Echochrome II has a “II” in the title, but it’s a more of a spiritual successor than a direct sequel. Sony’s Japan studio created an entirely different puzzle game designed for PlayStation Move. Players use the Move’s glowing orb as a flashlight in Echochrome II. By illuminating floating blocks you create a shadowy path for the cast to walk on. Like Echochrome, the cast automatically walks back and forth. Get to the staircase to clear the stage. Fall into the abyss and you have to start over.
Sometimes the goal is hidden, usually by blue blocks in the levels I played. See the blue spheres? Those can be used to create trampolines, if you put them in the cast’s path. During the demo, I had to position the spheres so they were bumps in the road. The cast would walk on them and vault forward.
Echochrome II also introduces shadow art levels where you create things like this happy snake. Making the snake was the easy part. Getting the cast to walk up the snake’s back was the challenge. The cast can only walk, so if a path is too jagged the cast stops and walks in the opposite direction. Also, I had to position the sphere-poline in the right place so the cast jumps, but doesn’t fly past the goal.
Share your best runs over YouTube and create your own mind-boggling puzzles. At launch, Echochrome II will support both features. Echochrome II is scheduled to come out this fall as a PlayStation Network download.
Published: Jun 28, 2010 01:21 pm