Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
One day a girl named Charlie had a seizure and fell unconscious while studying Dali's paintings (we've all been there), and she slipped into the heart of various pieces of art. While there, Charlie picks up crystals scattered about, but whenever she does, a shadow of her former self appears. The shadows are deadly to touch and they travel the same path that Charlie previously walked. At first, this is no problem, but when there are suddenly 25-40 shadows traversing the artwork and hanging out in tight spaces, things get interesting.

What's Hot
Echoes initially lulls you into thinking that it is a simple action game of avoidance, but it quickly becomes one of strategy, where you must figure out the best places to move so that the shadows will spawn there and not the places you need to go to pick up the crystals. The key to the game is to obviously keep moving and keep moving quickly, because if you linger too long, a shadow could spawn right underneath you or you could get trapped by a few unmoving shadows, which creates a vicious cycle that you will not survive. It's a strategy game that we really have not seen before, and it's brilliant.



Fortunately, the developers don't leave you hanging with just your wits to survive. Some of the levels have little power-up crystals that will either give Charlie extra lives, let her destroy some shadows, or briefly stop time. Of course, like everything else in the game, these require some strategy to use as well. Well, a couple of them do. When you pick up the saw blade power-up, the best mode of action is to mow down every shadow you can, Pac-Man-on-a-power-pellet style.

In addition to the original and rather addictive gameplay, the game has a massive replayability factor for its paltry $2.99 price tag. You can either replay the levels to beat your time and earn better trophies, or play the three other gameplay modes you unlock as you complete levels in the Arcade mode.

What's Not
There is really little to dislike about Echoes, and my only complaint about it is rather nit-picky.

There are three different difficulty settings, and when you switch to one of them, you have to start playing from scratch. This is both good and bad. It's good in that you can run through each of the difficulty settings and earn new trophies. However, it's also bad in that if one level on hard is giving you trouble, you can't just switch the difficulty setting for one level and then switch back for the next.



Final Word
Echoes has already made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade, but it fits quite well in the PSP Mini library. In fact, it's one of the best PSP Minis available, which may not be saying much due to the scant library filled with sub-par games, but it's definitely a crystal in the rough. Also unlike most PSP Minis, it has an exceptionally low price, but it doesn't skimp on the amount of gameplay or replayability. Everyone with a PSP (especially those with a PSPgo) needs to check out Echoes.