Crystal Quest Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

A great retro game

Crystal Quest is one of those retro games that taps into all the right areas of a gamer's brain. Fast loading, quick to play and with a good difficulty curve. It was first launched over 20 years ago for the Apple Mac but has since been updated for the Xbox Live and Windows Vista. While we cannot expect all the 21st Century glitz to make it to the mobile at least the core gaming qualities remain.

Crystal Quest is a very simple game and at one point you might well sit back and think 'is this all it is'. However, after a few attempts and ever increasing progress and high scores, all such thoughts will be wiped. The aim is to collect all the crystals on the screen and then return home through the gate at the bottom of the screen. The playing area throughout the game is a basic rectangle. There are a few mines and enemies to avoid/shoot and doesn't get more complicated than that. It may all sound rather boring but it does mean that loading times are non-existent and game speed is fast. As you play through the game, there is a variety of different enemies each with their own characteristics. Some will gently plod around the screen while others will home straight at you. Shoot them and you might find lethal shrapnel making its way to your ship.

The controls are very simple and you just need the D-pad to move around, diagonal movement is also possible. The ship is very responsive and you can delicately manoeuvre around the screen. Beware that the enemies have large boundaries and you cannot get too close before your ship explodes. Auto fire can be toggled on/off with the 5 button. Goodies, such as smart bombs and high scoring bonus crystals, can be blown up with your own shots so be careful out there. The smart bombs can be used by pressing 0 and they will wipe everything out including enemy bullets. They are a very effective defence and extra ones are usually available at the start of each level.

The game tries not to be difficult and teases you with bonus lives and smart bombs. Unfortunately, the enemies can be incredibly sneaky (and plentiful) and completing all 60 levels is far harder than it seems. But with each attempt you will get a little further or score a little better than before. It will readily drag you in for game after game. Once you think you’ve mastered the game, just turn the difficulty up to one of its 10 levels and see how good you think you are then. Crystal Quest also has achievements for you to earn. This is a bit of a missed opportunity as there aren’t any trophies or even bonus points for obtaining the achievements. It’s a bit of a white elephant and not worth trying to reach 1 million points without using a smart bomb.

Fans of the Xbox version will no doubt be looking for an online high score table but unfortunately this option is also lacking and for a game that is so concerned with scoring big points, it is a little irksome.