7 Colors
| Developer: Gamos | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Infogrames | Sound: |
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| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Puzzle | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 simultaneous | Rating: |
6/10 | |
A strategy game for two players, similar to Go and Othello. The original (Russian) is called Filler (PC-DOS, 1990).
You have a grid of small squares in various colours, representing a map. Each player starts from an opposite corner. Their territory extends across all adjacent squares of the same colour. Taking turns, each combatant chooses a new colour, which must differ from their opponent’s. Their entire block then takes on the selected colour, absorbing all bordering squares of the same colour. The strategy involves assimilating as many squares as possible or preventing the opponent from doing so by taking their preferred colour. The first player to occupy at least 50% of the board wins the game.
I find this game quite relaxing. The music (Simon the Sorcerer performing Mozart and Bach) becomes somewhat irritating after a while, but you can turn it off. However, the computer doesn’t play very well, or perhaps the difficulty increases very gradually. Once you’ve grasped the principle, it’s easy to string together victories, unless bad luck intervenes; because there’s a major problem: the randomly generated boards aren’t symmetrical. This means one player will always have terrain advantage. One would have also liked to see some special squares, bonuses, the ability to play with three or four players, in teams, or three against one with handicaps…
In short, whilst the concept seems brilliant, the execution is lacking. 7 Colors deserves an improved remake. So, who’s up for it?
Update:
A potential successor arrived in early 2014: KAMI.
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