Can you top Lumines? Can you compete with Lumines? Would you even try? Japanese developer Cyber Front clearly believed there was room for a new puzzle game on the PSP and deserves credit for at least for developing a new puzzle IP on Sony’s handheld, at a time when so many new PSP titles were simply ports or sequels. Cyber Front’s PR machine say the game takes its inspiration from Tetris, but literally turns the concept on its head. Such a description doesn’t really do Koloomn justice, nor does it adequately explain what this puzzler is all about. A mere Tetris clone it is not.
Like Tetris, you have a well, but unlike Tetris, the blocks come, not from the top but instead, they appear, row by row, from the bottom of the well. The game mechanics are simple enough. Destroy blocks by rotating them and placing them next to blocks of the same colour. The D pad moves a square curser, 2 blocks wide by 2 blocks high in size, over the blocks in the well. The X or triangle button rotates the block to the left and the square button rotates the block to the right. Simply combine four blocks of the same colour in any direction to make them disappear. Before they dissapear you can add more blocks of the same colour to the chain. Don’t let the blocks in the well reach the top of the screen. When they do, it’s game over.
Think you’ve seen this game before?
Sounds simple enough. And it is. It’s less frenetic than Lumines, at least initially, although it’s also a little more mentally challenging. Koloomn comes complete with an excellent tutorial level and a simple, well written, full colour (a rarity these days) manual.
There’s more to the game than simply combining blocks of the same colour. Like Lumines, you can also eliminate blocks by bringing colours together as a consequence of the destruction of other blocks. In Koloomn, that’s called ‘forming a chain’, and depending on how successful you are at forming chains, you’ll be rewarded with ‘magic blocks’. An ‘Arrow block’ will turn all blocks in line with the arrow the same colour. ‘Bomb blocks’ will turn all adjacent blocks the same colour. ‘Wave blocks’ will make all blocks on the screen the same colour as the ‘Wave block’ disappear. Still with me?
In some ways Koloomn is an odd mix. The artwork, bright colours and in-game characters scream children’s game, yet the gameplay mechanics won’t be easily mastered by the littlies. No matter your ability, you’ll soon tire of the single player mode however. While you’ll easily get one entry on the leader board, you’ll be hard pressed to knock off the remaining CPU scores. While Lumines provided a visual and aural reward for the investment you make in its gameplay, Koloomn’s only reward is an ever increasing level of difficulty.
There’s no auto save – a glaring omission in a pick up and play title, but especially so in a title where high scores are this games greatest reward. There’s nothing more disappointing than discovering your morning’s top score is not on the scoreboard when you break out the game again later that day.
It’s not all bad news. When you tire of the single player mode there’s a rich multiplayer game mode, although not in the sense that you may have hoped for. In Campaign and Arcade mode you’ll be pitted against computer controlled opponents and take on the likes of Dynamyte Ace and Agent Blanc. The different characters don’t impact on gameplay as much as give a visual face to your CPU opponent. However multiplayer does differ significantly from the single player mode.
Characters don’t impact gameplay but do give you someone to blame.
While the basic gameplay remains unchanged, the different coloured blocks now have greater significance. The colour of the blocks you remove will determine how you attack your opponent. Clear green blocks and your opponent’s rotation controls will be reversed. Clear blue blocks and you’ll throw large blocks onto your opponents screen. This is certainly an interesting gameplay dynamic which adds a great deal of depth to the game. Of course the only multiplayer we are really interested in is true multiplayer. Sadly, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is no game sharing and no infrastructure mode available. The only way you’ll get multiplayer gaming is if you find another player with a PSP and their own copy of Koloomn. Good luck with that quest.
Visually the game is polished. The front-end menu screens are unique, but functional, presented in a comic panel manner. The in-game screens, both single player and multiplayer are detailed and bright, with the character animations and scoring information adding a bit of light and colour to an otherwise simple block-filled well that we’ve all seen before. Like Lumines, the music in this game will get into your head. Unlike Lumines, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Quirky, cartoon-like, repetitive and annoying, you’ll soon grow tired of the music and be reaching for the volume controls.
Koloomn has some good ideas here, including some innovative gameplay. Sadly, it’s a game with a bit of an identity crisis. It’s visual and aural presentation is aimed squarely at the younger kids. Its gameplay however, while simple to play initially, actually has a bit of depth to it and won’t be mastered without quite a bit of dedication. Its biggest strength, the multiplayer attack modes are let down by the exclusion of game sharing or infrastructure mode, meaning that you’re not likely to be playing multiplayer with anyone other than the CPU.
The multiplayer ‘attack modes’ are innovative… If only you could find a human opponent.
In the case of Lumines you have an example puzzle game where gameplay, audio and visuals come together to create a true masterpiece. In Koloomn’s case the individual parts come together in an unconvincing fashion. It’s a game not sure of what it’s meant to be and, in the case of its multiplayer capabilities, not fully kitted out to take advantage of its biggest strength – it’s multiplayer attack modes.
If you were only going to buy one puzzle game for your PSP, then you wouldn’t buy Koloomn. Only if you’re a sucker for a puzzle game and already own Lumines is Koloomn worthy of your time.
