Donald Duck's Quest 2

You know, Donald Duck hasn't aged a bit yet he's supposedly 73-years-old this year. If he wasn't a Disney character, we'd have sworn he'd made a deal with the devil or something to keep his youthful looks. Or else he has a portrait up in his attic that gets older and more hideous with each passing day while he remains unblemished (and without his pants, too!).

Unfortunately, the only evidence of witchcraft or sorcery here comes in the form of Magica De Spell, who has threatened Uncle Scrooge and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. The story's weak, but it sets up the player for some interesting and at times challenging mobile puzzle action.

Donald Duck's Quest 2 starts off deceptively simply, with a verbose tutorial that eases you into the gameplay. Essentially, you guide the eponymous D. Duck through a maze of sorts to a kidnapped family member. Placing arrows in his path will make him take the route you've laid out for him, but there's a limited amount of arrows per level and various obstacles are placed, usually along the most obvious route, to hinder your progress.

This isn't rocket science at first, but soon enough you'll find yourself cursing the screen, trying to work out where you went wrong and then shrieking "Eureka!" as you finally work out the solution that, in hindsight, seems so obvious. It's simple yet engaging.

Variety is provided by introducing new elements to the puzzle action, such as keys to collect that unlock doors and gaps to avoid or else bridge with push-able objects, for example.

Graphically, Donald Duck's Quest 2 is adequate. You won't see anything amazing for sure, but what's here is well drawn, looks like it's supposed to, is reasonably animated and is as bright and cheerful as you'd expect.

Surprisingly good use is also made of the sound, including some catchy tunes. But don't get carried away, the in-game music can get repetitive, and we don't advise having the music on when playing on the bus if you want to make it home in one piece.

Interestingly, the mobile game is 'twinned' with an online flash version at www.donaldducksquest.com, and reaching certain levels on the phone game will unlock a code that you can enter online to access the flash game. While a nice idea in theory, this actually undermines the phone game to an extent.

Having played the flash game, you'll notice that it's easier to play. In part, this is because of the PC version's larger game window. More worryingly though is that it's easier to play due to its better control system. On the mobile version, you'll too often get frustrated that you've set Donald off on his route around the levels once more, rather than just placing an arrow on the ground as you'd intended.

We can't help thinking that pointing someone who's just bought a mobile version of a game to one that's free on the internet won't exactly make them feel like they've got value for money. Why pay to play when you can play for free? Okay, the flash version isn't exactly portable, but the controls on the mobile version will frustrate players, so perhaps it's better not to invite comparisons.

Donald Duck's Quest will provide a challenge even to adults on later levels, and there are certainly enough of them to tease your brain, but we think too much of the challenge comes from overcoming the control frustrations. It's certainly a competent puzzler, but it's not a huge departure from the first Donald Duck's Quest and it'll probably drive you quackers well before you see all 60 of the levels on offer.