Critter Crunch Review

Dashing its way onto the PlayStation Network, Critter Crunch is the latest 2D puzzle game to hit the downloadable space. By developer Capybara Games, Critter Crunch combines cute art and thorough animation with a noticeably different take on the sometimes bland puzzle genre. When this is combined with a quirky world and increasingly complex gameplay, Critter Crunch becomes a lot more than just a charming game.

Critter Crunch is a unique puzzle game, to say the least. Players take up the role of a fictional animal called Biggs, and Biggs is set on eating an enormous amount of crystals. Biggs is a friendly looking creature, furry, with a no arms, just legs, and a big belly with the appetite to match. Bug-like creatures, called Critters, have crystals in them, but instead of simply eating Critters, as Biggs can't, Biggs feeds Critters to each other to the point of overstuffing and exploding them. Once Critters are blown apart, Biggs consumes all of the crystals that fall out.

How the puzzle aspect and gameplay fit in with the setting is mildly similar to other puzzle games. Rows of Critters descend from the top of the screen periodically, row by row, downward between vines that divide the Critters into columns. During regular levels, if a Critter reaches the ground at the bottom of the screen, it's game over for Biggs, with all the Critters descending to pummel the poor guy. To keep this from happening, Biggs uses his very long tongue, standing below the Critters while shuffling left and right under the columns, grabbing smaller Critters to feed to larger Critters, overstuffing them to blow them apart. Critters come in multiple sizes, so to overstuff a medium Critter, Biggs must feed it two small Critters. To overstuff a large Critter, Biggs must feed it two medium Critters. Biggs can also mix things up by feeding a medium Critter one small Critter, making it stuffed, then feeding that stuffed medium Critter to a large Critter, in-turn overstuffing and blowing apart the large Critter. Once Biggs has consumed enough crystals the level ends. That is the basic premise of gameplay, and it certainly works well at the beginning of the game, however, the gameplay thickens.

With feeding Critters to one another, Biggs is essentially putting the food chain in high-gear. To up the ante, while progressing through the Adventure mode, the game introduces new Critters and other creatures to make life much more treacherous for Biggs. Gameplay starts ramping up in difficulty with the introduction of assortments of different coloured Critters, special creatures-like monster bombs, rock-men, electro bombs, as well as special one-use abilities. While the number of columns increases, along with speed at which Critters descend, the one aspect that really switches up gameplay is how each level mixes up the frequency at which different Critters and special creatures appear.