Crayon Caper Rescue is a 2D platformer where you play as a little gray crayon who must rescue imprisoned bebos from the evil forces of sharpies, paper airplanes and tape. If you don't know what a bebo is, don't worry because they don't exist.
The gimmick that makes this game "unique" is that you can draw platforms in certain areas of the map to help you get to the bebos. Personally, I don't really like this mechanic and it appears the creators of this game don't either. Half of the levels take away your ability to draw platforms; even when you are allowed to draw platforms it's in such a limited space that they may as well have put the platforms there to begin with. See, drawing your own platforms can be fun if it allows for creativity. In Crayon Caper Rescue, all you can do is place crudely drawn squares in very specific places, turning what could have been a fun little side mechanic into an necessary step separating you from your goal.
The only other mechanic that separates this from every other 2D platformer is the powerup system. Throughout the game, you'll find little glowy things that turn your crayon into a different color, each with a different powerup. Red allows you to kill enemies, green allows you to jump higher, and brown allows you to destroy certain blocks below you. Once again, it's very contextual in that you only need the powerups a second or two after you get them. In an effort to keep at least a little challenge in the game, the powerups go away after a short period of time, meaning you need to get the powerup and get from point a to point b quickly. I don't mind this too much because the time limit kind of implies "yes, this game is very context sensitive but at least we don't hide it."
Honestly I think these two mechanics are a lost cause. The only purpose they seem to serve is making the game unique, but the aesthetic already does that. How many games do you know of that have a little crayon hopping about looking for smaller crayons while a 2 year old adorably says "save the bebos?" Once the uniqueness of the game is realized, the mechanics all seem kind of counterproductive.
This certainly wasn't a bad game by any means, but I can't help thinking that it was somewhat misguided. Good effort, but I can't quite give it my seal of approval.
Until next time, stay cute
Links
https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=425
