Game Reviews

Just Add Water’s Gravity Crash is a retro-inspired dual-joystick shooter with a tinge of Sony’s “Play Create Share” genre thrown in. The shooter includes a complete level editor, allowing you to create entire levels and share them online with other players.

Gravity Crash takes a futuristic, neon spin on the retro-space shooters of old, setting you target objectives at the start of each level, and using clever level design to create a challenge. As the game’s title suggests: floaty, exaggerated physics are key to the game’s personality – but getting a feel for gravity mechanics can take a while. Gravity Crash requires finesse, rather than twitch, and it can take a while for that to sink in.

Aswell as a complete single-player campaign, Gravity Crash offers local multiplayer deathmatch and race modes, alongside a level editor and leaderboards.

The level editor. Media Molecules “Play Create Share” tagline has become a big draw for Sony. The genre, which has basically been untouched by competing platforms thus far, has become a staple-mark for Sony’s PSN community focus. With two iterations of LittleBigPlanet allowing gamers to create platform levels, and custom racing tracks on the horizon with Modnation Racers; Gravity Crash aims to fill a void by allowing players to create their own dual-stick shooter levels. The customisation options are quite powerful. Alongside the ability to create aesthetic instances on your levels, you’ll also be able to create specific mechanics. Mechanics give your levels objectives and sub-objectives. For example, on a level we created while testing out the editor, we made the objective to destroy a battery cell. However, upon the destruction of the battery cell, we created a trigger instance that raised the levels of lava on the level. Naturally, lava is dangerous, so the core idea of our level meant you had to destroy the target and then escape from the hazard. It’s a very simple example, but it shows what can be done with the level editor. The single-player campaign includes some great inspiration for creating little puzzles on your own levels. However, don’t go into Gravity Crash expecting limitless amounts of freedom. There’s enough scope to make your levels creative and original, but this is no LittleBigPlanet.