

Shooting, jumping, and killing the bad guys in MKR isn’t fun. But where Diablo nailed combat so critically, making it a joy to hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies, Mercenary Kings falters. In a lot of ways, MKR is basically Diablo meets Metal Slug. There’s a home base, filled with NPCs that offer different services, stock like health kits, rations, etc, and of course missions.


The real choice comes in your weapon loadout, which you craft addons for as you progress through the game and collect loot off the dead and destroyed. The game lets you pick and swap between available characters, but they’re different in looks only. Think GI JOE if it was super bloody and somewhat adult-themed. You are one of the Mercenary Kings, elite soldiers brought back to life with a super serum to stop the evil CLAW organization. This is our Mercenary Kings Reloaded review for the Nintendo Switch. It’s an alright game, with an incredible premise that deserved a bit more TLC. Every big of this game screams “Bill, you will like me”, but when I’m playing it I’m merely frustrated by what could have been. Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, I’m now working full time on this very personal project.Mercenary Kings looks like it has it all: excellent pixel art style, throwback Metal Slug gameplay, RPG crafting, tons of missions and characters, local and online co-op… but why don’t I like it more? Mercenary Kings, already out on PC and PS4, comes in its Reloaded Edition this week on the Switch (where I played it). In 2018, I decided to create my own solo-studio: Canari Games. I’ve contributed to a dozen games such as Flinthook, Halfway, Shovel Knight Showdown, Adventure Time, Mercenary Kings Reloaded and Rivals of Aether. I grew up in France and live in Montreal.
