

Collection is a race to accumulate points or gems, whereas death matches see you and your opponents scrambling for the most frags (kills) within a time limit or racing to get a set frag count. Stages are designed for either collection or death match game types.

Thankfully, the puzzles aren’t a rehash of the single-player stages. The stages are divided into three difficulties: easy, medium, and hard. trying to cut his rope, so he falls to his death) and racing the enemy to get the target amount of gems to open the portal – all while the seconds tick away.Īside from the Campaign mode, Rotastic also offers local multiplayer, Combat mode, for up to 4 people (or you can choose to play against the game’s A.I.).

To make things interesting, the developers added obstacles like moving or combustible anchor points, chainsaws at the edges, cannons, activation levers, flying beasts – just to name a few. Additionally, there are different types of environmental challenges and enemies to thwart your every move. Some of the stages pay homage to puzzle games of yore, such as Arkanoid/BrickBreaker, giving you that amusing trip down memory lane. The puzzles themselves are diverse enough that you never get that feeling of déjà vu. This is definitely something that will have the completionists grinding at the game, looking to get all of the helmets and achievements. So if you get a platinum rating on a level, it counts as four helmets. Gaining a higher level helmet also includes its preceding ones, as you need to get a certain amount of trophies to unlock the next world. In addition to tricks, collecting same coloured gems consecutively will increase your score.Īt the end of each round, you’re awarded with up to four helmet trophies (ranging from bronze to platinum) based on your score.

Fantastical gamer how to#
A nice feature here is that the game offers a brief, optional tutorial at the beginning of these levels, showing you how to do these maneuvers (down to when to press and release the A button). creating the figure 8 or a squiggly line) for point multipliers. In the earlier levels, you’re introduced to different tricks that you can perform (e.g. While playing solo could have become monotonous, the developers tossed in a mixed bag of goodies to keep each stage fresh. The Campaign mode features seven worlds with, on average, ten stages each. In no time, I was flitting about a level, merrily collecting enough gems to open the exit portal. However, reversing your direction also comes in handy (especially with time constraints), which is done by using the Left and Right Bumpers. It could almost be a one-button game, as you use the A button to swing, and releasing the A button launches your character in whatever direction he was swinging in. However, Rotastic is truly easy to grasp. Having played Lumi (and encountering difficulties grasping the swing/rotation mechanics), I was a bit wary going into this new game. In both games, you swing around an anchor, and jump from area to area to collect things in order to finish objectives. As you progress through the worlds, you face different challenges, enemies, and traps.įor those of you who are familiar with the indie Xbox Live Indie game, Lumi, you’ll find the game mechanics to be somewhat similar in Rotastic. Set in a medieval world, Rotastic is an action-puzzler where the goal is to collect gems by swinging from anchor to anchor like Tarzan off Ritalin. It’s still a silly game, but one that I’m not adverse to. I made the erroneous assumption that the game would have obscene or immature gimmicks to go with the irritating voice-overs. Boy, when they teach that positive reinforcement works a lot better than its counterpart, they weren’t kidding! The developers of Rotatastic certainly took that lesson to heart, implementing it within their game with a voice encouraging you that “You can do better!” That’s just one of the many surprisingly delightful aspects that Rotatastic has to offer.Īt first glance (or at least with the trailer), Rotatastic seems like an annoyingly silly game – one that would cater towards people who appreciate juvenile humour.
