Color Guardians

This game is great for anyone, but especially for those of us who are over 30 and remember both the excitement and frustration of side scrollers in the 80s and early 90s. It's also great for small children. Color Guardians is a side scrolling adventure that has you navigating paths to collect color orbs (red, yellow, blue, multi). While it sounds easy, it can get intense sometimes as you have to change your guardian to be the appropriate color to follow pathways, jump on certain platforms, and collect orbs of each color. While the game itself is very easy, I should clarify the intense part is if you're trying to collect all of the orbs and get a three star rating for each level (and a high score if you're an old Atari fan and that matters to you). Keep in mind that I have only played and finished the demo, and have not done any boss levels of any kind. What I love about this game is my 4 year old son can play it, and he's actually quite good at it. It's helping to build his hand/eye coordination, and he's figured out as he goes what he needs to push when and where. It's something we can do together. The price for the full game is reasonable, and my son enjoys it so much I've considered buying it. If you're looking for a cutesy type game to play with your kids that's easy for everyone, or you want a game that doesn't require a ton of skill, this is the game. It will definitely keep you entertained for hours. However, be prepared for some control slamming/throwing if you're that kind. Luckily, I haven't had any of that yet! At least check out the demo. It's free. You won't be disappointed. If you are, then blame me. It's fine. I won't hold a grudge.

I don't often bother to review games I've played, but I feel that some of the critics have got this one so wrong (either because they were rubbish at it or just didn't 'get' it) that it deserves a second chance! This game is defintiely a fun, challenging but rewarding, cross-genre melding of ideas seldom seen on console. Set in a vibrant world of color and sound I've run through a good variety of stages (both in terms of visuals and challenges) that almost constantly surprised me with the new twists to using in game mechanics to complete levels. Yes, the early levels are easy, they have to be, but I didn't struggle with the later introduction of new ideas as some reviewers have. They've complained that they needed more gentle introduction to new ideas...really not necessary IMO, but then I encountered death infrequently until after world 3, so perhaps I just took to it all more naturally! The characters are deceptively cute, the audio fun and bubbly, and the visuals as crisp and colorful as they need to be for a storyline revolving around the theft of color from the world. The recoloring of the world as you progress through levels is a really nice touch, tho sometimes there's so much detail going on in the background its hard to keep focused on the demanding obstacle course ahead! To comment on a few issues noted by other reviewers: 1) yes the end boss is hard. Very hard. But its the end ****, I dont think many players will get that far... 2) Some levels are a bit repetitive in the early stages, but some really throw a curveball at you, almost maze like! 3) Spamming color change button. It works for first 2 worlds, but then after that, theres no time for it, getting perfect scores becomes very very hard! (Id given up on it due to fatigue anyway!) The bonus levels are a nice addition as well, and very challenging. Would perhaps have liked some new music tracks there, but there is good variety in the music from the main game of 50 levels, and when you do go back to the challenging bonus levels, you hardly notice the re-use of music. I would have liked the 3 main characters to have skills that set them apart from each other...though I dont know how the developer would have incorporated that into meaningful level design. As it is, switching between them (when you can) seems a purely visual thing, which I suppose is nice for those who want to play as the alternative girl or grunty male character... Its a good clean fun game, and cross-save to Vita and all the unlocks are a nice bonus. Shame I dont have a Vita to play it while commuting.... If metacritic allowed, Id give it something like an 8.5.