Capcom thought gamers wanted a bare-bones, stand-alone version of Mercenaries, and that's what they made.

Watching it charge forty quid for it is downright aggravating. [Issue#112, p.108]

It's difficult to look at this game as a recommendable product. It can be completed within two hours and has low repeat values.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D contains the same high-quality action as the bonus modes in Resident Evil 4 and 5, but this time in attractive 3D. Unfortunately it doesn't contain enough actual game play. Too few missions, missing favourite characters and areas and enemies that only have been taken from the latest two games. It's just not worth the money, and with the save file debacle there's little value in buying it used either.

But ultimately Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D, for all its combo streaks and rank awards and nods towards arcade addiction, can't quite shake off the feeling that it's a game that, like its predecessors, would have been more satisfying as a bonus mode, perhaps to the forthcoming Revelations (a brief demo for which is included here). Isolated and presented in the way it has been here, the limitations of Mercenaries are exposed.

Though the action chugs on occasion, the 3DS hardware can handle a game of this magnitude. But the 3DS' small screens and the extremely limited peripheral vision may leave players feeling like they're operating the game through a peephole.

An action game that features the game mode made famous in the 5th installment of the franchise. Nevertheless, and however much I wanted to like it, an average game completion time and meager content that cannot be deleted contribute to making this game not much fun. With that being said, it is visually stunning and provides a good preview of what can be graphically expected from the upcoming installment on the 3DS. Let's hope that it impresses us more.

As a full price title, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is really disappointing. Maybe it should have been included as a bonus-game in the upcoming Revelations chapter.

It could have been an addictive mission-based multiplayer title perfect for a portable platform, but with its limited content and quickly tiresome combat, Mercenaries 3D is little more than a fully-priced proof of concept.