The first of five forthcoming reviews: Crayon Physics Deluxe

I’m gonig to be writing reviews for Mirror’s Edge, Fallout 3, Operation Darkness another mystery game in the future. I had been close to finishing them, but stupidly, didn’t save the notepad, and my computer crashed. This has actually happened more than once; my home computer has some sort of internal hemorrhaging which prevents it from staying on an unblue screen, and my work computer occasionally loses power because the wiring in Montreal’s Old Port is uniformly miserable. This is about the fourth time I’ve written this, and the other reviews were written at least twice, as well. But, this time, I think I finished it! And saved! Now all I have to do is put it into WordPress, huzzah!

CRAYON PHYSICS DELUXE

http://www.crayonphysics.com/ — Get it for $20 on the website.

ADD: Crayon Physics Deluxe doesn’t have a too-long, boring tutorial. It ramps up in an engaging way. You always have something new to do, and none of the levels are too boring or same-y. It looks pretty. There’s nothing to criticize in this category; you can sit down, start playing, enjoy yourself, stop whenever, and pick it right back up again. 5/5

OCD: When I bought the game, it was maybe a 2 or a 3 in this category. While the game flowed very nicely and the difficulty ramped up well, there was a certain point where it started to look irritatingly difficult and it was easier to use two fall-back tactics (gameplay spoiler alert: pulleys with silly giant boulders attached, or blocks stuck underneath the ball that raise it artificially, can solve nearly any problem in the least graceful way imaginable). However, the later addition of a second star per level for “cool,” “old school” and whatever the other one is (graceful or something) solutions forced you to go bak ot levels where you might have been lazy, and resolve them for maximum reward. It’s a surprisingly complex game, assuming all of these levels actually can be solved in such a way. 4/5

Escapism: You wouldn’t think this is a game that would incite a high escapism rating, but it turns out to be an incredibly engrossing game, indeed. Some of my most favourite music of the past few years is included in here, a sort of Boards Of Canada-infused dreamfugue with notes of the overworld music from Rome: Total War. This combination pleases me. The simple graphics are not drab and annoying, as I was worried they’d be; they are perfect. They willingly take a backseat, at once clear and subtle, allowing the game’s central mechanic to breathe. Indeed, it’s only when you think about them that the graphics really become a focal point, and when you do, you’re rewarded with washed-out, fuzzy nostalgia for your developmental days. And, unlike the current “nostalgia” trend in games, this one doesn’t cash in on Saturday morning cartoons and NES. It speaks to something for universal: the joy in drawing and creating and imagining those drawings to life. 4/5

Histrionics: The indie game zeitgeist certainly means a lot of people will be talking about this game, particularly due to its interesting presentation and method of gameplay. With Scribblenauts on the way, and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, there’s high interest in games where you get to create your own stuff. However, when it comes to this game, there’s only so much you can say: something this simple, both in front of and behind the scenes, means that there won’t be a lot of staying power. It’s also not exactly the first game to do what it does; those two games whose names I forget were pretty similar (one is a flash title and one was a four-letter free PC download). Still, 4/5

VERDICT: Pick it up. It’s something you can play when you’re tired, or you’re not playing something else. It’s a frontrunner for one of the best games of 2009. It’s relaxing, and addicting, and easy to pick up, and difficult to conquer, and intriguing to even watch others play. There is little higher praise than those things combined. 3/3

The score: 81%. This game represents the top quintile, and, in the opinion of the reviewer, is deemed “an excellent experience, and a lovely way to spend a lazy evening.”