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Crush is a great idea backed up by confident, strong execution. It won't be
too long before you begin to feel challenged, but once all the pieces start
falling into place, it'll leave you with a weirdly warm glow in that cornered
part of your brain that games like Gears of War rarely manage to stoke. The only
bugbear is that it all feels somewhat overdone.
Your basic goal is to navigate through each level–made up from a series of
hazards and platforms–while collecting enough stones or 'marbles' along the way
to open up the exit. And the brilliant twist? At any moment, you can simply
'crush' the game world into proper 2D, by tapping 'O'.
Crush allows Danny, a youngster totally wrecked up due to insomnia, to roam his
own psyche, clearing up his neuroses with each of the 40 levels completed, which
clearly explains a visual style that really does resemble Psychonauts' dark and
dreamy wallpaper.
Seriously, even if the whole setting doesn't appeal to you, you should
probably still go out and buy it just to show some support for the sparky
thinking and imagination behind it all. Overall inventive, intelligent...
Crush's main drawback is the steep learning curve. But that's what our brain is
for, right?
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