Mercury Meltdown Revolution

Spiritualists and healers in the Far East who used to attribute mercury with healing properties would have been run out of town if they’d cited this game as evidence. After a few levels on Mercury Meltdown Revolution, they’d have been ready to club each other to painful death with a ritualistic bell, only realizing too late how damaging and toxic this slippery little element can be. Specifically, this is the first game to make us actually throw the Wii remote hard at the wall in real anger.

Primarily, what makes this puzzler unique is the mercury ball itself. Imagine playing Marble Madness with The Blob. You use the remote to tilt the board under the loosely-held-together gloop of liquid, waiting for it to inevitably split apart at the first available opportunity: on a corner, off an edge, under a large pointy hammer.

And, impressively, your blob moves around exactly as mercury should - flowing slowly at first, then gathering momentum and bending around corners, breaking in half when there’s too much strain put on it. Of course you won’t notice how good it is, as you’ll be too busy insulting the blob of mercury’s mother when it starts to spill over a ledge into oblivion. You’ll instinctively tilt the board in the opposite direction to pull it back, but as it’s already been caught by momentum, it’ll thin slowly before breaking off, leaving a few drops dribbling away forever, and your remaining blob careering off in the opposite direction to certain death and a quick level restart.

This sort of thing happens pretty frequently, too. Each level is composed of lessons you can only learn the hard way, building up a sequence for yourself to follow rigidly in order to get through to the end. Whenever you come across a level that can be completed in just one or two attempts, you’ll be more amazed than a felt hatter with mercury poisoning.