GENRE
	Puzzle
	DEVELOPER
	Exkee
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-3
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

Nintendojo was provided a copy of this game for review by a third party, though that does not affect our recommendation. For every review, Nintendojo uses a standard scoring criteria.

If you played Super Mario Galaxy, or at least considered playing it, there might have been a blank moment of "huh?" when you learned that Mario would be controlled as expected, with button presses and the analog stick, but the candy-colored star bits that littered the level could be collected-- and fired-- using the Wii Remote's pointer functionality. In essence, without a second player handling that collection and firing, a gamer's expected to direct two different actions in two different directions with two different control mechanisms at the same time. This concept is kind of what makes the foundation of Exkee's ColorZ, except you then multiply that by three.

In a strange blend of the board game Operation, the movie Innerspace, and a real life operation with life hanging in the balance, ColorZ demands the best of your mind. The premise is simple: guide a single-colored UFO through an auto-scrolling 2D level, popping menacing microbes of the same color by charging through them and dodging microbes of different colors at the risk of losing a life. Careful, some of those microbe paths get a little tight, requiring a steady hand and supreme concentration. Other microbes may charge and chase after you as the camera swoops in and out. Does that sound a bit stressful? Well, there are abstract pastel backgrounds that lazily glide by, and the screen auto-scrolls at a reasonable pace early on. And yes, in the game's trailers, ColorZ seems soothing and zen-like-- a game that allows a player to mentally check out for a moment while mindlessly accomplishing empty tasks. Yet those scenes in the trailer that show three player UFOs on-screen isn't necessarily multiplayer. Well, it is-- two and three player modes are supported-- but those two- and three-UFO levels are also several of the mandatory levels in 20-level single player campaign. Yes, three UFOs, going in three directions, masterfully combining and then splitting apart to shift colors, are being directed by a single player with a Remote and Nunchuk.

Yet that's in level 5. The first four levels (there are five levels for each of the game's four "worlds" or background images) reveal a learning curve that, much like Super Mario Galaxy, isn't too bad, provided your expectations for impending multitasking madness are set. The first level is just one UFO with a decidedly European-styled alien head bobbing along to the slightly dark techno soundtrack that's reminiscent of composer Neil Voss's excellent work in Tetrisphere and The New Tetris. By aiming an on-screen reticule with the remote to an area of the screen, the red UFO will glide toward the pointer, constantly tugged along by an invisible string that, when stretched farther, makes the UFO coast faster.

Level 2 brings the second UFO into play, though this little lady alien's green craft is driven by the more precise analog stick on the Nunchuk: less delay than the point-and-drag driving of UFO 1. With a bit of practice, the two UFOs will merrily dive through clouds, clumps and columns of like-colored microbes, sometimes trading places, as crashing into a different-colored microbe costs a life, and getting a gold rating requires no lives lost in a level's run (the silver rating allows 1 - 4 hits, and bronze for any failures higher than that). If this seems too hard and you fail, the game will audibly tell you you're a "Loser!" and drop you back at the start of the course with one extra life added to your stockpile. Each time you fail, you get one more extra life to expend in addition to however many you had the previous run, making the game's tougher levels almost beatable via a mixture of rinse-and-repeat and brute force. Fortunately, all levels follow the same paths, speeds and color changing requirements, and most are pretty short (yet challenging), so memorization and practice pays off as well.

Levels 3 and 4 introduce color mixing, wherein the UFOs can combine into a single craft (locked together by holding the Nunchuk's Z button) to match other colors of microbes that may show up. Somehow the starting red and green ships make yellow when they merge together, though either ship can shift to blue, red or green by passing over colored discs at certain points in a level. So if both ships are red and there are yellow microbes are coming up, with any luck a green color disc can be drifted over to swap one UFO's color to green, and then the red and green can come together into a single yellow craft that can later split back into red and green by releasing the Z button.

Then Level 5 unlocks, introducing a third, blue UFO to join the Red and Green UFOs the player's been working with. Really, what's left to direct this new guy around? The Remote's d-pad, of course. So the Remote pointer will be directing one character, the Nunchuk's analog another and then the Remote's d-pad yet another. It's about as chaotic as it sounds, and mental Mensa masters, if not the most skillful, detail-oriented multitasker, might break a sweat. The rest of us-- particularly those with shaky hands-- may just turn the whole thing off. But as said before, the game rewards failure with an increasing number of lives, and the three-UFO levels only show up occasionally, with the two-UFO stages making up the majority. And those of you with friends are even better off, provided each friend has a Remote and Nunchuk of his or her own to play along. In multiplayer, each gamer is required to direct his UFO via the point-and-drag method mentioned above, but since the Nunchuk's Z button can be used to "fuse" UFOs together to make a new color (incidentally, the Remote's B button does the same thing), ColorZ requires each player to have both a Nunchuk and Remote in hand.

So, with the right equipment, ColorZ's challenges become more reasonable, though the two- and three-player modes include only the levels from the single player campaign that required two or three players. Regardless, working as a team in this deceptively challenging title is fun-- vocally making decisions on the fly to combine or split to meet color requirements adds a layer of coordination and frenzy many other multiplayer Wii titles would love to have. And given that higher-rated medals are required to earn points for unlocking additional levels, an enterprising single player could potentially get a friend to handle at least the Nunchuk piece of the single player missions, provided the two gamers are willing to sit close enough for the Nunchuk cable to reach.

At only 700 Nintendo Points, ColorZ presents an extremely unique experience to WiiWare enthusiasts at an affordable price, whether they hunger for a game with conniption-taunting challenge or have friends willing to take this perilous journey together. The latter is a more appealing proposition for us to recommend, if you have the required friends and controllers. Otherwise, only single players with thick skin, nerves of steel and undying determination should jump into this demanding puzzler.

6.8/10