Gravity Crash

My big flat screen is smiling. It's the centre piece of the room and is joined by its friends, five loudspeakers and subwoofer, and their joy is expressed with synthesizer tunes I thought were lost in the 80's.

The reason for all this happiness is that my Playstation 3 and the HDMI cable that connects it to the system have produced images so beautiful to behold, in neon colours that I just can't take my eyes off of the spectacle.

The up until now unknown developer Just Add Water, have much like many other developers dug up their own piece of video game history. This time inspiration has not been derived from Robotron, but instead the fantastic Thrust and some of you might recall previous updates of the concept such as Gravity Force, Rotor and Sub-Terrania.

The concept is so simple it hurts, you control a small spacecreft and your mission is to lay waste to space stations, collect crystals, gain additional weaponry, and save astronauts. We've seen it all a hundred times before, but there is a twist, and it's one that {Gravity Crash} has borrowed from Thrust. That is that everything in game is governed by the law of gravity.

What gravity means can be exemplified by how you control your space craft. It is a constant struggle between giving your rockets enough boost to keep your craft up while at the same time not giving it too much boost so you crash into the nearest wall. And this is where it begins to get challenging as the level designs quickly come to resemble labyrinths. All of a sudden it isn't enough to collect crystals and astronauts, but a switch needs to be activated in order to open the exit on the opposite side of the level.

However, the greatest challenge you face will be to preserve your fuel reserves. Every time you need a boost their is a price as it depletes you fuel reserves and it becomes necessary to learn how to save fuel early on. Short bursts are often more efficient that emptying your tank in one go and you also need to take into account where the next deposit of fuel crystals are located.

These ideas have given Just Add Water plenty of possibilities to let their levels grow huge and include many secrets and challenges spread out along the way. You are always forced to consider your own abilities and your fuel reserves as you make your decisions.

There are 35 levels on offer if you play by yourself and 12 extra if you play with friends. But thanks to a simple and robust set of tools you can quickly assemble your own levels with very few limitations.

Everything is dressed up in charming retro clothes. Much like the case was with Geometry Wars the visual style of {Gravity Crash} comes the vector graphics of yesteryear with a few neon colours added for good measure. These colours have been given such glow it almost appears as if the screen is bleeding, but without ever losing its sharpness. Everything looks unbelievably beautiful, and every time you think you have seen it all, something new is introduced such as water or lava, or completely different colour palettes that keep the visuals fresh.

{Gravity Crash} is one of the strongest exclusive titles on offer in the Playstation Store. It offers addictive gameplay that keep you occupied as you try to collect every single little object in each level. With this in mind and the potential of thousands of player created levels to download, and a very affordable price this is an early Christmas treat you don't want to miss.