A little over a week ago we reported that it looked like hit indie title Limbo would be coming to the PlayStation Network sometime soon. Playdead’s Dino Patti announced on the PlayStation Blog that the title would be coming to the American PSN on July 19th. European PS3 owners will have the opportunity to download Limbo the following day.

Additionally, the game’s official website has Limbo slated for a worldwide release on August 2nd. While the game launched over a year ago on Xbox Live, Patti hopes “everyone will enjoy the game and the little extra secret [they] have in store” for PS3 and PC gamers.

Rotastic swings  its way into Xbox LIVE Arcade, Playstation Network and PC Tuesday. The latest from developer Dancing Dots and Focus Home Interactive, the game promises high flying puzzle action on a foundation of simple controls and acrobatics. You play as powerful viking Fraghar, come to loot a medieval kingdom of its riches. Naturally, the game focuses on collecting gems, but there’s a twist — it’s all done while swinging through the air as for some reason or another, Fraghar cannot walk. That means falling off the screen means certain death.

Sound like fun?

The recent 2011 IGF entrant boasts approximately 70 levels and several modes of play including Puzzle, Survivor, Brickbreaker and Versus. It also encourages a little strategy as the more gems you collect in a row, the higher your score. To ratchet up the challenge, the game will also throw environmental obstacles and enemies your way. According to Rotastic‘s website,

Your foes run the gamut from silly (errant chickens, baby bats encased in wooden crates…), to menacing (grown-up and not-encased bats, burning beams, knight-shooting cannons…), and to plain deadly (buzzing buzz saws, enormous flying piranhas, bloody battering rams, giant human-controlled cast metal robotic ghosts).

If you plan on picking up this game, or if you have already, let Gamer Limit know your impressions in the comments below. In the meantime, here are a few screenshots.

Today developer Croteam and publisher Devolver Digital announced that the two companies are going to run a little experiment regarding the promotion of Croteams next Serious Sam title. Dubbed the Serious Sam Indie Series, basically Croteam is going to farm out the Serious Sam IP to several indie developers, allowing each one to provide their own vision of how Serious Sam could be done.

The first three developers are Mommy’s Best Games, Vlambeer, and Be-Rad Entertainment. Apparently Mommy’s Best Games is developing Serious Sam: Double-D; a “frantic side-scrolling shooter” for PC and consoles. Vlambeer’s take on Serious Sam is called Serious Sam: The Random Encounter and sees players take on monsters from the Serious Sam world in a turn-based RPG. Lastly Be-Rad Entertainment’s venture is an auto-running game where you guide Headless Kamikazes out Sam’s way, called Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! Unfortunately no platforms have been announced for Serious Sam: The Random Encounter and Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! yet.
I don’t know about you guys, but I think this is a great idea. I know I’ve said it before, but I absolutely love when game franchises are allowed to be worked on by other developers. It’s sort of how the TV show Twin Peaks was designed. Each episode would feature a different director so, while the story and characters stayed the same, the actual presentation would shift. Maybe I’m weird, but I always though that was a cool idea.

What about you guys? Do you think this is a good way to promote an up coming game? Do you think this will become more common as time goes on? Are you planning on playing any of these Serious Sam Indie Series titles? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Source: Joystiq.com

Back in September I was up in Seattle walking the PAX show floor. There were hundreds of games on display, just waiting to be played, ranging from high profile titles like Killzone 3 to smaller unknown indie games like The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

I walked up to the booth where I was met by Ska Studio’s marketing coordinator Dustin Burg. The monochromatic visual style and fun beat ‘em up combat struck a chord with me right away. I was really enjoying it when something absolutely terrible happened. Dustin told me that it’s exclusive to the Xbox 360, sorry fellow PlayStation fans.

Our loss is your gain though, The Dishwasher Vampile Smile is landing on XBLA April 6th for a cool $10 (800 MS Points). If you’re attending PAX East I would definitely recommend stopping by the Ska Studios booth to check it out.

Indie games are coming in thick and fast on the 360, and with so many “Free MS Points” offers being peddled by various publishing firms, gamers are able to take advantage of titles they may never have noticed before.

Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess may not be a shoe-in for GOTY, but at just 240 MS Points, this addictive little title is sure to entertain you for a couple of hours.

Taking on the role of the egotistical – yet always amusing – Dracula-esque protagonist, players are required to aid in the “rescue” of The Duke’s princess by destroying several pesky monsters. Jumping to conclusions at every possible moment, your character assumes that, since his princess has vanished, the beasties inhabiting the local surrounds must be responsible.

