Image: Friend & Fairy + GalaxyTrail

It's all too easy for a best-in-genre game to slip under the radar these days, so I'm stepping up to hoot and holler at you today about Petal Crash 2, which just rolled out into early access and is shaping up to be a great sequel to a fantastic action-puzzler. While this game is doing its own thing (so many things), there's an undeniable vein of inspiration here from classic Nintendo puzzler Yoshi's Cookie.

The original Petal Crash is still one of the best versus puzzlers out there, although it's playable too in solo endurance mode. The core mechanic is simple but can spiral into complexity. You pick one colored block to push away from its current position. If it hits another block of the same color, it explodes, pushing away all adjacent blocks, which in turn can hit more, causing further explosions. Obviously, bigger combos mean bigger attacks in multiplayer mode (cluttering up the other player's screen), and in endurance mode, it helps you keep your head above water as more blocks constantly spawn onto the map.

There's a bit more to it than that, but those are the fundamentals. The sequel switches up from minimalist Game Boy Color-inspired graphics to a much more modern presentation. Still brightly colored sprites with chunky pixels, but with much richer colors and smoother animations, with the blocks themselves bouncing and exploding with more energy. The larger resolution also means that some modes can use bigger (and sometimes wider) playfields. The early access version launches with 8 playable characters (one more than the original), all the arcade modes, local multiplayer, and a puzzle editor mode.

While there's a lot here to love for solo and local multiplayer fans (and technically online via remote play), the biggest feature of the original Petal Crash isn't quite ready to show off in the sequel - full competitive online play, with rollback netcode and fighting game-style lobbies. Also on the upcoming feature list are hidden characters, a puzzle mode with hand-crafted challenges, a remastered version of the Petal Crash 1 story mode, and a run-based adventure mode. I don't doubt that everything will be implemented in time, but it may take a while.

Given that it took so long for Petal Crash 2 to launch in its current state, developers Friend & Fairy have been conservative in their estimates, guessing that the final version of the game won't be ready until late 2027 or even stretching into 2028. But even in its partial state, this is still a very well-tuned puzzler with great music, charming sprite animation, and some adorable characters. Plus, that lovely mix of simple controls and complex combo mechanics that define all the best action puzzlers.

Petal Crash 2 is out now in early access for £14.29/$17, with a 10% launch discount running until October 6th. There are no plans for the price to increase, although the final release is still likely a full year away.