Review written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits
Rainy Colors makes me feel stupid. That's right, a mere game manages to oust my vast, never-ending intellect. "But how can this be?" you must all be asking. Is it because it's complex to learn? No. Is it because it's hampered in every possible way? Most certainly not. So what could it possibly be that sets Rainy Colors apart from every other generic puzzle game?
Graphics
Definitely near GBA quality graphics, it features a lot of very cool drawings and numerous small effects throughout the game. I've always been a stickler for effects and music that sounds it's from the old demos back in the day, which Rainy Colors fulfills pretty well. Starting from the title screen, there's a small intro (no real story to speak of) of the camera panning down with scrolling clouds, to reveal a cartoony world of 6 islands, all with quite a surprising amount of detail. Going from there into the Story Mode, you're given a character select screen with 7 unique looking, and well drawn characters to choose from. This is just a matter of personal preference; I can't find an effect they actually have on the gameplay. The portraits are quite diverse, ranging from a blue-haired punk, some sort of depressed monk, a generic female character, and my favorite, the effeminate cow. They're goofy in general, enough to raise a chuckle out of me when I see or hear them.
Choosing, of course, the effeminate cow, Milda, we're brought into the game after a small introduction with a spiffy spiraling particle effect. The first things you'll probably notice are the cool backgrounds. While it doesn't seem to strive for photo-realism, they're surprisingly detailed considering they're almost always covered by coloured blobs, and manage their own consistent style. The same amount of detail is put into the other elements of the game, of course. Portraits of you and your opponent are at the top, bobbing up and down in their idle animations. Layered clouds shift around, and grow dark when your side gets struck by lightning, in a somewhat realistic effect. This will cause your character to cry in pain (or at least in Milda's case, let out a sad moo.)
My only problem is that the orange/yellow shades are a bit hard to discern with certain lighting conditions. It also makes it hard to tell the difference when you're looking over the entire board for a move. I personally would try different colours, but it's far from something that cripples gameplay. Considering many games share the same problem, it's probably something that's hard to avoid.
Sound
The sounds match the graphics perfectly, also very reminiscent of older SNES games; particularly Kirby's Avalanche (although they aren't even close to being similar in gameplay) The music is creative and upbeat, with a few different tracks to boot. Rainy Color's music passes the aggravation test, as I still haven't been running to the options screen to disable it. Luckily, you can change both volumes if you wish.
Sound effects are also equally as well done. The characters have a few different sounds per person, a pain sound when their gamefield gets electrocuted, various laughing or taunting sounds when the character attacks, and a sound in the beginning of the game. All of them are equal quality, and unique, which goes a far way into keeping a professional appearance about it. Other than that, there aren't too many sound effects besides some water drop sounds, and explosions. There is voice announcement of combos that livened up the mix a little bit.
Gameplay
For those who haven't tried the demo yet, Rainy Colors is a pretty new concept. When you break it down, all you have to do is match 3 colours. However how you do it is what makes Rainy Colors unique, and makes it work good on Pocket PCs. You have to mix red yellow and blue blobs in order to match up. This is what makes the game so incredibly hard, you have to think fast and think far ahead in order to rack up combos and inflict damage. Because whenever you have any sort of combo, a small lightning bolt will appear on the other side. If the computer can't do anything to match in time, he'll be electrocuted, and the piece electrocuted will turn silver, meaning it can't be eliminated unless an adjacent one is taken out.
Control couldn't be simpler. Click and drag. Or if that isn't your style, 2 taps and you've merged two of the colours. The hard part isn't merging the colours, it's building up combos and chains, and being careful as one rushed move can ruin an entire plan. However, if you go too slowly, the AI will bury you in a fury of combos and lightning bolts, making ruin of your plan even quicker. You have to achieve a fine balance of planning and action, and this doesn't happen until after many hours of gameplay. I still can't get past the second level, no matter how I try, the AI will always get one combo that ruins everything. Keep in mind this is on the easy skill! I'd hate to see what happens to me on hard.
There's also a vs. mode, in which two people play on the same device. While I haven't tried this personally, I tried playing with 2 styli, and it wasn't all too enjoyable. Nice feature though. In a perfect world, there would be TCP/IP or BT multiplayer; this game is fit for it.
The only thing I can really ask for is a way to simplify the gameplay (as a beginners mode perhaps) or some variations or different game modes. Sometimes it gets a bit boring, especially after losing so much. Other than that, I've only encountered one or two odd crashes after losing a match, with nothing being lost in the game, with no other bugs to speak of. It also recovers perfectly from sleep mode, with sound still working. It even has a handy minimize function that's fast to use. Needless to say, that comes in handy quite a few times.
Pros:
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Bright, cool, graphics
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Variety of sound and music tracks
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Refreshing gameplay idea
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Creative character drawings
Cons:
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Very tough AI
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Could use more gameplay varieties
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Title is spelt without proper "u" ;)
Conclusion: Costing only $5.95, Rainy Colors simply can't be beat. Unless you downright hate these types of games, there's nothing I can say against buying it. One will at least get a few hours of gameplay from it, and it's a great game to pick up once in a while out of the blue.
Score-by-score breakdown
Gameplay: 70%
Graphics: 90%
Sound: 80%
Overall: 80%
Please note that the overall score is more than simply an average of the individual ratings. Many thanks to TriFaces Studios for providing our review copy.
You may wish to search for more reviews of games from TriFaces Studios. Alternatively, you can view all the reviews written by Mike "Sponge" Rubits.
