2016-08-18

Welcome to the whimsical world of Krinkle Krusher. Publishers Funbox Media have teleported Ilusis Interactive Graphics’ tower defence game to Europe and have all PlayStation consoles covered. Slick fingers and quick thinkers at the ready as all hell is about to break loose and it’s all because of a tree! After years of producing nothing, this ancient and important tree suddenly sprouts fruit. The villagers celebrate this news by picking the fruit and using it to bake a humungous cake. The sweet, sweet aroma of the cake awakens the Krinkle King who sends his army of Krinkles for a piece of the action and a slice of the cake. The premise is a simple one: make sure you defend your castle from the army of funny but dangerous and deadly sharp-toothed creatures, protect the cake and restore peace.



The Great Bake off

The action starts slow. You’re only given two options of attack, these being an energy ring and the fire ring. Each spell has a limited life and recharges slowly. Overuse the spell and it cracks, meaning you’ll have to wait a good few seconds for it to repair itself. This is a clever mechanic as it stops all the button bashing and spam attacks, and forces you to be more methodical. As you progress in the game you open up a total of five different spells which, if used wisely, improve your survivability during these short frenetic battles. Stars are awarded at the end of each level and these are based on your score. So you’ll need to hit that multiplier bonus and make sure your castle takes as little damage as possible to rack up the biggest score. If you manage to earn three stars in a level you are rewarded with a gem that will let you enter Mages Chamber. Here you can upgrade your spell powers and strengthen your castle.



The kingdom has three different areas: the castle walls, the putrid swamp and the magical forest. Each area is bursting with sweet cartoon-like style and colour. When you’ve gained all five spells the action really picks up. Having the ability to use them in different ways and planning your strategy is what makes Krinkle Krusher a really addictive tower defence game. Picking off different Krinkles and making them explode, which in turn takes down nearby Krinkles, is one method to stop their advances. Digging trenches and filling them with fire also makes for some fun and well thought-out ways to gain those stars. If you take your tower defence games seriously then there is the option to try to obtain a Flawless Victory on each level. This is quite challenging and you’ll need some skill as well as all five spells to be unlocked. For this you’ll need to defeat every enemy. Helping you by means of distraction is the ability to throw fruit far from the castle walls. This side tracks those pesky Krinkles and gives you precious seconds to deal with all other invading foe.



Krinkle Krusher is a perfect ‘pick up and play’ game and is a great fit for the PS Vita; it makes excellent use of the touchscreen and runs sweetly in the palm of your hand. As tower defence games go, Krinkle Krusher does everything so well. But how does it fare on the PS4? Well as I mentioned earlier, Funbox Media have all the bases covered which is great news as its pretty damn good on the PS4 too. It definitely holds its own against other big screen tower defence games like Plants vs Zombies and Defense Grid 2.

Conclusion

Don’t be fooled by the childlike look of Krinkle Krusher. It’s a little pocket rocket of an adventure. If you’re after a really fun PSN tower defence game then look no further. The only tough decision you’ll have to make is which format to play it on.

Lizard Rating – 7.5/10

Blondlizard is from London, England. His love of gaming continued onto the Sega Mega Drive, Gameboy, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PlayStation 1,2,3 and 4, PSP and PS Vita. Blondlizard loves his racing games and is yet to play a RPG, but tells us he is willing to change. He is currently sitting on 53 Platinum’s, but the birth of his baby boy has slowed down the trophy count. His favourite inventions are the wireless controller and American size crisp packets.

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