Pandemic Studios is no longer around, but this development studio's legacy is still felt today. After crafting the first Star Wars Battlefront title, which finally brought Star Wars gamers the full-scale battles they saw on the silver screen, Pandemic released another enormously successful title called Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. This open-world game places the player in North Korea in 2007, with the specific goal of preventing nuclear war.

This feat requires the player to pick off the key military leaders featured in a deck of 52 cards. Much like Avalanche Studios' current hit series, Just Cause, Mercenaries pushed the player to accomplish this goal with mass amounts of destruction. Mercenaries was one of the first titles that truly captured the "sandbox" experience that embraced creative choice in how missions were tackled. In 2005, Pandemic was one of the top developers in the industry, releasing Mercenaries, Star Wars Battlefront II, and a fun little game called Destroy All Humans.

After a lengthy look at Mercenaries, we foolishly dive headfirst into one of the worst fighting games of yesteryear, yet find ourselves moderately charmed by its hideous character designs. We hope you enjoy this week's show, and we'll see you again in a quick seven days!

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