Kids can learn about puzzle solving, spatial reasoning, and game design in this challenging and creative collection of conundrums. Tower puzzles require players to use both logic and imagination as they consider which way to pull, push, and slide blocks to make them fall into climbable staircases. Then kids can try their hand at creating their own puzzles, where they'll learn how to think like a game designer who has to consider how players react to the puzzles they create. They may even make art out of their puzzle designs. Parents need to know that Crashmo is a puzzle game only available for download through the 3DS eShop store for Nintendo 3DS. It presents players with scores of challenging three-dimensional block puzzles that will put their reasoning skills to the test. It's completely free of iffy content.

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The only thing parents may need to keep an eye on are the puzzles that players can create and swap with one another. Kids can only share with their friends, so there's no worry of inappropriate online interactions, but mischievous players could decide to turn their blocky creations into suggestive art. A sequel to - one of the best downloadable games available for Nintendo 3DS - CRASHMO returns players to a park filled with blocky towers in need of manipulation.

This time out our hero - a pudgy red cat named Mallo dressed in sumo wrestling garb - has accidentally scared away a bunch of birds with one of his big stomps. The feathery creatures have nested atop jumbles of blocks, and the only way to get them down is to rearrange these piles so that Mallo can ascend to their peaks. Megabyte punch unlock all parts.

Kids push, pull, and slide individual pieces paying careful attention to where those above will fall in hopes of creating serpentine paths that lead up around, and through the fallen blocks. Outside Mallo's quest, players can explore a studio mode that allows them to create their own puzzles, then share them with other players via automatically generated QR codes.

Puzzle fans will have a blast with this cleverly conceived sequel. The puzzles feel much the same as those found in, save a few important changes. The most important is that the puzzle arena is now a little bigger and players can move the camera all the way around the tower. That means players have to think about the tower in three dimensions, exploring paths that lead up not just its front but also its sides and back. It makes things a bit trickier, but you can always just skip ahead and move on to the next should you run into something you just can't crack.Factor in the return of the studio mode - which can be used not only to create new puzzles to share with friends but also to make simple, block-based art - and you have a wonderful and affordable little eShop game that offers a good deal more entertainment than many full-priced boxed games in stores.

A year ago, Intelligent Systems released the rather excellent Pushmo for the 3DS eShop. It was a puzzle game that challenged players to climb to the top of colorful structures made out of movable blocks.

Now they’ve made a sequel in the form of Crashmo, where those same colorful blocks are now affected by gravity and will “crash” straight down if they don’t have the proper support. It may seem like a small change, but it makes a huge difference to the overall gameplay. Moreover, Crashmo expands on its outstanding predecessor in almost every way, making it another top-notch title for Nintendo’s 3DS eShop.

In Crashmo, you once again play as Mallo, but instead of saving trapped children, this time you’re rescuing carrier birds scattered atop various puzzle structures called Crashmos. Papa Blox, the designer of Crashmos, will bring you up to speed on the game’s various rules and physics with some tutorial puzzles, but he’ll soon introduce special blocks that change the rules of the game. Pushmo‘s warping manhole covers are back, but this time there’s also a new cloud block that will float regardless of what is or isn’t currently beneath it.

The puzzles themselves are genius, and there are more than one hundred puzzles to sink your teeth into. The early batches of puzzles begin with simple tutorial puzzles that introduce and demonstrate new puzzle elements like floating blocks, but the difficulty level rapids increases once you get to the main event. In this respect, Crashmo surpasses its predecessor, as it has a much less restrictive set of rules.

In Pushmo, for example, you can’t pull a block without a foothold behind you and thus, the puzzle solving process sometimes boils down to a process of elimination where you can simply try every combination of moves possible. There’s no such restriction in Crashmo so you are left with too many combinations of moves for a trial and error approach. Instead, you must understand the limits and functions of the different puzzle elements to solve the more difficult challenges. Each block in a puzzle is there for a purpose and you must use this to reason your way to the solution. Compared to the puzzles in Pushmo, they’re much more demanding, but at the same time they’re even more rewarding.

Crashmo also focuses every bit of its energy on creating the best puzzle-solving experience. The art style, although bland, presents the puzzle as clearly as possible while the 3D effects enhance the depth perception that’s so crucial in solving many of the more demanding puzzles, and the convenient camera controls allow you to zoom in, zoom out, and rotate your perspective with ease. You can even rewind and go backwards in time to fix your mistakes, too, and there’s very little music to distract you. That said, the celebratory jingle features the most anticlimactic progression of notes I’ve ever heard, and it makes completing really hard puzzles much less of a celebration than before.

At the end of the day, though, Crashmo is pure puzzling gold and one of the best titles available for 3DS. If you haven’t already experienced the exquisite Pushmo, now couldn’t be a better time to get on board the Crashmo express.

Nintendojo was provided a copy of this game for review by a third party, though that does not affect our recommendation. For every review, Nintendojo uses a standard criteria.