Colorbind review

When I first downloaded this app, my boyfriend started complaining about game designers and their consistent neglect of the millions of colorblind individuals. “No, it’s ColorBIND.” “Huh?” “Not “blind”. Bind. B-I-N-D.” “Oh…how’s it work?”

One of the most elegant and minimalist games out there, Colorbind is a fresh and graceful addition to the puzzle genre. The aim is to match all the colored dots with their respective ribbons. Ribbons can be only be moved in straight lines by dragging your finger along.

The challenge comes when you realize that ribbons cannot intersect at the same level. For example, to get a blue ribbon across an orange one, you must figure out how to fold the blue ribbon at right angles so that it is either going over or under the orange ribbon. I know it sounds complicated, but I promise, you get the hang of things very quickly.

Naturally, Mr. Colorblind was still a bit frustrated and miffed at the color sensitive nature of the puzzles, but he didn’t experience any major problems. Rather, we were both delighted at the elegant complexity of the puzzles. They are deviously simple in form, but the puzzles seriously challenge your abstract thinking.

The controls, once you understand how the puzzle works, are remarkably intuitive, and the solid game mechanism is very well-supported by the clean and responsive interface. I really enjoyed the unique visual style of the game, and while I probably would have enjoyed an option to play my own music, I certainly didn’t mind the lack. The dozens of brain-twisting levels were more than enough to keep me engaged, and there is a Lite version available for those of you who just want to get your feet wet.

This is still not a game for the very colorblind or those who shy away from heavy thinking in their games, but for those of you who like puzzles and appreciate clean design, this is definitely one to try.

Here is a video demo of the Colorbind app on the iPhone

AppSafari Rating: 4.5/5

AppSafari review of Colorbind was written by Tracy Yonemoto on April 25th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Fun, Games, Puzzler. Page viewed 5835 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.