Tetris Effect: Connected, Lumines Arise, and Mixolumina are three great examples of puzzle games that use their art, music, and gameplay elements to create synesthesia and a flow state of gaming. I’ve long had an affinity for games that aim to be well-coordinated audiovisual experiences, and that’s what drew me to Color Drop. This is a solo-developed game, released into early access a couple of months ago, that is playing in a similar ballpark. It’s a simple block matching game with a couple of neat rules, but each level has a distinctive theme.
At early access launch, there are four themes in the game. One is a grid paper block world, another is a city traffic jam, the third is underwater, and the fourth evokes a retro nightclub vibe. Each comes with its own background imagery, music, and coloured blocks, of which you’ll have three, to play the game with. I love the set-up of this, although unlike the Enhance titles mentioned earlier, the themes have no significant visual flair during gameplay beyond their background state.
Color Drop focuses on building chains of blocks. They drop in trios and can be rotated around and quick-dropped into place. Players must build a continuous chain, and that can include horizontal and vertical chains that connect, and blocks of 2×2 or larger. As you drop blocks, your bomb meter builds up, leading to a bomb relating to one of the three colours being made available. If you drop the bomb onto the chain of that colour, they’ll all explode, the blocks around them fall down into their place, and you’ll rack up points. The bigger the explosions, the quicker you’ll get another bomb, and that’s where combos come in. The bombs rotate between the three colours, and if you manage to clear all three colours in a row, you’ll get a rainbow, which quadruples your multiplier. It’s a simple twist, but it gets tricky over time depending on your strategy. That said, beyond rainbow, there isn’t a unique hook or special ability to truly differentiate this block puzzler from the crowd. I feel like it needs to utilise the rainbow for something more than just a short points multiplier.
There are three modes in Color Drop. The first is a simple 40-drop mode, aimed at scoring a big line combo. Your strategy is slow and steady here. Then the three-minute mode requires speed and precision, as you’ll start to see that over the three minutes, the blocks start to speed up. This leads you to survival mode, which is the game’s ultimate mode that tests how long you can keep going. Strategically, you’ll earn more points by stacking high and taking risks, but you’ll need to keep up with the blocks and hope you’ll get the right bomb at the right time.
Everything in Color Drop works well, and I have enjoyed it for the £2.49 price point. My main concerns aren’t about what’s here; it is that since launch, nothing else has arrived yet. The Early Access roadmap includes more stages and multiplayer modes, and both would be superb additions to take Color Drop from a nice side dish to a main event. I can’t see that happening at any speed unless the price of the game increases to match the added value over time. This is a solo-developed project, so I imagine it may be a passion project on the side, but I hope that full vision is realised. There is a ton of potential in Color Drop to be the solo-dev spin on Columns-Effect. Fingers crossed.
Higher Plain Games is part of the Higher Plain Network. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. There are additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and downloads. You can also share the website or use the affiliate buy now links on reviews. Buying credit from CD Keys using my affiliate link means I get a couple of pence per sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. Thank you.
