There have been times in videogaming history where things just fit. Mario 64 ushered in 3D movement and exploration so perfectly that you would be forgiven for thinking that the N64 was made for that game only. Soul Calibur brought arcade perfection to Dreamcast owners the world over. Wii Sports perfectly captured the fun, excitement and boundless opportunities the Wii presented us with.
The release of Crush 3D, a game about exploiting the change from 2D to 3D, released on the Nintendo 3DS, a system who’s sole purpose is glasses-free 3D, should have been one of those times. Sadly, it doesn’t quite achieve that.
Crush 3D is a standard action puzzle game. You control Danny, basically Marty McFly minus the self-tying shoes, as he tests out the creation of his mad scientist pal, basically Doc without the jokes, charisma or indeed anything memorable at all. The machine takes Danny inside his own head, where for some reason you have to guide him through a bunch of levels of varying difficulty using the central gimmick of shifting dimensions. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that doesn’t matter as long as the puzzles are good, right?
And, mostly, the puzzles are all right. The aim of the game here is changing the camera angle while you move around and ‘crushing’ the stage into 2D to bring unreachable platforms close together. Uncrush the level in the right place and you might end up miles away from where you thought you were. It’s a neat trick, and like the best puzzle games, it means you have to quickly get to grips the architecture of the level you’re in, and be aware of the implications of where you perform a crush.
Surfaces that are easily traversed in 3D will block your progress in 2D, while some can be fallen through the the depths below, and a swift journey to the most recent checkpoint. Once you get through the initial glut of tutorial stages, it becomes quite challenging.
Sadly, it never feels any more than pedestrian. The greatest puzzle game of recent times, Portal, was great because of it’s sense of progression and it’s way of rewarding you just for playing about. Crush 3D can sometimes feel like a box ticking exercise in comparison: Its meaty collection of stages can drag, and finding the urge to revisit them to find secret unlockables (ooo a new dressing gown) is difficult.
See? Bet you didn't realise this is the same level as the one above...
Fairly early on in the game, enemies are introduced, but all they do is get in the way. Killing them is either an inconvenience or, even worse, an accident.
The 3D effect is weak too. For a game all about dimensions and spacial awareness, it’s annoying that the only times the 3D is really noticeable is during the flat 2D cutscenes. It’s not immersive at all, nor is it much of a spectacle; the sudden change from 3D to 2D when you crush a level is a massive missed opportunity to blow some socks off.
Crush 3D is a bit of a disappointment then. For puzzle fans, it will just about satisfy those willing to trudge through the less inspired levels. The central gimmick is just good enough to hold attention until the end. Whether it tempts you back to perfect every level and unlock all those lovely dressing gowns depends on how much of a completist you are. Here’s another Portal comparison: Upon completing Portal, despite not having anything left to unlock, very few of us could wait to start the journey all over again. Upon completing Crush 3D, there will be trophies, dressing gowns and other things left to collect, but very few of us will be bothered to do it all over again.
