Description: ROTE is an Android game that relies on mind-boggling puzzles and a whole heap of spit and polish. Rote itself means “memorization through repetition” and while playing you need to move a series of blocks back and forth in order to get your yellow counter to pass out the other side without anything standing in your way. It’s a fun game, and the 3D graphics with an 8-bit arcade style feel to them look great, it helps that the music is pretty great here as well. It sure looks like a lot of fun, and it is, but the challenges on offer here are really quite hard and are designed to have you scratching your head more often than not.
How it Works: As with other titles on Android, you’ll first need to download ROTE from the Play Store. The free version doesn’t feature all of the levels, but gives you a nice taste of what’s on offer, so if you like the overall concept, then you should definitely take a look at the full version.
Right away you’ll notice how good-looking the interface is here and the game does a nice, simple job of telling you how to play the game.
Things start off nice and simple, with a lot of the first challenges being challenging but nothing too difficult.
Of course, things soon get quite a bit more difficult, and you’ll end up cursing your inability to get past these challenges.
Even further though, you’ll have some seriously tricky challenges to overcome.
There are however, some nice achievements that should make you feel a little better about being able to complete them.
Opinion: ROTE is an excellent game, especially if you like puzzlers, but even more so if you just want a change of pace from games that pretend to be console titles when they’re not. ROTE has a charming look and feel to it, with some excellent tunes to it and even a menu UI that’s really cool. The whole package comes together really nicely, and this feels more like a highly polished console game than any of those shooters and racers we keep on seeing. The puzzles are difficult, the presentation is top notch and consistent and there’s an awesome backing track to keep you playing.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – The game runs fine and ROTE’s pacing does a good job of letting you get on with it, scratching your head to solve the puzzles.
- Features (4/5) – It’s not the most original puzzle idea, but the levels are genuinely challenging and I can tell that a lot of thought has gone in to making them that way. As an overall package, this is a highly polished puzzle game for sure.
- Theme (5/5) – The presentation at work here is excellent, with some quality visuals throughout and some excellent music to it as well.
- Overall (4/5) – An excellent new puzzle game, ROTE is definitely a highly polished offering and if you’ve been looking for a new puzzle game, then ROTE won’t let you down.
Pros
- Nice looking game on either tablets or smartphones, with simple controls for players of all ages.
- Very challenging puzzles makes this a game you won’t complete in an hour or so, and completing those challenges is satisfying.
- 3D graphics look great and there’s still a retro unique look and feel to them while still looking great at higher resolutions.
- The music here is a really nice touch with some cool tunes to help you tackle these challenges with a smile on your face.
Cons
- While the levels are well thought out and challenging, it’s not the most original of concepts, yet still a lot of fun.
- Can get a little overwhelming for those not used to these sort of puzzle games in the later levels.
Conclusion: There’s something to be said of a game like ROTE that is not only difficult as a puzzle game, but a good-looking game fullstop. A lot of titles in the puzzle arena simply forget that these games can be stylish and fun to admire rather than just good for the brain, here ROTE proves just that and the presentation is consistent and of excellent quality. The graphics are good, they look great at higher-resolutions and it even sounds cool as well. Making this an excellent all-round package that anyone who likes a good puzzle game should take a look at.