Review
Release Date: 02.07.2006
Platform:
Xbox Live ArcadeDeveloper:
Stainless GamesPublisher:
Microsoft Game StudiosReviewed by
Richard Brownell on 1.12.2008
Oh to be a kid again.
Crystal Quest is one of the Xbox Live Arcade games that includes a port of the original, as well as an enhanced version. The original version was made by Patrick Buckland for the Apple Macintosh in 1987. I received it a little after it came out, probably when I was 7 or 8. Back then there wasn't much to play for most of us young gamers with no cash of our own, so many hours were put into
Crystal Quest. I was glad to see it come to XBLA and give me a new chance to play it.
What surprised me though is how many other gamers and game critics received it. It is typically seen as a response to twin stick shooters like
Geometry Wars. With the overwhelming popularity of such games and the twin stick controls added to
Crystal Quest, I can definitely see the comparisons, but it seems like I'm one of the only people approaching it with nostalgia as reviewers typically do with other XBLA ports.
That said, one can make some basic comparisons to
Geometry Wars. In
Crystal Quest, you move a small orb around the screen with the left stick and shoot with the right. The screen is fixed, so there are no grand environments to traverse. Beyond that, the games differ. Each level includes gates on the left, right, and bottom of the screen. Your goal is to gather all the randomly placed crystals on the screen, avoid the randomly placed obstacles and exit through the bottom gate. But to hinder your orb, enemies and super large crystals come out of the right and left gates.
The levels are quick and each one is different than the one before. Besides everything on the screen being randomly placed, levels bring different enemies. The first wave of enemies just floats around the screen hoping to get you. A couple levels later you are faced with enemies that shoot, but not necessarily at you. Then come large blobs. Eventually enemies come that create laser walls or shoot in all directions when you kill them. Thankfully, you get bombs that clear the screen so that you can survive through two dozen enemies attacking you at once. The difficulty options in Crystal Quest are more diverse than most games. There are 10 difficulties from easy to hard and all playthroughs show up on the same leaderboard. To balance things, points are earned many times faster in the higher difficulties. And if you really enjoy pain, you can drop 100 points on the extreme version of the game, doubling the points and the difficulty.
Crystal Quest is rather simple. It doesn't pretend to be a direct competitor to
Geometry Wars or other modern twin stick shooters because it's really a different kind of game. Whatever its main target audience is supposed to be, the people who will enjoy it the most are those who played the original. The updated version keeps a lot of the charm. The goofy sound effects are toned down and a light sci-fi soundtrack was added, but all the enemy types are there, just updated a bit. The crystal gathering is still frantic and crazy. And if you really miss the original version, you can play it almost identically by selecting the classic version; the only difference is that you are using a 360 controller. For new gamers who have no idea what this 1987
Crystal Quest thing is, I'd probably give the game a 6. It's fun, but maybe not modern enough to hold your interest. For people like me who do remember playing and enjoying it, you get the score above. Your childhood is not lost.
