Color Guardians Review (PS4)

Color Guardians takes place in a colourful kingdom full of joyful citizens. However, when a monster swoops in from the sky and sucks up every single colour from the world, only the titular Color Guardians can stand in its way and return the realm to its former vibrant glory.

But how will the majestic warriors achieve this? Well, the game plays somewhat like Bit.Trip Runner, where you control a character that's constantly moving at full pelt. In this auto sidescroller, there are three different Color Guardians: Rod, who is red; Grock, who is yellow; and Lia, who is blue. Each of these heroes is only able to pick up orbs of identical colour to them. This means that instead of just controlling the movement of your character to avoid obstacles, you'll also have to change hue to pick up objects, too.

The game is split into five worlds, with ten levels and a boss battle in each. This culminates in a whopping 55 stages – and there are even extra areas that'll open up once all of the collectibles have been grabbed.

The game has a real charming vibe to it befitting of its vivid premise. The music, for example, is subtle but catchy at the same time – and will leave you humming away to yourself as you play. Each stage includes three stars for you to unlock, as well as special diamonds that you'll obtain if you succeed without dying. There's also tons of concept art, videos, and more for you to collect as you progress.

It's a well made title with lots to discover, then – but the only real downer is that the difficulty can be inconsistent; one wrong button in places will send you right back to the start. There are checkpoints scattered throughout each level, but these are poorly spaced in places, and the game becomes very frustrating when you get stuck; spending ten minutes or more repeating the same section saps all of the joy out of the experience.