Quick Review: Spectrum

Zoom!

Even the pretty blue is dangerous!

A creation of 3D Avenue and released on September 22nd, 2016, Spectrum is a platforming game in which you control a little abstract black ball through levels. There’s a catch, however; color hurts it. It can roll just fine on white or black platforms, but it will lose an oval of health if it hits anything of pale color. It will lose all of its health at once if it comes into contact with anything that has darker color. You move around with the arrows or WASD.

The game is split in 8 worlds of 10 levels each. The worlds are split in two categories – the Light World which the safe platforms are white, and the Dark World in which the safe platforms are black. One interesting element here is that the levels in the second category are actually rehashes of the levels in the first category, only made much harder or incorporating trickier platforming.

Sometimes, you just gotta go up in life.

The deep blue blocks kill in one hit.
Oh, and here, they move, too!

This is not a regular platformer, in that the little creature can jump upwards as much as it wants to; it can basically fly on repeatedly hitting Up or W. It’s necessary to climb up in some levels. That said, it led to my big issue with the game; since the creature doesn’t jump very high, in order to go high you’ll have to mash the key like a madman when the creature has to fly up. That’s particularly noticeable in levels where deadly platforms are coming from below and you need to hurry upwards. Similarly, the ball can dive if you press Down or S in midair.

Aaaaah! The death block is going after me!

Okay,yeah - the Dark World really IS
a lot darker. Black platforms will be
the only safe places here!

And of course, the game gets really difficult after a while. Moving platforms, precise timings and tiny spaces to squeeze through – yep. It has it all. Its smooth artstyle thankfully helps make it feel a bit more relaxing than other figureheads of the “ultra hard platformer” genre (à la Super Meat Boy). It also helps that the levels are very short and most will take less than a minute to finish. What I also liked is that the game’s visual signature eventually changes to incorporate 3D elements – the game is still on a 2D plane, but obstacles can come from the back of the screen to the front. This allows the levels to get really creative after a while.

The death blocks are coming at me from
the back of the screen now! Aaaaaaah!

In this one, the background is literally
pulsing back and forth to try to kill you.

And if you want an extra challenge, each level comes with three bonus points to earn. One is won by completing the level within the required time (which is usually pretty short). One is won by collecting all of the pellets of light in a level; of note, those also replenish the character’s HP. The last one is won by going through the level without losing even a single HP. Merely beating a level gets tough after a while, so imagine trying to gather all of these extras!

It doesn’t do a lot special, but its looks and its gameplay do make it a pretty fun game to try. Like all tough platformers, it will provide short but difficult challenges, and can occupy a couple hours of your time. Even more if you aim to 100% the whole thing. I also liked to see that the game tried new things with perspective (such as having obstacle move towards the screen in a 3D manner). I also liked that there was a Light World and a Dark World. If this sort of game is your jam, you might want to check it out.

Spectrum is available on Steam for 4.99$