I love these indie developers and their games, but Jochen Kaercher doesn't do himself many favours with this one. 2007’s Feyruna: Fairy Forest won the hearts of the internet’s casual gaming community with its adorable simplicity, aesthetic charm and frustrating addictiveness. Essentially a mouse-based, reaction-time 'save the goodies, avoid the baddies' title, Feyruna proved utterly loveable in its complete rejection of complexity. For some totally inexplicable reason, Feyruna 2 abandons pretty much every concept that made the original work, leaving only the somewhat laborious and awkwardly implemented storyline intact.

So, deep in this quaint little fantasy kingdom, an evil force is a-brewin'. In order to save its sweet little inhabitants, of which we meet precisely none, the obvious method is to partake in an uncomfortably irrelevant puzzle-based platform game. Feyruna 2 is still entirely mouse-controlled, but this time it’s a game about guiding coloured balls around a maze of death, avoiding trudging enemies and their traps, and guiding them into the hands of static druid-things who ultimately use them to destroy a big, black glob of dark magic that floats in the sky.  This isn't really Feyruna 2.  It's just another game by Jochen Kaercher - and not a very good one at that.

Unfortunately, the complexity has risen dramatically, which removes much of Feyruna’s appeal. The added reward for careful and logical planning is a bonus, but ultimately Feyruna 2 throws far too much into the mix at an unreasonably early stage in the game, and – against the excruciatingly unforgiving clock – it’s often too easy to forget all the things you’re supposed to be doing. As the balls roll off the 2D levels every which way, the most tempting option is, for a large portion of the time, to simply give up.

Feyruna’s careful and well-managed introduction of new concepts and gameplay mechanisms made progress challenging but never overwhelming. But within just three levels of its sequel, we’re expected to deal with an extortionate amount of new ideas. Runes that change the colour of the balls, ankhs that re-humanise petrified druids, trapdoors to open and shut, teleports, and even shops to buy new power-ups from - all come into play far too quickly and practically all at once, and no sooner have you mastered one new idea, another comes along and punches you hard in the gut. It’s not that an increasing difficulty level is a bad thing, and thankfully it all calms down after a few levels, but for the opening of a decidedly casual game it’s a little bit too much.

That said, those with a stubborn dedication to the cause will likely find themselves reloading the levels time and time again, desperately trying to beat the bastard clock and destroy the black glob of magic before the world comes crashing down in a somewhat underwhelming apocalypse. Still, Feyruna 2 feels like a lot of change without a lot of reasoning. Even the visuals have taken a bizarre step backwards: the backgrounds are blurry and unimaginative, and the platforms and character sprites seem hastily drawn. There’s a rainy afternoon of idle distraction to be found here, but in a climate where independent developers are producing titles of an infinitely higher quality (World of Goo, anyone?), there’s little reason to opt for this. For a fiver, it may have been a reasonable consideration. At the frankly absurd asking price of £15, it’d just be stupid.