Game Review: Colored Effects

By Manuel

​Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Colored Effects is an action platformer that also features several puzzle platformer elements. It's out now on the Nintendo Switch, and the game sees you take on the role of a nameless and colorless figure whose goal is to equip skills in the form of colors, and conquer the game's many levels and bosses. It's quite the challenging experience, but challenge can most definitely be a good thing if handled right. We're going to take a look at Colored Effects and see if this is going to be a colorful adventure you're going to want to undertake, or if you're better off grabbing some sketch paper and crayons.

Each stage in Colored Effects requires you to collect three glowing orbs that represent the three primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. Collecting all three means you can now open the gates that block the exit which takes you to the next level. Collecting the color trio is easier said than done as you'll have to run, jump, dash, and solve your way to each of the areas that hold the colors you need. Stage hazards, as in things that can directly harm you, do exist in the normal levels, and it's important to remember that one hit means death. The platforming stages are often very tricky, but their difficulty often comes from having to figure out the best way to collect all the colors without getting oneself soft locked or killed. Some stages have save points you can use if you somehow get yourself killed and don't want to redo a touch section, but as far as I know there is no way to go back to a save point without physically getting your character killed by a stage hazard. This means that they're all but useless if you trap yourself in a room with no way of escape. The game is separated into several four stage blocks, with the first always being a boss battle that's followed by three standard stages. Each stage in a block usually feature a particular set of gameplay mechanics, with these changing from one block of levels to the next. Don't worry too much if you die though, you have infinite lives and you can restart a stage rather quickly. While Colored Effects is a very challenging game, it's also very fair when it comes to getting you back into the action without skipping a beat.

Skills are what make Colored Effects gameplay unique, and you find many of them as the game goes on. These include the ability to teleport, shoot a red projectile, dash, and even double jump. The number of skills at your disposal increases after each boss battle, but you'll usually only need two or three of them for any one level. Skill management is important as you're only able to equip one skill at a time. You're not able to change your skill at will though as you need to touch colored blocks to switch between them. These blocks correspond to the skills colors that you'll have learned from the boss battle before a set of levels. Shuffling skills is actually where a lot of the puzzle elements come into play as you'll often have to carefully plan using and switching between them to get past a level's many obstacles. As mentioned before, you can soft lock yourself in some areas if you enter them without the skills or items you need to escape. In short it's best to always plan ahead, move carefully, use save points, and not be afraid to kill off your character if you find yourself stuck. Don't be afraid to try out different things though. You'll find that most levels are completed by simply trying out every option with every item or skill.

Now I mentioned items earlier, but I don't exactly mean ones that you pick up and equip. Here "items" actually refer to things like blocks and switches. Besides jumping, the most important skill you have in the game is being able to push and pull blocks. Some blocks are colored and are used to switch between skills, while others are blank and only used to get around stage obstacles. These help you create a path to new areas and carefully placing them can often make or break a level run. Switches comes in two forms, ones that you can walk across or place a block on, or ones that you flip by touching or shooting them. Other forms of switches exist too, such as ones you can only shoot, but the idea stands that these change the level layout in some way, usually opening a locked door. Some of these switches are timed though, so make sure you have a way to leave any room that has a gate that closes not long after it opens. Other stage hazards exist in the form of bars of flame and moving platforms. These are pretty self-explanatory, with the latter being something you'll be using a lot in place of skills, or to move blocks across areas they normally couldn't be pushed or pulled to. Thankfully the controls are very tight which makes platforming a cinch.

I want to focus in on the boss battles a bit here, as they serve to break up the game's levels. I think it's quite an odd choice that the game starts you with a boss battle right off the bat. It's not even an easy one, and you're sure to die several times. After each of the boss battles you gain new abilities, so I guess it's due to this that the game throws you into the deep end at the very start, but I couldn't help but feel that it was not the most player-friendly choice. Every boss battle is an event here, and they all feature various attacks that require you to figure out when you're supposed to dodge and attack, and when you're supposed to change your currently equipped ability. You are blessed with something of a life bar in these stages though, and you're able to take three hits before you die. Somehow these stages are the most fun, yet also the most frustrating levels in the entire game. There is no way you'll be able to defeat them on your first try simply due to you not knowing what is expected of you, and even when you do it'll probably take a few tries until you get the strategies down tight. I really wish that these had some sort of level checkpoint, but I guess none of them are so hard that they feel impossible. Finally clearing one is a big feat, but every time I beat them I basically thought "Whew! Glad I never have to play that one again!", and I'm not really sure that that's a totally good thing.

I have very little to say when it comes to graphics and music, but not in a bad way. I liked both very much, but neither truly stood out. Music is well-done, and there wasn't a single track that stuck out as being out of place or bad. The same thing can be said about the sound effects too. I don't want to make it seem like the sound design is generic or forgettable, but more that it's there, it fits the game well, and adds to the feel without drawing too much attention to itself. My take on graphics is similar, but I think they have a bit more obvious highs and lows. I love that the levels are pretty big, with the entire gameplay area always being visible. The mostly white art style was impressive too and looked like it was all hand drawn on graphic paper. I also was very pleased to see that the game had a color blind mode, which is something that I turned on immediately. Anyhow, while I do like the extreme zoomed out feel to everything, I must admit that this does make everything quite small if you're playing in Handheld Mode, or if you're sitting far away from a smaller TV. There isn't really much in the way of life or death situations where this is a true detriment to the player, but I often lost track of my character, skill boxes, and switches more than a few times. None of this is a deal-breaker, but just my thoughts on the game's overall presentation.

Colored Effects is a rather short game all things considered. Depending on how well you do in the levels, and whether you have to replay them many times, you can complete this game in a handful of hours. A short game isn't always a bad thing though. Colored Effects is currently priced at a very low $4.99, and that feels like a steal for the amount of content you get. I've spent far more for games that have a similar length to them, but don't feel as well put together as this one. Even though there isn't a whole lot of reason to go back to it after you finish it, I did find myself replaying levels for fun trying to find better/faster solutions to levels I felt that I had just a bit too much trouble with. Whether you'll get as much mileage out of the game as I did is debatable, but I'm sure that most will find their time and money well spent.

While I don't feel I can give Colored Effects a full blanket recommendation, I do think that I can say it's a must-have game for those who are fans of action puzzle games, or even those looking for a tough platformer. I enjoyed my time with it, and even if I don't think I'll ever go through the entire game again, I will definitely be revisiting some levels here and there whenever I have down time and I'm looking for something to play. Grab it now and get playing!

Check Out Colored Effects on The Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/colored-effects-switch/

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Gameplay: A-
Graphics: B+
Music/Sound: B+
Value: A

Overall: A-

Pros:
+ A tough action platformer with puzzle elements that brings the right level of challenge to the table.
+ While very tough at times, the boss battles are some of the best parts of the game and showcase the gameplay the best.
+ Tight controls, great music, and a cool graphic style come together to make a game that feels above its small indie roots.
+ At just $4.99 Colored Effects is a steal of a deal.

Cons:
- Difficulty spikes between levels, and especially boss battles, can be a bit off-putting to some.
- While the game does offer hours of gameplay, there is very little reason to go back to it once you complete it.
- The lack of checkpoints in boss battles can be very frustrating at times.
- There are times when I felt that the super zoomed out graphics made small details hard to make out.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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