Mercury Meltdown has gone through a handful of transitions. It started out as a PSP game then it was “remixed” into a Playstation 2 title. On June 12 Ignition Entertainment plans to release Mercury Meltdown Revolution for the Nintendo Wii. Is this a modified PS2 to Wii port with tilt control? In this interview Ed Bradley, one of the developers of Mercury Meltdown Revolution, clarifies that this isn’t a Wii-make with new levels.
Siliconera: For people who haven’t played the Sony titles can you explain the concept of Mercury Meltdown Revolution?
Ed Bradley (developer): Quite simply you control a 3D maze containing a blob of liquid metal and a lot of puzzles and hazards. All you have to do is get as much of the Mercury as possible to the finish point!
Siliconera: The original Mercury Meltdown for the PSP seemed like it was built with tilt control in mind so you must be excited to bring Mercury Meltdown Revolution to the Wii. Can you explain how the Wii remote’s tilt control works in Mercury Meltdown Revolution?
Ed Bradley: There was a definite sense that, at last, the game was playable the way it was originally intended. To play you hold the remote horizontally in both hands and whichever way you tilt it, the tray tips in the same way causing the mercury blob to roll around.
Siliconera: How hard (or not hard?) was it to convert the code from the Playstation systems to the Wii?
Ed Bradley: I gave that task to a very clever guy who did a great job. Our in-house engine was cross-platform and had supported the GameCube in a previous life so he did have a small base to start from.
Siliconera: There are 150+ levels in Mercury Meltdown Revolution right? How many of these are brand new and how many of these are classic stages?
Ed Bradley: I honestly can’t remember as we’ve done a few versions of the game now and I can no longer distinguish between them in my mind. I can say with certainty that the vast majority are brand new, though. If you pushed me for a figure I’d say at least 75% of the levels are new.
Siliconera: What was the most difficult party game to create?
Ed Bradley: The racing game. Track design took a lot of hard work as did the control system. In fact just about every aspect was hard work on that game.
Siliconera: Which one is your favorite to play?
Ed Bradley: I like Paint for its simplicity and relaxing music.
Siliconera: The bonus party games look like one of the highlights of Mercury Meltdown Revolution, how hard is it going to be to collect them?
Ed Bradley: We worked so hard on them we decided to make them easily accessible. The average player should have no difficulty accessing all of them and it won’t take hours and hours of play to do so either.
Siliconera: Before Mercury Meltdown Revolution hits store shelves two other rolling Ball games (Super Monkey Ball and Kororinpa) are on store shelves. What do you think of the competition?
Ed Bradley: I found Monkey Ball personally disappointing as I’m a big fan of the franchise. I haven’t played the other one. Of course MMRev is the best though!
Siliconera: Since Mercury Meltdown Revolution is done, is Ignition Entertainment planning anymore Wii titles?
Ed Bradley: Definitely.
