My question is whether the controls are fluid enough for people to want to play it competitively for high scores. Also, how is the leaderboard system?

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Just read snippets from reviews; the leaderboard system isn't online. Interesting choice that will no doubt hurt competitive play, especially since YT videos will be generally difficult to capture as well.

I got the game and have played for about 4-5 hours and I think it is pretty fun. The first 5 or so missions are really basic training levels just having you blow up barrels and move from point A to point B very boring!

When I finally got to let loose the game has in my opinion better controls than RE5 for many reasons. You can use a first aid spray or herb very quickly and while moving as well as reload. The touch screen helps with selecting weapons and grenades basically allowing you to quickly switch and use 6 items rather than the 4 for the dpad on the Xbox 360 or PS3. This led to a much smoother experience for me and after getting used to the 3DS I was having no trouble eliminating any enemy in my path.

I love the upgrade system and the perk like things you can attach to your characters I think it is a very interesting system and I wish they had it on RE5 that would be great! The characters are all about the same I like Claire and Jill probably the best although Krauser's bow is a beast as well as his melee attacks.

Anyway got to get back to work but overall it was worth a purchase for me and the Revelations demo was a very small but nice bonus!

The game controls very nice as the post above explains. No leaderboards at all.

Mercs does not leave a good first impression. It starts off really slow with basic training missions. The game does not look that great, very jaggy, some enemy models look like blocky PSP models. Far away enemies move at like 5 frames a second, they have this weird studdering and slow down. At least up close everything seems to move smoothly. The 3D kind of sucks, doesn't feel anything like OoT. It controls well at least.

Once you pass the bunch of training missions and finally get to the true Mercs gameplay it becomes fun. Its the same game with remixed enemies in different levels. All the levels are shorter than the console version with less time extensions so each match is shorter. Enemies still swarm you, the gameplay is still extremely fast paced and intense. There was one mission where you had to kill of waves of enemies and the time extends when you finish a wave. Problem was when it comes down to the last enemy too often do you have to run around the level to find him and you lose all your time. It ruins a great new mode.

The perks are cool and each character has their own weapon loadout so they all feel different. I wish they did more with the mission structure of the game, like really change the objectives to each match but they kept it very simple. It's fine but nothing great.

I am really dissapointed there is no LB's. That's one of the main reason i play mercs over and over, for the competition! But now, who will no i'm trying THAT hard?

Friend bought it and lent it to me for a while, as well as his 3ds, which is a damn cool little piece of technology by the way, ill definetly get one maybe after i purchase the wii-u.

This game sucks. Big time. Like its an incredible disappointment. First off, only one new character sucks, they couldn't be bothered to add 3,4 more characters for a full title release. Its not as if this is some minigame at the end of a main title, it is solely focused on mercs and they only add one character. Even worse, for a rehash of characters and maps they couldn't even add in main stay series characters from the series who have already appeared in mercs? No leon or Ada, not even Re 5 mercs characters?

Secondly, the graphics are not good. The enemies from long distance seem weird and move fast, textures are clunky and odd, at some points it looks like a ps1 era game ( not everywhere mind you.)

The core of the game is okay, pretty much just mercs, the skill things dont really mean much to me, in that they dont seem to really have much impact.

No story, one new character, missing several already established mercenaries characters, rehashed maps, weapons, enemies, awful menu screens which are also awkward ( check ign review for what i mean) as well as no LB's.

This game is ****. pretty damn bad shit. On its own, id be hard pressed to even give it a 5/10. As it is it should have been a mediocore extra for resident evil revelations. They really seem to have put the absolute bare minimum effort in possible.

That said, im a firm believer a mercneraies only game could and would still be fun, with new characters and existing, new maps, enemies, maybe even a lame little story added in, some wave modes and id buy it.

As is, id trade this piece of garbage in fast. Oh wait...cant..one save issue. Thankfully i didnt buy it.

It's interesting, but for me it's a pretty fine game. This is coming from someone who knows the ins and outs to finest detail in RE5 Mercenaries, so there is a lot here from my point of view. I am also very much amazed at how smooth the controls are for handheld. Everything runs almost as well as on a console, except that I cannot quick turn with the default controls. Can still dash with Wesker though!

Also a little biased because I was immediately sold on Claire + Mercenaries.

No Leon. No Ada. No Sheva. No Waterworld. Whatever i'm still going to buy it next paycheck

I like the game but I will admit a few more characters and some levels from classic resident evil's like RE1 or RE2 or even RE3 would have been amazing.

Uhm, so the title alone "Mercenaries 3D" as well as the NUMEROUS reviews, direct quotes from capcom, and everyone everywhere telling you the game was nothing more than Portable Mercs wasn't enough to tell you that the game would have no storyline, and would simply be "Portable Mercs"?

For the life of me, I can't figure out how you were possibly surprised by this, or could possibly deduct points from the game in a review of it for lack of Story. That'd be like buying a Fighting game and ripping it for not allowing you to FPS deathmatch.

I don't see how anyone who is familiar with RE can buy a game called "Mercenaries 3D" and then be upset when the game they get is in fact just the mini-game mercenaries.

No problem with your opinions, just can't fathom how you can act surprised or hold it against the game for being portable mercs and nothing more. That was the sales pitch FOR the game. I, nor anyone else I know, didn't go into buy the game expecting anything more out of it than just that.

*shrugs*