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The latest in US Gold's long line of Capcom's coin-op conversions, Mercs is a scrolling shoot-'em-up in the Commando tradition, but with all the usual trappings of a modern slaughterfest (i.e. power-ups and big end-of-level baddies). It scrolls in five directions (that is, all the usual compass-point ones except down and the downward diagonals), and pits the player (or players in two-player mode) against all the standard cannon-fodder grunts and hardware that you find in games of this ilk.

So what makes Mercs different from all the rest? Well, for one thing there's the rather tacky animation. In 1991, full-price games really ought to be beyond the stage of having characters glide across the landscape with their leg movements bearing no relation to the distance they actually travel. For another thing there are the really sloppy bugs in the continue system. The game offers you a ten second countdown continue option after you use up your last credit, even though you can't continue any more! This clearly isn't particularly important, but it is infuriating. I can't see any reason for it at all.

So what are the good points? Well, Mercs' most innovative feature is the narrow screen, which has two big black blocks down the sides in order to keep the playing area the same shape as the arcade version. This is actually surprisingly successful - Tiertex have resisted the temptation to fill up the space with decorations, and it's made the game feel very much like its coin-op counterpart, at least visually.

Apart from the aforementioned niggles, Mercs is a perfectly respectable conversion, but it suffers from the common problem of being a totally uninspiring game in the first place. It goes without saying that if you loved the original it'll be exactly what you want, so I won't bother saying that, and will instead note that it's another competent Commando clone, tough enough to provide a fair amount of zapping before you beat it, and one of the nicest-looking games of its kind. Only you know if that's what you want to spend £25 on.

Yet another production-line coin-op blaster, but what it does, it generally does pretty well. A well-converted but very average game.