Croma Review

Monday, August 22, 2011

Croma Review

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Croma Review

By Rob Rich on August 22nd, 2011
Our Rating:

:: A LITTLE GRAY
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad

Swap shades and blast bubbles in this tougher-than-it-looks shooter.

Developer: Mindfruit Interactive
Price: $0.99
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

Graphics / Sound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.88 out of 5 stars

Light and dark. Yin and Yang. Black and white. The two elements/colors have been balancing each other out pretty much since the whole of existence started, well, existing, I guess. In a similar fashion, the concept of switching between worlds/modes/polarities – one light, one dark – has been used in games throughout much of their history to varying degrees of success. Croma makes fairly good use of the idea, but it could use a little polish.

The world of Croma, or at least the portion that’s viewed through the screen of an iOS device, is fraught with peril. Specifically lots of black and white circular perils of various sizes. They float down from the top of the screen and players have to use their little bubble-thing to blast them away. Unfortunately, black can only be touched by black and white by white, so they’ll also have to switch between the two colors constantly.

There are a lot of little (and deceptively hidden) touches that make Croma a bit more complex than it first appears. Different falling orbs behave differently, ranging from simply being heavier (thus, harder to shoot off-course) to bursting open to reveal numerous smaller offspring and more. Another nice touch is the use of a few different power-ups that give the gun-thing a temporary boost by way of a multi-shot, laser and so on. It’s important to show restraint when grabbing them though, as the power-ups become tied to whatever color they’re acquired with.

My one complaint about Croma is a simple one that has a rather profound effect on the game: no multi-touch. Swapping from black to white works okay when things are slow, but once the screen starts to fill up it can be problematic, and even detrimental, to remove that essential blasting finger to initiate the change. I know it sounds like a pointless little nitpick, but it honestly drags the whole experience down for me. Which is a shame because it’s a pretty fun game when it’s not beating me in the head repeatedly with this one issue.

Even so, the core experience of Croma is surprisingly well put together. As a pick-up-and-play arcade shooter, it’s a great and affordable way to kill time. I just hope that multi-touch support is added later through an update so I can keep playing it and actually get farther than a mere 108 seconds.