CrossKrush

Genre: Arcade / Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

CrossKrush is an Arcade-style game with Puzzle elements released in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players take the role of the husband or wife in an elderly couple whose quiet, peaceful life in retirement is ruined when a loud highway is built in front of their house, leading them to take revenge by detonating explosives to destroy every last car that uses the highway (save for emergency vehicles).

It’s a silly premise, and the game doesn’t really try to explain how it’s even working. How do these two have explosives and why can they only plant one at a time? What sort of explosive is it (all we can see is a green square indicating it has been placed)? Why do the cars only move one car-length at a time, and then patiently wait for a few seconds as you move around setting up the traps to violently murder them? And if they have all of these explosives and have resolved to violently attack those they believe have wronged them, why wouldn’t they just blow up the bridge leading to this new road in front of their house? That seems like it would be more effective.

Of course, a silly premise like CrossKrush isn’t so concerned with reality as it is in setting up a premise for a game, with the gameplay here having you focused on taking out cars one at a time as they advance toward where your house is, with the goal of ensuring that none manage to reach the crosswalk near your home. In addition to standard cars, there are limousines that are larger in size, red cars that explode and take out other cars near them when destroyed, white cars that set additional explosives in the area when they’re destroyed and set you up for further rounds of destruction, and emergency vehicles.

Unfortunately, I feel like the gameplay is limited here by the fact that you can only place explosives on squares you’re not standing on, meaning you need to wait until the cars progress before you can detonate them. In addition, the limitation that you can only place one at a time seems arbitrary and just makes things feel like they drag out. I get that you can’t just let players have unlimited explosives without some sort of downside, but surely there had to be a better solution to this problem than making players constantly wait until they can do something. I suppose I should mention you can technically whack cars using your cane, but this does such minimal damage I don’t see it as a particularly noteworthy addition to the gameplay.

The presentation in CrossKrush is simple, but decent enough, with very rudimentary 3D visuals backed by a whimsical acoustic guitar soundtrack that does a great job both highlighting the light-hearted nature of the game’s sensibilities while also tying into the old-timey nature of the game’s protagonists.

Ultimately, while the premise of CrossKrush is interesting, I don’t feel like that premise has been used to deliver particularly compelling gameplay here, with the game’s biggest problem being the need to constantly wait before you can do anything. Players who are amused by the game’s premise and looking for an Arcade-style experience may find this to be an amusing time-waster, but I think most players are better off driving by this game instead of stopping to play it.

tl;dr – CrossKrush is an Arcade-style game where players take the role of an elderly couple blowing up cars trying to drive in front of their house. This amusing premise unfortunately makes for somewhat tedious gameplay that is constantly making the player wait before they can take action. As a result, while CrossKrush isn’t a terrible game, it’s not an especially fun game either.

Grade: C

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