Super Crush KO is candy-coloured brawling that's perfect for a January commute

Super Crush KO, by Vertex Pop, is one of those games that looks and feels fantastic. It's a 2D brawler, in which a kidnapped kitty sends you into battle against a bunch of alien nasties, and it's delivered in dreamy cocktail pinks and purples, flat colours referencing the glory days of Flash gaming, perhaps, while the controls are wonderfully responsive and the battle arenas are nice and snug.

Play it on Switch, as I've been doing this week, and it's the perfect enlivener to a dark commute, riding the bus before the sun is up, trying to work our whether the mist is going to turn into drizzle.

No drizzle in the Super Crush KO world. Everything is pink and purple and ready for an air-juggle. The combat elements are nice and simple: melee, ranged, dodge, twister-drill etc. Enemies turn up in puzzley little combinations as you move from one screen to the next, and while there are environmental challenges and bosses, the real challenge comes from the fact that you can see your grade on the screen all the way through a battle, so I'm constantly fighting to turn a D into a B or an A even as I tackle wave after wave of baddies.

Read more