This Week In Retro: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (Patreon)

June 2, 2011: Maybe Capcom should've called it Zombie Hunter Portable

by Diamond Feit

Resident Evil turned 25 this year and my goodness, I have spent the last couple months throwing myself back into the series with unbridled enthusiasm. Not only did I completely play through the HD Remake multiple times (you can review all the action on my YouTube channel) but I've also begun taking steps to catch up on all the games I never got around to playing. It's not just about playing the games for me though, as I even watched all four Resident Evil CGI movies in May and I am seriously contemplating revisiting the live-action film series (which I have seen but never loved). It is fair to say that this spring, I have fully immersed myself in Capcom's world of survival horror.

My current obsession is actually hyper-relevant as ten years ago this week, Capcom released Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. The game straddled the line between original and derivative work, and due to a puzzling publisher's decision its arrival disappointed a lot of fans. Yet I am here in 2021 to reinforce exactly what I said in 2011: this game is fun as hell.

Beginning with the Sega Saturn port of the original Resident Evil, a combat-focused mini-game has long been a common extra mode in many incarnations of this series. This mode first earned the title "The Mercenaries" in Resident Evil 3, as that game featured hired mercenaries with whom Jill Valentine interacted. In Resident Evil 4 and 5, though, "The Mercenaries" became a score-driven arcade-like game mode, one where players could fight the zombie hordes in a variety of stages with their choice of established characters.

Cut to 2010 and a lot of speculation was circulating about Nintendo's upcoming handheld, the 3DS. As a number of publishers pledged to support the new system, Capcom announced not one but two portable Resident Evil titles: First, a spooky adventure set on a cruise ship called Resident Evil Revelations, and an action-shooter called The Mercenaries 3D. The former title would draw the most attention, and when the 3DS was first exhibited to the general public in January 2011, Revelations was given a prominent display and an interactive demo. The Mercenaries 3D, on the other hand, was shown only in trailer form.

Yet The Mercenaries 3D hit store shelves first in June of 2011, packaged with a special demo of Revelations to help sweeten the deal. The Mercenaries 3D launched when the 3DS was struggling to find its footing and few games were available for the platform, so the arrival of a major brand like Resident Evil should have been a high tide moment to lift its spirits. Instead, the game was met with mixed reviews and fan rancor, though I would argue that the bulk of the negativity was unrelated to the actual content of the game.

The Mercenaries 3D closely mimics the bonus game from Resident Evil 5 released two years prior, supporting both single player and two-player cooperative action (including online play). The majority of the stages and enemies are likewise borrowed from that game's African setting, though a few levels and monsters resurface from Resident Evil 4. The playable cast includes all four heroic S.T.A.R.S. members from the 1996 original game, plus Albert Wesker fresh from his rejuvenated appearance in Resident Evil 5. Claire Redfield, HUNK, and Jack Krauser round out the roster. None of the new African teammates from Resident Evil 5 made the cut, nor did Resident Evil 4 star and fan favorite Leon Kennedy.

With all this borrowed content, The Mercenaries 3D looks like a simple port at first glance, but there's more at work here. Previous Mercenaries games offered no structure or progression; players would choose their character and arena, then start shooting. On 3DS, the levels are numbered and carefully arranged to teach players how the game works. A stern but supportive voice offers instructions and strategies as each level gradually introduces more challenges, culminating in a boss battle.

From level 4-1 onward, the training wheels are off and every level features a full complement of hundreds of enemies, including bosses who will spawn periodically. Each playthrough is scored based on how many enemies are slain, how many are killed in a combo, and how much time remains on the clock at the end. Playing and replaying each level unlocks extra characters, extra costumes, and even advanced levels that are extra-hard.

The Mercenaries has always been designed with replay in mind, but in 3D there are unlockable "skills" to enhance the experience. Players can equip up to three skills at once, and their benefits include added attack power, improved healing, faster reloading, etc. The points players earn in-game strengthen each equipped skill, which can then level-up over time for increased perks. This system, besides encouraging players to spend more time revisiting every level, adds RPG elements and deeper strategy to the once-shallow experience.

I've laid out my personal reasons for enjoying this game, and according to my system data I've spent dozens of hours with The Mercenaries 3D. So why did critics and fans respond so poorly to a portable Resident Evil, a very novel concept at the time? Complaints generally fell into two camps, but both were about the perceived monetary value of the experience. First, because The Mercenaries has traditionally been a bonus mode included with a full-featured game, many people griped that turning it into a standalone release was inappropriate. Yet there was no other Resident Evil game, or anything even resembling a Resident Evil game, on the 3DS a decade ago, so what could be the problem with releasing an action-focused Resident Evil game?

The second problem was even more frustrating because it was tantamount to an unforced error on Capcom's part. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D is a game built around replay value, and every action is auto-saved and all progress is cumulative. However, unlike every other video game ever released in the history of the medium, there is no way to reset the save data. Fans rightly pointed out this tactic for what it was: A transparent attempt to curb used game sales by diminishing the game's resale value. Capcom denied the accusations but offered no alternative explanation for the decision, and to this day I cannot recall another game that disabled all means to start over.

Looking back at it ten years later, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D stands as a relic of its time. Today there is little distinction between "home" and "handheld" consoles thanks to the existence of the Nintendo Switch, as well as countless portable PCs that support high-resolution graphics on screens of any size. The full HD version of Resident Evil 5 now runs on mobile platforms, eliminating the need for this derivative version of just one of its many gameplay modes. Both games exist on Nintendo's eShop for about the same price as well, making The Mercenaries 3D seem even more obsolete.

Since I still have my 3DS and my copy a decade later (I certainly had no reason to sell it), I had the privilege to revisit The Mercenaries 3D this week and I had just as much fun as I expected. The console lacks a proper second analog stick, so adjusting to the controls is a challenge, but it supports mapping camera controls to the X, Y, A, and B buttons as a kind of makeshift d-pad.

Even with this handicap, The Mercenaries 3D is still a fast, frenetic experience, one that feels light years away from the original Resident Evil but nonetheless gives me delicious tension in all the right ways. I love that this single series can deliver scares by challenging me to survive a haunted house with scarce resources, yet also thrill me with scores of undead chumps that I get to execute with machine guns, rocket launchers, and pro wrestling moves.

So even if I can't really recommend going back ten years to this specific game, the good news is that there's even more Resident Evil games to play today as there were in 2011, and almost all of them are platform-agnostic at this point. I've heard that the recent Resident Evil Village brought back The Mercenaries after a lengthy hiatus...but can Ethan Winters even suplex? Not with all those missing fingers, he can't.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts on Twitter and playing games on Twitch.