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The PSP launch has come and gone, the smoke has finally cleared, and at the end of it all, you sit with your shiny new toy. Sure, you picked up your favorite pickings at launch, but now comes the flow of post-launch titles. There were some great titles available at day 1, but now it’s time to look to the future of the system. Enter Mercury, the first post-launch game available for the PSP.

Mercury is a throwback to the days when games weren’t about hulking brute-like main characters and fantastical Hollywood style storylines. Games used to be about simply having fun and trying to beat your own high scores, the developers at Awesome know that, and Mercury proves it. This is a game for people that love games. The premise is simple: you indirectly control a blob of mercury around a board by tilting the board Super Monkey Ball style. Objectives vary from getting the blob to the finish point within a given time or getting the blob to the finish point with as much remaining mercury as possible, lighting up numerous lighthouse-like posts, sometimes a combination of any of the three. Often times there are things in your way, such as pads that slow you down, little ball-shaped enemies that eat away at your mercury, and most often, just a big puzzle in front of you.

As you can tell, the idea is very basic, but the execution is far from it. Anyone can pick up Mercury and play it, and have a great time, but it takes a good deal of skill to master the game. Since there’s no real competition in terms of enemies to fight, or bosses to kill, your biggest goal is to do as good as you can and get the highest score. The games replay value is based largely on going back and trying to beat your own scores again. If it sounds old school, that’s because it is. If it sounds boring, then you need to play it to see what I mean.

There are 6 worlds in all, each one containing a dozen stages, so there’s quite a bit of game to be had here. The concept of ‘worlds’ is pretty vague though, since the only way the game differentiates one world from the next is by the background image you’re ignoring while you play with your blobby mercury ball. The real purpose behind splitting the game up into worlds is to break the game down to 6 progressively more complex and difficult stages. As you make your way through each world, timers get shorter, obstacles become harder to overcome, and solutions to puzzles are no longer as clear as they once were. It’s a great way to challenge yourself when you have a few spare minutes, especially since you can save between every new level you unlock. It’s the sort of game you pick up with the intention of playing for 10 minutes, and you finally put it down an hour and a half later. If you intend to actually play for an hour and a half… well, say goodbye to the rest of your day.

The game obviously isn’t focused on being a graphically stunning showcase, but in it’s own right, Mercury looks great. The ball itself has a great reflective look that lends itself a very realistic look, while the stages and special effects (there are some, though not many) are all presented very cleanly, making for a well rounded visual experience.

Audio is pretty good, offering up some decent beats to listen to while you navigate your blob, but little else to really speak of, since there’s no voice acting, or any of the other high production style complexities to worry about. Clean and simple.

It’s Mercury’s simplicity that will get you playing, but it’s the underlined complexity and the progressively harder challenges that will get you hooked. I enjoyed my time with Mercury intensively, and it’s hardly left my PSP since it landed on my desk. I’ve let numerous friends try it out, and the general consensus seems to be unanimous: they love it.

Unfortunately, Mercury comes at a time where PSP owners are still hurting in the wallet region from the launch, and will likely be overlooked by  many gamers in anticipation for games branding high profile licenses. However, gamers with the cash to pick it up would be wise to do so, because Mercury is one of the best PSP offerings to date.

*UPDATE!*

Looks like I was very much wrong when I labeled high scores as the games only replayability. Mr. Maclean himself was kind enough to inform me of not only the chance to unlock secret stages within the games initial 6 stages, but the chance to unlock a brand new 7th world to boot! The unlockables all concern getting high scores, so gamers looking to land those special prizes are going to have to master the games components to the utmost of their ability to earn the right to play them! Exciting news for any prospective Mercury player.