Through five short-but-sweet single player missions, players must defeat some beautifully crafted monsters in order to progress to the next level – and ultimately find the princess. Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess takes on an upward-scrolling format that hearkens back to games of a few decades ago. Using a simple one-button, one-joystick configuration, The Duke must chase down each level’s perpetually climbing monster and defeat it before it reaches the top.

Sounds simple, yes? That’s because it is. Unfortunately, anyone that has played a video game for more than a couple of hours will be able to master Monsters in just a few minutes. There is no difficulty setting, so it’s silly to return to the main storyline for a second – more challenging – playthrough. The developers have attempted to counter the game’s simplicity by adding a Score Attack mode, but this only serves as “filler”, and repetition begins to set in after a couple of runs.

Apart from the lack of challenge, there is plenty to enjoy here. The storyline is entertaining, and The Duke’s constant mockery of monsters will remind you of at least one haughty friend. In terms of graphics, the cartoon vibe is polished and looks fantastic in HD. Gaining combos and attempting to one-up your own high scores is also sure to see gamers return from time to time.

As an indie game, Monsters is an ideal time length. I managed to kick out the single player mode in around 20 minutes, but Score Attack adds at least another hour, and a bit more of a challenge for completionists. At only five levels long, the game is able to run its course without becoming too samey, and for the relatively cheap price it will leave gamers with a sense of accomplishment at being able to master such a title in a relatively short amount of time.

While I can’t see people rushing out to buy Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess over Fable III or New Vegas, I can confirm that players will get a kick out of the left-of-centre gameplay, and if nothing else walk away with their heads held high and a smile on their faces. And isn’t that what every good game should be able to do?

Gamer Limit gives Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess 8.5/10

Former Bioshock developers Tyr Edge and Fennec Black have teamed up to form LunaVu, an company devoted to producing indie games. Their first labor of love is called Zero Point and is being billed as a cross between the action and strategy games.

Story details are few and far between this early in development but it seems players will take control of a technician charged with defending research equipment from varying waves of aliens and monsters. Armed with a plasma cannon and an ambiguous device called a lunar shepard, you must destroy the monsters before they can destroy your equipment.

While the screenshots make the game look appealing, one of the things that sets it apart from other shooters is Zero Point will feature co-op.  In two player mode, the weapons will be split between the players, with one controlling the cannon while the other controls the shepard. You’ll have to work together with your teammate to bring down the monsters, which should be an added bonus for co-op fans.

There is currently no release date set for Zero Point, but it seems like this is one Xbox LIVE Indie Game you should keep your eyes on, as we’ll have more information closer to launch.

Robert Boyd, creator of Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, is quite the RPG connoisseur; at least, I’d imagine that anyone who makes a blog about game design theory and references Vay is more than merely dabbling in the genre. Seeing a game made in the classic JRPG style from someone who knows his stuff is refreshing. BoDVII is a game that revels in the old-school JRPG experience while always keeping in mind what other JRPG developers seem to forget: that the old model can be made better.

The game starts out by explaining that the world is no longer populated by humans, thanks to a huge war that eradicated life as we know it. Instead, we live in the age of undead prosperity. Zombies, Skeletons, Ghosts, and Vampires live together peacefully. Suddenly, ‘evil’ is coming back to the world, and it’s up to Dem, the skeleton knight, to stop… the evil. It’s a little abstract, isn’t it?

Okay, so the story isn’t going to blow your mind. In fact, BoDVII does the “suddenly reveal everything at the end” hooplah that I’ve always found to be too sudden and rushed to enjoy. I don’t think it was really meant to change the world, though. Instead, Breath of Death VII is meant to bring laughs and poke fun at the RPG genre (in case it wasn’t obvious by the name). This is mostly accomplished in two ways: by satirizing RPG tropes, and by using a lot of cheap nods to other RPGs.

The latter is really not my style. For one, it’s a bit alienating for people who don’t play a lot of RPGs. For example, I wonder how many people will undersand the “Langsong” reference? Additionally, they just rely entirely upon the player knowing the reference to be funny; in other words, they are generally not funny in the context of the game.

The weirdest thing is that Breath of Death is hilarious. When it focuses on satire, the writing really shines. Thankfully, there’s plenty of good humour, and the throwaway references don’t feel like a crutch in the place of solid jokes.

The gameplay in general mimicks the old Dragon Warrior-style of RPGs; there’s a bird’s eye view world map where everything looks happy, some beautiful towns, dark caves, and a solid black combat screen comprised mostly of large menu boxes. Combat also builds upon the Dragon Warrior style, with basic fight/magic. The wonder of the gameplay lies in how streamlined it is, though.

