In a delightfully unique and colorful style, Gameday Inc. presents Help Purple – a whimsical adventure game that personifies the colors of the rainbow as little plankton-style jellybeans with special powers. As the only color to escape the “Huge Monster,” purple embarks on a unique puzzle adventure to save his other-colored friends. Help Purple is definitely unique and has strong visual appeal with an array of colorful worlds for Purple to explore.
You could describe Help Purple as an adventure game with a candyland-esque landscape, complete with an adorable and whimsical starring character. The environments are quite lush and little Purple has quite the personality. Players progress through the game by solving uniquely designed puzzle quests on each level. Tapping and moving objects as well as collecting and employing color pallets and special abilities, like melting ice, help Purple solve each level and progress to the next as he follows “Huge Monster” across colorful worlds in an attempt to rescue his friends.
Help Purple has such strong visual appeal and whimsy, it’s hard not to like it just based on design. The problem is, design alone is not enough to capture your heart. The gameplay is undoubtedly unique as claimed, but some of the tasks are very unclear. The first few levels are not all that difficult to puzzle out, but some of the levels leave players confused as to how to proceed. In some levels it is a simple matter of remaining unclear as to the overall objective and in other levels, the objective is clear but how to obtain the objective is not. The limited number of available hints may or may not be helpful either.
The underlying creativity of Help Purple is strongly apparent even though the level objectives often aren’t. There are simply too few levels that allow any creativity in solving as the objective must be met in a specific order or manner. Too often, the interface or game mechanisms get in the way. You may be required to tap on objects in specific order or direction or locate and interact with hidden objects when the game becomes confusingly responsive. Occasionally the only way to proceed is random tapping and guessing, which becomes frustrating – in part because progress is hindered and in part because all the other design elements of Help Purple suggest casual, creative gameplay.
As an adventure game, Help Purple has its pros and cons. Clearly unique in design, a less restrictive interface and more obvious objectives would have definitely served to strengthen the game. But to be fair, there are a few positive aspects that add depth to it, including flashing collectible items and the randomly interspersed mini-game and boss challenge. It is beautiful to look at and while challenging to the point of frustration at times, Help Purple still has some appeal. The half-price sale adds to its appeal and for some casual game-seekers, especially those with patience who thrive on analyzing an objective, it offers some fairly solid entertainment value.
