''Mercenary Kings'' is a side-scrolling

run and gun video game Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...

developed and published by Tribute Games. It was funded by

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

and released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on March 25, 2014, and for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

on April 1, 2014. Alongside the ''Mercenary Kings: Reloaded'' update, versions for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

, and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

were released on February 6, 2018. An early-access version of the game was released on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

on July 23, 2013.

Gameplay

''Mercenary Kings'' is a side-scrolling

similar to games like SNK's ''

Metal Slug is a Japanese Shoot 'em up#Scrolling shooters, run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK Playmore, SNK in 1996 after the completion of the Metal Slug (1996 video game), first game in the seri ...

'' series. Players can jump, crouch, roll, shoot in four directions and use a short range frontal melee attack to make their way through 100+ missions with a variety of enemies, bosses, and locations. Mercenary Kings offers up to four player

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

with online or local split screen play. Missions are structured akin to the ''

Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games that started with the game ''Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of platforms, ...

'' series with levels accessed one at a time from a central hub area. Players gain rank points upon completion which are used to rank up and unlock more difficult sets of missions. Objectives vary from one level to another and include boss battles, hostage rescues, item collection, and more. Enemies drop certain kinds of loot depending on their type which can be used to craft weapon parts, knives, armor, or mods which give unique player abilities. Gun creation involves crafting multiple components which affect the weapon's stats such as firing rate, magazine size, and weight. Ammo types can also be switched out to add elemental damage or change bullet behavior, though not all ammo types are compatible with all guns.

Development

Tribute Games, formed from the team who previously worked on '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game'', including animator Paul Robertson, launched a

campaign to fund production of ''Mercenary Kings''. Their initial target was $75,000 for a basic PC version, with additional milestones listed to add additional levels and modes, online support and a console version. The Kickstarter received a total of $116,064. At

E3 2013 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 (E3 2013) was the 19th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California with many press conferences taking place at nearby venues including the Microsoft Theater ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

announced at their press conference that the game would receive a console release on the

. On July 23, 2013, an early-access version of the game, containing 60 of the final game's 100 missions, was released on

. A

version of the game includes

cross-buy Cross-buy is a feature of some digital distribution systems available across multiple device platforms, where users who purchase a license to a specific piece of software are able to use the versions of the software for different device classes at ...

and other cross-features.

Reception

''Mercenary Kings'' received mixed reviews upon release, with score of 70 for PlayStation 4 and 76 for PC version respectively by the aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
2014 video games Indie video games Kickstarter-funded video games Crowdfunded video games MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Vita games PlayStation Network games Retro-style video games Run and gun games Side-scrolling video games Video games with Steam Workshop support Video games developed in Canada Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Split-screen multiplayer games Tribute Games games Xbox One games