As of last Thursday, North America has Echochrome care of the PlayStation Store, but not the complete package found on the UMD version. The PSP version in Japan/Asia is a retail package with three modes: solo, pair and others. The mode where you tag shadowy echoes and journey back to the starting point is solo. Solo is the only mode available in the downloadable PSP version.
Pair has players guide four moving figures. Two are black and two are white. The goal is to get the same colored figures to tag each other to turn gray. Then you need to get the two gray figures to touch each other to clear the level.
Others is similar to solo, except you have other mannequins moving around. If you happen to bump into one of the others you’re whisked back to the last echo you touched.
While the North American PSP version is two modes less, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker. Echochrome only costs $9.99 for the PSP or PS3, the cheapest price in any region to date for both consoles. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan sold Echochrome on the PSP for 3,980 yen ($38). The slim, $9.99 downloadable PSP edition has enough content to satiate most gamers craving perspective bending puzzles. However, it is interesting that Sony Computer Entertainment America chose to release Echcohrome without the other modes. They gave North America a huge price break on Patapon, but stopped short with Echochrome. Are they planning on selling an Echochrome: Paired Shadows expansion pack in the future?
The other awkward change is the voice actress. Sony Computer Entertainment America chose to replace the English voice actress with another English voice actress. However, these voice clips may have come from the European version since the ominous voice sounds like a British accent.
Images courtesy of Sony.
