Game: Kolumno
Genre: Sports, Puzzle, Action, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam & Mobile)
Developers | Publishers: Devilish Games | Flynn’s Arcade
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US E
Price: EU €1,99 | USD $1.99 | UK £1.79
Release Date: December 24th, 2020
Review code used, with many thanks to Flynn’s Arcade
Kolumno is a puzzle game by developers Devilish Games and published by Flynn’s Arcade.
Minimalist Puzzle
Kolumno is a very minimalistic style of a puzzle game. It’s so minimalist there isn’t a tutorial or instructions of any kind. In Kolumno you have to guide a ball to the goal. You must wait for the right moment and make the ball fall through an intricate moving column that the ball starts on top off. It sounds pretty simple and easy to do but it’s not and offers a tough challenge for puzzle fans.
Each level consists of a column with a metal ball on top of the column. The column has rings spinning around it and as the rings spin, they open and close and appear and disappear. You have to navigate the ball down the side of the column through the spinning rings and into the hole at the bottom. But once you start moving the ball you have very little control over it other than a few skills.
Use Skills
You can pause the ball for a few seconds in one place. Or you can shrink the ball to fit through tight gaps. You can also drop the ball really fast and smash through up to four blocks or you can turn the ball into a spiked ball to wreck everything. Most of the levels only require one or two skills and perfect timing. Some of the later levels do require you to use most if not all the skills, these levels are tough though as there can be multiple solutions.
However, each level in Kolumno requires you to figure out exactly when to execute your skills and how. As a result, in the levels where multiple skills are available for use, there’s the risk of you trying to use the wrong skill at the wrong time. Or being unsure if you are using the order of skills correctly for that level.
Which means failure in the game before you even complete the level, as you have to experiment to find out what skills work and when. This also means that when it’s unclear why you are losing or what you should change, frustration can be quick to set in. I found that Kolumno is more of a reaction, anticipation, hope-you-get-lucky kind of game than a puzzle game.
It requires planning and lots of patience to play and pinpoint timing. If you’re a few fractions of a second early or late in dropping the ball it is a guaranteed failure!
If you do fail and you will, you don’t lose anything. The ball just appears back at the top of the column and you start over again. Completing the level unlocks the next puzzle of which there are 75 puzzles to complete in all.
Visuals and Controls
Kolumno is certainly very clean in looks, and with no frills. It has an elegant graphical look, I really like how it is shown with only the actual puzzle on show and the muted pastel shades are calming. The music is chill and very relaxing, which is a great match for the puzzles.
Controlling the movement of the ball is done either by using the joy-con controls or by the touchscreen. Whichever one you’re comfortable using the game controls equally well both ways.
Conclusion
Waiting for the right moment and making the ball fall through the intricate columns. Does that seem easy to you? It isn’t! Behind its apparent simplicity, Kolumno hides a challenging and fun game mechanic. Don’t be fooled by Kolumno minimalistic style and its relaxing soundtrack. As underneath all that, there is a tricky puzzle game that will give your brain a good workout and your patience too!
It will also test your reflexes in the puzzles and a little strategy while you puzzle out which skill is appropriate to use and when. All in all, I’ve had an enjoyable time playing Kolumno, it’s an interesting and well designed game for the Nintendo Switch!
Final Verdict: I Like It 
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