It's a tale as old as time. A girl meets an alien general, and the alien general comes through her bedroom wall and steals her cat and maybe her heart. The girl then grabs a laser rifle and heads off to get her cat back. Functionally, the videogame setup may not be much different from "The Princess is in Another Castle," but the pastel colors combined with the bright art style that looks like graffiti on a monitor make it a true heart's eye.

Yes, I fell in love with "Super Crush KO" at first sight. It reminded me of "Steven Universe," "Scott Pilgrim," "Goodbye Wildhearts," and the feature-length music video of a woman dancing across New York City in the Girl Talk mash-up album "All Day. (If you get nothing else from this review, watch that video.) But this is a superficial attraction based on appearances and assumptions, the kind that quickly fades away. Unfortunately, this is not a love story.

If you peel back the impeccable direction, what lies beneath is a perfectly straightforward 2D brawler. Armed with the aforementioned laser gun and a selection of punches, kicks, and dashes, you move from left to right, clearing one robotic nuisance after another. Nothing wrong with that. Some of my best friends are straight 2D brawlers. But Super Crush KO's action lacks a certain vibrancy. As gorgeous as the art is, the movements are not as smooth as one might expect. The characters look like paper dolls made as children with split pins in their joints and jerking limbs.

The action lacks gravitas. Enemies just stay there, politely waiting to explode while you hit the punch button repeatedly. Your sprites can overlap enemy sprites and stand harmlessly on top of each other until the enemy flashes red in an attack pattern and is knocked backward with the force of an updraft catching a shopping bag. An ill-timed uppercut will send you flying past your intended target into the clear azure sky, and a carefully timed follow-up punch will reduce your combo multiplier and flutter in the wind.

Super Crash KO is one of those action games that will always mark your performance. Its UI is dominated by large bold letters that sit at the top of the screen indicating judgment. And this is the most annoying aspect of the game.

On the one hand, it is the engine that powers Super Crash KO. It is seemingly possible to combine the entire level into one elongated combo, using special moves that dash the character forward and the range of the laser rifle to avoid creating dead air for even a moment. The challenge here is not so much taking down the aliens as it is to keep hitting and dodging successfully.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how well this fits in with every other part of the game. But the constant reminder of current performance means that every moment a punch doesn't land feels like a failure. It's not that the bright, colorful exterior can't hide sharp teeth (just look at "Cuphead"), but that its simple combat system never gets the inevitable knot of stress in the pit of the stomach that accompanies the ticking of the combo timer.

I didn't have to do much headwork while playing. Soon I was reaching for my headphones (sadly, the music never reached a level beyond "usable"), and the game just became a means to keep my hands and eyes busy while I kept my attention on the podcast. And after a while, even my eyes stopped recognizing the ample appeal of Super Crush KO.

Even the prettiest game can quickly become stale without growth and change. For example, "Sayonara Wild Hearts" was one of the games that came to mind when I first got hooked on "Super Crash". The game has a standout aesthetic, but every few seconds a new idea jumps in. In "Super Crash KO," once you unlock all the moves (which are unlocked near the end of the second level), you'll be doing and seeing pretty much the same thing until the credits roll.

There is one major exception to this rule. Cutscenes are drawn in the style of comic pages, where each click brings up a new panel or adds an animated element. Cutscenes are always entertaining and, frankly, the main reason to keep playing. The variety of enemies and obstacles continues to grow, but they do not push the player out of their comfort zone or cause visual surprises.

Therefore, the gaze inevitably wanders, seeking something new and exciting instead. I'm not proud of it, but this indie game that wandered into my Steam recommendations has already had me staring at it for hours. This time, it must be true love.