Dem can move around extremely quickly on the world map, in dungeons or in towns. The encounter rate is vastly better than most JRPGs, which works in tandem with Dem’s super speed to give players a sense that they’re actually making progress in a dungeon. Each dungeon also has a ‘random battle counter’, where after a certain quota of random battles has been met, players can walk through the dungeons freely (although players can choose to fight a battle through the menu).

It’s funny how just a few things like this can take an otherwise stale, monotonous genre and do a lot to make it more enjoyable. Breath of Death keeps the pace moving fast and keeps the game proportionally short. The game abstract on Xbox Live Indie says “4-6 hours of gameplay”, and that seems about right. I don’t need – and rarely want – a long, drawn-out epic adventure. I’d rather just have a good experience, no matter how long it is, and I feel like BoDVII would agree (if it could be personified, of course).

Combat is only troubled by one thing, though, and that would be the difficulty. To be frank, it’s a very easy game. As long I made sure to fight enough battles to buy the latest equipment in towns, I was able to steamroll every enemy I came across. It’s too bad; there’s a cool level-up system where players have to pick and choose between certain abilities or stat bonuses.

There’s even a combo meter, which counts the number of attacks the party has made during a fight and uses that number to amplify the damage of certain attacks. It all seems for naught, though, when every random battle can be finished by flipping out on the ‘A’ Button, and boss battles can be finished in about two turns.

And yet, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning still manages to be impressive by adding just a few subtle touches that aren’t seen in commercial JRPGs. Combine that with some genuinely funny dialogue, and we have ourselves a solid game. The lack of challenge is regrettable, but this is more of an inherent problem with vanilla turn-based combat than it is a serious blunder in design choice. Robert Boyd knows his stuff. I’m willing to bet that when he really tries to innovate a combat system, it will be a sight to behold. For now, though, Breath of Death serves as a wonderful sneak preview of good things to come.

Gamer Limit gives Breath of Death VII: The Beginning a 8/10.

I have a distinct memory of playing Raiden II when I was younger, and loving the hell out of it.  There’s something immediately fun and nostalgic about playing a classic top down shmup.  This is why that memory of Raiden II stays with me to this very day, and also what led to my interest in Shoot 1UP.

An indie title from developer Mommys Best Games, Shoot 1UP is very much in the vain of the Raiden series, in that it’s full of the top-down goodness that has kept this genre prominent (and more importantly, fun) for so many years.  However, the game adds in a unique, and dare I say brilliant, mechanic that really differentiates it from the multitude of other similarly designed titles.

This mechanic revolves around the idea that, in place of building up a reserve store of lives to fall back on should you fall in combat, the game instead grants you any 1UPs you earn as active ships to aid your cause.  In other words, for every new life you get, a new ship appears on your screen immediately.  Should you be successful enough, you can take up a nice chunk (30 ships worth) of the screen with your squadron.  Not to mention, the game supports Co-Op play, upping the total ship count to 60 on screen at once, chugging away at your enemies.  And the great design doesn’t stop there.

Along with the ability to amass an army of fighters, the game also adds a layer of complex strategical maneuvering.  Basically, you have the option to spread your ships out across the map, or pull them all in for a single line of attack.  There is positive and negative strategic value for both of these options.  When spread out, your ships cover more area with their fire, and eliminate more enemies.  You also gain the ability to launch a beam of energy at your foes, great for tackling bosses.  However, the downside is that dodging incoming ships and fire is much more difficult when in a wider formation.  Should you choose to keep your squad close together, you will lose the ability to use the beam attack, but will ensure the survival of more units.

Graphically, the game exudes classic charm.  In the same way that Mega Man 9‘s retro visuals can still look pretty damn good, so too do Shoot 1UP‘s.  The level design in particular is also surprisingly interesting, albeit a little crowded with stuff to look at.  The basic enemy ship designs are generally pretty solid, if not too varied or detailed.  However, when it comes to boss designs, this game is awesome.  Every single boss battle is interesting and fun to look at – which is pretty rare in shooters these days.  However, since the firepower upgrades are nearly non-existent, it’s tough not to grow tired of the basic fire animations.

