Painting the world to restore its color is a simple idea brimming with poetry. The brush puzzles are clever, the tone is gentle, and the story handles creative pressure with surprising nuance. Local co-op adds a warm, playful touch to the journey.
Your verdict
Category
Adventure2 players3+
Co-op
Description
A small critter inherits the magic Brush and restores color to a world suddenly drained of hues. Published by Finji, released worldwide in 2021. Free painting to solve puzzles and decorate, powers unlocked little by little, two-player co-op and a tender storybook world.
Chicory: A Colorful Tale review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
A colouring book with the brush in your own hands: a world drawn in black ink that you fill with colour yourself. This idea, as simple as it is brilliant, makes creation the very heart of the game, and every screen becomes a page you long to beautify.
Lena Raine lays down a score as colourful as the world you repaint: tender pianos, warm strings and motifs that transform with each zone and shift in the story's mood. The music follows the brush, deepening with emotion in introspective stretches and bursting open during confrontations. An expressive gentleness that sits right at the game's heart.
People often note its lovely art, but this colorful tale handles heavy themes like self-doubt and creative pressure with rare delicacy. Lost among the cute games of its year, it was sometimes mistaken for a mere interactive picture book. Its free painting, tender writing and two-player co-op deserve a lingering look. For sensitive souls and budding artists.
Better with friends
The second player doesn't fight, they paint, support and light the way for the other: a gentle cooperation where you help far more than you compete. That supportive role makes the adventure perfect to share with a child or a less gamer-y partner, with no pressure and no rivalry. Bursts of color and little assists weave tender memories, easy to pick back up on a quiet evening with a brush in hand.
Is Chicory: A Colorful Tale still worth playing in 2026?
Chicory: A Colorful Tale makes painting both its language and its theme. Restoring color to a world stripped of hue with a magic brush remains an idea of undimmed freshness, inviting you to solve puzzles as much as to freely decorate every screen to suit your mood. Beneath its tender picture-book surface, the story addresses self-doubt and the pressure of creating with touching sincerity. Two-player cooperation adds shared warmth. A few puzzles lack clarity and the pace slackens at times, but the whole breathes a kindness that does not go out of style.
