[b]Crisp Cube succeeds as a faithful recreation of one of gaming's most forgotten puzzle games. As-is, it's rough around the edges but definitely has the Kurushi spirit keeping it together. It feels and plays great, it's just very limiting in what it offers.[/b]
+ faithful gameplay
+ low-tech means it runs great
+ soundtrack is nice, if simple
+ lots of replayability
- unfinished, doesn't seem like it will be
[h1]Full Review[/h1]
There once was a puzzle game developed for the PS1 called Kurushi / Intelligent Qube. It was relatively popular and definitely unique, but never grabbed much momentum. Puzzle games of the PS1 era were all about trying new things, as it was an exciting time with the transition from 2D to 3D. Not a lot of puzzle games stuck around, and unfortunately Kurushi was one of them. Crisp Cube is a game that tries to mimic the gameplay of Kurushi, and it does so pretty well!
The gameplay has cubes on a stage slowly rolling towards you; the goal, is to clear all of the cubes except forbidden black cubes. You place a marker on the floor, and when the cube you want to delete rolls atop it, you press a button to trigger destroying whatever block is atop it. There are also advantage cubes, which are green in color, that when destroyed leave a "bomb" that destroys cubes within a 3x3 area.
It's simple yet can be very complex, as stages get bigger and bigger, or waves get longer and longer. As you progress, you encounter other types of cubes (a departure from Kurushi), but the objective remains in clearing a wave of blocks. It's also very difficult, especially if you wanted to perfect the game. Luckily (or unluckily depending on your perspective) it doesn't have a move limit, nor can you be crushed by cubes like in Kurushi.
It now fills the vacuum for indie Kurushi-inspired games completely. You can't find anything else like it really. It feels very natural as a game that mimics the gameplay of Kurushi. The timing of block rolls, the speed at which you move, everything was faithfully recreated even to these minor details. The gameplay of Kurushi is not hard to replicate, but it's in the finer nuances that it feels natural and convincing as an extension of Kurushi.
The game released in a 0.3.0.0 state, and I'm not sure if that means it was truly release ready (it was mentioned in the news section that it was a release candidate). I assume the original intention was to bring it to a 1.0.0.0 state. That said, the game has over 30 levels fully playable. This is a fairly low number of levels for any puzzle game but there is a silver lining that players will typically repeat stages for either score or to optimize their play.
After a little digging, it does seem the game will not be updated, so we may never see a 1.0.0.0 release. I'd consider it abandonware as the last update was from 2021. It's unfortunate because the game plays exceptionally well, on its own or as a recreation of Kurushi's gameplay. It's almost absurd how refined it is, to the point any Kurushi player will be at home right away.
For a small nitpick, there's some peculiarities about the menus. Pressing B won't go back a menu, there's a UI button instead to go back. When you enter a new menu, it lands on this button when it should probably default to part of the menu content. It's minor but further shows the unfinished state. The game is rough around the edges for ancillary things like this.
I think it's worth a buy, just go in with metered expectations: it's unfinished, there may never be more content, and it's definitely very rough around the edges. But it plays so well. Compounding this, there's nothing else really like it on the market: Crisp Cube may be your only option to play Kurushi's gameplay legitimately and with a more modern paint job.
[h1]Steam Deck Specific[/h1]
At the highest quality settings, it can keep 60fps throughout during gameplay, even when reducing maximum TDP to 5w. Menus seem to fluctuate a little bit in the 45-55fps range, but increasing to 6w seems to resolve it. The minor gains in battery life seems preferable to having smooth menu navigation, but your priorities may lie elsewhere.
[h1]Ultrawide Specific[/h1]
Works without issue, with UI elements moving to edges of screen. I wonder the value in playing at ultrawide, however, because stages never go that far wide anyways. In fact, I'd argue a portrait display is ideal for this game.
[h1]Performance[/h1]
On a 5600X and 12gb RTX3080, at 3440x1440 it runs at my monitor's framerate ceiling of 113fps without fail. I find it hard to believe any PC from the last decade couldn't keep 60 or above in this title.
