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Color Zen Review
Color Zen is a very neat and very simple puzzle game that doesn't force anything upon you. There is no time limit, no high score table… there is just a stark, shape and colour based puzzle. Either solve it and progress, or switch your 3DS off. Simple.
You are presented with a series of coloured shapes, and the process of smashing two shapes of the same colour together causes the background to change to that colour; thus also erasing all other shapes of that colour. What you need to do to complete the puzzle is ensure that on your final move, the screen is left showing the same colour as that of the screen's wafer thin border.
It sounds extraordinarily easy, and at first it genuinely is. But then it gets steadily more and more taxing, as new systems and schemes start being introduced. Obstacles arrive to hinder your ability to smash shapes together, coloured shapes start appearing inside other coloured shapes, white shapes turn up (which can adopt any colour) along with black shapes that erase any colour. And so it goes on.
In short, it's the most accessible thing in history until it becomes a parade of often quite brutal brain teasers. There is a pleasant and thoroughly unintrusive electronic soundtrack - which is available on both Spotify and iTunes - but on the iOS version (of which this is a port) you can use your own music, which is a pretty big bonus. The iOS version has tighter touch controls, and in addition to that the music doesn't skip back to the beginning every time that you complete a puzzle - unlike in the 3DS iteration. For a game that puts so much emphasis on the music being an important aspect of the experience, this is a big disappointment. The iOS version is also very similarly priced, although you have to pay for it in small increments rather than one minor lump sum.
In short, Color Zen is a fine game that will appeal to all manner of people. It's a worthwhile purchase to be sure, but if you have access to an iPad or an iPad Mini, that's the place to take up this particular challenge.
7/10
Review By Chet Roivas
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