As much as I usually loathe double dipping demos at consecutive events, I couldn’t stop myself from trying Super Crush KO again at PAX West. After all, I rather enjoyed it at E3, and I have some passing familiarity with Vertex Pop. I’m pretty sure I originally met one of the team, Mobeen Fikree, a few years ago when he was showcasing We Are Doomed at SIX. For simplicity, he also goes by Mo, but that’s far less entertaining to say. My weird sense of humor aside, the games I’ve seen from Mo and Vertex Pop, despite all being different genres, have a few things in common. They’re colorful, simple to play, hard to master and fun. And all those qualities definitely apply to Super Crush KO.
Now, bad news first. While I very much am a fan of Super Crush KO, the demo I played at PAX West was nearly identical to the one I played at E3. Which means I’ll have less to say about the game, but here’s my level best. There are a couple small yet important tweaks to the game. One is a massive laser blast you can only use a couple times per level which utterly decimates the robot hordes you’re battling. That’s great, and it really adds a strategic element to all the punching, shooting and kicking already in the game. A far more important new mechanic, at least as far as I’m concerned, is the score system. Now you’ll get scored as you beat each section for how effectively you do so, resulting in a total score at the end of each stage. That provides great incentive to play smarter and better, as well as triggering that completionist itch to perfectly beat the game.
Other than those two mechanics though, Super Crush KO is essentially the same. Having said that, I feel I did better in the E3 demo, but maybe that’s cause I wasn’t being scored. Or it could be that the folks at Vertex Pop have increased the challenge just a smidge. Either way, Super Crush KO is still a lot of fun, and I’m very happy it’s heading to Steam and Switch. If you like colorful and quirky platformer fun, you should definitely scope it out now. And the best news is, the game is slated to release sometime in Q1 of 2020!
