Crush

Sega, like Nintendo, was once a beacon of innovation. Going back to the days of Sonic the Hedgehog on Genesis to NiGHTS on the Saturn and Seaman on the Dreamcast, Sega has published a number of titles that are both memorable and creative. The developers of Crush, who are as likely to be unknown to you as this game itself, have continued the trend of Sega creativity that has been lacking in recent years, especially on handhelds.

Crush has a wacky storyline that has something to do with the main character having the inability to sleep. He goes to a doctor for his insomnia who suggests an experimental new type of therapy that can cure him of his restless nights. This involves looking into the recesses of his brain and finding the culprit. The puzzles that you workout throughout the game all take place in the main character's mind. It really isn't anything special, nor was it really necessary to justify a puzzle game, but they did it anyway.

In terms of gameplay, Crush is a puzzle game that utilizes the same kind of innovation that Nintendo attempted with platforming in Super Paper Mario for the Wii. The whole premise of Crush is to switch between the 2D and 3D world to reach unreachable ledges and manipulate the environment to collect orbs and solve the puzzles to the best of your ability. By “crushing” the camera, players will go from a 3D view with controllable camera angles to 2D side-scrolling.

The puzzles in Crush are genuinely unique and fun to solve. Some of them take little effort, but the difficulty will ramp up quickly. By the time you are several levels into the game, you will be spending upwards of 30 to 45 minutes attempting to find a way to solve the puzzle. This can lead to frustrating moments and plenty of head scratching, but admittedly, this is a challenge game that requires plenty of patience and creative thinking.

Crush is the type of game that will want you to crush your PSP at times. There's no doubt that this is a tough game. No one likes to breeze through a game without any difficulty, but this can almost be perverse. That only means that when you beat a level, the feeling of accomplishment is even better than the punishment endured from brewing over the same puzzle for more than a half hour. The inevitable sequel should fix the muddy graphics and touchy controls. I salute Sega for publishing a puzzle game that is genuinely new to the genre.