The Mercenaries is a recurring beloved bonus mode to RE games dating back to RE3: Nemesis and really shining in RE4 (2005). This legacy has continued with similar modes (sometimes with the same title, other times re-branded as "raid mode" or something) in many games since then. The Mercenaries 3D is a game fully devoted to this game mode on the 3DS and using an engine that looks most derived from RE5. While this wasn't a terrible idea and there was clearly some effort put into the game, I still overall wasn't too crazy about it.

On the plus side, the game has an decent amount of content. There are 8 playable characters, each with unique abilities and loadouts, as well as their own bonus unlockable costumes. There are 30 stages to choose from with varying difficulty, length, and detail, featuring iconic locations and encounters from RE4 and RE5. Many of the weapons and characters are from those games as well, but we also get series staples like Claire, Barry, and Rebecca with updated models, despite their absence from the two games this takes heavily from. There are a slew of skills you can upgrade and plenty of achievements and unlockables to obtain, which is cool to see. Further, for a 3DS game, The Mercenaries 3D is also a fairly good-looking game.

But my praise pretty much ends there and even my above points aren't without significant caveats. For one, as I've implied, the game is very heavily composed of recycled content. Every area is just pulled from RE4 and RE5 and none of the weapons or abilities really feel all that fresh to change things too drastically. In fairness, that's little different from how The Mercenaries plays as the bonus mode this aims to emulate, so I suppose that's fair to an extent, but I still feel as a standalone game, it could have done better with more original elements. Further, while I stated there are 30 stages, this is in most senses a major exaggeration. A good half of the stages are little more than tutorial. While that tutorial is helpful, it's hard to say with a straight-face that they're up to par with the more intense later stages. There's really only one major boss anywhere in the game, the bat-like creature from RE5 that appears twice in the game, once in a one-on-one context, and again in the final stage as the goal you have to accomplish while being swarmed by powerful enemies. On that note, that last stage was super tough and could be really frustrating, which was the only major difficulty spike I had in just completing the game, but it was admittedly quite satisfying when I did finally get it (recommend Rebecca strongly for that one).

The controls are also pretty jank on the 3DS and I found the gameplay surprisingly clunky, despite it being an adaptation of two fairly responsive early third person over the shoulder titles. A lot of the strategy in the later stages I found came down to timing and planning out the queue of commands you'd need to put in, when to turn, when to pick up an item, when to reload, with everything feeling more mutually exclusive than it has in similar entries. While it's never quite boring, the game just doesn't feel that great to play and ended up not being too fun either. I considered it "beat" once I cleared all the stages at least once. Unlocking later stages requires a minimum B rank (I think) on prior missions, but other than that I couldn't bring myself to care about rank, even though it's a big part of the point of a game like this. While one could surely really dig into this game trying to do better and better, I have a hard time really seeing the incentive.

So while I feel pretty negative about this title, I can at least say, I'm glad it wasn't worse? It definitely feels at its core like a cash grab given how the vast majority of its mechanics and content are recycled from other games in the series. But I do want to give credit where credit is due: it frankly could've been a lot lazier. As I noted, the game does look quite good for the 3DS for one thing and with seeing new models for classic characters is always a fun part of these spin-off titles in the series. The wealth of unlockables and things to do beyond just beating the missions shows that it is at least a bit more than a mere rushed-out cash grab. Even still, I don't really recommend t his game even to fans of the series unless modes like this are just really up your alley.

My other Resident Evil reviews:

• Resident Evil (1996) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 2 (1998) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 (1999) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor 2 – Code Veronica - ★★
• Resident Evil Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil Gaiden - ★★
• Resident Evil 0 - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Outbreak - ★★★
• Resident Evil 4 - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - ★★★
• Resident Evil Deadly Silence - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil Dead Aim - ★★★
• Resident Evil 2 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 VR - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - ★★★★★