Super Crate Box has been available to play on Mac and PC for awhile now, (even picking up a few awards along the way) but it’s just been released as a universal app on iOS devices for the very reasonable price of 69p. It’s hard, fast, frantic and hugely addictive.

Using virtual buttons, to move left/right and jump/shoot, you control a little 8-bit character on a fixed platform level with one goal – survive and collect crates! The crates appear randomly, one at a time, and every time you collect a crate you are awarded a point and a new weapon. This is where the fun starts, because the weapon choice is random and you have no control over keeping a desired weapon. So you need to learn how to best utlise each weapon, as from the top of the screen, multiple enemies are let lose and just one touch kills you instantly.

At first I was completely taken back at the speed of the game and having no knowledge of it’s PC predecessor, I wasn’t prepared for the extreme difficulty. I think I died within 5 seconds, but because the initial games are really short (still only a few seconds), while you work out how to play and learn the enemies traits, as well as collect more crates to unlock more weapons, this is when the game grabs you. How can I die this quick? I’m better than this, aren’t I ? These were the sort of questions I was asking myself while hammering my poor screen – but this is the hook. Any self respecting gamer doesn’t want to be beaten by the game and have a low score.

My only gripe with SCB is with the controls, they don’t feel as fluid as they could be and sometimes the distance between jump and shoot is too much, even on the iPad when real estate is not an issue. With a game that relies on accuracy and quick reactions I hope Vlambeer and co address it, until then I can blame my progress on the controls in the heat of the moment!

Super Crate Box (currently) has 3 levels (Construction Yard, Rocket Silo and Moon Temple) each with their own pitfalls and this more than enough to contend with. My advice is to become one with the level, try not to panic too much and get into the rhythm of the game to get that all important score. You need to master normal mode on each particular level to unlock SFMT mode, I’ve only managed this on Construction Yard so far, but hope to reach it for the other 2 levels, stay tuned with APPZILLA’s progress on GameCenter.

The game is already due an update after the target, Vlambeer [the developer set] was reached in around 48 hours of the release -”As soon as the crate counter in the game reaches 5 million crates, we’ll have a nice update of Super Crate Box iOS”. I’m sure this will involve (unlocking) more characters and hopefully a new level.

Super Crate Box has really cool nice retro sounds with smart pixel graphics, but forget about that, it’s all about the game play and that high score, go buy this now!

Super Crate Box, 1.0.1
Developer: Vlambeer vof. (9+)
Price: 69p