Krinkle Krusher (PS4) Review

Abracadabra.

Krinkle Krusher is a 3D tower defence game from Brazilian developer Ilusis Interactive Graphics. The premise is this: a wizard and his magic glove must defend the kingdom from nefarious creatures known as Krinkles. The player operates as the last line of defence, using the Wizard’s glove to cast spells and protect the Kingdom’s castle.

Cute?

It is difficult for me to find something good to say about this game. Other than its bright, colourful and clean presentation, there is not a lot to like about Krinkle Krusher.
Krushed.

MSRP: $9.99
Platforms: PS4, PS3, Vita
Multiplayer: None

Krinkle Krusher tasks the player with defending a path that leads up to the castle. The player must scroll up and down the path to deal with the waves of enemies that swarm towards the wall.

This set-up means that Krinkle Krusher has a significant built-in flaw when it comes to the gameplay view point. The camera is positioned at the top of the wall looking down the path, leaving the player with absolutely no line of sight on enemies as they close in on the castle. Essentially, this means that if an enemy gets remotely close to the wall, they can no longer be seen, making it pretty difficult to shut them down. While I can only assume this flaw was an inadvertent (albeit inexcusable) one, it is ultimately game-breaking.

When they can be seen, Krinkles can be vanquished using a number of attack powers, such as lightning and fire, among others. Powers come with a meter – use them too much, too soon, and they break. A cooldown period must be endured before they become available again, meaning the player can’t simply use a volume of well-placed attacks to complete the level. While, in theory, this adds an element of strategic decision making to the gameplay, like many other aspects of Krinkle Krusher it simply inspires frustration instead.

The Krinkles aren’t particularly easy to take down, even in earlier stages. If there is an obvious method to killing them easily, I didn’t discover it. Sometimes they’d go down in a couple of hits; sometimes it would take four or five attacks. The area of attack for each power is also extremely restricted, compounding the spikes in difficulty that plague Krinkle Krusher.

Was that a joke?

There are other annoyances: the writing is awful, the voice acting is poor and the gameplay is extremely repetitive. The warning that this game contains crude humour should be taken seriously – it’s not funny, it’s just bad.

Krinkle Krusher tries to entice the player to progress with incentives: if the player completes a level with three stars, a diamond is earned. Once the player has ten diamonds, access opens up to the Mage’s Room and powers can be upgraded (with further diamonds, of course). In theory this makes progress through the game easier.

That being said, Krinkle Krusher is so annoying and such a chore that I wouldn’t be surprised if even the most ardent fan of the tower defence genre simply gave up instead.
White flag.

The bright surface presentation does little to disguise the fact that that Krinkle Krusher is a fairly poor game. It is frustrating and repetitive, with numerous gameplay issues that do little to encourage the player to continue playing.

In all honesty, this is a game to avoid.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Bright, colourful presentation
Bad
  • Repetitive
  • Frustrating
  • Restrictive camera angle
4
Sub-Par
Written by
Sophie has been a gamer since that glorious decade known as the nineties. Her console of choice is the Sega Mega-Drive. She reads books, watches television, does academic stuff and likes tattoos.