Another interesting design choice is the ability to choose your path at certain times in the game.  Mostly, this consists of simple commands such as “Continue Ahead” or “Go Back”, which plays out exactly as you’d expect.  At other intervals, you’ll receive the option to free roam.  While that concept is a bit deceiving (you can’t exactly fly wherever you want), you do switch to a diagonal-focused combat scenario.  It’s a refreshing break from the typical straightforward path of top down shooters, and it fits well.

I think Shoot 1UP is a fine addition to the genre, something that we don’t see nearly enough of nowadays.  Sure, it has a paper thin story (something about flagella and almost naked women decorating a level, I’m pretty sure), but for this genre, that neither comes as a surprise, nor particularly as a fault.

Games like this are meant to be played, enjoyed, and played again.  The only real problem I have with Shoot 1UP is how quickly it’s over.  In total, there are only six levels.  But for something this cheap ($1!), you’re definitely getting your moneys worth and more.  I hope to see this expanded on in the future.

Gamer Limit gives Shoot 1UP an 8.5/10

One of the things that’s eternally frustrating about the Xbox LIVE Indie marketplace is the fact that it’s cluttered with terrible thumbstick shooters. They bring nothing new to the genre and most are plagued by worn out gameplay and terrible music that makes your ears bleed. Fortunately, Gnomic Studios seems to have it right with Square Off.

The basic formula for Square Off stays true to the genre, with the two thumbsticks controlling movement and fire, but Square Off departs from the usual in both graphics and gameplay. It’s a great combination that is only marred by the fact that it has no support for Xbox LIVE play, even if the local multiplayer is a complete blast.

Square Off actually features a story, which is something severely lacking in most thumbstick shooters on the marketplace today. Of course, the genre doesn’t lend itself well to story telling, but Square Off features just enough story to give you a reason to be playing as the cracked invention of a mad scientist in a last few desperate attempts to save the world from a horde of aliens.

Players take control of a square of their color choice, equipped with a basic ray gun and bombs, in order to fend off a horde of alien invaders. Each horde is divided into waves, similar to what you would find in a tower defense game, but the beauty of this formula is that it gives you time to organize with your friends in order to mutilate the waves as quickly as possible.

There are a wide variety of environments for you to explore, although you’re basically set in the arena that you choose, no matter if you are playing solo or with friends. The environments are lush and beautifully drawn, which makes for visually pleasing gameplay.

Aside from the typical shooting mechanics, one of the things that successfully sets Square Off apart from other games in the genre is the inclusion of several different types of weapons, and the ability to cycle through them. Traditionally, when you get a new weapon in a thumbstick shooter, you’re stuck with that weapon until you’ve used up the ammo. This has always been a gripe of mine, and it’s something Gnomic Studios successfully addressed by allowing you to cycle through all of your pickups.

This ability to reserve weapons for later adds a bit of strategy to the game, as you can use your standard ray gun to pick off rogue alien blobs and save those shotgun blasts for when you’ve got a mass of aliens bearing down on you. It’s also great when playing with friends, as you can plan your attacks together to ensure you’re blasting aliens with maximum efficiency and not worrying about who is getting what power up.

My only real complaint about the game is the fact that it lacks Xbox LIVE support, something that would have done wonders for improving the longevity of the game, considering it’s a game best played with friends. It can be enjoyable alone, but I can’t help but feel as though the inclusion of LIVE support could have rocketed Square Off from an Indie title into the Arcade category. Hopefully, this is something the developers will consider in the next iteration.

Square Off is pretty much a pure extract of fun if you can conjure four friends to gather around the same TV. But even if you can’t, you should give the game a run through solo. The graphics are wonderfully quirky, and the variety of weapons available keep the game from becoming tiresome after a  few waves of enemies. Square Off’s graphics and game play combined makes for an enjoyable experience that will have you plodding along to unlock new environments, slaughter even more aliens, and perhaps beat your best times.

Gamer Limit gives Square Off a 8/10.

Kaleidoscope is the kind of game you’d expect to find on the Wii. In fact, in many ways its story is similar to De Blob, which was released for Nintendo’s latest console in 2008. However, Kaleidoscope is a platformer that borrows elements from classic platforming games, while adding a touch of its own charm and a great soundtrack that makes it an absolute joy to play.

The story for the game is pretty basic. You play a small black ball of fluff named Tint who must restore color to the world, one stage at a time. The world is divided up into four sections with equally distinct graphics, so much so that it’s reminiscent of platformers like Super Mario 3 in which you journey through different themed worlds to accomplish your objective.

