Krinkle Krusher (PSN) Review

Defend your castle against the mighty armies of the Krinkle King!

If the words “colorful castle defense” make your heart sing, then you’re going to love Krinkle Krusher. Right from the start, it’s a cartoony, colorful game that draws you right in. The Krinkle King is after the fruit from the Great Tree, and only magic can stop his encroaching armies. Handalf the mage is in charge of the defense, and it’s up to you to help him succeed. You are a happy looking magical glove creature, so you’re pretty handy to have around (see what I did there?). Using magical rings that give you various cool abilities, you’ll need to attack a variety of different enemies and keep them from breaching the walls of the castle. Different types of enemies need different attacks, so as you fight you’ll earn more rings and abilities to help in your fight.

Learning the game is pretty intuitive. As you start, the game instructs you on how to target an enemy to take them out. Since all of those enemies are moving, and your attacks are not instant, you’ll need to target slightly ahead of them if you want to make a hit. As soon as you have that mastered, you’ll be hit with enemies that weave and dart all over the place, making anticipating their next move near impossible.  Added to that, most of the enemies aren’t going to fall after just one shot, so you’ll need to target each of them multiple times. Some of the attacks can hit more than one enemy at a time, but again – you need to very carefully aim to get maximum effect. Trying to do that while scores of enemies are steadily marching forward is much easier said than done. It’s a game that’s challenging right from the start, and button-mashers will quickly earn “time-out” penalties where their magic is unusable.

If enemies breach the castle walls, you’ll have to start over and perfect your strategy – there are no free passes in Krinkle Krusher. You can replay the levels as many times as you need to in order to advance (or just to fill all three stars on each level, if you’re a completionist). It’s a game I can easily see ported to mobile, as it has that frantic sort of feel to it that you get from tapping maniacally on the screen. Using a controller, it’s very easy to overshoot your goal, especially when you’re in a hurry, which only adds to the challenge of the game. Though the repetitive nature of the game makes it one you probably wouldn’t enjoy for hours at a time, but it’s great in smaller doses, especially for strategy buffs.

Krinkle Krusher is a colorful and imaginative game that has you frantically working for it nearly every moment of play. With an easy to pick up mechanic and tons of short levels, it’s a great game for a little mindless stress relieving – and perfectly appropriate for the younger gamers in your household as well.