Gamedaily: Echochrome Review - Echochrome proves that simple can still be fun

Gamedaily writes: "Games that come stateside from Sony's Japan Studio are often incredibly quirky, but also pack some of the most original and quality ideas to hit its platforms. Echochrome is just such a game, and has been on many gamers' wish lists since the first sneak peek at E3 2007. Originally planned as both a downloadable title and available via UMD for the PSP (which is how the Japanese market received it), the U.S. version was chopped in half and stripped of a few modes for both the PS3 and PSP, each with 56 levels (the Japanese version has 100). However, with a slashed price of $10 for either platform, this one's worth buying.

Your love of Echochrome will ultimately depend on your appreciation for the art of M. C. Escher. Escher's work plays with your sense of perspective, toying with distances and what the eye doesn't see in order to create all sorts of optical illusions. That foundational principle is the guiding gameplay mechanic. There is very little that you have to do to solve Echochrome's puzzles; you simply have to do it exactly right. On the PS3, you rotate the camera with the analog stick (you can use motion controls, although they prove slightly unwieldy for the level of precision you often need). The game's sole character, an absent-minded mannequin, will plod along the same path over and over again, making only left turns until you sufficiently change the perspective in order to change his course. This is done by hiding breaks in its path, or holes that it will fall through, or launch pads that will make it leap into the air. You must continually rotate the camera (although hitting triangle will cause him to cease walking in order to give you time to think) in order to have him walking, falling or bouncing to other parts of the stage to collect "echoes," shadow versions of himself. Collect them all before time runs out, and you beat the level."