Impossible, I say.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Nothing says "classy minimalism" quite like a string quartet and a wobbly man. But you can't just have a wobbly man chilling on stage in front of a string quartet. No, that's not classy enough. That's not minimalist enough.
You need to drop the wobbly man into an Oscar Reutersvärd-inspired impossible geometry platform puzzle, where he'll casually walk around his environment as best he can to the laid back sounds of a string quartet, contrasting with your frantically working brain as you try to work out how to manipulate the perspective in Echochrome.
This was a sight to see on the PlayStation 3, and one I'm finally giving a proper look towards.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fun Times
Echochrome is a game that definitely intrigues people but seems to be one that only a few ever get around to playing. I'm one of the many who first saw it, said words to the effect of "That's different", and then proceeded to have nothing to do with it until the 1001 list said I should check it out. I guess it was too minimal for me. Too artsy.
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| Source // PlayStation |
The game is simple. You manipulate the camera, swooping around the geometry made up of blocks floating in space. The goal is to get the wobbly man to each of his destinations, marked with shadowy wobbly men, but as you can see, he's not going to get very far before he encounters a gap in the path ahead, and he's not the jumping type.
Indeed, with no control over him at all, the only tool you have is the mantra "out of sight, out of mind". If you can't see it, it doesn't exist. Nudge the camera a little, and your problem literally disappears.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
If you think Echochrome is mind-bending, it is. The wobbly man keeps walking, rather gracefully despite his name (admittedly it is I, not Echochrome, that insists on calling him the wobbly man) around the level before him, turning at the ends of paths again and again, until you can find him a route to his goal by careful manipulation of the camera.
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| Source // PlayStation |
The tutorials were challenging enough, especially at first, but the game is so minimal in its design that the first part of the game itself I found myself in were some devilish user-generated levels. Thankfully, I found myself in a more expected set of levels soon enough and proceeded to do what I could.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
As you play more, you'll learn more about how the wobbly man will act when faced with a problem. Holes in platforms are obviously to be avoided... except when they're to be used. Something underneath to land on will stop you plummeting into the void. Might that be the solution to the problem? Do you have enough time to put a plan into place before the wobbly man falls through the hole to his doom?
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| Source // PlayStation |
Echochrome is a slow game, partly to give you a chance to work out just what it is you need to do, and partly to just chill you out. This isn't a game about stress. So you fell through a hole, no biggy, you've not lost anything important, it's just a wobbly man...
But it's not a game that is so laid back that it plays itself. Far from it. Your brain will get pushed, and you will find your breaking point somewhere along the way.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Final Word
I found myself playing until I got stuck, which admittedly was probably quite soon into the game, but not so soon that I didn't see what Echochrome had to offer, which was a puzzle platformer with a difference, both in terms of the puzzles it has you solve and the style in which it is presented.
It's not right to compare it to N+, but it's in recent memory so I will. Both games puzzle platformers in their own way. You control different things in each, but in both games, death is a temporary setback and your goals are clear. Restarting is quick and there's nothing to distract you. The key difference is that I care about the wobbly man and I don't care about the ninja.
The wobbly man might as well be swaggering around the place, such is the amount of class on display in Echochrome. Is it the music that does it? The minimalism? The choice of your character being a wobbly man in the first place? An artists mannequin, for goodness sake. Not a silly little creature with a ridiculous appearance, but a tool for artists. That evokes things in people. It's posh. It shouldn't be, but it feels it.
You can check out some speedruns of Echochrome if you like, though you'll be dazzled by them for perhaps the wrong reasons if you don't know the workings of the game beforehand. Even at a breathtaking pace, it doesn't fail to be an elegant puzzler, and if any kind of puzzler is worth your time, it has to be an elegant one.
Fun Facts
Want to know how classy and minimalist this game is? Have a read of this sentence from its Wikipedia page: "The composer had originally considered naming the game's individual tracks after philosophical terminology to match the title's abstract qualities, but later decided to use prime numbers so as not to color the songs with subjective interpretations."
Echochrome, developed by Game Yarouze, SCE Japan Studio, first released in 2008.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2008.