Welcome Time Wasters!
My phone finally passed on this week, sort of. It died on Wednesday, before reviving later that day. It has been unstable lately with random shutdowns, but I’ve been holding out on replacing it. Unfortunately, that problem earlier this week got in the way of my work, so I finally decided to get a new phone (It’s a Moto G5 Plus, for those wondering). I figured why not give it a test run with a Time Waster.
A quick search on the Google Play Store brought me Rotating Brave. It’s a 2D platformer with a bit of a twist that caught my eye. Maybe it isn’t the most demanding game to test a new phone with, but my smartphone has never been a major source of gaming for me in the first place.
Rotating Brave puts players in the role of a nameless hero out to explore ruins, collect jewels and save the girl. The story is told through pictures with no words and is simplistic in nature. It’s not really a focus in the game, so I won’t focus on it here, either.
What Rotating Brave does focus on is its platforming and combat. The game’s big gimmick is switching between vertical and horizontal levels. This actually requires the player to rotate their phone when switching between level, thus the game’s name. It’s a nice little touch that helps keep the game interesting even after a few runs.
The combat in Rotating Brave is simple and fast. There’s a single action button for the player to tap that controls jumping and attacking. Our hero’s main attack is a spin that hits anything close by. He can continue to attack for as long as his spin gauge is full. Once it runs out, the player must either touch the ground or land on an enemy to refill it. It’s an instant refill, which means its easy to jump right back into combat. There’s also a combo multiplier that builds with enemy deaths. Larger combos yield more money, which promotes faster gameplay.
Our hero also has skills that the player can unlock with higher scores. Players can only take one skill with them per adventure. They also can’t chose when to activate them. Instead, a bar builds up as the player kills enemies. Once this bar is full, the skill activates. This keeps the controls simple, which is a blessing when dealing with mobile games.
Players can also collect two types of money in Rotating Brave. The first drops from enemies and players can use it to buy upgrades during their adventure. However, the upgrades are only good for that one run. Once the player dies, they start back at the beginning with no upgrades or money.
The second form of money is blue orbs. The game hands these out to players after death once they collect enough points. Players can continue to collect these through multiple runs. There’s a shop at the very start of the game that let’s players buy temporary upgrades at the start of a run, which can help them get much further. It’s not a bad system, but I do wish there were more permanent upgrades I could buy to help me through the game.
The graphics in Rotating Brave use beautiful sprite art. The art does a good job conveying the sense of speed for the combat. It also uses dull colors for backgrounds. In contrast, the enemies, hero and items stand out with brighter colors.
The audio in Rotating Brave is solid. The music fits the atmosphere of the game well and the sound effects are spot on. There’s really not much else to say about it.
Overall, Rotating Brave is a good way to waste some time. The game isn’t perfect, but it is a lot of fun. Top top if off, it’s free and has ads that only appear when the player wants extra keys for more trips through the dungeon.
Rotating Brave earns 3.5 GiN Gems out of 5!