Review: Crunchy Planets - Flying Purple Planet Eater
by Staff Writer
March 25, 2010
Overview
Crunchy Planets is a new spin on the casual endless game where you tilt your flying purple planet eater through space munching on any planet you can find. There are all kinds of planets with different sizes worth different points. Plus there are all kinds of obstacles as well including space junk, turrets and black holes.
Features
The game has the same style every time, though you can chose the game to be in portrait or landscape which changes it a bit. You can move 360 degrees in whatever direction you choose, and can always go back or change direction at any time as more edible planets will be there. Eat planets quickly in unison to score a multiplier, and the bigger they are the more points they're worth. There are a umber of power-ups to keep the action fresh including orbs that in threes make you super-sized to eat through everything rapidly. Also included is a magnet, shield, tiny pill, and ghost all with their own pros. There are tons of planets on screen at once, as well as power-ups, and of course hazards. Touch one hazard, and it's death. Also included are local and global high scores as well as sharing options on facebook and twitter.
The Good
It's quick simple fast paced fun that is enjoyable each time you play it. The best aspect is the sheer number of items on screen at once so there is always something to do, and go for. You need to be ready to eat planets in quick succession, but be careful as space junk can pop up anytime, and one touch it's game over. The power-ups really help change up the game, and speed up the action. The super-size has you collecting tons of planets quickly, and really super sizing your score. Magnetism also works well to suck up all planets near by, and the other ones help in obvious ways.
While playing it's always great to have short term objectives to keep you going, and not just one large objective. You're always going for little consecutive planet streaks to boost your score, and are always on the look out for supersize orbs needing to collect three. It's definitely enjoyable to eat huge planets in your streak as the additional size bonus points are multiplied by the combo.
The artwork presents a cute, and fun cartoon world. It's silly and simplistic just like the premise of the game, but still finely polished. The animations are somewhat lacking as the planets simply disappear as you run over them.
The game plays the same every time, but this one has that special one more ingredient that can have you playing over and over. Wanting to replay as soon as you lose arises from each game being so quick, and the sudden death of one small mistake. It's an enjoyable distraction each time you play.
The planet layout is completely random, and depending on what direction you take changes the gameplay a little. As you advance into space there are more and tougher obstacles, and less planets set up for chains. The game increases at a nice difficulty curve to truly keep you interested unlike some games in this genre.
