Chameleon Run is a fast-paced platform-style game for Windows 10 Mobile where you have to navigate across a series of colorful levels. While the obstacles you have to avoid are challenging by themselves, you also have to make sure your character matches the color of the ground.
While the graphics are slightly minimalist, they look great and are full of color. The controls are about as simple as it gets and tests your multitasking skills nicely. Chameleon Run is currently priced at $1.99. It is a fantastic time waster of a game for your Windows Mobile phone.
When you first launch Chameleon Run, the game transitions to a tutorial level that highlights the basics of gameplay. Controls are simply laid out with tapping the right corner of the screen to control your character's jumps and tapping the left corner controls your character's color shifts. Double-tapping the jump control allows your character to jump further and recover from a fall.
If you have trouble mastering the tutorial, Chameleon Run slows down the pace of the game, which allows you to concentrate on a particular move or technique with a little less stress (a nice touch). As new features become available, new tutorials appear and should you ever need to revisit the tutorials, you can replay the tutorial levels at anytime.
Once you have completed the tutorial, Chameleon Run launches to a modest main menu that has options to jump into gameplay and access the game's settings. Settings include the usual suspects (sound, music, developer credits, etc.) and a battery saving option. The Battery Save Mode sets the graphics to a lower level and with older devices may adjust the frames per second.
Chameleon Run includes two chapters, each with fifteen levels of play. The goal of the game is to navigate your game character across each platform level to reach the exit portal as quickly as possible. Each platform has a series of dangers to navigate past and various objects scattered about that you can collect (marbles, gems, etc.). Dangers come in the form of gaps in the platform you have to jump across and teeter-tottering sections that shifts as you run across it. There are also levels where you have to drop from the platform, avoid a risk from above and double-jump your way back to safety.
In addition to avoiding game ending risks, your runner's color must match the ground. For example, as you jump from a yellow colored section of the level to a pink, you need to tap the color switch control to change your runner from yellow to pink.
In addition to the core objective of Chameleon Run, there are a series of secondary objectives you can pursue. These are performance based such as collecting all the marbles, collect all crystals or do not change colors. In completing these objectives, you earn chameleons and unlock speed boosters that are spread out across each level. These boosts include lightning bolts and a hover board. While the speed boosters can increase the game's difficulty level, they can also improve level time and score.
Once you complete each level, a scoring summary appears that highlights your time, scoring (one to three stars) and objectives completed. The scoring summary also displays the time needed to achieve to reach the next scoring (or star) level. Levels with Chameleon Run are progressively unlocked, requiring a set number of chameleons (earned through the objectives) to advance.
Chameleon Run offers a nice level of difficulty and is a fantastic Windows 10 Mobile game to pass the time with. Gameplay keeps you on your toes with all the color shifts needed and the game just looks good. The graphics are crisp (even at the lower quality setting), colorful and I like the dust trail that follows your runner. I like the platform model the game has but also would not mind seeing an endless runner mode find its way to Chameleon Run.
Chameleon Run is currently priced at $1.99 and while some may grumble at the lack of a trial version, the game is well worth the price of admission.
Download Chameleon Run from the Windows Store
