Have you ever thought to yourself “Why are there so many colors in this world, yet so few of them get represented in block games?” Me either, but fortunately someone at Eyehook did and that’s why they made Color Box.

Gameplay

Color Box is a block dropping game with sort of a twist. Rather than lining up same color blocks or filling rows it utilizes a color theory mechanic to dispose of blocks. Which is to say that it focuses on the blending and combining of colors to make new colors. The ultimate goal is to combine the color values of blocks until they reach white(a full and equal combination of all colors) at which point the blocks are removed from the field of play. This is accomplished by dropping one block of a particular color value into a position where it comes in contact with another block. The recently dropped stone’s color value will then be added to the value of the stone it came in contact with. For example, if you drop a red block onto a blue block, the blue block will become violet.

It’s a little complicated but this should give you a pretty good idea of how Color Box works.

There are four different modes of play: Practice, Endurance, Versus, and Four Seasons. Practice mode gives you a smaller playing field and is predominantly  focused on driving home the basics of the color mixing mechanic. The mode closest resembling a normal mode is  Endurance mode, it features a full playing field,  big blocks(a single two by two block), and chameleon blocks that change colors while dropping. Similar to Practice mode, Versus mode utilizes a reduced playing field, but also throws all of the colors and chameleon blocks of Endurance mode at you while dueling a friend.

The final and most unique mode of play is Four Seasons. This particular mode happened to be my favorite, because it offered the most laid back style of play. The mode will cycle through each of the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, and will toss appropriately colored blocks at you. For example, when it cycles to the Spring season, all the blocks dropped will be soft pastel pinks, yellows, and greens. The added benefit of the cycled color palletes is that it ensures a nice mix of colors, effectively decreasing the overall difficulty of play.

Color Box works quite well, for the most part. It does, however, tend to suffer from the ambiguity of its primary color mechanics. With no concrete way to determine the color values required to reach white, the player is often left relying on intuition. Additionally, there are some situations where you can get royally boned by the blocks you’re dealt. Yes this occurs in most games, but most games don’t play with millions of different colors of blocks. A simple streak of dark colored blocks can render your playing field filled and relegate you to starting a new game.

Fortunately these criticisms are easily overlooked thanks to the games incredibly laid back feeling. Even when it seems like the block gods themselves are against you, it’s somehow easy with Color Box to just shrug it off and reset. It’s truly a recreational block game that even Bill O’Reilly could mellow out to.

Audio Visual

Color Box is mostly a pleasurable visual experience. Its menus are exceedingly utilitarian but benifit from being displayed over backgrounds that are bright and colorful animated eye candy. Which in contrast makes the Endurance mode look bland and boring, with its overtly grey colors and underwhelming animated gears whirling in the background. The Four Seasons mode, on the other hand, lives up to the president set by the main screen, with four colorful animated backgrounds that are cycled through with the corresponding gameplay.

On the audio front Color Box falters, not necessarily because it’s bad, but because there really isn’t enough of it. Each mode has its own music, but they seem to be overly short looped music tracks that leave you feeling as though you’re on an auditory treadmill doing the days workout. This is especially noticeable in the Four Seasons mode, where a synthesized sounding orchestra plays the same bit over and over again. In this case, the issue may have even been adequately masked by stepping the music back a bit and using some seasonally appropriate sound effects, like birds chirping in Spring. When it’s all said and done, you will notice it, but it won’t force you to put the control down.

Summary

Color Box is a solid block dropper for anyone looking for a very casual experience. This is a game anyone can sit down, play, and maybe even develop an eye for color with. Unfortunately, with it priced at 240 Microsoft Points, the game simply can’t be recommended. This is mainly because of other, much more polished, offerings from titles such as Chime for only two dollars more.