80%Nintendo 3DS

good

80%Emulated

Crashmo is more difficult than Pushmo overall due to the gravity mechanic leaving much less room for error and much more ambiguous solutions. There are less than half of the number of puzzles on offer when compared to its predecessor, but the complexity does bolster the playtime, though I will say that the mural puzzles tend to be more tedious and distracting than they are fun. The soundtrack, like Pushmo before it, is very short and you will be hearing a lot of the same music, but it is all enjoyable. A great puzzle experience.

20%Nintendo 3DS

Not as fun as the original, not that the original was particularly fun to start with.

90%Nintendo 3DS

Pushmo was a game that tested your spatial reasoning. The inclusion of gravity in Crashmo makes the game significantly harder than Pushmo. Whereas in Pushmo you could undo many of your actions by simply pushing the blocks back in, in Crashmo, once you pull a block out and it falls, it has now fallen forever. Thus, Crashmo requires both spatial, as well as temporal, reasoning, resulting in a game that requires far more thinking and foresight than Pushmo required.

Though I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Stretchmo, this was still an excellent game, and I felt like a genius after solving the particularly nasty puzzles.

30%Nintendo 3DS

The first world assaults you with insulting hand-holding, then subsequent worlds bore you with a steady stream of easy puzzles, each quickly dispensed with. About two-thirds through, though, the difficulty spikes, killing any remaining enjoyment (not that I was enjoying the game). Completing a puzzle provided no satisfaction. Character design is generic. The music stinks.

95%No Platform Specified

Crashmo is a more than fitting follow-up to last year’s breakout eshop hit, Pushmo. The puzzles are clever and addictive, and the new sliding mechanic, new gadgets and updated camera controls do a bang-up job of making this experience feel fresh and distinct. This game is a must download for any 3DS owner, especially fans of the puzzle genre.

If you haven’t played Pushmo, I’d suggest starting there. You don’t really need to, but it’s the best way to truly appreciate Crashmo's brilliant evolution of that original idea. Either way, if you’ve somehow managed to miss out on Mallo’s puzzle adventures this long, now’s the time to make things right.