Fire Alarm Companies

3DS, Capcom, cert: 15, available now

The Resident Evil series has in recent years, away from the slow-burning terror of "survival horror" genre defining, experiencing, to an action under management. The Mercenaries 3Dcompletes this journey, the expansion of the Score-hunting bonus mode first seen Resident Evil 4, which sees you attacking waves of infected enemies against a time limit.

While the natural reaction when disturbed by a servant waving a pitchfork would be constrained to keep a safe distance, Capcom may increase its players up close and personal with enemies, rewarding time with a melee attack. The early stages have a lot of goal to deliver your kneecaps as you aggressors stunned before the race for an uppercut, kung-fu kick or even a bum. Ammunition is scarce enough that the most reliable tactic - at least to appear the larger, more dangerous enemy where heavy weapons and grenades have become more useful.

Additional glowing pillars broken, can provide around-time bonus as you can build to survive juggle the desire for a big win with the need, is the largest such as always (it doesn 't matter how many enemies you' ve destroyed if you re 'before they killed security clocked in, the result is zero).

This ensures a constant knife-edge tension and the need to make quick kills a high ranking chain complements the intensity. Each level begins with a orgy of rapid-fire violence and often ends with your character desperately staggered over rooftops, while waiting to find ammo and health-promoting herbs on the run from a chainsaw-wielding psychopaths to carry out some very aggressive neck surgery.

The 3D effect is subtly applied, if the hectic pace of events means that most will turn it off. In any case, this is an impressive technical showcase for the console, is approaching - if not quite fit - the visuals of Resident Evil 5on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

In a sense, this is the kind of experience Nintendo has players of the value of 3DS title in a row of cheap and cheerful to convince App Store Games. But it 's hard to forget that The Mercenaries began as a bonus mode and even in expanded form, the action soon grows repetitive, although cooperative game contributes to its durability. The too-short-long demo of the upcoming title Resident Evil Revelations Meanwhile, shows much promise (and even better graphics), which is a welcome return to the series "horror roots.