KAMI review

If you've played puzzle games for a while you may be familiar with this type of game but rarely has such a simple concept been presented so elegantly.

Technically, this is a one note game but the note is challenging enough to be rewarding.  KAMI does not penalize you for wrong answers.  You are more than welcome to solve each board in more than the minimum moves but you will feel shame and return to the same board to try harder.  Restarting a level is quick and painless which goes along way to alleviating any frustration which could build over time.

The puzzle concept is fairly simple.  Choose a color, click a differently colored square, turning all similar colored squared which also touch that square into the same color.  The goal is to make the whole board the same color.  As with all good puzzle games, the first few boards teach the basic concepts and the difficulty quickly ramps from there.

When I first started the game I thought the number of boards or levels seemed low but after spending ten minutes trying to solve one of the harder boards, I know longer feel this is the case.

KAMI is divided into two area, the regular puzzles are presented in increasing difficulty.  Each section of the regular puzzles first introduces a general concept in how you solve the type of challenge presented.  The premium puzzles are where the real head-scratchers are and these puzzles can take a long time to solve.  Do not use the hints for the premium puzzles as that ruins the fun. 

I only have an hour factor:

Good.  The time flies while attempting a specific puzzle.  The aha moment will eventually come and it feels great when it does but KAMI is also comfortable with random clicking in the hopes that something works or sparks your thought process.  I have no doubt that most players, given an hour, will complete a good number of stages and feel rewarded for their time.

I only have ten minutes factor:

Awesome.  This gives you just enough time to complete one or two puzzles.  Be careful as you might get stuck and want to push the ten minute mark but I think any time put into a specific stage is not wasted if you return to that same stage later.

Kids walking in factor:

Awesome (and encouraged).  The paper concept is masterfully presented and encourages clicking just to see what happens.  A puzzle game like this is simple to understand even for very young children and there's no wrong answers as they watch the board fill up with a chosen color.

Significant other factor:

Unfortunately, there appears to be only one save as of this writing.  So there's no way to really compare or compete against another user with their own progress on their own save.  Puzzle games are generally a solo experience but it would have been nice to allow for a second or third user's clean sheet to start from.   

Final verdict:

8/10 - KAMI absolutely succeeds at what it sets out to accomplish and with the $3.99 price point, you can't really go wrong.

Steam Link

Developer Link