Much better than the first game.
The first Mercury game, was a bit of a missed opportunity. The premise was interesting, but its potential was never fully realised. This is perhaps because of two major flaws. Mercury was:
1. Far too short.
2. Far too easy.
Thankfully, this is not the case with its sequel 'Mercury Meltdown.' For those of you who don't know, this is a puzzle game all about tilting the level to move a blob of mercury to the finish. Except it gets a whole lot more complicated than that. There are many contraptions throughout the game that can either help or hinder you.
What's refreshing about the game is that a lot of the levels will actually require some serious brain activity to get through. Sometimes a level will begin and you won't have a clue what you need to do. A bit of thinking outside the box and the 'EUREKA!' moment pops up. Except some levels require 2 or 3 eureka moments for different sections of the level, adding to the puzzling nature of the game.
There are 168 levels in total, 40 of which are hidden throughout and can be unlocked by aceing the available levels by collecting items, completing under a time limit, achieving a high score, and recovering 100% of your original mercury.
If you're a completist, this game will certainly appeal to you. Collecting everything in the game will take you upwards of 30 hours, and there are also minigames as well. If you love puzzle games and you already own Lumines then this is a good addition to your collection. It may not have the sheer playability and unstoppable addictiveness that Lumines has, but it still makes a damn close second place in terms of PSP puzzlers.