Along with dozens of puzzle stages that take just a few minutes apiece to complete, Rotastic includes a versus mode. Up to four local players (bots can optionally fill in any unplayed slots) can fight on a variety of stages, swinging around in a race to collect the most gems and rack up points from complex stunts. Since everyone is playing in the same ’sky field’, it’s not just a race and you’re encouraged to attack other players by getting above them and then swing-kicking through their rope. Doing so will cause them to fall, and if they don’t recover in time they may fall off the bottom of the stage which will require them to lose even more time respawning. It’s a fairly simple mode and pretty fun for what it is, though it only has local/offline play; there is no online option. This is a shame, as playing over Xbox Live could have given Rotastic’s versus mode much greater appeal.
Beyond the versus mode, score attack play is encouraged. While online leaderboards do their part to interest players in improving their runs through single-player puzzles, unlocking additional stages goes much faster if you’re willing to go through previously completed levels. Improving your run in this way is important, since it otherwise takes a very long time to reach later stages if you’re clearing earlier ones with just the bare minimum score required. Learning more elaborate tricks, improving your precision with swinging and releasing, and memorizing efficient routes to finish a level quickly will all be rewarded and this does provide a little extra longevity.
Rotastic succeeds at being two different things in one product. It is both a good physics-oriented puzzle game and a fun ’versus party’ game, though both of these are strictly offline affairs. If you have two or three local friends to play with, the multiplayer mode could be fun enough on its own to justify a purchase. Even if you don’t have that, going through a few dozen single-player puzzle stages can be enjoyable as well, so there is something here for both crowds (and if you fall into both groups, all the better). The lack of online versus play keeps me from universally recommending Rotastic for purchase, but it should nonetheless interest puzzle fans and the 800 Microsoft Point/$10 USD price isn’t bad for what you get.
