I know there are some Resident Evil 4 fans here. I'd like to know how many of you have gotten five stars on all characters, and how hard was it for you?
I never bothered with Mercenaries when I first got the game (PS2 version), but now I'm revisiting it and wondering if I have a hope of earning that Handcannon. I'm no slouch when it comes to gaming, but after watching some Youtube videos I feel very slow and uncoordinated. The village area is not a problem so much, but the other three areas have given me trouble. And then you have to adjust your play style for all five characters. It's loads of fun, but frustrating. I guess I just need to keep at it until I become a machine.

It's not like I need that gamebreaking weapon...but I wants it.

Nah, I don't really like mini-games like that, so I spent very little time with it.
The main reason is that I just suck too much at them.

I guess you're not ready for this:

Mercenaries Nightmare Mode (Village 1) (NTSC/untested)
XJGQ-9H3G-336EB
GUN6-XPWN-3RPEV
4KX7-CV5E-F9YT7
1HEW-484M-6ZPKW

All enemies are equipped with chainsaws.

It's a good challenge to unlock the handcannon. I think it took me a couple days. Don't underestimate Leon's shotgun against Garradors, exploit invincibility frames from kicking, and be able to quick turn efficiently (tilt camera to the sides then point gun).

edit: code updated for USA...

action replay...

game-a-cube...

I did finish off Mercenaries on the Gamecube version of RE4, but it took a while.  The most frustrating part is when you finish just short of the 5-star goal.

I think it's best to try to do all of the stages with one character at a time since their moves are a little different.  The easiest one for me was Hunk:  that neckbreaker move was my bread and butter.

I do remember on the Village level, my technique for the most part was to run around killing people on the ground at the beginning, then finding my way to the top of one of the barns and waiting for the enemies to climb up the ladder after me.  You can maintain a pretty good combo up there.

Go camp at the entrance of the village and shoot everybody if you want to wait on people. I got 99 kills with Wesker doing that.

Yeah, uh, I would never be ready for that anyway! Too many times have I stepped blindly around a corner, only to hear the grinding wail of a chainsaw half a second before my head was removed.

Thanks for the tip on the tilt-camera-then-aim thing, which I did not realize. I have yet to kill a Garrador with Leon. It's usually because I'm interrupted by things grabbing me from behind, and Leon runs short on healing items fast if I'm hit by one of those claw swipes.

I've finished off the Village with each character, but the Castle is killing me. Sometimes I'm hard pressed to even make it to the later hourglass items. Then I get to that room with the waiting Garrador and it all goes downhill fast. The most annoying thing is getting pegged by a distant archer, three times in a row before I can take him out. But, I'm still having fun.

I think Krauser is my favorite. After getting used to the aiming, I find the arrows to be quite effective. Throw a flash grenade if I'm surrounded and one-shot the strong enemies with his super arm.

The Village is the only stage where it makes sense to camp.  In all of the other stages, you need to keep moving to the enemies because they won't come to you quickly enough for high combos.  The most important thing (other than not dying, of course) is not to let the combo counter reset.  To minimize the time between kills, try setting a pattern of running up to an enemy, blasting it in the face at point-blank range, and using a melee attack when the enemy reels.  Then repeat with the next closest enemy.  I think that this is faster than remaining stationary and targeting enemies at a distance.

I recommend drawing a path through the hourglasses in each stage and sticking to that path on each attempt.  That way you will grow accustomed to when enemies appear and from where.

Just thought I'd post a follow-up saying I did finally complete all the Merc levels. I've never been so angry at a video game in a quite a while, but now it's all good. Repetition was the key, following the same pathways as well as I could and finding safe spots to chuck grenades at the gatling gun dude and chainsaw maniac. The Military Base was hardest for me because of the spread out hourglass positions, but that chainsaw maniac really made me sweat too. Hopefully he won't visit me in my dreams now.