''Colors'' is an unreleased
Gizmondo
The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Tiger Telematics. It was released in the UK, Sweden and the U.S. starting in March 2005. Its first-party games were developed in studios in Helsingborg, Sweden, and Manchester, England. Gi ...
game that uses the console's
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
system to allow the player to play in the area where the player is located in real life, in the game. ''Colors'' was intended to be the world's first GPS video game, but due to Gizmondo's bankruptcy, it was never officially released. However, the game leaked and distributed online in 2008.
There was a mostly complete version of ''Colors'' that was circulated on the Internet. When first playing ''Colors'', it appears the multiplayer game, called ''TurfWar'', is offline. After a player gains 30,000 dollars, it unlocks. Another unlockable is the tag editor which allows players to
spraypaint
Aerosol paint (commonly spray paint) is paint that comes in a sealed, pressurized container and is released in an aerosol spray when a valve button is depressed. Aerosol painting is one form of spray painting; it leaves a smooth, even coat, unlik ...
custom tags around the city. It is unlocked after beating a certain mission in the game.
The multiplayer mode of the game does not function.
On November 30, 2015,
Carl Freer announced plans to re-release the game for iOS and Google Play.
Gameplay
Gameplay in ''Colors'' is very similar to many popular third person shooter games, like ''
Grand Theft Auto
''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily d ...
'', ''
Resident Evil 4
''Resident Evil 4'' is a 2005 survival horror third-person shooter game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the GameCube on January 11, 2005. Players control U.S. government specia ...
'', or ''
Max Payne''. The player cannot manually target body parts like the head or arms, but instead, the reticle moves automatically, slowing down and becoming more precise depending on the player's movement. If the player strafes or moves more while targeting, the reticle wildly bobs around, making it difficult to aim and shoot accurately.
The player may select a character at the beginning of the game. The characters differ in appearance. Two stats, health and stamina, are also presented.
A button must be held to strafe, and due to the Gizmondo's lack of an
analog stick
An analog stick (or analogue stick in British English), sometimes called a control stick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller (often a game controller) that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joy ...
, a button must also be pressed to activate running, though it must only be pressed once.
The game's weapon selection is split into different types. There are rifles, shotguns, pistols, and explosives, as well as some improvised weapons like
nailguns. There are no melee weapons, however, only ranged ones.
In the game, the player can be caught by the police and taken to a prison cell with three people in it. Two of them offer to get the player out at a price, while the third will offer assistance in exchange for sex rather than money. After that, the player is transported to the hospital and allowed to leave.
Crimson City itself is mostly free roaming, but divided into several small areas with loading screens. The locales in the game include a train station (where the game begins and ends), a
China Town
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...
, a
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...
, a Little Mexico, a junk yard, some docks, and an area without a particular theme but with a man selling
C4 explosives. Some of the highest paying missions are also in this area.
Overall, there are about forty missions in the game, and no main story, so all of them are self-contained stories of the character's services to multiple people. Each boss has their own small story that is uncovered more, such as one female Spanish boss who is being followed around by a junkyard worker, and finally gets kidnapped by the worker, leaving the character to save her and kill him.
Story
The game takes place in the fictional Crimson City. The game contains little to no story and does not explain the reason why the main character is in the city, nor why he begins to commit crimes. The character is simply introduced by a vague CG intro arriving by train. The people the player works for include a
pimp in the stereotypical purple suit and hat, a corrupt police officer, a gamut of gangsters, and many criminals fitting stereotypes of their race.
During the game's missions, the player is given jobs such as hiding drugs for a cop, removing someone's
life support plug, getting high on drugs and chasing a man in a rabbit suit through a maze-like building.
The game ends with the main character leaving the city as ambiguously as he came in. After beating the game, the player is able to select a lot more character models to play as, including many of the denizens within Crimson City itself, such as the pizza seller, the drug rabbit, the gun dealer, Mr. Smith, who has some of the best stats in the game, and a medieval knight, which is never seen regularly in the game.
References
{{Reflist
External links
''Colors''at
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
''Colors''at
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
''Colors''at
Lost Levels
Cancelled Gizmondo games
Organized crime video games
Third-person shooters
Location-based games