Color Commando

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Color Commando is a Puzzle-Platformer originally released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2013, and later grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when the Nintendo 3DS was released. Despite the “commando” name, players won’t be doing any fighting here – this game is all about using splashes of color to sneak past similarly-colored monsters.

The presentation here uses colorful 2D visuals backed by a slightly catchy soundtrack. It’s nothing special, but it works. I will note that the frame rate seems a little choppy, but it’s not enough to interfere with the gameplay.

When it comes to that gameplay, players must walk, climb, and fall (no jumping) to reach a goal (a pile of treasure for some reason), ideally picking up three coins along the way. Barring your path, you’ll find monsters in various colors, and players can remove their threat by grabbing a glob of paint and using the touchscreen to paint that color over a like-colored monster, rendering them harmless within the area you painted.

In theory, that could make for some potentially interesting gameplay, but the execution here is not so great. Color Commando apparently demands pixel-perfection in the place you paint, and even monsters that seem to have been neutralized can often still kill you. This also makes it difficult to judge where the “danger zone” begins and ends – is that monster safe to pass, or do their movements take them outside of what’s considered the safe zone? You won’t know until you risk your life to find out, potentially having to restart the level as a result!

In addition, the limited nature of the paint also makes this game needlessly frustrating. If you placed paint in slightly the wrong place, you’ll need to start the level over again, as there’s no way to undo this and levels tend to have only the bare minimum amount of paint needed to complete them. Expect to encounter a lot of trial and error and repeating the exact same action in hopes that being in a slightly different spot will make things work properly. It’s a mess.

All of this, and even the way this game forces players to repeat levels doesn’t prevent it from being under an hour long.

I really like the premise of Color Commando, but in execution this game is too limited and frustrating to be worth the purchase, even at the low $2 price this game commands. Puzzle-Platformer fans have countless better options on Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – Color Commando is a Puzzle-Platformer where players use the touchscreen to paint sections of a level to sneak past enemies of that color. While this game has a good premise, the gameplay is so frustrating, unforgiving and limited that it saps all the fun out of that concept. This isn’t worth even the small $2 price tag – save your money and get something else.

Grade: D+

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