Metal Sluggish: Tribute Reveals ‘Mercenary Kings’

Developers of Wizorb, Tribute, have released a reveal trailer for their next project, Mercenary Kings. Though still in the alpha prototype stages, it’s quite plain to see what kind of game this is going to be. Featuring the always stellar animation from Paul Robertson, this is a 2D shooter much in the same vein as Metal Slug. Saying that, the pace of the run ‘n gun series seems to be slightly amiss, at least in this trailer, but in place of that comes a bunch of other features.

In Mercenary Kings, you’ll be given the choice of what mission you want to take on, before being told to head off and do it in a rather aggressive performance from your commanding officer. You, dressed up in a fairly typical red bandana and light army gear, head off with your powerful array of guns and a bunch of jumps and rolls to complete the missions. At this early stage, it seems that Mercenary Kings is actually all about collecting materials, which you can find from downed enemies.

The example mission, called Gathering, has the player heading into the sewers to defeat 10 snails and taking their acid containers so that you can make corrosive ammo. Note that missions are of different types, the others haven’t been revealed. They also roll out with time limits and sometimes sub-missions to complete, if you should wish to do so for the extra monetary return.

You can collect materials for your own personal gain to, in the form of crafting your own weapons. While at base camp, visit the charming lady with all the stock and she’ll bring up the crafting options. Receiver, Barrel, Magazine, Sight, Stock and Ammunition are the six parts of the gun which you can alter according to the materials and money you have available. It seems like they’ll be a lot of choice on offer in this part of the game, ultimately helping to decide how well you fare in the game’s missions.

Mercenary Kings is expected to be released in 2012 but no platforms are stated. However, the game is a Dream.Build.Play entrant so that means that PC and Xbox 360 are very likely, at the very least. Look out for more information over on the Tribute website.