Before support for Adobe Flash was officially ceased in 2021, it was the delivery method for some of the wildest and most bizarre interactive games the internet has ever seen. Some creations led to amazing things. Some floundered in obscurity. Others were simply too strange to ignore. Whatever they may have have led to, these games deserve to be illuminated once more.
This time around, we’re taking a look at a particularly engaging entry from Newgrounds, a beloved internet community whose origins can be traced all the way back to a modest zine in 1991. The site primarily serves as a place for talented musicians, artists, and animators to share their craft and self-regulate the quality of content shared. Barring differences in how the website reflected cultural sensibilities at the time, as well as the content being submitted on a daily basis, it was also host to some particularly incredible titles in the world of flash games.
We’re not here to necessarily discuss the good and bad of Newgrounds, but it’s worth bringing up when you consider the game we’re talking about today: Crunchdown, which made its official debut on the site in 2008.
Playing Crunchdown
In Crunchdown, you play as one of two roommates living in an undisclosed city, which is now at the mercy of rampant rioting. As the duo crassly comment on their surroundings, the sudden realization that the door to their home has been destroyed prompts a call to action. As their journey takes them into the heart of the city, they’ll come to find that the madness is attributed to a single individual with a dastardly plan — and plenty of firepower to boot.
It’s your typical 2D brawler: run from left to right, punch everything in sight, eat food found in garbage bins to survive, use weapons for additional damage, and so on. In the game’s credits, the acclaimed Sega Genesis game Streets of Rage 2 is listed as an inspiration, and frankly, it’s easy to see the similarities.
Upon starting the game, you’ll be given an option to pick the number of lives you’re allotted, as well as the ability to choose between either playable character after beating the game once. To start out, you’re stuck with the slower, shorter one of the two. However, what he lacks in speed, he more than makes up for with a particularly unique ability.
Crunchdown separates itself from similar games by featuring a “chomp” ability. Like the name suggests, you’ll be able to consume a number of objects in the game world, including static props and certain enemies, to grant yourself a special ability that temporarily replaces the chomp. This ability is limited by a yellow circle that gradually empties with the ability’s use. This is either handled via a set time limit, or by increments every time you activate the ability. You’ll also lose this ability upon losing a life. It opens the door for plenty of creative and overpowered attacks you can unleash on your opponents.
Eating a garbage can (in lieu of smashing it for health) allows you to projectile vomit onto your foes. Consuming a potted plant grants you the ability to shoot sharp leaves at your enemies. Chomping down on a barbell turns you into... well, a walking barbell, complete with the wide attack range and heavy damage you would expect.
Of course, you’ll have also to use your best judgment for what to consume and what to leave alone. There are plenty of opportunities for the game to play a funny joke on you by having your newfound transformation be completely worthless. Eating a dog just outside of your home, for example, turns you into said dog, which leaves you defenseless for a substantial amount of time. Similarly, eating the punching bag at the mall’s gym will turn you into a literal punching bag, leaving you with nothing to do but swing back and forth until you turn back to normal.
These abilities certainly help, but they’re not really necessary to win. You only have a generic combo string to attack enemies with otherwise, and as long as you take advantage of the specific timing needed to continually interrupt an enemy’s attack, you’ll be fine. This is especially notable with the effectiveness of the second playable character, who lacks the unique chomp ability, but has a separate combo string involving kicks to make up for it.
A Competent Brawler
If Crunchdown has any faults, it’s that it’s a little undercooked in terms of gameplay. It’s functional, and for as short as it is, there’s some decent level variety: you’ll go from stomping alleyways to a colorful shopping mall, leading up to a tense vehicle chase and a climactic confrontation high above the city.
These are just a handful of issues that may lightly sour the experience of playing Crunchdown: the final boss fight can be beaten extremely quickly after catching him in a specific place; hit detection can occasionally be a little finicky; and it’s difficult to beat the aforementioned vehicle section without taking a significant amount of damage. But then again, it’s just a flash game. It’s like finding one less-than-perfect grape in an adequate bundle. For what it is, these small issues are minor enough to overlook — especially when you consider what else Crunchdown has going for it.
For one thing, its story is a terrific time capsule of internet culture circa 2008. It’s crass, it’s loaded with dated references and bizarre, lackadaisical twists, and its gradual self-awareness that develops the more you play is charming in its own unique way. It’s as if the creator of Crunchdown slowly became more and more exasperated with each successive level, with self-conscious jabs at the game’s story in its own cutscenes bringing this to light. Given that Crunchdown is primarily attributed to a single author, we can see where they’re coming from.
The game’s music is also a highlight. What you’ll come to find from flash games of this era, especially from Newgrounds, is that there’s a genuine sense of community that can be found in projects big and small alike. It wasn’t uncommon to see familiar voice actors reappearing in dozens of separate projects, or to see music uploaded to the site used with attribution in a number of games or movies. Case in point, the many songs that make up Crunchdown’s soundtrack, which are each given their own separate link to their respective page on Newgrounds. They’re funky, they’re energetic, and they all make for an interesting soundscape to accompany the action on-screen. A notable highlight, “Take Cover” by Jincallo, has unfortunately been deleted from the site.
Who Made Crunchdown?
Those who have kept a close eye on indie game publishing over the years may be surprised to learn who exactly made this bizarre brawler. It’s none other than “I-smel” — aka Tom Brien, the very same Tom Brien who co-founded tinyBuild, a prominent indie game publisher.
In his own words, per the game’s official description on Newgrounds, Crunchdown was developed over the course of a few months. Development was prompted by the success of Brien’s previous game, Cannoncrotch, a World War II-themed action game that is fairly self-explanatory. After its completion, the game sat in limbo for an additional month due to a lack of interest from potential buyers — until Newgrounds showed up, that is, who offered to host the game without any significant censorship or other content alterations. Keeping in line with flash games of the time, he even provides a way to find the song used in the game’s credit sequence:
UPDATE: The credits song is PACHABEL’S CANON IN D played on an electric guitar.
Search Google Videos for GUITAR, it’s like the first guy.
A lot of Brien’s games share this kind of personable, informal description. The description for Cannoncrotch shares his thoughts on the state of games being submitted as a whole, as well as his experiments with advertising. The description for Duck Sim 2008 is admittedly hilarious and informative, given that the game itself exists as a short joke. Even the description for No Time to Explain is as brief as it is silly, emphasizing the bizarre and expedient nature of its accompanying game.
An expanded commercial version of No Time to Explain would eventually become the first-ever game published by tinyBuild in 2011. Co-founded by Tom Brien and Alex Nichiporchik — the latter being a former professional Warcraft III player — they opted to polish up No Time to Explain for a full release only three years after the release of Crunchdown. It was a simple, if not charming platformer that would set the stage for a successful career in indie publishing, doubling as tinyBuild’s sole game that they’ve ever developed.
It’s nice to see that Brien hasn’t forgotten his roots, however. Though his activity on Newgrounds is fairly limited nowadays, you can still find him replying to reviews of his games as recently as 2023, showing his appreciation for those who grew up with Crunchdown and Cannoncrotch. It just goes to show how much something as simple as a flash game and the community surrounding it can mean to someone, even if it’s been more than a decade.
If you’d like to play Crunchdown yourself, the game is still available on Newgrounds.
