Color Zen

ColorZenCover
7 Overall Score
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 6/10

Soundtrack is Groovy | Good Puzzler

Simplistic Graphics | Double-Tap Pause Screen

Game Info

GAME NAME: Color Zen

DEVELOPER(S): Cypronia / Large Animal

PUBLISHER(S): Cypronia

PLATFORM(S): Nintendo Wii U

GENRE(S): Puzzle

RELEASE DATE(S): May 15th, 2014

Puzzle games have always felt best suited for the handheld consoles in my opinion.  With classics such as Picross and Tetris gracing Nintendo’s portable systems, they are the quintessential pick-up-an-play kind of games.  The Wii U kind of gives us a glimpse into both worlds.  One where we can still enjoy the portable feel but also still be parked on the couch in front of our nice 60″ flat screen.  Color Zen from Cypronia makes great use of the touch screen on the GamePad to bring the portable experience home.

WiiU_ColorZen_gameplay_02

Color Zen is truly a simplistic and artistic game.  There is no story to follow here, it is just go fun puzzle mechanics.  There are a total of 460 puzzles to solve broken down into 4 different categories.  The first called Classic will teach you all of the basics about Color Zen.  The second mode Reflections has physics based puzzles where like objects will move in reflection to what you are moving on the touchscreen.  The other two modes, Serenity and Nature, don’t really differ too much from the Classic mode in design with the exception of the artwork.

The controls for Color Zen are all touchscreen based.  You will be able to watch on the TV screen, but all the action is controlled on the GamePad.  You can really tell with these controls that the game was ported over from a cell phone game, but nonetheless it feel comfortable as you learn the controls and progress through the game.  You grab a certain color shape that is pulsing and can move it with the swipe of your finger or the stylus.  When you make contact with another shape of the same color it fills the background with that color.  The end goal is to make the background color the same as the border in your final move.  The added challenge of the while color which will make the screen whatever color you thrown in there and the black color which will remove whatever color you throw into it.  My only annoyance I faced while playing with the touchscreen only was that to pause the game you double tap the screeen and this didn’t always seem to work for me.  I really feel that mapping this to the start button wouldn’t have been too difficult and would have saved some frustration.

WiiU_ColorZen_gameplay_01

Graphically, the game is very vibrant in color but it is also simplistic.  It’s fun to see how the developer was going to use the colors and shapes to create each puzzle, but it isn’t anything that feels like an ultimate HD experience.  The soundtrack is pretty awesome.  It has a groovy electric feel to it and you will be bouncing to the beats while playing this fun little puzzler.

The Recommendation

For puzzle fans or gamers who want a cheap and easy to play game this is a must buy.  At a budgeted price, you will have tons of puzzles, a great soundtrack and a game that anyone can pick up and play.  Even though the graphics can feel a bit simplistic, this still doesn’t take away from the fact that the game is well thrown together and is just simply put fun.

 

 

 

 

 

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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

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