Mercenary Force

Nintendo exclusive

Over one hundred years ago during the mighty Shogun era, the Lord of Darkness sent his fearsome army to terrorize the Japanese countryside. Using the Dark Lord's powerful magic, his evil minions spread famine, plague, and pestilence wherever they went, leaving the peaceful population hopelessly oppressed. All who challenged the wicked Lord were mercilessly slain as a warning to all those who had any further thoughts of rebellion. Then one day while meditating, the great Shogun, Tokugawa, had a divine vision where he saw a small group of mighty warriors rise up to defeat the evil Lord.

Released: 1990
Platforms: Game Boy
Genres: Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Languages: English, Japanese

About

Mercenary Force is a 1990 shoot 'em up video game developed for the Game Boy. The video game is set in the Shogunate-era of Japan where the player must choose five of six possible mercenaries with different abilities and skills for each level.

On its release in 1990, some reviewers complimented the game's unique setup of choosing characters with different skills in a shooter game; others found it ultimately did not change a game that was very difficult.

Keywords

ninja
samurai
frog
bird
feudal japan
shopping
spellcaster
mercenary

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Mercenary Force is a side scrolling shoot 'em up video game. The game is set in the Shogunate-era of Japan where the player chooses four out of a possible five mercenaries. Each of these mercenaries costs a different of yen to hire and have different stats measuring their amount of health, their regular attack is and how their special attack is done. The player can also choose the formation of these characters.

Development

Specifics on who developed and published Mercenary Force have been described by video game journalist John Szczepaniak as being "difficult to come by", writing that three obscure Japanese companies were involved: Meldac, Live Planning and Lenar. These companies were also involved with two other titles for the Game Boy: Heiankyo Alien and Battle of Kingdom.

Mercenary Force was released in Japan for the Game Boy on April 27, 1990. It was released for the American market in October 1990, where it was published by Meldac of America. On its release in the Western world, no references to its cultural origins in Japan were removed. A sequel was released in Japan as Yomihon Yumegoyomi: Tenjin Kaisen 2 in 1992.

Reception

A reviewer in GamePro described the game as being both unusual and challenging, while complimenting its graphics and gameplay.

Paul Lakin of Game Zone while saying that players can shuffle their team, but that most of the time the game's action was fairly normal moving and firing. He ultimately described it as an "above average shooter".