Color Pals Review

On the surface Double Mizzle’s hue-switching platformer Color Pals’ is simple – Traverse your friendly faced little cube through 50 cute and colourful levels collecting stars and reaching the stage’s end portal. Unfortunately, when you delve a little deeper, the main obstacle in your way isn’t the AI but the game itself with frustratingly inconsistent platforming and overall design implementation that dampens what could have been an enjoyable experience.

Levels are made up of blocks and to ensure your survival you need to use the blocks that match the colour of your cube. If your cube is green then using green walls, floors and springs will see you continue your quest, but step foot on to something of a different colour and you’ll be back to the start of the level. As you progress on your journey, you’re introduced to colour changing symbols, stages made up of multicoloured platforming sections, as well as keys dotted around which unlock the path to the end of the stage. It’s all very easy to pick up and play, but there is a welcome challenge of figuring out which order to tackle the level and when to use certain colour changes. These ideas work well, but throughout my playthrough I came across issues that left me wondering how something which such an interesting premise could be so underwhelming.

I had numerous instances where I’d get stuck to the edge of platforms, subjecting me to a choice of whether to plummet to the floor below that didn’t match the colour of my cube or attempt to manoeuvre to the platform I was supposed to be on. In the end it didn’t matter which of these I chose as they both resulted in sending me back to the start of the level, leaving me with dread that history would repeat itself, and it did. a lot. Whilst there aren’t any enemies in the game other than the occasional moving spike blocks which are introduced in later levels, the real enemy I was up against was Color Pals’ design and physics. I often found myself floating through the end level portals, unable to move left and right across important platforms that I needed to build speed on to attempt crucial jumps and even, occasionally, touch blocks of different colours with no punishment if I jumped quickly enough after landing on one.

When it works Color Pals is a fun little platformer that achievement hunters will get value from, the 2000G on offer is yours for simply completing the game, but the constant stop-start because of issues that aren’t created by the player make it tough to recommend to anyone else not looking to up their Gamerscore.

It took me around 45 minutes to pass through the 50 levels on offer, and once finished I had no desire to go back. Although a few levels provide a decent challenge it’s very much the same thing just copied and pasted in a different order, meaning that replayability is almost at zero. I found it a shame that the stars you collect along the away weren’t of any practical use, it would have also been nice to have been able to redeem your stars for new colours or accessories for your cube, as well as the inclusion of a few new obstacles or puzzle elements thrown in to change up the repetitive formula, a score system and some accessibility options.

The idea of Color Pals is an interesting one, but the execution is sadly one that doesn’t land as intended, leaving you to wonder ‘what if’ and making it memorable for the wrong reasons.