[DJ NES]

As far as Arcade titles should go, in the slurry of arcade games that come out over the months, arcade titles need to be fresh, innovative and more importantly, interesting. Whilst Rotastic meets the first two requirements, it falls on the latter by a great deal.

Rotastic is a unique puzzle game wherein the objective is to collect X amount of crystals to progress through the levels. The twist being that the whole game consists of you being tied to a rope and your movement being limited to circular rotations.



The game presents itself well in the early levels, nothing to strenuous but enough to showcase how to rack up impressive combos all whilst learning the ropes (BOOM BOOM!) The majority of the game is crystal collecting, occasionally the game offers up respites in the form of being shown how to make a combo design to score more points or a quick game of “breakout” Rotastic style.

The downside to Rotastic is it suddenly veer’s off into hard as nails territory and the learning curve dissipates into thin air. You’re left with invincible enemies who fire cannons at you, flying sharks taking up half the screen and flaming pylons which make keeping any momentum near impossible.



What Rotastic has achieved is to breathe a new fresh IP into an otherwise generic clone of a clone of a clone marketplace. It works well as a pick up and play game, the colourful scenery and playability early on help showcase it very well. However….. Once you have breezed through the first couple of worlds, the game only offers up minor twists on previous level structures with a few more hazards thrown in.

Rotastic could have been a lot better whilst it could also have been a lot worse. Its sudden curve in difficulty will put a lot of people off very quickly, whilst the most hardcore of puzzlers may see it as an additional challenge. However unique Rotastic presents itself, the limited appeal it has may be its downfall more than the challenge it presents.

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