

Visually, the game bears a massive resemblance to SNK’s immortal Metal Slug series, with fluidly animated sprites showing off a lot of detail and character.

So it definitely has the backstory and feel of an action film/game. Now that they’re stronger and know what they’re dealing with, King and Empress start their mission again and intend to succeed or die again trying. Tasker’s team manages to find the bodies of King and Empress and revive them with the Mandrake formula, but the other three are missing in action. King, Empress, Royal, Rajah, and Majestic fly to the island but are almost immediately ambushed and brutalized to near-death by CLAW’s unforgiving soldiers. CLAW’s intervention causes Colonel Ben Tasker to send in his team of crack commandos, the Mercenary Kings, to rescue Neil and give CLAW a severe black eye. Neil was working on the Mandrake project, a scientific formula to use the island’s indigenous mandrake creatures for enhancing the physical capabilities of soldiers. James Neil arrested by the terrorist forces of the CLAW organization, with his base of Mandragora Island placed under martial law. Thus, it would be named Mercenary Kings, and it would be impressive. The result is over one hundred missions, more than a dozen vicious bosses, and lots and lots and LOTS of guns. Yet despite not reaching most of their stretch goals, the team took the time to cram as many features into their product as possible and put in all the bonus goals anyway. After Wizorb, Tribute decided to make their next game far more of a banquet packed with oodles of potential content, establishing a Kickstarter for it in 2012 and thankfully reaching its goal.


the World: The Game, considered by those who played it to be a great licensed title and a rare modern entry in the desert of beat-em-ups. Founded by Jonathan Lavigne, Jean-Francois Major, and Justin Cyr, these fellas worked at Ubisoft as developers on Scott Pilgrim vs. Tribute Games is one of several independent game companies looking to carve their notch in virtual history, and they seem off to a good start.
