Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Nintendo Wii)

The Wii seems to be slowly gaining pace as a games machine; it's starting to attract various high profile titles from other developers. It is also attempting (I think) to shed the kidsy image that some of the games have given it. Mortal Kombat and so forth, coupled with Resident Evil and various other titles (released or not) are starting to appear on the platform alongside the Marios and Super Monkey Balls.

If you're like me though and you're looking for something that doesn't have zombies, fantasy monsters or polygonal violence (nothing wrong with that of course) then you might want to check out: Mercury Meltdown Revolution from Ignition. The original Archer MaCleans' Mercury was a stellar hit and gained much acclaim, since then it's popped up here and there, remixed and revitalised since Ignition seem to have a fondness for it.

Why not? Since it's a great game and dare I say it? This iteration is the best one yet, there's something about using the Wii-mote to control this little blob of mercury that warms my heart and brings back the good old days of rocking a wooden maze from side to side to control a steel ball, back before steam and valve computing and CDs (yeah I'm that old).

Seriously though, MMR is a fine blend of control bliss and puzzle mayhem that should have you trading in every other puzzle game you own to get it. It's just that good honestly. The series has never played as well as it does on Nintendo's console and it builds on the already nerve-wracking, hair-pulling goodness of the previous titles to provide a solid experience this time around.

Since Marble Madness and various iterations, there's always been a fondness in my heart for puzzle games like this. I remember them on the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and even the Amiga. I've gotten my hands on Shareware versions, Freeware versions and even played versions that friends have created.

For those of you new to what I'm talking about, the idea is very simple. Take a blob of mercury and roll it to the end of a course, sounds easy, of course it is. Until you add the various ways to change to form of the mercury and fiendish traps to the mix, then it becomes complicated and downright sadistic in places. Timers and power-ups/downs add further to the challenge.

You have to be careful about spilling mercury in this version, a nice little evil twist as well as being able to split the mercury up to proceed along the route you need to take. You can change the state of the mercury as in the other games as well as the colour; this is sometimes needed to get by certain types of sensors that only allow a particular colour type past them.

These little gameplay elements are excellent and to truly get the best out of the game, eschew the Classic Controller and play it with the Wii-mote solely, if you don't you'll be missing out on what makes the game even more fun and that would be a disservice to the slick control method that's been implemented by the developers.