Rotorumpus – Review

Our rating:

By: Rotorumpus

Version #: 1

Date Released: 2008-12-15

Developer: Thomas Harte

Price: 1.99

User Rating:

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I always thought that nothing says ‘geek’ quite like an endless series of 1’s and 0’s. That’s until recently when I was introduced to a unique game for the iPhone/iPod touch. I say the binary number system has met its match in transparent, little hexahedrons with squares as faces confined in a bigger hexahedron with similar attributes. Those hexahedrons are also known as cubes, by the way. Add to that some mean swiping, pinching and double-tapping and you get something that has ‘geek’ written all over it. That something is called Rotorumpus.

Enigmo came to mind when I first played Rotorumpus; you pinch to zoom in or out and you swipe to adjust your view. The mechanics of Rotorumpus, however, is an entirely different story, one that is told by the game’s custodian, Sarah. Inside the giant cube you control a smaller cube with white glowing edges. According to Sarah, it’s a package that you must deliver to the dispenser port, which happens to be another cube, a green one. To get to this target cube you will need the help of the other cubes inside the giant cube. Your cube (the package) must collide and stick with a cube it’s in line with until finally it’s in line with the green cube (the port). Sounds complicated? I know, all this talk about cubes. I hated solid geometry in high school, too. But fret not, I’m sure Sarah does a better job explaining things with her hands-on tutorial.

In all its geekiness, you’d half-expect Julianne Moore or Helen Mirren’s voice to help you process spatial relations, to tell you which cubes you are really in line with. As a first-timer though, you’ll find their voice-overs are not necessary since the cubes in question are lit up with a glowing ice blue. See, you’d think the game is as easy as looking for these cubes, double-tapping them to collide with them, until you find your package collinear with the port. Well, in some levels, it actually is. But wait till you get to the higher levels where it’s likely you’ll get stuck, meaning your package is not in line with any other cube and you’ll have to start over (give your device a shake to restart or exit to the main menu). You’ll also encounter special cubes in some levels, such as the ones that explode after you hit them and those that lead you to predefined directions.

The game has a total of 20 levels divided into four stages. It’s worth mentioning that if you exit to the home screen while playing, the app remembers where you left off and takes you there on your next run. Recently, despite my being a self-proclaimed geek, I’ve been frequently pressing the home button while using the app. It helps me get over the frustration of getting stuck in Stage 3, Level 2.

Quick Take

Value: High
Would I Buy Again: Positive
Learning Curve: Minus the tutorial, you’ll be confused as heck.
Who is it for: Self-proclaimed geeks, reluctant geeks, real geeks, etc.
What I Like: Amazing 3D effects
What I Don’t: The difficult levels (for me, at least) makes me want to pull my hair out.

Final Statement: Rotorumpus is unlike anything I’ve played on the iPhone platform. It’s by turns absorbing, frustrating and, ultimately, amazing.