Epic Brain 2

Time was, the daily spot-the-difference strip in my parents' newspaper was the only part of the publication that held my interest.

The thing about spot-the-difference is - as the name suggests - there are usually plenty of differences to spot. It's not over until you've marked off each and every one.

Epic Brain 2, like its predecessor, is something of a pretentious spin on the same theme. Here, rather than looking for as many differences as you can, the key is spotting just the one fundamental anomaly out of a series of five geometric shapes - otherwise known as 'enigmas' - that, in all honesty, often look like they should be adorning the walls of an Egyptian cave.

History repeating

If all this sounds rather familiar, that's because Epic Brain 2 has an almost identical set-up to that of the original title, the game letting you scroll between the five symbols on offer before you determine just where the difference is and make your choice.

With just three lives on offer - as in, stuff up three times and you're a goner - much is made of looking for the smallest detail, quite often the rogue shape being the one that doesn't conform to the rule the others, despite being different, all adhere to. The problem is working out just what that rule is.

And this is the intrinsic, crucial, painful flaw in the structure of Epic Brain 2 - there's occasionally more than one difference to plump for.

Though it only happened once or twice in our run-through, it still had the potential to strike lives off unfairly. For example, one set of enigmas contained five shapes that looked much like a series of umbrellas with three handles attached to them. The game wanted us to spot the one enigma that had a circle on the end of the longest handle.

However, one of the shapes had just two handles compared to the others' three, making it ripe for picking. Had we done so, one life would have been lost.

Therein lies Epic Brain 2's flaw. When the differences mount up, there's no way of knowing just which one you should be looking for. This means punishment is harshly handed out should you happen to pick an enigma with a distinction from its brethren that the game isn't interested in.

When it works, Epic Brain 2 is quite engaging. Some of the best challenges focus on physics, charging you with applying said laws to spot the shape that doesn't conform. It's such a shame, therefore, that more attention hasn't be spent ensuring that all of the enigmas stand up to such scrutiny.

Though this follow-up also comes with an added Medal mode - which presents the same challenges, but adds a clock, a points system, or restricts the number of views to just one - Epic Brain 2 is sadly undermined by its rare but costly ability to be as unjust as it is faulty.