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- Rating:
- Price: $7.99 (Get It)
- Version: 1.0
- Developer: Capabara Games
In Critter Crunch, you guide a frog-like creature back and forth, chomping various sized critters, spitting them out at bigger critters to eat the dropped … gems. What? You were expecting something? The goal is to reach a certain set of points to advance to the next level while preventing the steadily advancing critters from reaching the bottom of the screen.
Right off the bat I have a problem with the waiting time before you can start playing a game. You’re faced with two splash screens once you start the game, one for Capybara Games and one for Publisher X, before you’re at the loading screen which takes 3 second itself. In total, you have to wait 15 seconds before you’re presented with the main menu. With mobile games, these splash screens are counterproductive, unnecessary, and just plain annoying; people play these mobile games for a quick fix. Brand recognition is important and all, but only if it is smart.
Once you do get to the main menu, you can choose from either Adventure Mode, Puzzle Mode, Time Trial, and Survival (some modes have to be unlocked.) Adventure Mode is where you have to collect enough gems to advance to the next level, which has interspersed Puzzle mode stages, as well. In Puzzle Mode, you have to figure out a way to remove all critters you see on the screen. The options allow you to turn on and off the sound, toggle the tutorial, and reset game data.
There’s an in-game tutorial that you can follow that teaches you how to play as you play the game. There are 3 sizes of critters, the smallest ones can be fed to the medium-sized ones, the medium sized ones can be fed the large ones. Feed 2 small ones to a medium to make it burst. Feed 2 mediums to a large to make it burst. If any of them are together, you can chain combos for more expensive gems. These gems satisfy your hunger and keep you going. Sometimes a critter can be poisonous, eating them removes your hunger level. If your hunger level reaches zero, it’s game over. There are other powerups critters contain, such as watermelon seeds to explode up to 3 enemies, and garlic to push all the critters up when you burp.
The biggest issue I had was with the control, which can get downright frustrating at times. It’s just not fast enough in the later stages where a few wrong moves can end the game. As you slide left and right using your finger, you stop under columns of critters, and this stop-motion really hinders the gameplay from being truly fun.
The graphics are very nice; bright and colorful. The backdrops are all gorgeous to look at, every critter is nicely detailed, and even the level up screen and main menu are well done. The graphics are Critter Crunch’s main strength.
Sound effects and music are both great, as well. They complement the game nicely, and fit in with the theme of the game. Critter Crunch fades out any music you’re listening to when you load it up.
Critter Crunch is a polished, complete game that is held back by the way you control your critter. With a bit of playtesting, they would’ve found the later stages to not be very fun because of this. The game has been out for a bit and there’s been no updates to the game addressing this issue, sadly. Otherwise, Critter Crunch would’ve been a great game, as it is, it’s a good game.
15 min splash screen?!
Woops, obviously I meant 15 seconds. I’ve fixed that.
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