Echochrome

This is officially the most brain-numbing puzzle game I have ever played. The game is completely in black and white and has a physics-defying style of gameplay. The fact that you can manipulate the view of the puzzle affects how the little man walks around on it. Yes, the point of the game is to move the little guy around the puzzle and have him touch the highlighted points of the puzzle. Touch all of them and you advance to the next puzzle.

Echochrome is not going to jive with everybody; the game forces players to use that part of their brain they may not normally use. In fact, I had my niece and nephew give this game a try and one could get it and one couldn't. The reason for all the confusion is the constantly changing perspectives. Let me give you an example, the puzzle is floating in a blank, white space and you can spin it so you can see a full 360 degrees of the puzzle and at any angle. By lining up one walkway with another walkway via spinning the puzzle so the view makes it so, then the pathway becomes true, and where once the little guy could only walk back and forth on a small platform, he can now walk on to the new longer path. Moving the angle of the view helps move the character around the puzzle.

 
Call Mensa!

In fact, the puzzles can be manipulated several different ways within this vein, the whole game is based on you being able to distort the reality of the puzzle. There are five distinct ways to do that: Perspective traveling like I described above, perspective landing, where the character falls through a hole and lands on whatever is beneath, perspective jump has the little guy stepping on a jump platform and shooting in the air, any object that appears above will be landed on. Perspective absence involves using objects to shield other objects, like holes or gaps so the character can walk through without incident and lastly, perspective existence, where making two platforms meet visually then they become one, this is similar to perspective traveling but only applies with two like platforms.

The game is a real trip, the whole idea of perspective has been used in other games but never to this degree. By using the two thumbsticks to move and spin the puzzle you can line objects up and by pressing the "X" button, the little character will increase his speed of walking, This is primarily used to relieve those gamers who don't like to wait for the little guy to walk back and forth (like me). In a couple of instances I noticed that the puzzle shimmies when trying to get a really tight perspective alignment going, it isn't horrible mind you, but can cause some frustration in some cases.

 
So simple, so frustrating.

Other than that, the game, for being black and white, looks very clean and sharp, there isn't any color, but that is made up by the clever design of the puzzles and clean use of the 3D modeling. Plus, the whole physics defying look of the game is pretty sweet to view. The game is easily one of the most challenging puzzle games I have ever played and I mean that in a very positive way. In fact, the developers give you a really cool tutorial to show and play through just so you can learn the five perspectives.

Now the game has very limited sound, there is no real flashy music here, rather a subdued accompaniment that insists you take your time and look at things from all angles. I liked how the almost airy music sounds and even the quick buzz when you reach an achievement point on the screen. The whole music has a very refreshing theme going for it.

Fortunately for the $9.99 price tag, you can also download additional puzzles from all over the world. Interestingly enough, some gamers have already had Echochrome for a while and have made some really incredible puzzles, thanks to the canvas mode you can try your hand at making and playing puzzles as well. In fact the game has a couple different play modes to challenge puzzle fanatics of all types. The Altier mode allows you to play through the complete set of puzzles from 1-56, or select a set of eight puzzles that start hard and become difficult quickly. Since there is a timer, there is some motivation to get through the puzzles more quickly, posting the best time in the house if you will. The second mode is the portfolio mode where you can alter existing puzzles or create one from scratch like I noted above.

Gameplay: 8.0
A well designed and controlled game, simplistic yet challenging.

Graphics: 7.5
Clean lines, nice wire-framed models all look incredibly sharp against the white screen. For its simple appearance the use of 3D is done very well.

Sound: 7.8
An esoteric mix of tone and harmony that moves the game along nicely.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Players have to dig deep to use that part of the brain they may not use often, I swear this game makes you smarter.

Concept: 8.4
This is a very clever and cool idea, you would think this sort of thing has been done before, but I can't recall when. I love the fact you can build your own puzzles.

Overall: 8.0
Games like Echochrome only come around in a great while, completely devoid of anything controversial, yet full of gameplay and challenge that other games wish they had.