14 DAY TRIAL // 
I don't know about you, but my younger years were dominated by arcades as I got attracted by quite a lot of different experiences, from fighting titles, like Street Fighter, to racing ones, like Daytona, but also side-scrolling games, like Metal Slug. I wasted a lot of coins and plenty of time trying to get higher scores and ultimate bragging rights.
Now, indie studio Tribute has delivered Mercenary Kings, a side-scrolling shooter brawler hybrid very much in the vein of Metal Slug but with a much bigger emphasis on strategy and crafting, as you can forge your own gear by salvaging supplies from fallen enemies.
Promising to deliver a modern take on the old genre but with plenty of new elements, the title does look pretty good. Does the game manage to deliver on its premise or should we go back to the classics? Let's find out.
As such, you need to go on different missions and complete various goals to stop CLAW from succeeding. While in most games it's basically just you versus the enemies, the Kings have a big base filled with helpful non-playable characters who can craft guns, blades, or gear and help you modify various other things.
There's a catch, however, as you must get enough money from missions and plenty of different materials to fabricate new items. From aluminum, to copper or rusty pins, there's a huge amount of different things that can drop from vanquished enemies. Rather annoyingly, however, while you can store an unlimited amount of such items, you can barely hold one health kit or a C4 charge.
The crafting system is quite advanced and allows players to customize different elements on their main gun, from the body, to the barrel, scope, or magazine. Each have different advantages but plenty have big disadvantages, especially at the beginning, so you might want to stick to the regular pistol in the first few missions.
In terms of actual gameplay, Mercenary Kings is your standard shooter platformer although a few new elements, like a Gears of War-style active reload system, are sprinkled throughout it. The movement system is good, but there are quite a few cases where the animations feel choppy and the whole game lags for a few seconds.
Enemies constantly respawn, sometimes a bit too fast, so prepare to always get attacked from different sides and areas. The opponents are moderately varied, but you'll get sick of them due to the really repetitive mission structure and the fact that the maps are recycled with minimal changes. While grinding isn't a necessity, if you do want to enjoy the best guns and gear, you're going to have to repeat a lot of missions and farm enemies for various loot.
The boss fights in particular are a pain to endure, as you need to scour a level for the possible location of the enemy, all while under a time limit, and then defeat him, her, or it, as soon as possible before the clock runs out.
Of course, such an experience is much more fun when played cooperatively with up to three other players besides yourself. Things get really hectic through the online or offline co-op mode and you're in for a much better time.
In terms of visuals, Mercenary Kings uses a great pixelated style, a clear throwback to the older days of gaming. The animations are also reminiscent of those times and the character design is top notch. The soundtrack is good but takes some time before it really begins to impress. Unfortunately, the audio taunts of your character are repetitive so you'll grow tired of them really soon.
Mercenary Kings is a good side-scrolling shooter, but when you play it alone, you're bound to get annoyed by quite a few things. When experienced with at least one more friend, things are much better and you can focus on the fun factor of the whole game.
