Critter Crunch is a food chain puzzle game from Publisher X. The game puts players in control of Biggs, a cute little forest creature, who likes feeding and eating the vine hanging critters above. Biggs moves back and forth grabbing smaller critters with his ginormous tongue then flings them back into the hungry bellies of critters who are exactly one size bigger then the one currently mouthed. Critters stuffed with two other critters will pop releasing some tasty juice our furry little friend Biggs loves to eat. Eat enough juice and you will advance to the next level. Critter Crunch is a paid download from the Apple iTunes App Store costs $5.99 or $9.99 depending on when you get it.

The food chain game mechanic works really well and is a fresh twist on the million or so other swap and pop games. There are three different sizes of creatures in Critter Crunch, small medium and large. The only way to remove the small critters from the game board is by feeding them to medium sized critters. There are two ways to get rid of the medium sized critters. Players can feed them two smaller critters, which cause them to pop, or feed the medium sized critters to the large critters. Large critters can only be removed by being fed two medium critters or a medium critter who has eaten a single small critter. When critters pop they also cause like-sized critters touching them to pop. Sound confusing? Trust me, it’s not. The food chain mechanic easy to figure out and adds a surprising amount of strategy and depth to the game.

As Biggs progresses through the levels he will unlock special features of the game. Creatures of all sizes will occasionally glow. Popping a glowing creature will release a limited use special ability such as watermelon seed spit or the garlic row push. At level 5 Biggs will unlock puzzle mode which tempts the fury creature to clear the vines of all critters in a specific number of moves. The puzzles are really fun and become very challenging at higher levels. In addition to puzzle mode Critter Crunch also has timed and survival modes of play.

There’s a lot to like about Critter Crunch. It has four total game modes, tons of levels, lots of power ups, a tutorial system, beautiful backgrounds, cute creatures, great animations and good sound. The game is so well polished I really had to work hard to find things I didn’t like. These are nit-picky at best but, here we go. First, Biggs is controlled by dragging your finger side to side. This works fine, but Biggs lags behind your movements a bit (something the game mentions). The lagging and finger controls will cause you to place Biggs in the wrong vine column quite a lot when your first learning the game. Secondly, Critter Crunch doesn’t really make use of the iPhone’s tilt. I wonder what it would have been like to control Biggs by tilt or to activate some of his special abilities by tilt. Third, (and I’m really pushing it here) in-game menu icon seems out of place. Critter Crunch has a really cute theme going on, why mess it up a menu icon that looks like it was belongs on a web 2.0 site. I also found the tutorial system to be a little long winded and unnecessary at times. Lastly, the price of Critter Crunch is a little high. The normal price of $9.99 seems $2 to high for me. Luckily, the game has been on promotional pricing from time to time offered as low as $5.99.

Critter Crunch is a unique and fresh take on some solid puzzle game concepts. The food chain mechanic works really well and has a lot of lasting appeal to it. Supported by four game modes, a ton of features and exceptionally high production value, Critter Crunch is a must buy game for the iPhone . . .even if you don’t like puzzle games.

By: Aaron Robbins