The biggest draw for Kaleidoscope is the simplistic platformer gameplay. Developer Morsel built a story around Tint that truly makes you want to succeed at restoring the color to his world. As you jump, float, and fly your way through the different levels, you’ll collect globes of all three primary colors, which work to return color to the world a small bit at a time. Kaleidoscope also includes 12 medals that work like mini-achievements in the game. Some are quite challenging, so getting all 12 medals won’t be an easy task.

You start each level in a monochrome, but after you’ve collected just a few globes of color in an area, you will see the color begin to return. Grass and dirt suddenly become vibrant, and as you traverse the levels collecting colors, background trees, bushes, clouds, and even the sky soon regain their color for a vibrant world for you to explore. Each stage has three lost colors which you must collect. You can’t progress through the game until you’ve collected a certain amount of pigments: the stages are entirely open with the three of said pigments hanging from a tree-like platform.

Once you’ve found one pigment, the level ends, and if you decide to go for another, it will restart in its original black and white state. This can be a little off-putting, as it feels like you’re doing unnecessary back-tracking through the levels. However, some of the pigments are so deviously hidden within the stages that no stage feels the same, even when you’re on your third playthrough.

Aside from just collecting the colors, you also have three powers at your disposal based on the three primary colors. These powers are conveniently mapped to the respective color on your 360 controller, which makes learning the controls for the game quite easy.

The blue pigment gives you a speed boost, allowing you to rush through areas pretty quickly. The yellow pigment allows you to float through the air for a short period of time, and the red pigment gives you a shield to protect you from harm. All of these powers have limited use based on how much pigment you’ve collected. They refill slowly over time, but you can charge them faster by picking up a glob of the corresponding color.

The music of Kaleidoscope goes well with the artistic direction, and it’s a pleasure to listen to, never becoming grating on the nerves – which is a flaw that many famous platformers suffer from. It really adds to the atmosphere as you progress through the game collecting colors, and it’s so catchy, you just might find yourself humming along.

Despite the cuteness and the challenge of finding the pigments, Kaleidoscope does suffer from some problems. All baddies in the game require a pop on the head in order to change their color from black to brown, thus turning them into friendlies. These baddies can jump and charge, and I found myself stuck between a charging baddie and a higher platform with no way to escape on more than one occasion. This can be frustrating, especially if you’re late into a level, where the only way to get free is to restart.

Aside from this, Kaleidoscope offers a rich experience with great visuals, solid gameplay, and a story you will want to see through to completion to know exactly what happens to Tint. Morsel has created a lovable silent character that you can care about in Kaleidoscope, which is so rare for games of this caliber. Platform gamers will love the challenge of exploring the levels, and puzzle gamers and completion freaks will be playing again and again to try to discover all of the lost pigments.

Gamer Limit gives Kaleidoscope a 9/10.

There are plenty of aptly named Xbox Live Indie titles in the Marketplace: I Made a Game With Zombies In It, You Will Die, etc. However, Impossible Shoota is so far from the truth, it’s rather laughable.

The game is nothing more than a top down shooter similar to Asteroids. You’re shooting increasingly harder monsters in an attempt to kill all 500 that invade your screen at such a slow pace your 80 year old geriatric grandmother could beat it. In fact, there’s nothing impossible about Impossible Shoota at all, unless we’re counting the task of finding fun in the game,

The variety of enemies and artwork are about the only things this game has going for it. Aside from that, it’s just another thumb rotating bore-fest of “holy crap why did I pay for this?” In fact, I’ve compiled a handy list of things you could spend a buck on and get more enjoyment out of than Impossible Shoota:

1. McDonald’s Cheeseburger
2. Song on iTunes
3. A five-finger knuckle shuffle from Sean Patrick Carey

To put things into perspective, the last time I had this much chagrin for a game was when I saw that the Yaris game Toyota put out was free. I was young, innocent, unassuming, and fresh to Xbox LIVE. It pains me to say that I played Yaris. Yes, I even have an achievement in that horrible monstrosity passed off as a game.

Consider Impossible Shoota a Yaris 2.0. Yaris: Reloaded. Yaris: The Yarising. Whatever stupid movie sequel title you want to append, take this away from my experience: This game and every thing about it blows harder than a Taiwanese hooker.

The twin thumbstick shooter has been done to death on the marketplace. The only thing that could make this game worse, is if it included zombies to shoot. Now, you may be asking, what makes this game any different from a game like I Made A Game With Zombies In it!?

The answer is hilarity. Zombies doesn’t take itself seriously. Hell, the song in zombies is worth the $1 even if you get sick of the boring thumbstick shooter game play. Sadly, Impossible Shoota has no such gimmicks to keep it interesting, so there’s absolutely no reason to plunk down 80 points on it.

