Game Reviews

Chameleon Run - If it's this much fun being a lizard, sign me up

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|
iOS
| Chameleon Run
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Chameleon Run - If it's this much fun being a lizard, sign me up
|
iOS
| Chameleon Run

Chameleon Run is sort of like the illegitimate love-child of Ikaruga, Mirror's Edge, and Canabalt. And yes, I'm perfectly aware that those numbers don't actually add up when it comes to illegitimate love-child making.

It's an auto-runner with a colour switching twist. And, quite frankly, it's bloody great. It offers a stiff challenge, controls brilliantly, and looks amazing.

And if that wasn't enough there isn't an IAP or advert in sight. This is exactly the sort of game you should be buying if you want to rail against the supposed f2p menace.

So it's a platformer then?

Yeah it is, sort of in the Rayman Jungle Run mode. You're a collection of vaguely adorable blocks who's sprinting along a set of different coloured platforms.

Tap on the right of the screen and you'll jump. Tap on the left of the screen and you'll change colour. Landing on a platform when you're the wrong hue will kill you instantly.

There are black shapes as well, and hitting them sends you back to the start of the level.

Each of the challenges features a number of separate meta-games. You need to collect orbs, collect smoking orbs, and get to the end of level as quickly as possible.

When you've got all the different kinds of orbs, you open up another challenge - finish the level without changing colour.

It means getting to the end isn't enough, and you'll be heading back to different levels to have another crack at them in order to finish them off completely.

But there's enough good stuff here that you won't mind heading back to it, especially when it means you'll be able to unlock later levels.

Because the game doesn't rest on its laurels. It adds new ideas regularly, throwing in interesting twists to its mechanics.

There are double jumps, head-bashes that essentially let you do quadruple-or-more-jumps, and gates that automatically switch your colour.

And it all gels together to create a blisteringly fast, deeply challenging experience that you just can't help but get stuck into.

This sounds great

It is. It really is. I had reservations going in, I'll admit, but this is a game that takes the auto-runner by the scruff of its neck and shakes it until it's relevant again.

There are shades of Boson-X here, as well as more than a splash of retro arcade charm. It is, in short, really rather good.

This has been a really great week for games, but Chameleon Run has snuck in at the end with a claim to be the best of them all. Give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Chameleon Run - If it's this much fun being a lizard, sign me up

A fresh and exciting take on the autorunner, Chameleon Run is an awful lot of gorgeous fun
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.