PSP hit Mercury Meltdown is makes its way to the PS2. The follow-up to Archer MacLean's Mercury is remixed, remodelled and extended, to make it a good sight more playable to boot.
The idea couldn't be simpler, tilt the maze-like level to roll the ball of Mercury from the start to the goal. Just like SUper Monkey Ball, or Marble Madness, right? Wrong! unlike a marble, or a ball full of Monkey, Mercury is a liquid. It likes to stay in one blab, but if you knock it, it will split into two or more smaller blobs. Sure, you can re-combine the smaller blobs just by touching them together - and in Mercury, you often need to do exactly that.
Some levels require you to split your blob, others require you to keep it together. Some require you to use the spray cans to colour your blob so that it can get through colour coded doorways, or operate colour coded switches. Some levels even require you to split your blob, colour each smaller blob separately, and then recombines the coloured sub-blobs to create a new colour larger blob... are you still with us? Sometimes, event he level goal is colour coded, so you can only complete the level if your blob of mercury is appropriately coloured. It sounds complicated, but it's devilishly simple and fiendishly good fun.
All the levels of Mercury Meltdown require you to adopt a careful approach to rolling your silvery blob around - too slow and you won't make the challenging time limits, too fast, and you'll split your blob into multiple pieces and you'll have to waste valuable time re-assembling it to complete the level.
As puzzle games go, this is one of the best, requiring a combination of manual and cerebral dexterity.