Color Zen for iPhone and iPad review: Gorgeous mosaic puzzles that are as tricky as they are beautiful

Color Zen is a gorgeous puzzle game that's designed for both iPhone and iPad. The premise of the game is to twist, turn, and flick mosaic tiles that are all colored and shaped differently in order to fill the screen with the same color. When two like colors meet, they'll recolor the screen that shade. Seem easy enough? Don't be so sure!

The levels of Color Zen start off easy enough and allow you to get a feel for how the game is played. You'll notice that each level has a border color. The goal is to make the entire screen the color of the border. If you flick a red piece into another red, they will absorb and disappear, leaving the screen colored red. Move on to the next mosaics you can match in order to completely clear the board leaving only the tiles that match the border.

Color Zen gets difficult rather quickly and you'll have to think several steps ahead in order to plan for the border color to be the last mosaic tiles you have left to match on the board. I got stuck on one level that took me about a week to finally pass. A large part of me prefers puzzle games that offer up a challenge so I don't fly through them as quick leaving me waiting for more levels. You do, however, have the option to unlock all the levels via an in-app purchase if you would like to skip around or get stuck on a particularly hard level.

If you'd like to add more levels to Color Zen, there is currently a nature pack available as well for another $0.99 in-app purchase. The standard levels will probably keep you busy for quite a while though.

The good

  • Easy game play that functions as a good time killer
  • Levels get hard fast, meaning you won't clear the game in just a few hours and be left looking for another puzzler as quick

The bad

  • The ability to buy even more packs would be a welcome addition

The bottom line

Color Zen is a great way to kill some time either quickly or when you want to lay around and play for long periods of time. I've found myself picking it up when I have just a few minutes to kill or when I have an hour. It's easy to put down and pick back up at any time which makes it a likely candidate for me to choose when I want to weed through games to play.

If you're a fan of puzzlers, Color Zen is definitely one you should add to your list to try out.