Chromatic is a color-coded platformer with a twist - Time Waster

Filed under: Fun, Time-Wasters

Chromatic is one of the best time-wasters I've recently come across. It's all about the gameplay -- no Flash graphics here. You play a "circle" (it doesn't really have a name in the game). You move around with the arrow keys, and you change colors with Z, X, and C.

You can either be red, blue, or yellow, and you can switch at any time during the game. Each color has different capabilities -- yellow can double-jump, while red has a longer dash (which is like a forward sprint, activated by double-pressing DOWN).

Each color can only collect its own coins. Red coins will be available only when you're red; when you're yellow, you just go right past them without anything happening.

In later levels there are also color-coded "tools" -- trampolines, for example. You get a red trampoline, which works only when you're red. This gets complicated quite fast. Some levels are built so that you have to go up the screen by jumping from trampoline to trampoline, and each trampoline is in a different color so that you have to change colors in midair.

The fact that you have three colors to choose from, rather than two, adds significant complexity to the game. With two colors, you would just know that you have to switch to another color. Once you have three, you actually have to memorize the keys; it's frustrating to switch from red to blue when you meant to switch to yellow (and, thus, miss the coins you tried to collect mid-flight).

It's a pretty addictive little game, especially since there aren't many enemies in the first few levels; you can keep trying and trying without dying.

Chromatic is a color-coded platformer with a twist - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 25 May 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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