So, after being silent for several weeks, I finally submit another mercs run. this is my last and I think final run for Genesis Mercs. played with wgens_movie_test9 in arcade mode. I did it a month ago, and put a link in my previous submitted movie thread, because I didnt have time to wrote correct comments. Now it's done...

What is MERCS ?

Mercs is a commando/rambo shoot-them-up : you are a soldier against an army. you can use different weapons : -rifle (fast with good range but weak) -flame thrower (continuous flame with good range, very good againt small units but weaker than rifle, even when it's improved with power up) -grenade launcher (3 shots only in a row, bad range, but great collision area, and very strong damages) -multiple way shot (like rifle but with a biggest hit zone, get weaker than rifle when both get powered up)

there are also the megacrash bombs. megacrash bomb is the classic limited but very powerful weapon which kills everybody but you, makes you invincible.

It's a bit like shock trooper one. you are in a war area, where you choose your path. there are no automatic scrolling so you must run ahead if you want to do your job.And you can't move around to much if you want to do it quickly

it was made by capcom, adapted by sega on genesis with two modes : arcade like the coin up and original, much longer with differents stages, boss and music.

About this run

this run aims the fastest time. It's my 3rd ou 4th attempt as I improved it after receiving critics and advices. Now I think I can't do much better. so let's talk about how it was done.

Stage 1 : a straightfoward run : I just ran, until the boss area, killing enemies when necessary, and cutting corners as much as possible. the boss is a kind of harrier I killed it with 3M bombs. In fact 3 M bombs kill it, but as M bombs damages are not immediatly counted but continuously during the explosions, I shot some bullets in order to shorten the battle.

Stage 2 : this time you have to break the enemy's tank division. At the beginning you can ride a jeep. it's cool as cars are faster than men. I tried to keep my jeep as long as possible but in one corner, I was trapped by a tank so I deliberately went into the tank. Usually, when your vehicule blows up, you are thrown away because of the explosion, but this time there is a bug, which allowed me to run immediatly after the jeep's destruction. So I ran away, avoided some other tanks and met the boss. The boss was killed easily with 4 M-bombs. A 5th would have been unefficient because M-bombs strikes only in the area above the merc, but at the end the boss was in the bottom of the screen.

Stage 3 : here the enemies are on a boat. At the beginning I avoided the two trucks and took the shortest path. I didnt shoot them because I hadnt have enough time to shoot enough bullets, so I ran until the stairs. before the elevator, I destroyed the tourrets because they shoot a lot of bullets which may hit me before I reach the elevator. Against the big machine gun on a platform, I used one M bombs because It allow me to anticipate the platform destruction with some invincibility and kill the machine gun while I run away. after that it was quite easy. because I finally got the strongest weapon in that game : the grenade launcher !! there were two trooper-tanks that I had to destroyed because they were blocking the way. thanks to my new weapon it was done very quickly ^^. the third one wasn't blocking, so I let it lives and ran ahead. The boss, an big heli was a little more agitated, but 3 M bombs and some grenades showed him who is the real boss.

Stage 4 : the swamp stage. horrible one, if you want my opinion. It was very slow, at the beginning and I had to shoot everywhere because of these frogmen who appeared from nowhere and want to stab my back. Finally, I found a boat and reached the boss quite easily. The boss was not very hard. I used the M bombs when he threatened me with his flame thrower and peacefully shot him during the invicibility phases.

Stage 5 : that stage was much longer than the previous one. first, I took a tank and drive until a mines field. then I took a jeep until I encounter another tank. I used 2 M bombs because it was blocking the way and was very tough. In the corridor I cannot cut the corners as I wanted because of the enemies. I also had to deal with a ugly and disgusting scrolling bug which would appear if I was in some determined positions, so I took a path which may no look very efficient at first glance but was necessary in order to avoid that bug which can be slightly seen. Then I fought the boss. One particular thing about that boss is the ineffiency of the M-bombs. yeah, that's because he mainly is in my right and not on the top. that's why I used my bombs before, in this stage.

Stage 6 : A bigger stage, and actually the final. after the first tank line, that I havnt killed because of its strong armor, I went into the base. nothing spectacular, until the electric security walls. there, it's the only place where I had to get hit : usually, getting hit freeze the character but it give invincibility for some seconds. I got hit twice in stage 6 in order to save some times and pass through this electric field which usually kills at once. I didnt get hit three times because nobody wanted to shoot me and I wasn't allowed to shoot myself. so I had to wait that one of the electric wall shutdown itself. I tried to manipulate luck serveral times but nobody came :(. before the boss, I encounter a same kind of scrolling bug like in stage 5 which enforced me not to cut the last corner, before I encounter two tourrets and an trooper-tank.

Stage 7 : the Big big boss : it is a big plane, where the president is prisonner. kill the two reactor before it take off and you win. I used M bombs to avoid some missiles and the explosion of the first reactor.

the hard things

- 8 way moves and no scrolling : you have to choose the right path. because of bullets, you cant walk straight. the no scrolling thing make you the only one who set the speed of your run unlike usual shoot them up like thunderforce or r type. besides, the weird grenade launcher is difficult because you can shot only 3 grenades at once so you have to be careful when you shoot and you have to respect a kind of tempo. The way I used the grenade laucher with that 3-way-look sometimes, is very difficult without slow motion.

- enemis appearances. enemis are randomly spawned and randomly shoots so sometimes, depending on where you are, they shoot or they dont shoot or they appear or they don't appear.

- vehicles . vehicles save time but are bigger so they get hit faster. sometimes I got hit by bullets so that I m invincible and am able to avoid tank missiles, sometimes I got hit in order to weaken my vehicle and to have it destroyed as soon as I need it destroyed.

well that's all -aim fastest run -no warps no passwords used -I got hit twice in order to save time -I took every power up bonus -I used an almost invisible programming error, the one which make the merc stand up when his vehicle blows up in a tight are in stage 2 -I used one cheat in order to enable "hardest" difficulty : enemies are faster and smarter, and bullets faster.

I hope you will enjoy that movie. mercs is quite fast, with a lot of actions. I also used the rocket launcher which is very hard to use in reality because it can shoot only three rockets at once. I developped few tricks that make it an amazing weapon. the music is also nice.

thanx for reading ^^