PAX East 2013: Mercenary Kings Hands-On

My pixellated character -a female mercenary I've nicknamed Shauna in my head- is a 4-wheeled truck of death being driven by the grim reaper himself. Racing through this beautifully animated world, my enemies are nothing but tinder for me to burn to cinders with the roar of my custom made weapon. And burn they do. Hundreds of them.

My partners are in totally different areas but I can see their progress on the four corners of the screen. They too laying as much vengeance as I. We're exploring the level for a way out, and each of us have independently chosen a different path to heighten the chances that we finish the mission. Along the way we're collecting raw materials like leather, steel and the like that we'll later bring back to home base to craft a myriad of different weapons and armor to help us in the future. Each piece necessary to make us into the hardened soldiers we need to be. Guns especially are on my mind, since their construction can be a complicated process. Each one is made up of 5 different parts which can be crafted independently and then combined in any way. I pick up steel and picture a new barrel as I knife an enemy to death on a rooftop. Some rare metal, and now a new receiver may be in my future.

Glancing at the four corners of the screen I notice my teammates are starting to have some trouble. Different combinations of enemy soldiers and robots are starting to heat things up, a few of their lives have already been taken...one more and we'll fail our mission. I begin to try and make my way to their area to help. Going in and out of doors, down elevators and finally outside again.

I'm too late and the blindingly red MISSION FAILED message blankets the entire scree. Mission failed. We failed.

Camp will be a lonely place now. My gunsmith will wonder where I am, the fashion designer -yes that's what they call it- will miss the opportunity to make me my fresh armor, and the main general -the one who barked our mission at us before we left- may even shed a tear.

Did I mention this all looks like Metal Slug?

And that's pretty much with Mercenary Kings is. A multiplayer, RPG, Metal Slug with some of the finest 'old school' animations I've seen in a long time. Unlike my mission, their Kickstarter was a success so I'll get a chance to try again. Hopefully soon.