Petal Crash has an absolutely impeccable amount of charm. From its writing to its spritework, it's a legitimately engaging collection of short stories and cute characters with a clever enough hook to know exactly what kind of cute lil' game it is and get the most out of it. On top of that, when everything comes together with a fantastic crash, blocks all moved into position to knock into each other in one big string while you start to look for the next, there is a FABULOUS kinetic burst of accomplishment that really only Tetris Attack matches. It's a quick-adapt style puzzler that simultaneously allows you to build and actively participate in, and the dynamic system on which you score points - that being having a certain combo lead over your opponent to deal damage that diminishes the longer it goes where no one has scored a point - makes the need to go from intricate chains to well thought-out two-matches fantastic. It marries all of the best elements of puzzlers together in a fabulous burst... it's just that the board, inherently, is a bit more limited than other puzzlers due to being less freeform. The feeling of your opponent messing you up is felt MUCH more here than in games like Panel de Pon or any versus Tetris game, because the interference your opponent runs is directly in your play area, rather than purely above or below it to add pressure. I'm not entirely sure what the best solution to garbage blocks is, but it creates a situation where comebacks are far more difficult in Petal Crash than its (good) contemporaries. Perhaps I just need to git gud properly, though. Characters are still absolutely adorable, game is generally adorable, I really look forward to what a sequel will bring to the table for this game!