Crush

June 6,2007 - The PSP isn’t new to the puzzle platforming genre with games like Exit and Mercury Meltdown providing unique experiences for PSP owners. Crush however takes a similar concept, but mashes 3D and 2D gameplay into a package that’s never been seen before. Sega submits to you a man who’s haunted by his memories and challenges you to solve the puzzles he cannot and bring some peace to his mind and cure his insomnia. Does Crush manage to innovate on a platform that’s cursed for ports or does it crush its chances of standing above the rest of the pack on the PSP?

Crush begins with Danny, an insomniac with too many unresolved issues keeping him awake, visiting Dr. Reubens, who is attempting to help him find a way to break the mental blocks of his past. Dr. Reubens' new machine, called C.R.U.S.H., is the key to helping him solve these mental puzzles and regain his former life. The levels of Crush take place in four themes, city, seaside, funfair, and nursery, which are all based on traumatic moments in Danny’s life. If you’re a fan of internet jokes, be sure to enjoy the giant crab that shows up in the seaside levels.

The main hook to Crush is that Danny has the ability to “crush” a 3D level to a 2D perspective in several different ways, mainly north, east, south, west, and from above. Think Super Paper Mario for the basic idea of what it is that you’re doing, but it’s a much bigger gameplay mechanic than it was in Super Paper Mario. As you start each level, you’ll see “marbles,” and you have to collect at least half of them to open the exit, check points, and signs that are activated when you crush, along with the occasional creature and level itself. Though the C.R.U.S.H. machine protects you from walking off the level or crushing yourself in solid blocks, it will not save you if you happen to crush without any support under you or if you fall too far. If that happens, you wake up and restart back to the last checkpoint you grabbed, which affects the grade you receive at the end of each level. The grade you receive is based upon your time, the number of crushes, times you’ve woken up, and if you pick up the trophy or puzzle piece for unlockables. It’s not going to be easy by any means to get all A’s as you will initially navigate levels slowly until you figure out the best way to reach the exit.

The big thing you’ll find out while playing Crush is that it can be really hard. You’ll be stupefied by each level at first until you digest the layout and where everything is, then it’ll “click” and the solution will seem so obvious. It’s a nice challenge that forces you to think hard and use what you’ve learned so far to figure out how to beat the obstacles in your way. By the end of the game, it can get really complex and difficult, but it’s a rewarding feeling to make it through to the end. If you ever run into a bind, the hints can be helpful by giving you an idea of what do in certain areas of each level with the press of the triangle button. If the main mode isn’t quite hard enough for you, collecting the trophy in each level opens up a new level in the Trophy Mode, which essentially gives you a time limit and a limited amount of crushes to use to complete the level. Collecting the puzzle piece in each level opens up new pieces of art to view on your own time. It may not take long to beat the bare minimum requirements, but to master everything that Crush offers, but you’ll need quite a bit of time to perfect your crushing skills.

As a result of the story, Crush's visuals are quite unique, particularly in the backgrounds of the environments. Since you’re in Danny memories, the backgrounds are distorted as they warp and deform while you’re trying to solve the puzzles. Everything pertaining to the actual puzzle level itself is nice and simple like it should be while the design of the levels are very cool and may seem like a mess at first, but things make sense once you break down the levels after figuring them out. The actual crushing itself has a very cool effect that’s stunning to see every time it happens. Controlling the camera is pretty simple and effective, though how the computer controls it while you navigate the 3D level can be frustrating, as trying to navigate on platforms under another platform can force the camera to keep switching to other perspectives that may not help at all. Usually, it’s not bad enough to ruin the game, but it causes the occasional annoyance under tense situations. Load times are decent between levels, usually between 10-15 seconds at most.

The music in Crush really does match the visuals in being strange most of the time, but is fitting to the theme you are in, as well. The music for the seaside levels features seagull’s cawing, pirate-esque music that’s tied into the strange music that you’ll hear in the menus and all throughout the game. The nicest sound effects you’ll hear are the splat of a bug being squished during crushes, besides the collection effects for marbles and the other power-ups you’ll find or run into during crushes.

It’s not too often that games arrive that seek to challenge your mind while being merciless in letting up. Crush brings a mechanic that’s not entirely new, but the way it’s used is like nothing that’s ever been seen before. There’s a lot of content here to keep you busy for a long time while you strive for the perfect grades. It’s unfortunate that this is just a single-player affair, as levels based on using two players would’ve been cool, but that’s what sequels are for.

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