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Review: Chroma Blast (Wii U)

When I went into this one, I did at least expect some sort of arcade-style shooter to be at hand. From what it seemed like, it was to be a mindless kind where the player would move around the shape in the midst of the action and trigger chaos. What I actually played… wasn’t quite up my alley, to tell you all the truth.

Graphics

At first glance, Chroma Blast looks like it has style to it, but when it’s in motion, it feels more like the game just has these shapes for the sake of having the shapes. The game doesn’t have terrible graphics (with exceptions like the jarringly bare menus), but nothing really felt appealing. The background is notably static and doesn’t move. The brief explosions caused by shooting at enemies can be somewhat satisfying, but as I will discuss the gameplay, you’ll learn the satisfaction isn’t instant.

Audio

For what it’s worth, the audio is appropriately designed. The music has a catchy beat to it to keep the action feeling pumped, and despite the sounds not packing too much punch to them, they at least suit the actions going on in-game. Too bad there isn’t much variety to it other than what there is.

Gameplay

Chroma Blast is purely designed for players to rack up points and share their scores among the Miiverse community. That alone may probably be the determining factor for whether or not people would want to pick it up on the eShop, but even if you are conscious of the fact that there’s a small amount of content, the content itself may or may not aim to please.

The multicolored square the player controls is slow. For a game of its genre, that does come off as odd. Sure, there are upgrades every now and then that can change the game in subtle ways, but I would still much rather have a fast, swift dual-stick shooter.

Anyway, the premise is that the player must shoot at the enemies with colored projectiles that match the enemy colors. Much like the player movement, the laser blasts are also not so fast, but they are at least not slow enough to feel like a chore to use. I would have liked it if the ZL and ZR buttons could behave like L and R and be used to swap around the colors, but the control mapping is still fine enough, I suppose. I still wish the square could move at a good pace.

The speed isn’t the only thing I don’t like about the game, though. The whole experience just doesn’t feel as intuitive or engaging in the long run as it should have been. I wish I didn’t have to select upgrades that also come with downgrades like giving the enemies more hit points or shields. Getting hit can also be annoying since that chops off 1/4 of the square you control, meaning you can’t shoot the color that the 1/4 chopped off contained, and there’s no telling when the power-up that repairs that part comes around.

The selection of modes is also rather abysmal. Yes, I know there isn’t really meant to be much in this game to begin with, but if there are going to be upcoming modes in later months, they sure as heck should be different from what there is currently. Normal mode is self-explanatory, but Survival is just Normal with the square being killed completely from getting hit instead of having parts chopped off. It’s not varied enough for my taste.

Verdict

Overall, Chroma Blast has a bland feel to it. I couldn’t get myself addicted, but the Miiverse community can have some merit for those wanting to share high scores. It’s hard to really justify this one though, despite its color mechanic being neat enough to demonstrate a sense of potential. The shooting gameplay just wasn’t as fun as other arcade shooters that have been around the block.

Ticgn
Ticgn
A congregate profile that has an accumulation of all our work from previous staff who articles were on our site with no name.

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