Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! is a terrifically addictive old-school PC game where you get to play the role of a giant monster and destroy the city of your choice. (Actually, your choices are pretty much limited to New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo.) You can play as a famous movie monster like Godzilla or you can create a monster of your own. As Serpentor the Giant Snake, I terrorized New York. As Swampy the Sea Monster, I terrorized San Francisco. As Tony Roboto, I terrorized Tokyo with mechanical precision.

Now, to be clear, when I say that this is an old-school PC game, I mean it’s very old school. Don’t bother trying to point-and-click. This game is totally keyboard-driven and, since it’s 45 years old, it’s not like there’s a manual lying around with all the commands in a neat list. I had to play the game a few times and push a lot of random buttons to learn just how to make my monster move from one part of the map to the other. But it was all worth it. Once you do learn that M is for move and L is for changing direction and that pushing G allows you to grab people and eat them, the game becomes very easy to learn.

If you create your own monster, you’ll be given a set of points and some powers to buy. Don’t make the mistake of buying every expensive power that you see because you’re also going to need to use whatever points you have left over to set how quickly your monster heals and how tough its hide is. Of the powers, I suggest purchasing the supersonic scream and the power to zap helicopters. The supersonic scream can destroy enemies even if they’re not in the square adjacent to you. As for the helicopters, they appear to be your greatest foe. They’re difficult to grab. Better just to zap them.

Once you get used to it and feel confident with the keyboard (and I do suggest keeping a list of what happens when you push each button), Crush, Crumble, and Chomp! is a monstrous good time. It can be played at the Internet Archive.