Game Reviews

Telepaint - More than just painting by numbers

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iOS
| Telepaint
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Telepaint - More than just painting by numbers
|
iOS
| Telepaint

This auto-runner puzzler is Portal meets Lemmings by way of Manic Miner, with a splash of Beat Sneak Bandit. Each single-screen level has teleporters dotted about, which you can blast objects between.

All the while, a little paint bucket trundles about, desperately yearning to be returned to the loving embrace of an awkwardly out-of-reach paintbrush.

Early challenges are sedate, but the breezy nature of Telepaint sucks you in. The bucket ambles along, but every teleport results in explosions of colour being splattered across industrial backdrops.

And as that's going on, a pleasant metronomic soundtrack plays, in time to the bucket’s footsteps, assisting any ’porting that requires extra precision.

Paint it real good

Slowly, missions become trickier and more intense. The brush finds itself in increasingly tough to access places, while the bucket has to avoid getting punctured by spikes.

Keys and switches make an appearance, removing walls and floors that in an instant switch between obstacle and trap. Sliding blocks provide further head-scratching potential, making you feel like every time you find your feet, Telepaint will pull out the rug.

By the third set of levels, it’s clear Telepaint’s cutesy graphics are the facade on a challenging puzzler. You suddenly find yourself faced with multiple buckets marching inside tiny closed-off sections in a single screen level full of other traps and objects.

Brainpower, timing and dexterity will always see you through, but there'll be times when you angrily toss aside your device, proclaiming a level is impossible.

Then you’ll give it another go, feeling like a genius when one of the pleasingly frequent "Aha!" moment makes an appearance.

Slippy paint

The game only missteps once, with a set of levels based around magnetic blocks. These are attracted to the bucket and must be carefully moved into position, which is easier said then done when the bucket automatically walks along.

The first time you see the block’s forlorn expression on accidentally crushing the paint bucket against a wall, you’ll laugh.

Not so much the tenth, when you mis-time one step in a series of many, leading to yet another colourful but maddening death.

For the most part, though, Telepaint is a breezy, joyous experience, with a freshness about it that makes the game all but irresistible.

Telepaint - More than just painting by numbers

A colourful, charming and immensely playable puzzler that’s perfectly suited to the touchscreen
Score
Craig Grannell
Craig Grannell
Craig gets all confused with modern games systems with a million buttons, hence preferring the glass-surfaced delights of mobile devices. He spends much of his time swiping and tilting (sometimes actually with a device), and also mulling why no-one’s converted Cannon Fodder to iPad.