(Capcom, 1990, shooter, 3 player simultaneous)

One of my favorite parts about getting a new ROM is thinking back to the last time I saw the real machine. In the case of Mercs, I think the last one I can remember was at the theater in the Everett Mall near Seattle, although I'm pretty sure I've seen it more recently than that.
If you liked Commando, you'll love Mercs. In fact, I think I remember somebody saying that it might be Commando 2? In any case, the gameplay is nearly identical only with better graphics.
I think that the main characters in Mercs look sort of like Brian Bosworth, if you remember who he is. If you don't, he was this hotshot football player who had a short-lived career with the Seattle Seahawks in the mid 80s- he had a funny haircut (not unlike Vanilla Ice's) which was sort of like a crew cut only with stripes shaved in the sides. They were very popular where I lived (just outside Seattle), and we called it a "Boz cut." It was pretty funny, he used to wear this Reebok headband when he played, but then Pete Rozell (sp?) who was (is?) the NFL commissioner said that he couldn't wear it, so the next game he wore a headband with "ROZELL" written on it. That pretty much spelled the end of his career in the NFL, so he ended up making shitty movies.
The game is pretty fun the first time or two you get through it, but I've played it way too many times for me to really be entertained that much by Mercs anymore. The enemies and levels are always the same, and it just gets boring after a while.
On the positive side, like all CPS1 games, Mercs boasts excellent graphics and sound. I especially like the way you grunt when you get shot. Plus it's a little more interactive than Commando, since you can blow up trees and huts and what have you. But in Commando there were all kinds of cool secrets that you could discover if you threw a grenade in the right spot, which give it a lot more replay value than Mercs.