Fantastic Contraption 2

I could never be an inventor: I just haven't got the tools for it.

By that, I don't mean the literal tools - although given that I live in an apartment, trying to find space for a shed full of hammers, spanners, and all manner would be a concern.

Rather, I don't have the mental tools to turn my hand to problem solving. The concept of how even the most menial of implements work goes way over my head.

You might think the colourful bits and bobs of Fantastic Contraption 2 would make the world of invention easier to accept, yet - like the original - finicky controls prevent this from being an entertaining education.

The game tasks you with fusing seemingly innocuous objects together in order to guide a red disc from point A to B. Since you're granted freedom to do exactly as you wish using as many or as few of the tools available, there's no pressure to come up with a particular solution.

Instead, you can create as many flops as you like, learning the language of Fantastic Contraption 2 as you go. It's a language that has an almost flawless take on physics, with the 2D stages themselves composed of various lumps, bumps, slopes, and shapes that you must traverse.

Doing so comes down to utilising a combination of objects – most crucially wheels that turn in both directions and the collection of sticks that link them up like cogs.

On the whole, it's connecting your disc up to a series of said wheels that helps guide you from the blue box that acts as your workshop to the red area that marks your goal.

Every failure drip feeds you a new piece of information as to how all the elements work together. As such, it's impossible to get angry or even frustrated if you fail to reach the goal – Fantastic Contraption 2 does nothing more than replicate exactly what would happen in reality. Newton is as much to blame as developer inXile if your design doesn't deliver.

There's even an online mode, allowing you to upload solutions for each stage and create your own levels and share them with others.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee any of the stages you download are solvable since levels aren't vetted. An automatic check by the computer to determine whether a level can be completed would suffice.

Putting what are only potential annoyances aside, however, there is one other major area where Fantastic Contraption 2 delivers undeniable irritation in spades: controls.

Fastening parts together is a prime example of how the screen is simply not big enough to accommodate such fiddly input. Indeed, Fantastic Contraption 2's controls are akin to carrying out brain surgery with two pillows strapped to your hands – any sense of accuracy is completely lost.

Dropping the objects in the first place – done with a tap – is straightforward enough. Things get complicated when linking things to sticks. Each wheel has five contact points – four on the side, and one in the middle that drives its movement – and differentiating between each cluster with your finger is a task in itself, even when zoomed in.

As such, each level becomes a catalogue of errors, none of which is fatal – a tap of the 'X' button is enough to remove each object from play – but all of which are highly irritating.

You can, in theory, also move pieces around once placed by holding your finger down on them. Although, in curious fashion, the game has a mixture of ways of responding: sometimes the shape is shifted as you wish, sometimes a new object appears, and sometimes the shape is deleted altogether.

It's also worth mentioning that aside from a subtle visual update and said online setup this is almost exactly what the original version served up – fiddly controls and all.

As such, unless the first Fantastic Contraption left you calling out for more, it's questionable just how valid a sequel this is. In truth, Fantastic Contraption 2 is dominated by one, single sentiment: just how much better such a fastidious set up might play out on iPad.