Cherry is known for putting a lot of effort in creating good deco and good gp. In this time the levels looks very cool and fresh and you can clearly feel its vibe. Can't say anything about gp - I think its okay but not nice or bad.

Pretty overproduced and only has a pretty haphahazard display of 80s references and video game culture to actually back the level up. Gameplay also registers as a blur which I do not like, resulting in crash game being fleeting and overall just very mediocre to me.

I have no idea what the general consensus regarding this level is, but if its reflective of its GDDL enjoyment rating (that being over a 9), then I have to say Crash Game is one of the most overrated insane demons in the game.

Now thats not say this is a bad level, far from it. I would generally say this is a good level overall, but far from a masterpiece, and not deserving of being the winner of the insane demon category in the 2023 awards.

Let’s talk decoration first. As expected from cherryteam, its highly polished, with an insane amount of detail in every type of design throughout, from the structures to the backgrounds. However, because it focuses so much on that, it also tends to sort of fall flat on its primary theme, that being video game themed.

In the first half of the level, outside of some neat details and references (like the orbs being the aliens from Space Invaders in one part), I really do not get a strong video game themed feeling. Two parts are just subway parts with barely any references at all (what does this have to do with video games?), and the other parts just look like generic cherryteam glow levels with some glitchy effects mixed in. Thankfully, the level improves a lot with its video game theme once you reach the drop. Everything is much more themed with video games, as the block designs have that video game like feeling, and the backgrounds are really cool as well, one of them even being Tetris and Space Invaders gameplay. And of course, the endscreen is well-made. If the first half was as creative as the second half in its aesthetics, then this level would easily have at least a 9/10 in the decoration department, but that isn’t the case.

What about the gameplay? It’s learny but gets consistent, and usually I enjoy that kind of gameplay a lot, so surely the gameplay is exceptional, right? Well, not exactly. It’s not the worst thing I ever played obviously, but far from amazing. It is true that it is learny, but gets consistent after you play it enough, which is where a large part of my gameplay score comes from. Problem is… the gameplay doesn’t having enough going on with it, which I felt also hindered its consistency a bit.

There just simply isn’t enough variety with the gameplay; Most of it is unmemorable, boiling down to just a bunch of non-ship/wave gameplay you would find in an easy demon. In fact, Crash Game in general plays like your average 2.2 easy demon where you just follow the indicators due to how much deco obstruction there is, except glorified a lot. I’m usually not a fan of this kind of learny gameplay for easy demons, and I’m definitely not a fan of it here. At least those easy demons have the excuse of being easy demons, as they can’t really be complicated with their gameplay. Crash Game has NO excuse for having this kind of gameplay in a difficulty range where creators like Loltad and Sodaz thrived in making excellent and unique learny gameplay.

This is made worse by the fact that the level went annoying with how it went with its gameplay sometimes, The part at 64%, for example, is bullshit, there is TOO much visual obstruction to see anything, that you pretty much have to remember where to even click/tap. That’s not how you make learny gameplay at all! Also the level does feel a bit unbalanced, with the first 22% taking up more attempts than I’d like to admit, though its obviously far from Necropolis level balancing.

Despite how critical I was about this level, I still think it is good and would most likely recommend it, as it definitely does has it strengths. The second half is great with its video game themeing, and the gameplay has its fair share of enjoyable parts, like the opening spider which is very satisfying to pull off, and some parts during the drop as well. But it is far from one of the best insane demons in the game. Also the fact it has a higher GDDL enjoyment than Cloud Nine is a joke.

cool details here and there but put together this just looks like an overproduced incoherent mess with ugly colors. gameplay is decent but kinda annoying to learn and nothing too remarkable. Malus points for winning best insane demon of 2023 when it's easily the worst of the 5 nominees