Vlambeer's Super Crate Box

You are a character with a weapon in a platformer level, there is always one crate for you to collect, these give you points and a different gun each time. At the same time enemies come down from the top (instant KO if they touch you), when they reach the bottom they come back out the top angry and fast. So dodge and shoot the enemies while collecting crates for points, simple. (Also it's free go download and play it.)

Well simple for the player, not so simple if you dig a bit deeper.
Now there are two ways to look at this game:
    1. It's a game in which you collect crates for points and in the process have to kill enemies so they don't come back and rape you later.
    2. It's a game where you are preventing enemies from getting to the bottom where, if they do, your chances of getting a high score is lower, because the enemies will stop you getting to your precious point giving crates.

I personally have started seeing it the second way which is why I call it a tower defense game without the towers. You are there instead of the towers to protect your little hole (that sounds bad doesn't it?), the more you let through, the more likely you will die. So unlike tower defense games, if you let them through, it's not sure you will die, but it is very likely. The collecting of crates is merely the succes condition, whereas in tower defense games it's about lasting as long as possible (time based success) in Super Crate Box it's all about collecting an item (point based success). Then comes the twist (if it wasn't genre twisting enough already) every crate gives you a random gun, which means it is sometimes risky to collect a crate that might give you a gun which doesn't fit the situation you are in.

Further more, I was talking to someone, and they said the distribution of enemies was too random, sometimes you got tons, and sometimes you got few. This takes the analogy to tower defense games one step further, waves of enemies. They are random, you don't know when the high-enemy wave wil start or end, but then you have periods with fewer enemies that allow you to traipse around the level more easily to collect your crates. That is if you killed all the enemies in the waves, if you didn't they will come out the top and clutter up the downtime.

The concept of Super Crate Box allows for a lot of balance and fluidity in definition, you can get crates during high-enemy periods or low-enemy periods, you can let enemies go through or kill them straight away, none of these choices directly kill you, but based on the condition when you choose to do one or the other, it will. There aren't specific high-enemy or low-enemy periods, there isn't a specific time or place to kill the enemies, it's all fluid based on the player's style.

So take your chances, find your style, but balance killing enemies with collecting crates, and go have some fun.


P.S. If you want to know how the controls, visuals, sounds, feedback, weapons, levels, unlockables, modes and characters all feel and work (amazingly well and polished (personally I think more need not be said)) then check out these other reviews:
Colony of Gamers ~ Bandango
2 Girls 1 Game ~ Mahkia
IGN - Nathan Meunier


Fanart by Paul Veer