Twins Fillup and Violet are about to embark on a colorful adventure. After being sucked into a magical coloring book, they soon discover that some mean ol’ Gobble-ins are stealing all the colors! Now it’s up to the twins and their dog Spot to use their magic crayons to solve puzzles and bring color back to the world!

Crayola: Colorful Journey is an action puzzler game similar to titles like Lemmings. Choose to play as either Fillup or Violet, but you don’t get to control them directly. They move independently on their own, always walking forward, turning around only when they hit a wall. The twins aren’t totally helpless, as they can climb up and jump over small obstacles. It’s up to you to use the Wii remote to draw bridges and color in the environment to keep the kids safe.

By pointing the Wii remote at the screen and pressing the A button while moving around, you can draw lines that turn into solid ground. You must make bridges to keep the twins from falling into water or pits, and walls to block them from danger. You can choose from four different crayons, each with their own weight and characteristics, but most of the time it doesn’t matter what color you choose. You can also use the Wii remote to erase your drawings, just press B instead of A. In addition, sometimes you can use the remote to flick objects out of harm’s way, although that’s not as easy as it sounds.

If you see a solid white object, you can color it in with any crayon to make it ‘real’ again, like logs over a river or a ladder into a cave. Then the twins can travel across them. But be careful and not scribble too much, as you have a color meter that depletes as you draw. Run out and it’s Game Over. Refill your meter by finding color pots scattered throughout the levels.

Also strewn around the worlds are uncolored background objects and hidden crayons. Color all the background as you travel to unlock pages for your coloring book, and collecting crayons gives you more hues to use for your coloring pages. Find all 64 for a full box of crayons! Rounding out the package is the aforementioned coloring book to doodle in, plus a playground where you can draw objects for Fillup and Violet to climb around without fear of danger.

Kid Factor:
Crayola; Colorful Journey has three difficulty settings for players of all skill levels, but since most folks who will be playing this are youngsters, I would highly recommend the easiest beginner level. The intermediate and advanced skill levels were a challenge even for me. In the harder skill settings, the kids will continue walking right into danger, making for a quick Game Over. And if you lose all your meager chances, you have to start the whole level again. But in the beginner settings, the twins will actually stop in front of lakes and chasms to give you time to actually draw something.

It also would’ve been nice to have mid-save points during the levels. Each stage is kind of long and kids might get disinterested while playing. But if you don’t finish a level, you have to start over at the very beginning. The in-game coloring book is nice, but could’ve also used a few more features like an automatic fill-in option or bigger, more detailed pictures to color. Other than those problems, Crayola: Colorful Journey should provide the while family with plenty of colorful, creative challenges. Reading skill is helpful for the in-game text instructions and it’s rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews