Crashmo

Crashmo is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS as an Nintendo eShop exclusive. The game is a sequel to Pushmo and was released in Japan on October 31, 2012, in the PAL regions on November 15, 2012, and in North America on November 22, 2012. Two sequels, Pushmo World for the Wii U and Stretchmo for the Nintendo 3DS, were released in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Crashmo is set in the titular Crashmo Park — a parallel park to Pushmo Park — which houses the Crashmos. One day Mallo is invited to the park by Papa Blox and meets Poppy, Papa Blox’s niece. As he greets them, Mallo scares the bird which carried Poppy. Scattered through the park, Mallo rescues them one by one. By the end of the day, the rescued birds carry Poppy and Mallo back to their home. The next day, Papa Blox presents Mallo new challenges. Crashmo is a third-person puzzle platforming game.

Gameplay and presentation are similar to its predecessor, where players control Mallo through puzzles known as “Crashmo” by moving blocks and jumping to rescue frightened birds or collect flags. Returning from Pushmo, the player is able to rewind time in order to reverse mistakes. While Pushmo used a 3D environment, its mechanics were restricted to back-and-forth movement; with the player unable to see behind the Pushmo structures.

By comparison, Crashmo’s puzzles are set in an area that the player can move the Crashmo puzzle elements around freely, as well as Mallo himself. The player can also rotate the camera around the puzzle at any angle. The main feature setting Crashmos apart from Pushmos is the fact that their parts are affected by gravity. Pushing a block of one colour will cause other coloured blocks on top of it to fall. This is the main mechanic used to navigate puzzles.