Genre: Puzzle

Publisher: American Video Entertainment

Total time played: 45 minutes

Short review:  A puzzle game that is simple enough for a chile, fast paced enough to entertain people with short attention spans, difficult enough  to be rewarding and easy enough to complete.

Interesting links related to Krazy Kreatures

• Krazy Creatures James and Mike Mondays
• NES Gameplay
  

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I picked up Krazy Kreatures (which my computer keeps auto correcting to Crazy Creatures) about 20 years ago. I don’t remember where I got it or how much it cost but I do remember playing it my junior year of high school while talking on the phone a lot (this was before texting and instant messenger was a thing).

I had never heard of the game before and I have never met anyone who had this game as a kid or even knew it existed. In fact, I forgot it existed even though it was sitting right there on my shelf.

The game is really easy to play but kind of tough to explain…here goes.

There are 32 waves (levels) where the titular Krazy Kreatures try to fill up the screen before time runs out.  Mike Matei (in the linked video above) says each level looks like someone dropped a box of animal crackers on the ground. This as good of a description as any.

Your job is to move the Kreatures  into rows of 3 or more, think Dr. Mario.  For example, if you move 3 cats into a line they disappear from the screen.  The first 15 or so levels are pretty simple and almost therapeutic if you like organizing and categorizing things (which I do).  Each level has a timer and the kreatures keep bombarding the screen until you make a certain number of lines. Once the line goal is met a timer counts down and you have time to make more lines for extra points with no further kreatures appearing on the screen.

On the left you see a stage where there are a lot of empty spaces and places to move the Kreatures and on the right you see the panic of needing to clear some Kharacters (see what I did there) from the screen before every space is filled up.

There is a little strategy involved but not a lot.  You will have no trouble beating the early stages.  As you progress you will need to line up 6 or 7 creatures in a row which is hard as there is a constant barrage of them flying around the screen and landing in your way. The game is really fast paced so even though me and my friend Chase were playing cooperatively it was impossible to come up with a strategy to work together and several time we got our cursors confused with each other or would move a piece out of a line the other was working on.

I think this may be the hardest game to describe but the easiest to understand once you see it in action.  I really enjoy this game even if it doesn’t seem quite as polished as many other games on the NES (look at the crappy ending screen) it still has its charm and based on the 4 people who watched us play it seemed to be somewhat interesting to watch as well. It would have gotten a higher score if there was a little more variety in gameplay or level design.  32 levels seemed just about the right length as the game does become repetitive even though it is fast paced.

I believe this is the first unlicensed NES game I have beaten for the blog.  It may also be one of the last as most of the unlicensed games are garbage are impossible.  Krazy Kreatures may also be the best unlicensed game on the entire system (Micro Machines may give it a run for its money though).

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