Off the Shelf: Mercury Meltdown Revolution

When Mercury Meltdown was first released as part of the first diffusion of PSP games, it was met with a lot of critical acclaim and support from gamers as an original and innovative puzzler - an accolade all too rare in today's gaming industry. Now Mercury Meltdown Revolution, the sequel from Ignition, is multi-format and as popular as ever.

For anyone who has played the original, Revolution is immediately recognisable. You play a blob of mercury which has to navigate through different levels of obstacle courses within a set timetable. Sometimes the layout of the levels requires you to divide the ball of mercury into two more blobs and simultaneously control them to reach different switches at the same time. You lose a level by falling off the edge or running out of time. Progress is made depending on how many stars you collect in each level, and by what percentage of the mercury in your blob you successfully bring to the exit.

As we have seen with other titles that are multi format, the graphics suffer from the relatively low processing power of the Wii, but what makes this game most interesting on the Wii is that it takes advantage of the advanced motion sensors in the Wiimote. Instead of controlling your blob of mercury with the control stick or d-pad, you hold the Wiimote flat and tilt it in the direction you want the mercury to move. In gaming terms what you are actually doing is tilting the level around like a tray, and the mercury moves depending on how far and how fast you tilt.

This adds a whole new dimension of play which both the original and the sequel on other formats doesn't provide and is actually one of the best third party attempts to utilise the Wiimote that we've seen to date. The tilt sensor is remarkably fluid and easy to just pick up and play. As a game it doesn't require a lot of effort to learn how to play, and is interesting and challenging enough to make you want to keep coming back to play it. Saying that, at higher levels the game does become very difficult if you want to hit all the targets for star collecting and percentage of mercury saved. If you like puzzle games and are not afraid of a challenge then you're likely to enjoy Mercury Meltdown revolution. For casual gamers who are looking for something they can dip in and out of, then this is also a good buy.

3.5 / 5 --- Paul Golf