E3 2011: Crush 3D Is a Video Game Lovechild

If video games could have sex and spit out babies, Back to the Future and Echochrome would've knocked boots and birthed Crush 3D. This puzzler from SEGA and developer Zoe Mode takes the really creepy relationship of an old doctor and a young man and slams it into a perspective-shifting puzzler. The result so far appear to be an enjoyable game for your Nintendo 3DS.

If you've seen puzzlers such as Echochrome before, you'll have an easier time understanding what Crush 3D is all about. You have to collect marbles stashed around a three-dimensional room to open the exit door. Some of these are out of your reach, so you'll rotate the camera to preset points with the d-pad, hit a button and -- bam -- the world will be in 2D. Think of the Super Paper Mario effect. This creates bridges, walkways and jumps that weren't possible before and allows you to get to otherwise inaccessible marbles.

Complicating things are a number of caveats to that seemingly simple setup. You can't go 2D in front of a brick wall, there are hidden trophies that only appear from certain perspectives, and eventually massive obstacles (bowling balls and soda cans) pop up and you have to roll them out of the way to keep on working. The Crush 3D trailer above shows all sorts of even more troublesome things you'll run into.

As someone who has played both Echochromes, I usually find that my head begins to throb after long play sessions or having to think in two dimensions. That wasn't the case with my short demo of Crush 3D. It's probably because the intro puzzles are easy, but the cool hues of the game help, too. The visuals are simple, but they also pack in a lot of color and character. When I polished off a level where I snagged the hidden trophy and hidden memory notebook, I unlocked a new robe for the main character.

Why's this dude swapping dimensions? Well, he's a kid named Danny who volunteered to test doc's machine -- a "Cognitive Regression Utilizing pSychiatric Heuristics" machine. Danny jumped in for a go 'round, but the machine wouldn't let him out. Now, the theory is that completing the game's more than 50 puzzles will save Danny. Standard stuff.

If this sounds familiar, it might be because Crush was originally released on the PSP in 2007, but don't expect this to be a port. Lots of things are similar, but the story is new, Street Pass will allow you to hide gifts in levels that others can find, and there's a new hint system that's actually helpful.

Crush 3D didn't floor me, but I did have a good time playing it. The puzzles seemed like fun, and the basic cartoon art style works well and is a nice change of pace from Echochrome's black on white simplicity. Look for it this September.

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