Developer: Vertex Pop
Publisher: Vertex Pop
Platforms: Switch, PC
Tested on: Switch
Super Crush KO – Review
What would you do if your pet was to be kidnapped in an instant, while you were lying on your bed texting on your phone while enjoying the company of your trusty cat? Save it of course! Well, Super Crush KO is all about platforming, beating up robotic animals and saving your cat from the hands of an evil alien woman in a well-designed game with a funny story.
Story
The story of Super Crush KO starts with a small comic book-like cutscene which shows how an evil female alien bursts into Karen’s bedroom while she’s texting on her phone, with her cat, Chubbz keeping her company. The evil alien woman takes a liking to Chubbz and nabs it from your bed and makes off with it! Karen’s not ready to let this happen so she gears up and storms out. On your journey, you’ll encounter a lot of mechanic creatures that you need to destroy to get to Ann, the evil alien woman. As you progress through levels and defeat bosses, cutscenes will appear and Karen will also talk with Ann as she’s ready to unleash the next boss onto you. These conversations will also lead to some funny comments from both sides as well.
Graphics
The graphics of Super Crush KO are definitely not in high definition, but they look really good. The mechanical enemies look very detailed with each having their own color schemes and upgraded versions of enemies will look even better, while being bigger and more intimidating. The levels are divided into areas and each level in an area will have the same theme. The backgrounds in an area will perfectly complement the theme of that area. The cutscenes are comprised of a comic book that progresses as you push a button, with some appropriate sounds that really connect to what you’re shown. In the conversations between Karen and Ann, the two girls look very good with a lot of detail and a great design. Chubbz just looks like a cute friendly woolly cat who just needs to be petted.
Sound
The music in the menus is rather joyful but also keeps to the background. The music in the levels has a steady beat with a soothing tune. While you’re very active when playing this game, the music still fits in the whole ‘vibe’ of the game. All the sounds in the game are great, including the punches, destruction of the robots and of course, the meows of Chubbz. Conversations are accompanied by some voice sounds, but they’re merely shouts and moans.
Gameplay
Super Crush KO is a platformer in which you play as Karen, a girl whose cat, named Chubbz, has been stolen by a female alien and she immediately starts chasing after them while busting through many mechanical creatures that stand in her way.
The controls of Super Crush KO handle very well, with a very fluent transition in new attacks. Karen uses her fists to punch all those mechanical creatures to shreds. The basic combo is a four-punch combo where the last punch will do the most damage of the whole combo, so it’s best to finish your combos as it can eliminate most enemies you encounter in the first levels in one combo. You can also use special attacks that require energy to use them. These moves are powerful, but also very handy as they can knock opponents back, in the air or stun them. When you’ve defeated enough enemies, you can launch the Super Beam KO which is a huge laser that deals a massive amount of damage and can defeat every normal enemy it touches in one blast. It takes a while for it to charge, but it’s definitely worth it and best used when there are a lot of enemies as it can destroy them all. Karen is also equipped with a blaster that she can infinitely use to shoot at enemies. Shooting for a while will drain the weapon’s ammo, which also reduces its fire rate, but it will quickly refill when not used for a few seconds. Lastly, Karen can use a dodge move that performs a short dash which makes her invincible. You can practically dodge every move if the timing’s right.
You can infinitely combine normal combos and special moves until you’re out of energy, so it’s even possible to kill bigger enemies with one big combo strung together of normal and special moves to keep your enemies incapacitated while dealing a huge amount of damage. By keeping your combo going by staying on the move and attacking enemies as fast as you can, you will improve the rank of your combo. The ranks go from D-rank to S-rank, where S-rank is the highest and will reward the highest score. The rank of your combo is indicated by an emblem on the upper right part of the screen. The color of the symbol will drain, indicating you need to hit an enemy fast, or your combo will end. Using the blaster is a good way to keep your combo going when moving to the next enemies. When you get hit by an enemy attack, your combo will immediately be ended, and you need to start over again.
Super Crush KO will take place in several areas. Each area will have multiple levels with the last level being a boss fight. Each level will have moments where larger amounts of enemies will spawn at the same place for a while. Here, you can earn perfect combos, which will be listed on the results page when you clear the level. If you clear each of these moments with a combo without letting your combo be interrupted, you will earn some extra points. You can also earn some extra points by clearing a level within a time limit, not using continues and taking no damage. You can submit your score each time you’ve cleared a level, so this is game is also great for replaying levels and perfecting your playthrough of levels to reach a higher score, so you can climb on the leaderboards. The only disappointment in this game is that it only has sixteen levels and four bosses, which translates into 20 playable levels.
Conclusion
Super Crush KO is a very fun platformer that features a funny story that is visualized in a good way, while the gameplay is great as well. You can switch attacks and dodge whenever you want to perfectly attack and dodge when necessary. combining punches and special moves functions perfectly and leads to big combos which also make the game really fun to play. If you like platformers and beating up a lot of enemies while also following a funny story about a girl on a quest to rescue her stolen cat, then we’d definitely recommend this game as it is sure to keep you entertained for a while. When beating the game, the game also motivates you to replay levels to climb the leaderboards.
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