Game: Calm Colors
Genre: Puzzle, lifestyle, party
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: naptime.games|QubicGames
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $4.99 | UK £3.39 | EU € 3,99
Release Date: April 8th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to QubicGames.
Feeling stressed? You can alleviate that by taking up Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity like my nephew does. Bashing the button, mowing down enemies while trying to get as many KO as needed to finish the level. Or you can pick up a game like Calm Colors. Place colourful shapes at your leisure, no timer to meet. Just enjoying the beautiful images, taking your time, breathe and relax. Calm Colors is available now on the Nintendo Switch, let’s see if it works well on our favourite handheld device.
Colorful Lovely Images to Fill
Calm Colors has 200 low poly illustrations to fill, much like you do when painting by number. Below on your screen three numbered pieces show up, each with a different shape and color, fitting to the image you will ultimately colour in. There are various different categories, cute animals, amazing nature, harmonious origami and many more. Every category has a set number of images in it to choose from. They range from easy to medium to hard, which means the number of shapes to fill and the size of the image get harder.
In every image there are a couple of shapes that give you a number of blue gems. When you have amassed enough gems, you can use them to unlock images in special categories, like Christmas, Sea, Fashion, Chinese year and more.
Ease of Sliding Pieces
With larger images, finding the right place to put a shape can be tricky. You can zoom in or zoom out with the L and R buttons, and slide the image left, right, up or down with the buttons of the D-pad. Still, if you can’t find the right shape you can remedy that easily. In the settings you have an option to highlight the shape where the piece you are holding has to go. It will light up after 0,5 second, 2 seconds or not at all, depending on how difficult you want to make it for yourself. If you hold a piece for longer than that time, the shape starts to blink and a helpful arrow shows you where in the, often large image, the piece should go.
It all works flawlessly, Calm Colors does what it promises very well. There are various way to work on your Switch. You can use the touchscreen either by finger or with a stylus. Or you can use the ABYX buttons to pick up the piece you want to search for together with the left sick. I did find that the touchscreen worked best for me, with a stylus. Using the buttons only felt a bit inaccurate.
Geared Up for Relaxing Fun
Everything in the game is made so there’s no stress. If you can’t finish an image in one go, Calm Colors puts it in the gallery, so you can come back to it later. The background music is soothing and really just that, in the background.
The game can also be played with up to four players, each using a JoyCon or Remote Controller. You work on a split screen, each of you on the same image.
Conclusion – Think Happy Thoughts
Of course, Calm Colors isn’t for everyone, but it’s a good game if you want to unwind and think happy thoughts while sliding the pieces onto the right shape. It offers relaxing gameplay, and turns the myriad of lines into a lovely bright image.
Looking at the price, you are looking upon many hours of relaxation with no stress, timers, pressure…just you sliding the pieces to the soothing music.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
Honestly, I like Legend of Zelda, but I like coloring games too. So I might check this out.
There’s a place and a time for every kind of game. Thanks for reading!