Originally Posted June 13th 2014 on the Seafoam Gaming Forums

Cypronia has made a few games in their history as eshop developers that are arguably either mediocre or not that good. However, will their newest game, a port of an iOS game made by the developers at Large Animal games be worth picking up?

Title: Color Zen

System: Nintendo 3DS (Eshop, also available on Wii U and iOS)

Price: 3.99

Release date: 6/5/2014

The main game/story

There is no story here. None at all, it’s a puzzle game after all! But that’s OK, as the game itself works well. You must fill the screen with the same color as the border, by moving shapes toward other shapes of the same color to do so. Simple concept, brilliant execution.

Graphics

This game has a rather unique art style. The game itself looks like well made abstract art, and it really is easy on your eyes. The menus are simple, they look great, and everything looks good and gets the job done. Some of the levels organize the shapes and colors in such the right ways that it makes those levels look very cool.

Music and sound effects:

The music in this game is VERY well done. It certainly stays true to the promise of having relaxing music. It’s nice, serene and peaceful. Not one track is capable of being distracting. The sound effects also “blend” with the music well, from the simple sound effect of selecting a level, to the sound effect of having two shapes successfully combine, this game is a success in every level in the sound department.

Gameplay

As mentioned earlier, the goal is to get the border color to fill the screen. The entire game takes place on the bottom screen, using the 3DS touch screen capabilities very well. The top screen doesn’t really do much besides show you the current level and also the game’s logo. Therefore, no 3D effect either. That’s OK, though, as in this game it’s not needed and it still works very well on a handheld.

With many level packs, divided by “chapters”, you will certainly be seeing many shapes, colors and gameplay styles. The reflection mode for example reminds me of the enemy in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that follows your movements in the opposite direction, as you have to move a shape on one side, which affects the shape on the other side. This leads to even more unique puzzles and tricky situations. For the most part, the colors are just normal colors that don’t do anything that change the game. However, the Black color removes anything that it touches, while the white color is a wild card and can be used with any color on the screen. The black color especially adds a whole new layer of strategy to the game, leading you to plan out what color to remove and when, in order to get the border color to fill the screen.

Conclusion

With about 400 or so puzzles to solve, this game has a ton of content, and although the premise is extremely simple, it’s also very addicting and a lot of fun to replay and 100% all of the chapters. For a good price of 3.99, it’s definitely a great deal.

I really enjoyed this game a TON and I think it’s the best game Cypronia has published so far. With Color Zen Kids coming out for Wii U soon, I think I can say with confidence this is a great franchise that Cypronia can help out with. I give Color Zen on Nintendo 3DS a 9 out of 10, strongly recommended for any puzzle fan.

Thanks to Cypronia for giving me a review code