Rating of
3.5/5
Crushing the Clicker Stereotype
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/25/16
Crush Crush is the first game from the small studio Sad Panda (according to their page they are "Currently located in a basement, they hope to move up to a rec room or a breakfast nook someday". It is primarily a click game (if you're familiar with Clicker Heroes or Adventure Capitalist, you know the score) with elements of a dating sim. It's cute and fun but, like many clicker games, gets repetitive and can take a long time to unlock some of the late-game girls. That being said, I'm a sucker for this type of thing and it's free to play so what the hell. I don't usually go for Early Access on Steam, but in this case, I'm glad I did.
Presentation: It's a pretty simple set-up. You unlock girls - each who had a distinct Anime-style (though with western influences) and level them up from hating you to being your girlfriend. Each girl is given a distinct personality with some really witty dialogue. I wish it had voices but I understand the limitations for a smaller studio just starting out. The music and sound effects are pretty bland and I found myself usually just playing with the sound off. Visually it gets a good score, must sound-wise it could have been better.
Story: You are a random guy who keeps destroying girls lives - you send them to the hospital, you destroy their high game score, you crush their cardboard house, you ruin their cooking, you're depressing at their virtual concert - but while they are all initially annoyed, you persevere - give them gifts, take them on dates and eventually win each of them over. Okay - this is totally a clicker game, but at least each girl has a distinct personality and the style is pretty good.
Gameplay: This is a clicker game plain and simple. It has a dating sim-type setup, but it's all about time and money. When you start off, things are slow and take awhile to build up. You have two things to build up: money and romance. Money is used to buy gifts for the girls and to take them out on dates. Romance is what you build up so that each girl likes you - they all start off hating you but as you give them gifts, take them on dates or simply click on them repeatedly, you increase their romance stat. Each girl you unlock subsequently requires more money and romance to upgrade them from an antagonist to your girlfriend.
For money, jobs (from fry cook to actor to lawyer and more) earns you a set amount of money. You earn money even if you are not playing - up to seven days. Likewise the romance is earned by hobbies - from danging to skydiving to science (and also many more). Each girl has a hobby she likes and will automatically add to her romance based on the level of that hobby. Like jobs, hobbies add to romance even when the game is off. Both can run for up to seven days. Each job and hobby requires a block of time - you earn these blocks by upgrading each girl. You upgrade each girl by earning money and romance - and you can see where this is going. In order to move things along you can reset the game. You keep all your time blocks and anything you might have unlocked - but still have to start from the beginning. The Reset speeds things up - jobs and romance increase.
There are various girls with their own personalities from a cat-girl to a gamer to a sassy red-head to a Hatsune Miku-like idol to a literal bear (it was an April Fools joke but was so well-liked it stayed in the game). The developers did a great job of giving each girl some hilarious dialogue - my favorite has to be the terminator-like futuristic girl who spouts things like Four-Chan becoming militarized or plants becoming sentient. Sure, it does repeat, but it is still nice to see such fun dialogue. I wish is was voiced, but such a small studio taking on this project it's good enough.
Replayability: Considering the whole point of most clicker games is to reset the world and start over, Crush Crush is no different. You will eventually get to a point you must restart to move things along and while it can get repetitive, it never gets boring.
Overall: If you have enjoyed games like Clicker Heroe or Adventure Capitalist and like cute anime girls and ridiculous dialogue and have a few minutes to spare every few days (or just really, really like clicking), Crush Crush is for you.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Replayability: 5/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
