One of Cinemaware's last releases before the company disbanded and one of the few games it did not develop in-house, The Kristal is a zany outer-space adventure game that combines traditional adventure with arcade sequences that occur too often for my taste.
The game seems to follow the tongue-in-cheek formula of "B" movies such as Flash Gordon and Plan 9 from Outer Space, but fails miserably flat due to poorly written dialogues, puzzles that don't make any sense, and the annoying reliance on money, which is in extremely short supply. The thin excuse of a plot puts you in the shoes of a carefree space jockey who had one too many at a galactic bar, and found himself stranded on an alien planet.
The Kristal isn't really worth anyone's time, unless you want to see how bad a Cinemaware game can get. Underrated, perhaps, but not by a longshot.
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
Je suis un peu dans "l'obligation" de partager les opinions ci-dessus. The Kristal est l'exemple type d'une bonne idée très mal exploitée.
L'originalité est un atout, face aux productions stéréotypées et récurrentes par leur similarité. Mais les dialogues confus et peu pertinents dans l'aventure, la difficulté mal gérée (que faisaient les testeurs???) font qu'il est facile de se lasser trop tôt.
C'est le genre de jeu qui devrait avoir droit à un remake digne de ce nom, sans écarter l'originalité.
Soulignons tout de même que les graphismes n'étaient pas mauvais (les décors d'arrière plan sont sublimes), la musique d'intro agréablement étrange et suggestive, du moins au début...
Ok, at least the graphics are not bad. Especially EGA can look much worse at that time.
I bought this back in the day when it was new and it was AWFUL. Glad to see that I'm not the only person who hated it. Absolutely giant waste of time... avoid at all costs.
This game has haunted my memories for years... in a bad way. I clearly remember loading this game multiple times only to get 10 minutes in and find myself completely confused. Nothing about this game made any sense. I tried repeatedly to solve the weird puzzles, but the non-sensical dialogue and in game items made it nearly impossible. Finding this entry makes me feel like I have closure to this poor excuse of a game that plagued my youth. Why did I ever pick up this game? If I find a time machine, I will go back and tell my 13 year old self to burn this stupid game. .
The only redeeming quality of this game is to show a good example of a failing game company in 1989 and a poorly executed game design.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.