Almost eighteen months after the release of the original Mercury, Ignition Entertainment has unleashed Mercury Meltdown. Not only does Meltdown have a far greater number of levels (double!), tweaked difficulty, and better camera implementation to help out the single player game, it also includes a few additional mini-games and a (slightly) better multiplayer mode to increase the longevity of the title. In a lot of ways, Mercury Meltdown does exactly what a sequel is supposed to – it builds a better experience on top of an already established game by fixing most (if not all) the issues of its predecessor.

The basic premise of Mercury Meltdown is to traverse a blob of mercury through elaborate levels in a given amount of time. In your way are a bunch of traps, locked doors and environmental hazards that, when combined with devious level design, makes for some pretty cool puzzles. Like the original, you control your blob by tilting the world in the same fashion as the monkey ball games. Surprisingly, both the original and Meltdown use the PSP’s analog nub very effectively and making minute adjustments or giant changes in your blob’s trajectory are possible. Still, despite more than adequate control, completing a level with 100% of your blob (and in time) is a rarity.

Mercury Meltdown is a puzzle game that involves skill, brains, and little bit of luck. With that said, the difficulty (and hence luck required) is far less than that of the original Mercury, which was so incredibly relentless in its difficulty that it turned a large portion of gamers – even those that love puzzle games – away in defeat. In fact, a lot of the reason why Mercury Meltdown is superior to its ancestor is because it’s actually playable/passable. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t easy and with over 160 levels it’ll take you quite a bit of time to get through it all, but compared to the original it’s a breeze.

Hardcore fans of the original might be a little disappointed that it’s easier, but the adjustments are actually due to a better design rather than just making the levels simpler (in other words, the alterations don’t cheapen the puzzle aspect.) While the first game made you go through levels in a restrictive sequence, Meltdown gives you 16 levels to choose from out of the box and beating any of these levels goes towards your overall progress meter, which then unlocks more levels. So rather than being locked into a devilishly hard stage, you can skip to the next level, beat that, and still advance to new challenges. Meltdown also has a level-preview function that lets you pause and freely move around in order to see where you’re supposed to go. Furthermore, the levels themselves are designed with the other limitations in mind (ex. Camera nuances, etc.) To top it off, even though the time limit is still present it’s not mandatory. As such, unlike the first game, the level doesn’t restart when the time runs out. All of these changes together make for far more enjoyable playtime, while still retaining a high satisfaction level for completing a stage.

Adding another layer of difficulty is the phases of your blob, which can change from solid to really liquid-y. The different phases affect the mercury’s viscosity, so the more fluid your blob the faster it moves. Later in the game this plays a larger role (and is cause for more difficult puzzles), as different portions of mercury need to move at different speeds. Multiplayer is still only Adhoc, but there are plenty of cool party games (minigames) that make playing with a buddy worth your attention. Unfortunately, while there is game share, all it shares is a demo of the game, making it completely useless for multiplayer. These augmentations add quite a bit more depth to the game, but even still the most noticeable change to Meltdown is the graphical style (and for obvious reasons.) While Mercury was more realistic in it’s visual design, Meltdown utilizes cel-shading to give it a very stylized and unique (to this genre, anyway) appearance. While it doesn’t have a major effect on the gameplay itself, the visuals do lend to the overall redesign of the game.

Even though the game is quite proficient, Mercury Meltdown doesn’t completely reinvent the “controlling-a-round-object-by-tilting-the-world” field. What Mercury Meltdown does, however, is refine an already sound experience. While I can’t say this is a game for everyone – or even fans of traditional puzzlers – those that either enjoyed the original or wanted to enjoy it (but just found it too hard) will definitely see the value of the changes involved. If anything, Mercury Meltdown is ideal for those individuals that were planning to buy the original, but ended up buying Ridge Racer, WipEout Pure, or (more appropriately) Lumines instead. Now it’s time for mercury to shine.