Rotatio
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Release Date: July 23^rd, 2015
Developers: [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Publishers: Apple Inc.
Platforms: iOS
Genre: Puzzle, Arcade
Players: 1
Rating: 8.5/10

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Synopsis

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You play as a circle on a journey - a path that twists and turns. Step into a mesmerizing arcade game that's impossible to put down.

You have no control over the path you move on or your enemies, the gates. But you do have control over something very important. As you tap and hold, the direction of your movement is reversed. Center yourself and defeat your enemies, providing a brief moment of respite until the next barrier to beat. Be careful not to get hypnotized as you pass through seemingly impossible obstacles!

With a calming electronic soundtrack, addictive, infinite gameplay, beautiful backgrounds, and global leaderboards, meditate on what it means to be a tiny circle navigating the intricacies of todays digital age.

Good luck on your journey but, remember, you must have a fluid state of mind.

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Gameplay

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Rotatio is a unique puzzle-arcade game that has you try and get a circle through a series of gates to score points. It isnt just any circle though; this circle is attached to a line that is constantly rotating around the circle, causing the circle to constantly move. The circle is always moving in one direction along the line as well, and if it hits the side of the screen then you will lose. To change direction you hold anywhere on the screen and the circle will travel the other way on the line for the period that the touch is held. The gates that that player has to get the circle through will appear on any side of the screen, and the circle will constantly be getting closer to them so the longer you leave it, the closer you will get to the gate and the harder it will be to get through the gate before touching the line that the gate sits on which will cause you to lose. There are no collectables in this game and the only objective is to get as many points as you can. Each gate you go through gives you a point so the more gates you go through, the more points you get and he better you do. Overall the gameplay of this game is strange but I have never seen any game like it. It is quite difficult and maybe that could be tweaked as I find it very hard to get even a few points in every game.

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Graphics

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The graphics in this game have a distinct digital-technology theme, the background of the game will be a different color when you play, and changes in game to other similar colors, some I have seen is blue-purple-red and blue-light blue-green. Along with the color in the background, they all also have the same pattern, a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) design much like you would see on a circuit board of an electronic product that has lines and angles lines which would be the copper paths on a circuit board, and holes at the end of those lines which is where you would place electronic components on the PCB. This design instantly makes the player think of electronics and technology, much like if someone saw a black and green matrix with rapidly changing numbers that they would assume is technology based.

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Audio

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The audio in this game also gives off a strong technological vibe, it is difficult to explain it but anyone who listens to it could instantly recognise it as something to do with technology, not anything classical or made with real instruments. Apart from the background music there are also some sound effects to go with it, when the circle successfully goes through a gate there is a faint smashing sound, I am not sure if this really suits it well as a smashing glass usually indicates something bad. When the circle hits the side, or the line that the gate lies on then you hear a similar smashing sound, however this one is louder, higher pitched and lasts longer. The smashing sound effect that happens when you lose suits more as it signals something bad.

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Controls

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The controls in this game are simple, but must be used well to play this game. There are many different strategies you can use to play this game, one I found is by rapidly tapping on the screen so the circle hardly moves anywhere and stays in the same place, the line will rotate about the circle and effectively allow you to line up with the gate from wherever you want. Another strategy is allowing the ball to get as close to the edges as possible and then touching the screen to make the ball travel to the other side and repeating. This gives you time to think about what to do next, but can put you in some sticky situations. The use of controls in this game is crucial and the timings that you make are equally as important, if you are going through a gate, doing it too late will cause the line to move along to the line that the gate lies on and may still give you the point for going through the gate, but you will hit the line after and will lose.

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Rating

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Gameplay - 9/10
Graphics - 9/10
Audio - 8/10
Controls - 8.5/10
Overall - 8.5/10