Welcome to our review of Koloro. A challenging puzzle game, out now for Nintendo Switch.
Kora and Koloro:
Originally released in 2016, Koloro now makes the way to the Nintendo Switch, and it’s a good fit! Between dreams and nightmares, Koloro tells the tale of a young pink hair girl named Kora who embarks on a quest to find her missing sister. Kora is helped by her imaginary friend, which aids her with her power to transform into a pink cube, maybe it’s a distant relative of Kirby? Once Kora is transformed into Pinkora (let’s call her that), she’ll glide through the levels and you can control her by one button.
Gameplay:
Yes, you read that right. Koloro is playable with only one button (in my case the ‘A’ button). Once transformed, Pinkora moves on her own and you can stop her by jumping into a wall and do a ‘wall-jump’ to change directions. When I first fired this game up, it gave me a Super Meatboy or Celeste feel (or even 1001 Spikes). Super hard platforming action with high rewards on a personal level. Super Meatboy has a lot of weaponry (since it’s a cube of meat), Celeste has her mountains. Koloro is a game filled with spikes with eyes, and colorful traps with fireflies.
This makes the gameplay unique in a way. Koloro feels like a puzzle-platformer set in the world that was mixed in a blender of Alice in Wonderland and Child of Light (due to its art style). Everything feels captivating and has a magical feel about it. But it doesn’t make the game easier. Since you cannot control the speed, nor the direction it becomes all about timing your jumps carefully. Avoiding the deadly spikes and enemies can be quite a challenge. Some of them will be static and others will be moving.
You will also have to push buttons and switches to get to the parts of the level that are not immediately accessible. All levels are short and fit on a single screen and can be completed in under a minute (if you know how too). Koloro has both solo and local co-op modes. It expands the amount of content significantly because solo and co-op levels are different. Co-op adds around 50+ unique levels you can play with a friend using a Joy-Con per person. From my limited experience co-op mode is perfectly playable with just one person since you don’t have to control the characters simultaneously.
“Koloro is one of those ‘easy to play, hard to master’-games, with a simple one-button control style and challenging gameplay.”
Art style:
Another upside of this game is the wonderful soundtrack and sound effects. Once Pinkora moves and jumps you’ll hear a nice musical waterdrop, which changes every time you jump. Even if you die it has a poetic musical touch, like a bubble that splashed. I have said this before, but you can try this game just for the soundtrack, you won’t be disappointed. So if you thought Super Meatboy was too gory and Celeste too cold? Well, why not try Koloro and transform into a pink blobish automated candy!
Replay value
There are over 300 levels according to the website and once you beat the game you will unlock “hard mode”. I’m personally not quite sure what the difference is, because I’m still struggling with beating all the normal levels. Luckily there is always the ‘let’s give it a night rest’-strategy, which usually fixes a hard level for me. If just beating the level isn’t enough each level also has an optional time goal and you can also enable “speedrun” mode in the settings, but I don’t recommend doing so since you’ll be throwing you Switch across the room very soon!
Conclusion:
Koloro is one of those ‘easy to play, hard to master’-games, with a simple one-button control style and challenging gameplay. There is a lot of content, a nice soundtrack, and great art style. You’ll just have to muster up the courage to play through the hardship of dying a lot.
