Editorials
The ‘Mercenaries’ Mode Needs to Come Back to the ‘Resident Evil’ Franchise [Resident Evil at 25]
“These soldiers have lost their edge. They have forgotten what fear and survival mean. It’s time for them to remember…”
Resident Evil 3’s remake ended up being greeted by a mixed reception, straying too far from what made the original such a unique entry, even if it did have some of that original charm.
My feelings were very much in that camp when I reviewed the game last year. I explained why Nemesis was handled poorly and served the story more than the gameplay.
It did have a multiplayer component to offer something different at least. Unfortunately, while the asymmetric experience Resident Evil: Resistance looked good on paper, like so many online attempts in Capcom’s franchise, it ended up falling flat rather quickly. Whilst originally writing the review of RE3 Remake and subsequently playing Resistance, it made me want to revisit the original’s bonus mode The Mercenaries, and that, in turn, made me want to write about it.
I’ve written before how I regard the original incarnation of Resident Evil 3 as a fantastic game, one which still holds up today. Its locations, multiple-choices when facing Nemesis, and of course…that first series appearance of The Mercenaries Mode.
Long after I’d moved on to PlayStation 2, I made sure to have a PS1 Memory Card slotted into the second-player port, just so I could load up RE3 and The Mercenaries. It was a special bonus game where you choose from three characters, and you had to get from the tram area, to the warehouse where you began the main game as Jill, shooting through multiple enemies to gain time and money, while racking up combos while rescuing hostages. It all added up to the money and valuable seconds you would earn, and once you reached the end, you were able to purchase a few items.
From Infinite Ammo to the fabled Rocket Launcher, it made you keep replaying it to build up your cash, so you could eventually own it all. Yet even when I did, I still kept coming back, as it was simply too much fun not to.
Once you completed the original game of Resident Evil 3, you were able to access The Mercenaries mode from the main screen. Right away it felt like a departure, as if you’re now in an arcade game, scrolling through the characters to choose from as if you’re about to play Time Crisis.
Here’s who you can choose from at this point, each with their respective items:
Rookie
- Mikhail Victor
- Rocket Launcher
- Shotgun
- Magnum
- 18 Magnum Bullets
- 21 Shotgun Shells
- Mixed Herb
Normal
- Carlos Oliveira
- Assault Rifle
- Eagle 6.0
- 90 Bullets
- 3 Mixed Herbs
Hard
- Nikolai Zinoviev
- Handgun
- Combat Knife
- 3 First Aid Sprays
- Blue Herb
I would usually go for Mikhail, mainly because of the satisfaction of the Shotgun and the headshots you could do. But it didn’t matter which character you picked; the difficulty was the same across all three characters, and it simply came down to your skill with the tools available to you. Everything you had learned from your playthroughs as Jill came down to this. Time to earn some money.
A timer would kick in, and from the start, you felt under pressure. Pushed into taking gambles by running past a few enemies to save time and bullets, or to just shoot at some to gain some time and a bit of extra cash. Enemies had a varied value as to how much time you could gain, and how much money it would add to the pot at the end.
A zombie dog would add 4 seconds and six dollars, while a Hunter would earn you 6 seconds and ten dollars. All the enemies would be in locations different to the main game. So when I decided to go to a certain part where the ‘Drain Demios’ would usually be located, I was greeted with the giant spiders.
I had forgotten about this and as I was playing this close-up on a 50” HD TV, it was a shock, to say the least.
Of course, Nemesis appears whenever he likes, which also adds to the intensity of this mode. If you’re lucky/brave enough to defeat him, that’s worth between 10 and 20 seconds, and a massive forty dollars (If you want to find out more about the enemies and their worth, this fantastic wiki gives all the info, including where the hostages can be located).
Resident Evil 4 carried on The Mercenaries tradition.
Hostages were another aspect I had forgotten. There are six in each playthrough. If you rescue them, you gain more time and money, and maybe even an item from them. They’re not required to complete the mode, so you can leave them to fend for themselves, but it’s yet another great addition to a mode that was simply a bonus to the main game.
I loved this mode, and still do. It’s the ultimate example of great bonus content to me. Long after I finished the original playthrough as Jill, Mercenaries kept me going back for more to see what else the mode offered. This was when there was no internet in the house for me, only my trusted magazines of ‘Official PlayStation Magazine’, ‘PowerStation’ and ‘GamesMaster’, each to help guide me through with each character when it really did count.
When the reimagining was announced with RE: Resistance in tow, it was obvious to me that Mercenaries wasn’t coming along for the ride, yet still, I was disappointed that it wasn’t hidden away in there when I played through it for the review.
Capcom seems to have moved on from RE 3 Remake. Resistance is seemingly dead, and its multiplayer successor Re:Verse doesn’t inspire much confidence. So I hope that Capcom tries to bring back this mode again in some way at some point (it has made appearances in several other Resi games since), as it’s another important part of the series history that made it so beloved. It was ridiculous at times, but it was simple arcade-style fun. Story was put aside and the main objective was to get to point A to point T, making sure the combos were racked up, so when you either died or made it to the end, the suitcase of gold coins were ready to be spent on a Rocket Launcher.
Hopefully, Mercenaries returns in some way in the coming years (there’s always that Resident Evil 4 remake), but for now, you may have to head back to the likes of Resident Evil 3, 4, and Revelations 2, and see just how great it can be.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
You must be logged in to post a comment.