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Echochrome Review for the PlayStation Portable (PSP)

Echochrome Review for the PlayStation Portable (PSP)

It’s a Matter of Perspective

It’s hard to tell exactly when the puzzle genre became stagnant. Is there a book out there simply titled, “Puzzle Game Design 101”? If there were, it would probably contain guidelines that encourage the use of jewels, gems, or blocks; matching up number combinations of those objects; and steadily increasing the tempo of the music to keep the player’s brain tweaked. A puzzle game is not defined by the aforementioned criteria – they are just scenery we associate with the landscape. The central idea is always problem solving; a puzzle game is an interactive brain teaser. The problem itself is the puzzle. Echochrome manages to ditch what we’ve come to know of puzzle games in the past and challenge what we can expect from them in the future.

Echochrome screenshot

Developed by Jun Fujiki, the technology behind the game is called the Objective Locative Environment Coordinate System. Worlds inspired by the work of M.C. Escher come to life via a series of pathways, staircases, and special tiles. Like any imaginary world this one has its own rules: what you see is literally what you get. By rotating the 3D space you manipulate 2D objects. What may look like nothing from one angle becomes something entirely new when viewed from a different perspective.

To help you adjust to this new kind of world the game immediately throws you into a tutorial teaching you the five laws of the game (all based on perspective): traveling, landing, existence, absence, and jump. Traveling is the most basic and essential. By aligning two parallel surfaces they connect, forming one continuous object. For example, two pathways may be on the screen, one seemingly above the other. By shifting the camera you can merge them into one longer pathway. The principle of existence works in a similar way. You may see two paths that are not connected and one longer series of blocks hanging off to the side. By flinging the camera around and placing the series of blocks in front of the two paths, the game assumes that the gap that once existed is gone.

Echochrome screenshot

The other laws revolve around the game’s two kinds of tiles: black (pits) and white (jump pads). If your character walks into a pit he may fall, but if the camera is tilted properly he will land safely on a pathway. The jump pads launch your character into the air, almost sending him into an unending white void. However, like in every other scenario, the camera is key: as you character jumps, you swing the camera around and he will safely land, provided there is a platform available. To avoid these tiles you can use the law of absence. If you see a pit on your current path, you can flip the camera till a pathway above extends over the hole, allowing your character safe passage – if the camera doesn’t see the pit it’s not there.

With a command of these subjective, camera-based rules under your belt, your central role in the game is revealed: protector of a wireframe mannequin that traverses the game’s erratic puzzles. The goal of this character is to touch the echoes (blinking silhouettes) that litter the stage. Once they have all been touched by your character, the puzzle is cleared. There’s a catch though: you don’t control the character’s movement at all. Instead, all you can do is speed up its movement or pause to think. The character will always move forward on its current path. The majority of your work is done through rotating the camera to make sure his passage is continually safe.

Echochrome screenshot

For a puzzle game, Echochrome is graciously forgiving. If your character falls into the white void (essentially death), you don’t have to restart at the beginning of the puzzle. The echoes (provided you touched at least one) act as checkpoints. The game will respawn you at the last touched echo, and you’re on your way again. Also, the game features a skip option that can be used during any puzzle. If things get too tricky, you can opt to jump past the current puzzle and try out a new one.

Echochrome screenshot

Two modes split up the main game: freeform and atelier. The first acts as a shuffle mode. One of the game’s 56 levels is picked at random, and by sliding a bar to the left or right, the game will select an easier or harder puzzle, respectively. Atelier is a more relaxed experience. Instead of shuffling levels around, you can go through the game’s individual puzzles by accessing a portfolio. It is made up of seven letter-labeled rows (from A to G in order of increasing difficulty).

The game ships with a handy level editor dubbed canvas. Using this tool you can construct your own levels, save them, and add them to a special user-created section of the atelier mode. The PSP version suffers from a memory limitation. You are limited in the number of special tiles (like jumps and pits) that you can use. Whatever levels you create can only be shared with friends via ad hoc file transfer.

Echochrome’s restrained aesthetic extends to the visuals and audio. The game’s black-and-white etchings do an excellent job of replicating Escher-inspired environments. However, the audio doesn’t fare as well. The droning violin comes off as a nice touch at first, but it’s hard to be a fan of it for long as it continually loops through every facet of the game. It would have been nice to have some more tracks. The game also illustrates why the PSP and PlayStation 3 need in-game XMB – solving puzzles to your own custom soundtrack would have been a nice touch.

Even with all the things it does right, Echochrome has its fair share of quirks. For one, sometimes pathways simply don’t line up. No matter how hard you try and how nice a fit it may seem, the camera just doesn’t see what you see from time to time. Also, the jumping mechanic takes a while to get a hang of and suffers from the occasional glitch. On more than one occasion the character jumped through a pathway directly above him. Now, this did help complete the puzzle, but it shouldn’t have actually worked. For a world with such strict rules, any dissonance sticks out. The decision to put the game on two platforms is nice, but it results in stratification: they both have 56 unique levels, meaning that if you want all 112 you have to buy both versions and boot up the appropriate one to play the developer-created level you desire.

Ultimately Echochrome is a concept wrapped up in a game – its minimalist design philosophy paired with new mechanics will win it praise from the games-are-art crowd. However, some gamers may find the mechanics and puzzles fairing on the esoteric side. It’s nice to see Sony embrace a title like this, and the small price tag ($9.99) makes it a worthwhile download for users to experience.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
The black-and-white presentation works very well. Everything has a simple, clean look. 4.5 Control
A very easy to understand and thorough control set. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
While the drone of the violin may seem classy at first, once you realize that all the puzzles use it in loop form for background music, it quickly wears. 4.2 Play Value
The game is purely in love-it-or-hate-it territory; fans will keep coming back to make their own levels, try out new puzzle solutions, and test user-created levels. Others will have put the controller down within an hour. 3.9 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Elegant Graphics – Simple black-and-white art style.
  • Unique Gameplay – Master perspective puzzles based on optical illusions across 56 challenging levels that are exclusive to the PSP system version. 56 levels are exclusive to the PlayStation3 as well.
  • Canvas Mode – Create your own custom levels to play and share with friends using wireless Ad Hoc on the PSP.

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