The iOS has certainly put its own spin on how puzzle games have evolved, and Crazy Escape is no different. Are there puzzles to solve? Yes. Timed for additional excitement? Yes. Super cute cartoon graphics? Yes. Penguins? Yes. Penguins!
You, dear reader, have to steer two penguins in an old jeep along the landscape, avoiding wolves, bushes, and mud puddles, rescuing sheep and keeping ahead of the wolf pack leader on your tail … which might also be herding a sheep or two ahead of him and dragging a few behind him besides. All across the landscape that’s the iPad or the even smaller iPhone/iPod Touch.
There’s some physics involved. Bushes and wolves can be run into, some terrain is soft so once you drive over, earth berms are formed on either side of your tracks and can’t re-cross your trail. There’s some difficulty in back-tracking or making a hairpin turn because you ARE in a vehicle after all, and there are different obstacles, some such as mud puddles can make you skid and crash.
Visually, Crazy Escape is solid. What you see is what you get. The egress points, which are little road pieces with flashing lights, wolves (some ambulatory) and other obstacles dot the landscape as well as the sheep you must rescue, keys to unlock their fetters and stars for extra points. A bubble shows you if the pursuing wolf pack leader is dragging sheep and unless you hit the help button for a hint, once you’ve plotted your course in your mind, you’re ready to start from any of the egress points.
The added difficulty comes from not knowing ahead of time, whether the pack leader is herding sheep, dragging sheep or both. You have to rescue each and every sheep and then get off the map without crashing, skidding off the road or getting caught by the pack leader. This can involve cutting across your trail, back-tracking and just plain waiting around for sheep to catch up with you.
The sound is limited but provides just the right touches of “Vroom” “Baa” and “Bark” — together with a ker-fluffle of everything when you crash, with the yips of the wolves as they close in, and graphics of penguins and jeep parts hurling across the screen.
Overall, Crazy Escape is a fun and exciting little puzzler that’s also suitable for little kids. In fact, they might enjoy it quite a bit especially since the hint button can create a path for the younger ones to trace. For 99 cents, it’s a great little game.
The former head of developer relations for the Stratics Network, Carolyn Koh has years of experience covering the MMORPG genre. Carolyn first started playing games such as Pong & Moon Buggy on the 8086, and arcade games like Ms. PacMan, Centipede, Red Baron and Joust before graduating to text muds through University computers and Doom on the LAN in the Engineering department after office hours. She claims she didn't frag the guys. Carolyn enjoys reviewing casual games and children's games for us. She also maintains a staff blog commenting on the emails crossing her desk that touch on the gaming industry in one form or another.
