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Krazy Kreatures review

Game: Krazy Kreatures
Platform: NES
Genre: Casual (Puzzle)
Developer: American Video Entertainment

Reader review by JoeTheDestroyer

January 30, 2011

Nintendo didn't need help filling up the NES's puzzle library with more mediocre games, but American Video Entertainment was there to lend a hand anyway. They unleashed Krazy Kreatures in 1990 far under the radar. Krazy Kreatures is at least a step ahead of Yoshi or Yoshi's Cookie in that it's more fast-paced, yet the game has about the same interest level, or lack thereof. Rather than feeling instantly engaging and addictive, it's a tedious and dull affair with very few bright spots.

No lovable Russian ballet or upbeat tunes. All you get to start with is silence and an empty rectangle with a cursor inside. Before you can yawn, it rains cats and dogs. Literally, cats, dogs, and a few other animals begin piling up in the rectangle, and it's your duty to sort them out, making vertical, horizontal or diagonal trios of each animal to clear them off the screen and score. Later levels use “things”, which must be arranged in quartets; people in quintets; and monsters in sextets. Each level has a quota you must meet before the insane piling stops, then you're given free reign over the remains of the board for a short while to score some bonus points.

But let's face it: it's nothing but a bunch of dull sorting. All you do is pick an animal up, move it elsewhere, and drop it. It gets more frantic later on, but this only serves to make the action feel more laborious. Perhaps it's just the action itself that makes it feel like a chore, more like I'm cleaning my house or organizing someone's stamp collection--almost like the target audiences were neat freaks and OCD cases. The only thing somewhat intriguing are different level designs, where instead of a basic rectangle they throw all manner of screw balls and odd shapes at you.

Deep down in that rough is a sparkling diamond. Okay, it's zirconium, but it looks close enough. Most every level only throws one type of object at you, but the few levels that intermingle items, like animals mixed with people and monsters, tend to be the best. Being lax in these levels can kill you, but they're not so terrible that you're certain to lose. They require more strategy than simple sorting, and you also have to take into account what objects you want removed at what time. You can line those kitties up quickly for a small space, or you can invest the time in getting six mantis monsters in a column and free up a gaping hole. It's all about investment, time management and speed. But only a few such levels exist, and they leave you wanting more levels this chaotic and mentally engaging.

Once you're bored of the main game, you can check out Stuff?, a “bonus game” that plays just like Krazy Kreatures except with basic colors and only lasts one level. Why AVE even bothered to include this is beyond me. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

Krazy Kreatures is an unimpressive puzzle game with little to offer besides a bunch of high-speed sorting, and, unlike better puzzle games, it just can't hide that fact. It isn't a terrible game by any stretch. It's stable, it's playable, it's just no fun apart from a select few levels that are sandwiched between gobs of boring ones. It's certainly not worth the wait going through all those poorly planned levels to get to the better ones, especially when you can play a game that's well made throughout like Tetris or Dr. Mario. Either that or just clean your house. It has about the same effect as playing Krazy Kreatures, and it's actually productive.

Rating: 5/10

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