Friday, July 9, 2010

Game Review: Crush the Castle 2

(Don't feel real up to an update over at the Writing Blog, but at least I still have a bit of content here, eh?)

Not too long ago, I reviewed a game called Crush the Castle.

I should have taken a look around the site, because there's a sequel to it, obviously named Crush the Castle 2 (real creative, guys).

Crush the Castle 2 is pretty much a fix for the first game-it adds a whole bunch of features that the first one could have used.

Explosive castle pieces, for instance.

And precision bombs with which to set them off.

This castle literally flies apart-and I do mean literally-when that chain reaction finishes.

There's also more general variety in all aspects of gameplay. There are more different kinds of little people to kill, more different kinds of projectiles of every kind, and even an entirely new variety of projectile, the special effect projectile (provided by a wizard).

And when playing custom castles, a special projectile of epic sort is available.

Three notes: Yes, that is a black hole (the black hole alters the game's gravity in its area, and when it dissipates, the altered gravity reverses, flinging everything away from itself); in this game, instead of corpses, victims of your barrages leave behind indestructible tombstones; and I made that "castle," Wizards of the Coast (in-joke alert) because it was funny.

I did submit it to the online custom database, but that thing doesn't work very well, I'm afraid, and while there's a share feature, that works even worse. Here, I'm playing it in the Castle Builder test screen.

The black hole projectile has an interesting quirk: The little guys tend to croak when they hit anything or anything hits them, even the ground if tipped over slightly, but there's one circumstance in which they don't-if they get grabbed by a black hole while there's nothing else for it to grab. I made a second "castle" that played with this.

What happens?

Well, I named the castle "Twofer (seriously)." (Refer to above notice about its status in the castle database.) Why?

Because, even though there's only one guy, you can make two kills. (For some reason, if he flies offscreen while still alive, when he dies he counts as two deaths. Maybe there's someone on set standing just off camera that he smacks into?)

This game is very similar to its predecessor, but more fun. If you play either of them, play this one-the first one isn't necessary.

-Signing off.