Free Phone + Bluetooth @T-Mobile.com
-
CNET editors' rating:
4.0 stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating -
Average user rating:
Write your own review
Product summary
Crush is a one-of-a-kind action puzzle game, and its unique concept makes for a refreshing and bizarre experience.
Specifications: ESRB: Everyone 10 and older; Genre: Action; Number of players: 1 Player See full specs
Price range: $17.49 - $28.99
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 06/05/2007
- Released on: 05/29/2007
Genuine originality in video games is rare, and when it comes to puzzle games, doubly so. Even some of the best, most recent examples of the genre, such as D3's inventive Puzzle Quest, have merely been really good amalgams of well-established game concepts. Crush for the PlayStation Portable is an action puzzle game that owes very little of its novel concept to games that preceded it, and it capitalizes on its M.C. Escher-inspired gameplay with a healthy number of increasingly involved puzzles. It's challenging without being too frustrating, and it's easily one of the more unique puzzle games to come around in years.
Do some mental calisthenics before you start playing Crush, or you might sprain your brain.
One thing that makes Crush rare as a puzzle game is that rather than simply serving as a suite of logic puzzles, it offers some real story progression to accompany your advancement through the game. What's more, the story is surprisingly engaging. Danny is a troubled young man who can't sleep. His insomnia becomes so severe that he's sent to an institution, where he's put in the care of the prototypically Freudian psychologist Dr. Reubens. There's a madness to Dr. Reubens' method for curing Danny, which hinges on the mad science of a device he built called C.R.U.S.H., which stands for Cognitive Regression Utilizing Psychiatric Heuristics (which, as Danny points out, means it should actually be called C.R.U.P.H.) This contraption allows Danny to travel into his own damaged psyche, through which he has to go on a sort of vision quest to get to the root of his mental malady. You'll get semianimated sequences at various points in Crush as Danny travels back in time through his own psyche, which, along with the game's warped, through-the-looking-glass aesthetic, go far in setting a surreal tone.
This dovetails nicely into the actual gameplay, which revolves around our perceptions of 2D and 3D space. The levels in Crush generally look like somewhat abstract 3D platforming levels, and your primary objective in every level is to collect a number of Danny's lost marbles, which will then unlock the level exit. Make your way to the exit, and you're on to the next level. As simple as this sounds, you'll quickly find that Danny's basic jumping ability won't be enough to get you very far, even in the very first level, which is where Danny's ability to crush the level comes into play. By tapping L1, you'll effectively flatten all of the level geometry, turning the action from 3D to 2D. Depending on where Danny is standing, as well as which way you have the camera facing, this can create walkable pathways where before there was nothing. Move the camera so that it's looking straight down at Danny, and crushing will allow you to walk across a series of platforms too high to climb as though they were flat land. Crushing from 3D to 2D can also turn what appeared to be marks on a wall into solid platforms, and it can also turn certain types of solid 3D blocks into invisible 2D blocks. There are even types of supersolid blocks that cannot be crushed if Danny is standing in front of them.
There's more to concern yourself with than just crushing, though. You'll often have to actively affect your environment in order to advance, and the levels are regularly littered with giant barrels and metal balls that you can push around, as well as pressure switches you can stand on to change the very geometry of the level. You'll also find "thoughts" throughout the game, which manifest themselves as glowing neon signs on walls and floors. Thoughts can be activated only when the level is crushed, and they remain active only as long as they're visible onscreen. The most common thought is the trophy thought, which makes a trophy appear on the screen that, if collected, unlocks a special time-trial level. You'll find other thoughts that are critical to your progress, such as the lightheaded thought, which increases Danny's jumping ability, or the temporal thought, which stops time. Just like in real life, not all thoughts are helpful, and the dimensional thought prevents you from uncrushing the level.
Continue reading- See more CNET content tagged:
- 2D,
- Sega Corp.,
- Dr.,
- concept,
- 3D
User reviews
Write your own review Be the first one to review Crush (PSP) and share your experience with the CNET community!
Submit your review
Where to buy
Crush (PSP):
$17.49 - $28.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
|
$28.99 | No |
|
|
$27.99 | Yes |
|
|
Amazon.com Marketplace
|
$17.49 | Yes |
|
%20PSP%20Game%20reviews%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/psp-games/crush-psp/4505-10078_7-32318267.html){kind=small}