Puzzle World 2

Given all the blocks that characters in platform games have to push around, it's surprising that they're not all better built. They should be rippling, muscle-packed meat-heads by now. And that so many boast a pot belly, well that's just inexplicable.

Take the little wizard that you control in Puzzle World 2: he's a scrawny little fellow who looks more like an elf on leave from the North Pole than a brawny brick-lugger. Nevertheless, he's got the wherewithal to shift the necessary blocks in order to escape from the fix he's found himself in.

Dropping into the Puzzle World at the far left of a level, it's up to you to guide the pointy-hatted protagonist through a series of sideways-scrolling platform-filled stages.

In order to escape, you must unlock the door at the other end of the level and this only happens if you make all the coloured blocks lying around disappear. So it is that you embark on a quest that's part traditional platformer, part block-dropping puzzler.

By pushing and pulling blocks around the level, you can bring similarly-coloured blocks together to make them vanish. Early on in the game, this simply requires you to shove blocks along the ground so that two come into contact with each other. But things quickly progress; soon you'll be dropping blocks into a gap between two similarly-coloured others to make all three disappear.

You're aided in your masonry-moving efforts by magic power-ups that are occasionally offered for grabs. These enable you to destroy the few nasties that inhabit each level with fire or freeze them with an icy blast. But of most use are the magical push and pull abilities, which endow you with the skill to manipulate blocks from afar, as if you were a disciple of Yoda. This means you can manoeuvre blocks in otherwise inaccessible locations, and generally get out of the increasingly difficult jams that crop up in Puzzle World 2.

That's not to say you'll find it easy, though, far from it. Although each level is short, with completion times ranging from 60 seconds to five minutes, you really need to plan your actions.

You can't just start shoving blocks around in a random manner, waiting for inspiration to strike. Odds are you'll need to restart the level if you push a block where it's not meant to go. It pays, like chess, to think about your moves before you make them.

That said, there's plenty of platform-hopping fun to be had while you figure out what you've got to work with. The controls are very responsive and enable you to duck and weave in mid-air with ease.

Although the enemy characters and creatures that populate the levels aren't terribly aggressive, they are a nuisance – one touch is enough to cost you a life. And running around or leaping over them is your only form of defence until you find a fire-casting spell.

It's this blend of platforming simplicity and brain-draining difficulty that makes Puzzle World 2 so rewarding to play. You feel as though you're learning new tricks and talents as you complete each level, and you end up returning to the game to test yourself.

So although you might not be giving your muscles a workout, you are most definitely exercising your grey matter.