echochrome

May 13,2008 - One of the most visually interesting downloadable games to appear in the past year has to be echochrome, a brain-teasing puzzle game that emphasizes simple-yet-fun gameplay over boundary-pushing graphics. Being the first downloadable game to appear on PSN for both the PS3 and PSP simultaneously, Sony is pushing the boundaries of downloadable games once again. Does echochrome manage to contain enough compelling content to keep you coming back after you’ve experienced its simple gameplay concepts?

echochrome’s gameplay abides by only five laws that will help you get the perpetually-walking dummy through the many puzzles the game offers. With these laws, you can use these optical illusions to reach all of the shadow guides, called echoes, which are placed around the puzzle as quickly as possible. You must twist the puzzles around with a variety of options, such as the d-pad, either analog stick, or even motion control, though that’s more of a hassle that will confuse you more than the puzzles themselves. You can also having the dummy stop so you can think, walk faster when you need it to move quickly, and snap paths together that you’ve situated next to each other.

Despite the simple gameplay, echochrome does have a few small issues. Large puzzles force a zoomed out view that can make it hard to see the close-up action. Though snap button seems like a magical solution, it doesn’t always do what you want it to do, so you’ll often try to line up two platforms you want to connect and the snap button will mess it up. Also, when connecting two paths, the dummy will occasionally fall through the non-existent cracks, though it’s not hard to catch it by spinning the puzzle around until it falls on the puzzle. Besides those issues, the game is really fun if you’re looking for brain teasers that’ll get you to rack your brain to find the solutions to the tougher puzzles in the game.

Like its simple gameplay, echochrome’s modes are simple and easy to understand, at least outside of their names. The freeform mode offers a random assortment of puzzles, sorted by difficulty, from the 56 available with the game and user-created puzzles that the developers pick out themselves. The PS3 and PSP versions feature 56 puzzles unique to each platform, with more coming from user-created levels that you may acquire by different means. The only downside is that it’s a shame that you cannot save the user-created levels permanently, so you can only play these user-created puzzles until the next update. You’ll also notice the canvas mode, which lets you build your own levels that you can submit to hopefully be picked for later updates or you can send them to your friends to try out themselves.

The main mode in echochrome is the atelier mode, which houses all of the game’s included puzzles. They are divided up into eight groups of eight puzzles each. You can choose to take them on separately to beat your fastest time or you can tackle the entire group together to see where you rank on the leaderboards. It’s strange that there aren’t leaderboards for individual levels as well. Also, there aren’t any ways to see where your friends rank or see the leaderboard beyond the top ten times. Though it’s not mentioned anywhere, there are invisible time limits whether playing individual puzzles or an entire group, where you’re required to beat individual levels within five minutes or groups in twenty minutes. The time limits for individual puzzles aren’t really a problem, but it is frustrating when you finally reach the last puzzle in a group and die halfway through because you weren’t terribly efficient in earlier levels.

The most unique part of the echochrome package is the simple, beautiful visuals. The bright monochromatic canvas is the first thing you’ll notice when see the game, which is a stark contrast from the typical colorful or dark games you’ve seen. The puzzles themselves are cel-shaded, which is noticeable when connecting two paths to become just one path. There are a lot of really well-designed levels, which include everything from words to cool designs that are both visually interesting and challenging to solve.

Like the visuals, echochrome’s audio is extremely simple, but effective. The only music you’ll encounter is the soothing classic music that compliments the brain teaser puzzles really well. Though you’ll mostly hear it in the tutorial, there’s a woman with a relaxing voice that narrates the game occasionally. Besides the music and the woman, you’ll only hear the footsteps of the dummy as he walks around the puzzle and his interactions with the puzzle.

Overall, echochrome is one of the most unique puzzle games to come out in a while. For the $10 the game costs, you’ll get a lot of enjoyment as the game you’ll pick up to play for ten minutes or so when you want to play a game to relax and flex your brain a bit. If you have to choose between the PSP or PS3 version of the game, the PS3 version clearly wins out for the frequent updates of additional levels, the leaderboards, and ability to send and receive user-made levels from friends over the internet. The PSP version has the edge in the pick-up-and-play factor and maybe slightly better controls, though you’re very limited in available puzzles with the lack of puzzle-sharing over the internet.

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