Crush

The realisation that Crush is more cerebral than your average puzzle game comes right at the tutorial, where the script writers traffic in sarcasm, literary allusions (listen for the Sisyphus reference) and even a subtle porn joke. So this is not Tetris redux. While feeling rather original, it’s also something of a mash-up between the elaborate mazes of the original side-scrolling Prince of Persia, the subconscious-set platformer Psychonauts, and Super Paper Mario, with its meta manner of combining old-school 2D and modern 3D. But while the title explains the basic, but deceptively complex, gameplay mechanic — you can "crush” the third dimension to create a flat, new world — there’s a story here, too. Hospitalised for insomnia, your avatar Danny must explore his own mind. Making nice use of the PSP’s graphical capabilities and widescreen to craft a dark, stylized atmosphere, you traverse your labyrinthine brain by flipping back and forth between dimensions to avoid psychological barriers, fight off mental monsters and collect jigsaw-shaped memories and lost marbles in hopes of solving your personal traumas and getting some damn Zzzzs. It’s all about multi-dimensional problem-solving and while most handheld puzzle games work your reflexes, this little beauty trains your brain. Damn, it gets hard, though.