I would first like to say that this game's sound design is top notch. Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) was brought on to supply the beeps, boops, and background hums for the game, and they are great. Many of the sounds will likely be familiar if you've listened to his later albums. Oddly enough, they don't sound underwhelming all crunched up by the GBA's sound processing gimmicks. If you manage to stick with it long enough, you'll even be treated to an admirable music video of sorts followed by the pleasant credits theme.
I would also like to highlight that this game is basically the epitome of a "boutique art game". You know? The ones that look cooler than they actually play. The entire reason the Bit Generations games come in such sexy compact boxes too perhaps. A game for the posh peeps, the chic homies, and the trendy broskis. This one's for you, artsy fartsy people.
The name Coloris might have been a portmanteau of Colorful and Tetris. But, it's more of a rather unique match-three puzzler where you have to clear a set number of tiles to beat a stage. You are given a couple of cursors that can move a range of blocks along a color spectrum. This is initially one random choice out of two different cursors (your progress bar will indicate which color the cursor will be next), and you'll want to use these to make your tiles' shades either lighter or darker based on this to clear them from the screen. Later on you'll get three cursors which allows you to change the tiles along a color wheel. It might not make sense describing that in text, so feel free to take a look at this gameplay video for an example. It's a crafty idea for sure, but it takes a sec to get the hang of.
Another way this game gets crafty is with its timer system. Tiles will have little animations on them that gradually speed up the longer they've been on screen for or haven't had matches made next to. If they move too fast for too long, they'll time out and turn gray. You can't beat the stage anytime a gray tile is present, so you'll want to make two matches next to the gray block in order to clear it. Gray blocks can also be created by you directly if you are on a three-cursor stage and accidentally use a complementary-colored cursor (i.e. mixing blue with orange, red with green, or yellow with purple). There are two types of powerups as well, one clears blocks in a X pattern when activated, and another clears all blocks of the same color. The latter is especially handy when you've got a lot of gray blocks on screen, since clearing those little by little on the harder stages can take a while.
As the first entry in the "second series" of Bit Generations releases, things get more complicated with this game, but not really in the best sense. The two-cursor stages are rather easy, with the Basic ones being a breeze, and the Advanced ones changing it up a little by using more confusing color palettes. The three-cursor stages, however, are a significant jump in difficulty, as it's easy to overthink which tiles to flip and where in an effort to keep them from timing out. Some shades in the final stages are close enough to one another that I'm positive it'd be nigh impossible to play if you're colorblind.
And I think it's this lack of in-between difficulty that makes the game a bit rough. I think, for example, instead of being given a different cursor at random there could have been a difficulty option/mod that allows you flip the tiles using whichever cursor you want. But even then, I'm not sure I enjoy the concept enough to stick with the game with that feature either. Hence my initial comment about it looking (and sounding) better than it plays. The sound design is beautiful (though Cornelius probably should've gone with a better Game Over sound), and the visuals are equally nice. Animations on the Advanced stages have a ton of variety and even sport pleasing backgrounds to go with them. But heck, the endless Score Mode doesn't carry over any of this extra flair, which certainly doesn't help make it more appealing.
Like some of the other games, there's also a two player mode (the option only appears if you have a wireless adapter connected). It's nothing too different, but every time you make a match, gray blocks crowd in on your opponent's screen from the bottom; a game of who can survive the longest essentially. But for the game's overall merit, Coloris is definitely much weaker than the others in the series. I'd say though that it's a fun two hours while the stages in Clear Mode last. Keep low expectations for coming back to the game afterwards and maybe you'll surprise yourself. Personally, I think I've had my fill.
Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)
I would also like to highlight that this game is basically the epitome of a "boutique art game". You know? The ones that look cooler than they actually play. The entire reason the Bit Generations games come in such sexy compact boxes too perhaps. A game for the posh peeps, the chic homies, and the trendy broskis. This one's for you, artsy fartsy people.
The name Coloris might have been a portmanteau of Colorful and Tetris. But, it's more of a rather unique match-three puzzler where you have to clear a set number of tiles to beat a stage. You are given a couple of cursors that can move a range of blocks along a color spectrum. This is initially one random choice out of two different cursors (your progress bar will indicate which color the cursor will be next), and you'll want to use these to make your tiles' shades either lighter or darker based on this to clear them from the screen. Later on you'll get three cursors which allows you to change the tiles along a color wheel. It might not make sense describing that in text, so feel free to take a look at this gameplay video for an example. It's a crafty idea for sure, but it takes a sec to get the hang of.
Another way this game gets crafty is with its timer system. Tiles will have little animations on them that gradually speed up the longer they've been on screen for or haven't had matches made next to. If they move too fast for too long, they'll time out and turn gray. You can't beat the stage anytime a gray tile is present, so you'll want to make two matches next to the gray block in order to clear it. Gray blocks can also be created by you directly if you are on a three-cursor stage and accidentally use a complementary-colored cursor (i.e. mixing blue with orange, red with green, or yellow with purple). There are two types of powerups as well, one clears blocks in a X pattern when activated, and another clears all blocks of the same color. The latter is especially handy when you've got a lot of gray blocks on screen, since clearing those little by little on the harder stages can take a while.
As the first entry in the "second series" of Bit Generations releases, things get more complicated with this game, but not really in the best sense. The two-cursor stages are rather easy, with the Basic ones being a breeze, and the Advanced ones changing it up a little by using more confusing color palettes. The three-cursor stages, however, are a significant jump in difficulty, as it's easy to overthink which tiles to flip and where in an effort to keep them from timing out. Some shades in the final stages are close enough to one another that I'm positive it'd be nigh impossible to play if you're colorblind.
And I think it's this lack of in-between difficulty that makes the game a bit rough. I think, for example, instead of being given a different cursor at random there could have been a difficulty option/mod that allows you flip the tiles using whichever cursor you want. But even then, I'm not sure I enjoy the concept enough to stick with the game with that feature either. Hence my initial comment about it looking (and sounding) better than it plays. The sound design is beautiful (though Cornelius probably should've gone with a better Game Over sound), and the visuals are equally nice. Animations on the Advanced stages have a ton of variety and even sport pleasing backgrounds to go with them. But heck, the endless Score Mode doesn't carry over any of this extra flair, which certainly doesn't help make it more appealing.
Like some of the other games, there's also a two player mode (the option only appears if you have a wireless adapter connected). It's nothing too different, but every time you make a match, gray blocks crowd in on your opponent's screen from the bottom; a game of who can survive the longest essentially. But for the game's overall merit, Coloris is definitely much weaker than the others in the series. I'd say though that it's a fun two hours while the stages in Clear Mode last. Keep low expectations for coming back to the game afterwards and maybe you'll surprise yourself. Personally, I think I've had my fill.
Bit Generations series reviews:
Dotstream⠀⠀⠀(Start)
Boundish⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Dialhex⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Coloris⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Orbital⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Digidrive⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀|
Soundvoyager⠀⠀⠀ᐁ (End)