Super Crate Box has been available for both the PC and Mac for a good while now, but the game has just been released on iOS devices as a universal app; a $1 purchase gets you both the iPhone and iPad version of the game. Some titles try to make an impression with expansive stories and complex mechanics, but Super Crate Box is a game that shows you everything it has within the first hour. You control a small character on the screen, you see the entire level instantly, and you need to pick up crates to score.
It may not sound like much, but each aspect of the game has been honed to perfection.
This is how it works: you move your character around the level, and you get a point for each crate you collect. There are enemies that enter the level from the top of the screen, and you have to kill them to control their population. Each crate you collect changes your weapon. When you begin playing, each round will last only a few seconds. If you begin to master the game, you may be able to survive for as much as a minute. The game is frantic, and there is never time to take a breath. You can find safe spots to hide or weapons that are better than others, but it won't matter: you need to continue to collect those crates to win.
The weapons are the key to the game, and the fact that each crate changes which weapon you're using gives the game a sometimes maddening feel. The minigun may be perfect for killing enemies, but your score won't increase if you camp and kill everything you see. There is also recoil to deal with, and it's easy to lose track of all the enemies around you, dying for lack of situational awareness. You'll be asked to master landmines, shotguns, and a disc weapon that bounces off the wall and comes back at you. Your armory is always in flux as you collect crates, and you'll need to adjust your strategy on the fly as you gain control of each gun or explosive.
The game's touch controls are also well above average, an aspect of the game that took dedication to pull off. "The most important thing we did was testing it every day. Not on ourselves or friends, but on random strangers that we could get interested in playing the game in the train to work," Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, the game's developer, told Ars.
The developers didn't explain the controls to the players, they simply watched and took notes about what needed tweaking. "We started testing as soon as there was a rough build. The first time we tested the controls, we didn't have most of the graphics, none of the audio and only five out of thirteen weapons in the game at that point."
I played the game on the iPad, and the virtual buttons were placed perfectly, and felt responsive. I still had a few mishaps here and there, but overall the game felt much better with touch controls than most action games on iOS devices, and the game also ships with iCade support if you'd like to give yourself the arcade experience.
There are only a few maps, the weapons are simple to learn and use, and the enemies are brainless. There isn't much to the game, but that works in its favor: this is one of those triumphs of minimalist design and limited complexity that gets its hooks in you early and never lets go. You can play dozens of rounds in a few minutes, and when you die you always feel like it's your fault. The game is brutal, but fair, and brings to mind pleasant memories of games like Defender or Robotron 2084. I can't think of much higher praise.
The game is a dollar at launch, so go buy it. My high score is 16 crates. Good luck.
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