I've been following Crayon Physics Deluxe since I first laid eyes and hands on it at GDC. The concept of a physics-based puzzle game where the player can actually draw things into existence that move and fall and react the way they would in real life amazed the hell out of me, as it did many gamers.

Now, almost a year later, Crayon Physics Deluxe is finally complete. Does it live up to the potential awesomeness of its mechanic? Is it as wonderfully clever and breathtaking as this video would have you believe? Ashley Davis and I played through the game to find out.

Hit the jump for our review.

Crayon Physics Deluxe (PC)
Developed by Kloonigames
Published by Kloonigames
Released January 7, 2009

Anthony Burch

Crayon Physics Deluxe is goddamned magical. There's no other word for it. 

As a physics/puzzle/creation game, CPD is nothing short of mindblowing. By simply drawing shapes and lines, you'll dynamically create boulders, wedges, clubs, and mechanical systems that would seem ridiculously unintuitive and too complex in any other game whose presentation and interface wasn't so wonderfully simple.

CPD actually forces the player to complete some remarkably complex and difficult engineering feats, but since the player's interaction with the game never goes beyond "draw stuff" (there are no menus, no inventory items, no special crayons that perform special feats), the answers never feel too obtuse or out of reach. Though there's obviously a limit on the sorts of contraptions you can create, your possibilities feel limitless -- no matter how you draw an object, it will physically behave exactly as you would expect it to, and that is goddamned insane -- and thus the inherently mindboggling puzzles become much easier to wrap your head around.

Additionally, puzzle solutions are made all the more satisfying given the fact that every single manipulable object involved was specifically designed by your (hopefully steady) hand. Where most puzzle games rely almost solely on the player's ability to read the developer's mind and eventually come to an intended solution, Crayon Physics Deluxe refreshingly allows players to use their own creativity in reaching their goals.

Crayon Physics Deluxe is the truly rare game that has such an interesting primary mechanic, and knows it has such an interesting primary mechanic, that it never feels the need to distract the player with superfluous nonsense. Yes, you'll "just" be drawing objects in an effort to guide a red ball to a level-ending star, but the sheer depth and freedom afforded by the drawing mechanic assures that the game never feels like it's stretching for content.

Granted, all this freedom comes at a cost. After the game reached its halfway point, I'd learned enough about how to use pulleys and cups and weights and stuff that -- I am filled with loathing as I type this -- I found myself cheating to get through most of the later levels. 

Well, not cheating, necessarily, but certain strategies are so useful that no matter what the levels themselves seem to ask of the player (for instance, one level where the ball rolls down a dinosaur's back and is meant to somehow roll up and over into an alcove), I just kept using a simple pulley/cup system to essentially bypass whatever intended solution the game requested of me. Add to that the fact that it's depressingly easy to actually cheat by drawing objects under the ball in such a way that they clip into it and push it up a few centimeters, and CPD gets distressingly easy to out-douche once you've learned a few essential skills.

But, then again, who is to blame for that? Perhaps it's the game's fault for not dissuading my cup-and-pulley panacea, but that would probably restrict other strategies. Perhaps it's my fault for not outright forcing myself to play the game the "real" way. Then again, unlike the linear puzzles offered in World of Goo or Braid where roughly 90% of player solutions would be more or less identical, Crayon Physics Deluxe often focuses more on freeform experimentation -- perhaps any strategy is a decent one, and it's my fault that I used boring ones over and over. Either way, I can't neglect to mention the fact that my first playthrough became remarkably dull after a certain point.

Crayon Physics Deluxe can be completed in about two or three hours, but its potential replay value is damn near infinite: any of the puzzles can be solved in at least a hundred different ways, and the (again, remarkably intuitive) level editor will most definitely result in some amazing user-created stuff.

In the end, there's no real reason not to get Crayon Physics Deluxe. So what if most of the later puzzles can be solved with stubborn brute force?  The drawing mechanic will make you feel like some sort of cross between Harold and Jehovah. Crayon Physics Deluxe is a game full of charm and imagination (you can doodle on the world map!) the likes of which you've never, ever seen before. 

Score: 8.5

Ashley Davis

Score: 8.5

Final Verdict

Score: 8.5 (8s are impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.)