When comparing Mercenary Kings vs Crawl, the Slant community recommends Crawl for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” Crawl is ranked 6th while Mercenary Kings is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Crawl is:
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Deep weapon customization allows for plenty of choice in how you would like to play
This game features a good weapon customization system. The only downside is that this can lead to a certain level of grindiness – but not too much.
Pro Awesome pixel art by Paul Robertson shows off a very polished game
If you don’t know Paul Robertson, check him out. From Adult Swim animations and dozens of video games to feature films such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Paul Robertson has quite the catalog of really great pixel animations and graphics.
Pro Great game for those who like Metal Slug
Mercenary Kings is the spiritual sequel to Metal Slug: a two-dimensional, pixel-based, side-scrolling action shooter with co-op multiplayer.
Pro Online or local co-op multiplayer, up to 4 players
Mercenary Kings offers local or online co-op for up to four players.
Pro Unique gameplay, blend of cooperation and betrayal
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Pro Local (couch ) 2-4 asymmetric multiplayer
Crawl has built in support for local 2-4 player asymmetric multiplayer with 3 out of the 4 playing co-op against the main player.
Pro Replay value
As the game is played, different monsters are unlocked and dungeons change for each playthrough with different bosses making the game stay interesting as time goes on. Available items change each play-trough as well, players cannot choose same play-style each time as different weapons require different tactics.
Pro Retro graphics
The art style of Crawl is reminiscent of 8bit games of yore and yet are still detailed enough to have very different designs for the different monsters in the game.
Cons
Con Controls need to be tighter
Pressing down to shoot does not always fire at once, meaning missed opportunities. After a while this can become quite a nuisance.
Con No online multiplayer
Obviously the game is designed around multiplayer play but sadly there is no online multiplayer included.