Another brilliantly executed physics adventure this week. Having built the bridge [2] and other assorted structures [3] Fantastic Contraption now tools you up to build a vehicle. Don’t be fooled by the simple design and kids-tv colour scheme though, this is a hugely demanding game.

One of its great strengths is in the limitations presented to the player. Quite often the tools on offer in building sets such as these can overwhelm the player with choices, no danger of that here as you’re limited to just five. These constraints force some hard creative thinking, as you endeavour to propel your machine to its destination, negotiating the various obstacles the levels present. Such limitations do foster some extraordinary invention, as a quick YouTube search [4] will testify. In fact, even if you can’t face the challenge of trying to design solutions yourself, these movies are well worth watching anyway for their joyously wonky designs.

Importantly, the game serves as far more than a series of puzzles, as the pleasures of creating Rube Goldberg-esque feats of brilliance becomes easily within your grasp. The challenge of animating, tweaking and then re-animating your contraptions is a true delight. For once the game really does live up to its title: Fantastic Contraption [5]