A devious arcade shoot-em-up that had my head (and screen) spinning

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If you suffer from vertigo or simply get dizzy easily, this may not be the game for you! Roto Force is controller- (or phone-)clenching shooter where I played as a tiny lil guy who could shift to the left or right on circular stages. As he moved, the entire perspective shifted along with him, so it almost looked more like I was moving the stage than my character.

As if that wasn't enough to mess with my brain, I also had the ability to aim and rocket myself across the stage, quickly flipping my view upside down. It's more than a little bit disorienting. It's also, frankly, pretty brilliant.

Beyond the really fascinating perspective tricks, Roto Force has a number of quirks to make its traditional shoot-em-up gameplay a little more tricky. For example, some enemies and power-ups get covered by a bubble shield that must be popped with an air dash before they can be shot at properly. Some baddies soar through the sky shooting projectiles, while others burrow into the ground, popping up to cause trouble by getting in the character's direct path.

The game allowed me to swap between different weapons at checkpoints to better facilitate handling these different challenges, but only two weapon types were available in this demo: a weaker rapid-fire shot and a more powerful shot that automatically homes in on enemies but also moves much slower. Assuming the full game will have a lot more to unlock and experiment with, I think Roto Force is shaping up to be something quite special.

A big part of the reason for that confidence is just how inventive the game is, even in the single level available in the demo. Across one level, Roto Force introduces a ton of different enemy types, multiple boss encounters, and an environment that's always changing in interesting ways. And besides all that, I just love how the game used a simple but shifting color scheme to communicate when my character's life was running low.

While I only got a chance to check out the demo, the full release of Roto Force is now available on Google Play, the App Store, and Steam, as well as right here on TapTap, of course. It's definitely worth taking the dive, and I'll be downloading the full version tonight!