Crystal Crisis

Outside of those pesky load times, it's hard to find fault with Crystal Crisis. This is just a well-made game, a genuinely fun puzzler that challenges players to imagine new strategies with every character they try. And with memory mode beckoning me to play again and again, I don't imagine I'll be taking up any of the other Switch puzzle games for a long, long time.

Crystal Crisis isn't going to dethrone the kings of the falling block genre anytime soon. It's a solid puzzler with a heart of gold, but it doesn't have the decades of improvements that its peers have. With a solid amount of content, an amazing cast of characters and fantastic presentation, though, we recommend this as a fun alternative if you tire of Tetris 99.

Crystal Crisis is definitely a step up from Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo although that step is a rather small one so it ends up feeling more like a retro copycat than a new and exciting puzzler.

Crystal Crisis is a fun spiritual successor to Puzzle Fighter that is simple enough for all ages to pick up, but it falls a little short compared to its crossover predecessor.

GOOD - Crystal Crisis is a fun puzzler featuring various Nicalis characters and other cameos. You’ll be battling it out against the CPU or friends to see who comes out on top.

Save Tetris and Puyo Pop for when you want to wind down before bedtime. Crystal Crisis is as intense as puzzle gaming gets and has sparked new life into a genre not known for surprises. From the heart-pumping puzzle action to the full-fledged story mode and a roster that screams "fan service," it would be a crime to call Crystal Crisis anything less than an absolute diamond.

It's not as refined or as well-paced as some of the stalwarts of the genre, and its story mode is a let-down, but it's still a clever puzzle-fighting hybrid with many different modes.

Even with other puzzle fighters out there, Crystal Crisis manages to make a name for itself and stand out with its unique mechanics and roster.

Crystal Crisis is a decent puzzle fighter that ultimately suffers due to bad pacing and lackluster capitalization of its premise.

Crystal Crisis is, put simply, puzzle perfection. It’s simple, addictive, and oh so colorful.