Colorize (2020)

A nice 2 hour adventure. The trailer makes the game seem slower than it is. At its core, you must go as fast as possible to complete the level to get 3 stars. The narrative although compact -- is rich with adventure. I can not recommend this game enough for a mere 2 dollars. Home run!

Having a cute aesthetic and decent music isn't enough to save this non-game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P19MKMwTaU If you haven't already decided to pass on Colorize, go ahead and watch my video. You move your character while touching spots on the screen to activate effects and change the world. In the About This Game clip, it shows the platforming present in Colorize, and it's complete and total garbage. There's no hint of where, precisely, platforms are hidden. If you tap on slightly the wrong spot a platform won't become active despite being colored in. It's not that Colorize is broken, exactly. It just has some extremely poor game design. Even the hints aren't always helpful, such as with the porcupine you're supposed to jump over. At least, I think you're supposed to jump over it. I was never able to succeed and had it walk off the cliff to use the trampoline to get over it instead. This game could have been passably bad, but instead it feels like gambling. You're clicking on a spot hoping it's the right spot. And sometimes, even if it is, you still fail.

Colorize is a basic 2D puzzle platformer with a twist, you "colour" parts of the screen by clicking on them, which paints an area and activates/kills whatever is inside. You only get a small number of colourisations, so you must be selective about what you colour to activate the right things and finish each level. It's a novel idea and the first time I've seen that mechanism in well over 4,000 reviewed games, so kudos to the developers for coming up with something new. Apart from that, the game needs to be reviewed on the basis of quality and value. It's a 2D platformer, one of literally thousands glutting Steam. Controls are okay but not great. Graphics are fairly mediocre, 2D only, but they're not retro pixel. Controls and resolution are locked, and can't be changed, so this fails to meet basic standards for a PC game.