Crush PSP - Review
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PSP RRP: £29.99
Out 1 June
Crush is an incredibly original game with a simple yet fiendishly surprising concept. The biggest stunner is that this handheld title is on the PSP - rather than the DS, which is usually more at home with this sort of madcap game.
You play as Danny, an insomniac on the edge of a nervous breakdown. In hospital he’s treated by the mad Dr. Reubens and his Cognitive Regression Utilizing pSychiatric Heuristics (CRUSH) machine. The concept of the game is instantly intriguing. As Danny explores his subconscious mind he’ll travel through 40 different stages in four different environments all in a 3D world. He has to collect enough orbs dotted around the level to open up the exit and then make his way there.
The puzzle element is that Danny can never scale the heights or make the leaps necessary to get to all the orbs and the exit. However, press the L1 button and the world changes completely, affecting where you can move. You can crush the world into a 2D plane and simply step across what was previously a huge cliff. Pop it back to 3D and you can keep making your way through the level. It’s as barmy as a boozed-up badger and all the more enjoyable for it.
There are conventional elements like timed sections, enemies to kill and platforms to circumnavigate that move and disappear in treacherous fashion. Before you know it, your whole brain is being crushed with the weight of trying to see your way through to the exit. The difficulty curve is rather dramatic to say the least, and its over-hardness stops us from scoring it higher - but for puzzle fans this is as original as it gets. The PSP does a grand job of dealing with the graphical requirements of the game and it’s great to see something this different on the handheld.
7/10
Review by Kirsten Kearney