Aside from flitting around the screen and avoiding entirely predictable enemies, you’ll be subjected to horrifyingly repetitive ’80s arcade music for the duration of your game. Since there really is no challenge in defeating the game and you get a code for the developer’s OTHER Xbox Live indie title once you complete it, Impossible Shoota feels more like a gimmicky marketing trick than a game.

Horrible game play and music aside, if you don’t mind paying a buck for some pretty space ships shooting things at you at a snail’s pace, then you might like Impossible Shoota for about five minutes before you delete the game from your hard drive and pretend you didn’t just waste a buck.

There are other more deserving games on the Xbox Indie marketplace to spend a buck on, so do yourself a favor and pass up Grandma’s Got a Raygun.. err.. Impossible Shoota.

Gamer Limit gives Impossible Shoota a 3/10.

If anything can be said about Rotor’scope: The Secret of the Endless Energy, it’s that its thorough. At its heart, the game is a simple puzzler with a narrative wrapped around it, but developer Nivel21 has managed to combine the wonders of social networking with a solid game to create a user experience quite unlike anything else you’ll find on the 360 today.

The premise for the game is pretty basic; you start the game in a mansion with rooms which need to be explored using a special device known as the rotor’scope. As you solve the puzzles, you’ll learn more about the device from a mysterious man hidden within the mansion.

Since the puzzles are the main focus of the game the narrative really takes a back seat. It’s not going to win any awards for its story telling, and some of the twists and turns are entirely expected, but the puzzling play is second to none.

The rotor’scope is used throughout the mansion to unlock various rooms. Each time you’re required to visit a specific location, puzzles will reveal themselves on the map. Occasionally, you’ll need to complete a series of puzzles in order to advance the storyline, such as fixing a gramophone, or unlocking a special door. The puzzles themselves start out pretty basic and advance in difficulty as you progress through the game.

Rotor’scope utilizes the basic match three puzzle style which has become a staple in the genre, but it tosses up the mix by adding special pieces that you’ll have to meet specific requirements to solve. An example of this is the magnetic piece, which will attach itself to any of the metal blocks in the puzzle, making it impossible to solve if you don’t get it in the correct place the first time.

Switch blocks and power blocks are a few more pieces you’ll encounter, with switch blocks changing the color based on the block on top of them, and power blocks emitting a line of power that vaporizes other blocks in a straight line.

The pacing of the puzzles is pretty decent, which is a must for a game that is as long as this. New elements are introduced at a rate to keep things interesting, and you won’t make a huge leap into staggering difficulty after solving just a few easy puzzles. There’s a healthy dose of puzzling to be had, but if you still want more by the end of the game, there are bonus puzzles which you can complete, ranging in difficulty from easy to hardcore.

The art direction utilizes a model found in old-fashioned Japanese RPGs, in which a static drawn character introduces their dialogue with minor changes to facial expressions. While it borrows this style from JRPGs, the art is decidedly western and crisp, though advancing through multiple dialogue exchanges with this format can be a tad trying. Aside from the art, the music is pretty standard as well, fitting with the steampunk theme which the game attempts to achieve.

A unique aspect of Rotor’scope is the Facebook integration. The Rotor’scope Club lets you upload your score and time for each puzzle you complete to Facebook, earning you points with the application and a way to compete with your friends who have the game. When you obtain a certain number of points, you can get special unlocks from the club. Aside from serving as a way to deliver unique content, the Facebook integration is actually a neat way to deliver challenges to your friends.

In-game puzzles are colored according to how well you’ve done. If the puzzle is complete and is silver, someone else had the better solution. If it’s gold, you’ve found the best solution for the room. Uploading your score not only awards you points, but if you’ve obtained one of the top three positions in clearing the puzzle, you’ll be awarded with additional points for unlocking more puzzles within the game.

My only complaint with the Facebook integration is that if you’re submitting all of your scores, your profile is going to get extremely cluttered. If Nivel21 could find a way to make the application announce uploaded scores once a day, instead of immediately after uploading them, this would cut down on the spam and make the feature more enjoyable. As it stands, I only uploaded around ten of my scores before I got tired of having to clean out my feed from Rotor’scope spam and stopped worrying with submitting them.

Despite some of the flaws with the Facebook integration, Rotor’scope is an extremely satisfying puzzler with enough longevity to keep you solving puzzles long after you’ve solved the mystery of the Rotor’scope.

Gamer Limit gives Rotor’scope an 8.5/10.