Color Guardians

8.5 Overall Score
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6/10

Awesome Effects | Great Flow | Good Level Concepts

Difficult | Bland Soundtrack | Similar Boss Fights

Game Info

GAME NAME: Color Guardians

DEVELOPER(S): Fair Play Labs

PUBLISHER(S): Fair Play Labs

PLATFORM(S): PlayStation 4

GENRE(S): Endless Runner

RELEASE DATE(S): May 12th, 2015

While endless runners can be enjoyable, most are shallow experiences that get repetitive and monotonous.  Color Guardians is the game that breaks the mold of endless runners.  With a decent storyline, great characters and character models, a great attention for details and even boss fights, Fair Play Labs have done their homework to create one of the best games in the genre to date.

color-guardians1

The storyline is quite simple but in an endless runner I wouldn’t expect much if anything to supplement a story.   The color has been taken from the world by the evil Krogma and it is up to our 3 heroes Rod, Lia, and Grock to restore the beauty to Terra Color.  Right away you will notice similarities to the color plot to games like The Last Tinker or Epic Mickey, but since it is an endless runner it will have a different feel.  I love the developer’s attention to detail such as changing your PlayStation 4 light bar to match the color of your character or the world morphing with color is like something out of the hit indie title Giana Sisters.  

The controls are simple and the game guides you well through the first few stages so that you can sharpen your skills for the grueling trip ahead.  All you need to worry about is switching between three different lanes and changing between the three different colors using the face buttons X, Triangle and Square.  Circle is an action button that you will use later to do certain tasks such as releasing from a parasol or using it to toss bombs at the boss of each area.  The main goal is to obviously make it to the end of the level, but you will also want to collect all of the color orbs.  To do so you will just run into them with the matching color.  There are multicolored paint balls which you can run into with any color and still gather them.  You will also want to tap the color button before hitting the paint ball to get a perfect.  I found myself just turbo tapping the anticipated color and this worked out just fine.

color-guardians2

Learning the basics of controlling your character will come to you quickly but then it’s changing up your thought process on the fly that really gets you stumbling.  For instance, you will just be collecting color balls and then the game throws you the curve call of having to switch the color to go through a wall obstacle just to turn to another color to use a jump mushroom.  To guide through the obstacles or use stage gadgets such as the fan or speed plates you will need to match with the corresponding colors.  The game even has mine cart levels later on when it starts getting so difficult that you will be dying beyond 10 times each level.

I love the graphical effects that Fair Play Labs has brought to the table.  If I hadn’t just recently played Splatoon it would have been an even more awesome experience of seeing paint splatter and fly all over the levels.  The soundtrack has hopes and dreams of being a classic from the likes of David Wise and his amazing work on the Donkey Kong Country franchise but ultimately falls short.  While at times it may resemble the great soundtracks of the past, it mostly becomes repetitive and almost adds to the fuel of rage as you keep dying over and over.

The Recommendation

If you are a fan of endless runners then this is the one that you have been waiting for.  Even though the difficulty ramps up quickly over the 70 levels, there is plenty to love about Color Guardians.  The quirky characters, the morphing of the stages and the just plain feeling of accomplishment when you complete a level perfectly will keep you coming back for more.  Don’t walk, endless run to the PlayStation Store and pick up this title today.

 

Summary

Review Date
Reviewed Item
Color Guardians (PS4)
Author Rating
41star1star1star1stargray

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Author: Anthony DeVirgilis View all posts by
Managing Partner / Editor for Sony/Nintendo I prefer Indies to AAA titles... unless it's Nintendo or Sony Google+ Author