Do you like logic and puzzle games? I do. They are great at giving your brain a mental workout as well as helping children develop their cognitive skills such as concentration, forethought and planning, reasoning and logic. SmartGames have a superb choice of logic and puzzle games for single and multiple players and I have been playing with Colour Catch, a single player puzzle game where players help the animals to catch their dinner.
SmartGames Colour Catch is a single player logic based puzzle game for players aged 7 to adult. A challenging tile-based game where players must match the colours to catch the bugs!
In the box:
- Game Board with Coloured Squares
- Transparent Lid
- 5 Puzzle Pieces with Transparent Frogs, Salamanders and Bugs
- Challenge Booklet with 60 challenges and Solutions
SmartGames Colour Catch is a puzzle game with 60 challenges to solve, from starter level to master level, so is suitable for children and adults to test themselves and try to solve the various challenges. In Colour Catch, as in life, everybody needs to eat, and so do the frogs and salamanders in this game, but they need a bit of help. Players need to help them catch bugs for their dinner! To help the frogs and salamanders catch the bugs for a scrumptious meal, players place the puzzle pieces on the game board so that the frogs and salamanders match the colours shown in the challenge booklet. But be aware! The animals are transparent, and their colours will change depending where they are on the game board.
As I have already mentioned, the award-winning Colour Catch is a solo game. To play, the first task is to pick a challenge from the colourful challenge booklet – do you start with challenge 1 in the Starter section or jump straight into a more difficult level? The challenges all have various levels of difficulty so there is something to suit all ages and skill levels. Starting from the green starter is perfect for children or players getting a feel for the game. I like to do things in order, so I started with the first challenge in the book and started working my way through the challenges.
The game is played on a plastic 3×3 square game board which has a coloured grid with 9 squares. You lay out the grey tiles as per the challenge book and the challenge that you are playing. The tiles feature transparent cut-outs of frogs, salamanders and bugs on top of the grey tiles, which reveal the colours of the grid below. Your challenge is to lay out tiles to try and catch the bugs, and there is only one solution for each challenging puzzle. Can you work out the puzzle and feed the animals?
Overall, I think that Colour Catch is an exceptional game for children and adults. The challenges start off easily enough but progressively build up the difficulty and skill levels, getting harder and much more challenging as you work your way through the challenge book – fantastic for children and adults to either work their way through the challenge booklet or dip in and out of at random. It is a game that requires patience and concentration whilst testing and developing cognitive skills such as your critical and flexible thinking, logic, problem solving skills and visual perception. The games can be challenging but not impossible to solve and the challenge book does feature the solutions in case you do need them (if you get stuck, need to find out where you went wrong or even of you just want to point another player in the right direction).
The quality of the game and the pieces is excellent. They are made from high-quality thick plastic, making them tough and durable. They are perfect for constant handling and moving around. The effect of the clear cut-outs over the coloured grid is extremely effective, and almost make the bugs and animals look 3D.
SmartGames Colour Catch is another excellent challenging and educational game in their solo puzzle games range. It is challenging and ribbiting enough to wake up those brain cells and get them leaping into action. An excellent quality game that is reasonably priced. A fun and challenging game with plenty of puzzles to try and solve.
Little orphan Annie would say, “Leaping Lizards”. I say that Colour Catch is an exciting, fun and challenging game, and it does have lizards (well, salamanders, so nearly there). It’s bright and vivid, appealing and can be an excellent mental challenge putting different cognitive skills to the test.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £15.99
For more information, visit www.smartgames.eu. Available to buy from Amazon here.
