PC Spotlight #25: Mercenary Kings

Title: Mercenary Kings
Developers: Tribute Games
Platforms: PC
Price: $14.99
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Gamers hold classic titles like Contra and Metal Slug in high regard. Mercenary Kings is a game tailor made for those seeking a new arcade shooter fix, complete with lots and lots of guns and co-op.

Starting with a standard pistol and your trusty knife, you set off from you hub base on a globe spanning journey to save the world from the evil plans of C.L.A.W. Don't expect a beautiful story with narrative depth, you're not here for that. You're here for the retro-style running and gunning, the spraying blood, the many many explosions, the multitude of varied enemies ranging from spear-wielding tribal foes and snipes to turret laden heavily-armored bosses, the colorful pixel graphics.

But the highlight are the weapons. So many weapons. Knives, glaives, saw blades. Handguns, sniper rifles, shotguns, miniguns, rocket launchers. Electric ammo, explosive ammo, fire ammo. Riot shields, C4, grenades. A crafting system allows you to create and swap out a multitiude of gun parts, from the stock to the barrel, sights, magazines, attachments, and more. Want an a minigun that shoots incendiary missiles? You can arm yourself with that. How about an M4 with a Trombone barrel? You can make that gun too.

And you'll need these weapons because Mercenary Kings is hard. It wears its inspirations on it sleeve and thus, the game is a challenge. Limited health, onslaughts of bullets and explosive, spike traps, hulking bosses, all await you and your honed skills. Thankfully your character is agile and deadly, able to duck to the ground to dodge bullets or take cover, evade attacks with a handy combat roll, and quickly slash enemies with a melee attack. Of course, if your solo attempts to rescue hostages and blow away the bad guys are ending in failure, you can always assist three other friends for four times the firepower.

Mercenary Kings is still in beta so new weapons, new enemies, new bosses, and more are expected in upcoming updates. You can purchase the game on the developer's site or as a Steam Early Access title.