"Castle Crumble on trial: destructive fun for relaxing moments

Martin Jungfer

12.5.2023

Translation: machine translated

The game's principle is simple, the levels short, the graphics good: "Castle Crumble", from the Apple Arcade catalogue, is a nice game that's suitable for hobbies. I'd just have liked a bit more of a challenge.

In the end, I destroyed hundreds of castles. I've hurled cannonballs, time bombs or acid bombs capable of dissolving steel bars at them. In Castle Crumble, destruction is your mission. Level after level, you progress and destroy castle after castle.

Developers from Poland's Orbital Knight studio made the game. The team has also previously sold Apple the physical puzzle game Spire Blast for the arcade catalogue.

Maximum destruction

As a beginner, you destroy a castle with a cannonball in Castle Crumble. A tutorial helps you aim and gives you rudimentary tactical advice. The controls are extremely simple and intuitive. You choose a weapon from the arsenal. The bomb you choose flies where you click the mouse. On the iPad or iPhone, a simple press of the finger determines the trajectory. You can target the castles to be destroyed from different positions. To do this, simply move the view, as you would with Google Maps in the 3D representation. Only the zoom doesn't work, which doesn't prevent good control.

Rectifying the castle becomes particularly important in later levels. Often, time bombs need to be placed in an appropriate room in the castle, where they explode with maximum power. The more damage you do, the more rewards you get in the form of trophies for the game's overall ranking and coins to buy extra features. Ideally, you want to raze all the construction on the hill.

In addition, pink blobs with cheeky grins jump all over the castles. If these "soldiers" are hit by flying debris or fall through the air with the tower, you get extra points.

An explosives expert at work

Castle Crumble is not challenging, especially at first, failure in a level is almost impossible. Most of the time I even had a bomb or two to spare. In the early levels, you mainly learn to develop your skills as an explosives expert. For wooden castles, the good old cannonball is enough. Concrete constructions require a charge of TNT, which is in turn detonated with a bomb. Or you can manage to detonate other explosive charges placed earlier by knocking over debris. This saves cannonballs in your arsenal. I feel like an explosives expert who has to raze a complicated complex of buildings to the ground and, to do that, identify the weak points in the architecture.

So far, my description of Castle Crumble must sound pretty destructive. Where does the fun come from? From two things. On the one hand, the levels are short and success comes quickly. Secondly, the laws of physics are wonderfully integrated into the game. I can even make the castle towers fall in the direction I want by touching the support elements and destroy other parts of the castle at the same time. What's more, Castle Crumble provides some great sound effects. First, the bomb explodes, then stones crash to the ground and wooden beams collapse. Victory is celebrated with fireworks and fanfares. Here's a brief overview:

As I move from castle to castle, I collect coins and trophies. The principle by which I get them isn't explained, but it doesn't matter. I have enough to buy features in the shop that allow me to destroy more easily if the weapons at my disposal aren't enough, which is never the case.

Conclusion: an entertaining hobby

I'm more of a fan of games where there's something to build, for example a road system in Mini Motorways. In Castle Crumble, I have to act as a great destroyer, which is not without moral consequences. But I've also built a lot virtually in the past, cities and even entire civilisations. I have the right to smash a few pixelated castles. Even if young children of a certain age prefer to destroy real wooden block towers, for the interpretation of Castle Crumble, Apple recommends a minimum age of nine.

On the whole, Castle Crumble is not a game that pushes you to the limit of your intelligence. Even in the higher levels, you generally manage to destroy the castles with ease, and in about two minutes per level. In principle, I could take forever; there's no time limit. The changing landscapes and unlockable weapons provide lasting motivation. I won't tell you which ones so as not to spoil the fun.

Castle Crumble is an entertaining pastime, a bit like the tower-building game Jenga, but in reverse. The charm of Castle Crumble is less than that of actually building wooden blocks. It's too simple and the gameplay of each level is too similar. The fact that I can buy a special method of destruction with the coins I've collected is nice. But that's about it. A multiplayer mode, for example, that would allow me to demolish castles with or against other players, perhaps even in limited time, would be a plus for the game.

Castle Crumble has been available in the Apple Arcade catalogue since February 2023.

Martin Jungfer

Head of Content

Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment. more

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