Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
KrissX (Pronounced Criss Cross) is the first title from Regolith Games, a developer with the goal of “making nice games for everybody, where nobody gets shot.” KrissX is a straightforward word-puzzle game that plays with letter scrambling and the crossword format. Unscramble words in quest mode or timed mode.
What’s Hot
Indeed, no one in KrissX gets shot. It’s a pleasant, simple game that anyone with reading skills could play. If you want something easy for a younger gamer to pick up, this is a good tool to help with reading and spelling. The graphics are clean and colorful, and the music is nice. The music is probably the best part of the game aesthetically.
What’s Not
I’m not going to suggest that PopCap should have a monopoly on pleasant, colorful puzzle games with E ratings, but they are all but undisputed. KrissX feels a bit like a flimsy pretender to that throne. It attempts at all those qualities that make PopCap games addictive and accessible, but never quite gets there.
The first sin here is being too easy. While I played the game, I spent more time watching my score tally than I did completing puzzles. Often times the puzzles are just a matter of swapping two letters to make a word. Not only that, but they give you hints for every word. Words were even repeating within the first fifteen minutes of the game. When you complete a puzzle, little bubbles that match the colors of the controller’s face buttons float down, and you can hit X, Y, or B to pick up additional points. It feels like someone said, during the design process, “Hey, our game is way too easy, what can we do to make it harder?” This might’ve been a fun idea if it did more than add bonus points. I also don’t like that the shape and color of those drops have no correlation. Colorblind players aren’t exactly a huge market, but they’ll miss out on that small aspect of the game.
While the colors, shapes, and sounds are generally pleasant and workable, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some annoying aspects. As I mentioned, every word has a hint associated with it that pops up in the form of a bubble. Tutorials and menu items also pop up. And all of these seem to be right over the words. When you complete a level, a goofy voice says, “Level complete!” “New badges!” and other things. Because the levels are as short as they are, you’ll be hearing these clips constantly. It won’t be long before you turn down the sound effects and put on your own music.
KrissX also lacks any kind of multiplayer, local or online. Some sort of versus puzzle competition would’ve been nice. Thinking of this as an education tool, the ability to interact with your child through the game would be a valuable part of the learning experience. Without that, I think the educational aspect would be short-lived at best.
Final Word
To anyone with the ability to read and even a small English vocabulary, this game is going to become boring in a few minutes. The lack of multiplayer hurts, too, but not as much as the $10 price point. If the demo doesn’t appeal to you, just know that it doesn’t improve much.
