It’s usually not a normal thing for me to have my eye drawn to a puzzle game, but for some reason Blitz Games’ KrissX had me fancying a little dabble into the world of words that it has created with help from Konami. Is 800 points a suitable price for this dictionary inducing break from shooting stuff, or is it a case of having a little bit of fun before the boredom kicks in?
To say that KrissX is simple is a massive understatement. It doesn’t have a huge amount of moving parts and keeps everything nice and limited to one screen. The only companion you have is a little owl, who sits there nice and calmly in the left hand corner. He doesn’t really say anything, but he does occasionally look at you funny, almost like you stole his pint when he wasn’t looking.
The whole objective is easy enough. Every level, of which there are well over 100 in Quest Mode alone, looks like a finished crossword puzzle, but the letters are in the wrong place. Your task is to manoeuvre them into their correct order by using the clues given to you. If done quickly, as well as throwing in some smooth combos for fast solved problems, you become the recipient of numerous time and score bonuses. Normally you would think that collecting the time bonuses can be vital to progressing through the game, but to be honest, I’m now on level 103 and I still have well over half an hour’s worth of spare thinking time. It’s not to say that you don’t need a good knowledge of words, but most people can get through the tougher ones with a little time. It’s only when you get to the 115+ area that things do start to get pretty taxing, but this is compensated by a huge amount of repetition, which is a shame.
There are other modes available to play in KrissX, but they all revolve around the main game’s work ethic. Time Attack and Timeless modes more or less offer two different sides of the spectrum, with one putting you up against the clock to amass a big score before you run out of time, but in a much more intense fashion; and Timeless, which does exactly what it says and just allows you play away in a more relaxed manner, perhaps during a 15 minute breather or something. The Special section keeps all the words within a subject, so if its countries you pick, you can get a fairly decent idea of just what you’re going to be getting. There is also an area for downloadable content, but there hasn’t been any released yet. This is a title that will need these regular updates to keep things fresh. I can only hope the amount charged isn’t too much, but if it is cheap and plentiful then this could help prolong its life by some way.
KrissX isn’t a bad idea, but it’s not without its drawbacks. That music for a start is bleeding horrendous. It sounds like it’s been recorded on a cassette player and then sat next to a magnet in terms of the quality of sampling. If other games can give you some really great tunes in decent quality, then why can’t KrissX, especially when the screen doesn’t do very much in terms of “seat of your pants” action?
Another problem I have is the lack of any multiplayer options. There is scope for a couple of online game modes, and to prove this, I have devised one myself, so bear with me as I put across my suggestion….*AHEM*
Two players can be up against each other and have a clock with a set time limit. As one player finishes a word or level, his timer stops and the other player’s begins, pretty much in a similar way to chess, but when the clock reaches zero, it’s a point to the winner. It is an easy enough concept and I feel it would have worked REALLY well here, but for whatever reason it just isn’t about. So many puzzle games have an option to pit your wits against a human opponent and I feel this misses out with nothing there to give you that choice.
The final problem that I have is something that I slightly hinted at earlier, which is repetition, repetition, repetition. If I see one more solving of words like angst, veteran, masculine and whatever, I swear I’m going to scream. I know it is hard to keep every word different, but it doesn’t mean that there couldn’t have been varying clues to keep things spiced up a little. It is little things like this that can make all the difference when it comes to playing the game and getting maximum enjoyment out of it.
As a whole, KrissX is alright, but it doesn’t really have that extra finesse to keep it out of the hungry pack of puzzle games it finds itself around. If played sparingly then this could be a keeper, but if you get addicted to it then beware the curse of the repeated words, as it will grind even the most patient down. If they opt for a sequel at some point, I hope they implement a multiplayer option, as this will extend the life of the game dramatically, as there is never a bad thing to be said about a cerebral contest between two humans.
Try before you buy was made for this one. It will grab some people, namely those who don’t bunk off school to play Modern Warfare 2, and it definitely gets the little grey cells working, but it is an acquired taste and constantly putting letters into alphabetical order, just to eat up the time you’ve accumulated can get a bit on the tedious side. A decent one for the mature gamers who wish for something non violent and taxing on the brain (or at least one to keep granny happy when she’s round for Christmas dinner).
VideogameUK verdict: 6.5/10
