Here are some compliments about the Roto Force that might seem like sarcastic compliments at first glance, but are actually pretty much the highest compliments I can give. First. Roto Force is a twin stick shooter, but it doesn’t feel like a twin stick shooter. It felt fresh and strange, and—at first—quite claustrophobic. Instead of getting a full arena to play in, you get the arena but are trapped within its inner walls. So you can do loops, left or right, designed to produce horrors bubbling inside, but they get most of their freedom. This might seem unfair – all that space for the bad guys, but crossing the line for you. it’s not true. You can also use the trigger to dash through the space, aiming for a straight line from one part of the wall to another. It was so fast it felt like teleportation. It’s great, and there are a lot of nuances to how it works.
the second. I guess Roto Force was born in the game, and the finished game retains the energy of that jam. Well-polished and cleverly conceived, but with the levity and lively enthusiasm of a sketch, it’s astonishingly, unbelievably brilliant, something scribbled on paper. I think it’s very difficult to maintain that level of energy when you’re turning something small into something bigger. The Roto Force makes this transition perfectly. It’s a lovely craft, but it also has a frenzy that comes together with deadly speed.
The third. I realize now that I didn’t actually see much about Roto Force when I first played the game. I’m not saying I skipped some sections or missed entire levels. It’s just that the whole thing was so fast and crazy that my poor, confused brain could only react on a mechanical level. I learned how to distinguish bullets that were safe to sprint from bullets that would still hurt me during the sprint. I learned that certain enemies and even power-ups will have small bubbles that make them impervious to fire and have to be hit with a dash first. I learned that you can shoot checkpoint markers that rotate in the game after each round, and it will generate a weapon selector so you can make changes for the next drastic action. I learned that some enemies will swarm you, while others will cling to walls, preventing you from running blindly to avoid everything. All this I know, but I don’t see much. It disappears in a friendly blur.
I’m back now, and I can tell you that Roto Force is visually clever and hectic. We’re in the Game Boy Player 8-Bit world: four colors and thick, bordered-edge sprites. I think, you’re playing as a sort of slug, and enemies come in all forms and from many worlds. In one level, it’s all about the birds – the penguin lays eggs and throws fish(?) at you, while the boss fight takes place in the nest. One level is all about… slime… I guess? Plants spew out of the soil, spewing noxious fumes, and bosses are this slime foam that pops out of walls and chases you.
These are just early levels. Keep going and you’ll find sandworms erupting from desert dunes that used to be a museum, as well as a triangular electric city where you can blow up light bulbs and plugs. It’s so fast, so deadly, so punishing – and so creative! It reminded me of the marginalia of some old medieval text, those tiny drawings that at first were hard to see in all the text, but when successfully adjusted, would reveal an upside-down world of three-headed kings and demons. rabbit. As a side note, the creatures summoned by the Roto Force have a strange intelligence: the more you look, the more you see. Unlike a side note, however, all of this stuff will kill you.
In visual clutter, there is a lot to learn. When to sprint. When doing a super dash move that drains too much health and can deal damage to any baddies it hits. How to best position yourself to deal with multiple bosses or evil mini-bosses. Watch for changes in the shape of the arena you’re rolling in: you may find yourself walking the wrong wall and missing your current target. Ignore those ever-changing color schemes that are dazzling and disturbing. Focus on the things that are trying to kill you, on the things that are sticky and suddenly stop you from moving, on the empty spaces that mean something new is coming.
I think it’s overkill: a double stick that pushes you into the food processor and squeezes the lid tight. But it’s broken into waves, and there’s a generous checkpoint system. Also, each level will give you new weapons to choose from. It’s here that Roto Force starts to remind me of Treasure, and of all the developers. Gunstar Treasure, where each weapon is both a new toy and, to some extent, a new difficulty level.
The weapons you unlock are wildly ingenious, and each requires learning. Not only do you have to learn the controls (often from one weapon to the next), but you also learn how best to really make the most of this new gadget you’ve acquired, which at first can bog you down in the game. The dilemma you suddenly no longer understand.
The main weapon – and I think this is the first – is rapid fire. It quickly added the option to switch to homing shots, which move slower and don’t hit certain enemies that have shields in certain places, and ricochet shots, which charge and release when all Both lead to straight laser lines bouncing off walls in unexpected ways during disco carnage. Moving on, there’s a bouncing bomb that you hold the trigger until you want it to go off, and things like spiral shorts, electric charges, and flame whips. The last one is great: real power combined with short range. This is pure treasure.
Marginalia, Food Processor, Treasure Review Catalog. Roto Force is a game that challenges you to understand its various emotions and components. But in the end, it reminded me of one of those Jack Box toys, tightly wound and crammed into this incredibly small space. Then you press the big red button and everything explodes outward.
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