Rotato - As the potato turns..

Rotato is the newest game on Candystand! It's a cute game where you work through 50 levels of increasingly tough puzzles. Finish all 50 and you'll unlock the Endless mode! All in all it's a very fun game. ^_^

No rotating potatoes? Guess I'll survive..

Puzzle Mode

Yes, there are FIFTY puzzles!

Sweet!

Puzzles are unlocked one level at a time. So if you want to reach level 50, you have to play all 49 levels before it!

The beginning puzzles are pretty easy.

Um.. What do I do?

It looks strange, but it's simple! Your goal is to remove all of the yellow, blue, and red blocks. They vanish when they're in a same-color group of 3+, or if they're hit by a bomb or a rainbow.

You move pieces by rotating the board with the arrow buttons. The gray blocks won't move, but everything else will follow gravity. ^_^ Rotate the board to get blocks into a group (so they vanish) or to get bombs into place!

Each board has a par, or the average number of moves it takes to solve the puzzle. If you finish a puzzle below par then you get extra points! And if you realize you messed up, just hit RETRY at the bottom. Easy restart for the level!

As you play you'll come across some special pieces. Here is what they do:

• Pink blocks - They move like colored blocks, but they never vanish! Quite annoying.
• Bomb - Destroys ALL blocks directly touching it.
• Rainbow - Destroys ALL blocks in both the row and column that the rainbow is in. Imagine that it's the center in a cross of destruction.

 I see!

Still stumped on how to play? Let's tackle a puzzle. ^_^

Thanks!

The blue and yellow blocks are completely boxed in by the gray blocks. Right now nothing will move if we turn the puzzle. We HAVE to click on the bombs in order to change anything.

Wait, why did you turn it?

We turned the puzzle anyway because as soon as we click the bombs, gravity will kick in. So the blocks above the bombs will fall down!

Oh! I see!

Without the gray blocks in the way the blue (and yellow) blocks can happily meet up! Remember, whenever 3 or more of the same colored blocks touch, they vanish!

 That was an easy one, but some are much, much harder.

Puzzle #43 sucks.

That one kicked my butt. Eventually I gave up and just kept rotating it until it worked. 46 rotations for the win! ^_^

BIG HONKIN' TIP: To finish a puzzle, you have to get rid of the red/yellow/blue blocks. It doesn't matter how the blocks are removed, they just have to go. Sometimes it's impossible to group them so that they vanish. In these situations, use bombs and rainbows to take them out!

Yikes!

With that board you *have* to activate the rainbow. And then you only have 2 yellow blocks left! Destroy them with bombs and move on to the next puzzle! ^_^


Endless Mode

Once you finsh all 50 puzzles, you unlock the Endless mode! The Endless mode in Rotato is a click-3-make'em-vanish game. The added bonus is that if you get stuck, you can rotate the board to rearrange the pieces. HOWEVER, a new line of pieces is added every time you remove a group of blocks, click a special piece, or rotate the board.

 Can I play?

When there isn't ANY room for new blocks, that's when you lose. And it's nearly impossible to lose! In fact, I had to TRY to lose in order to get this screen.

They make losing look so pretty!

Rotating the board also adds random gray blocks, so I don't recommend rotating. I played for a very, very long time without turning the board once.

I was quite surprised to find a shop in Endless mode. It's a neat idea and I'd be interested in seeing a shop in the regular puzzle mode too. But they didn't ask me. *^_^*

Ooohh! Candy!

You "buy" items with your score. Half of the items you buy once and it's activated forever. The other half are 1-time use items. The 1-time use can be repurchased over and over, as long as you have points to spare! Here's how they work. ^_^

• Rainbow - Cross of destruction again. Remove 25 blue blocks to get a rainbow. (Endless use.)
• Pink globby - Changes all pink blocks into yellow blocks. (1 time use.)
• Potato lookin' thing - Changes all red blocks into yellow blocks. (1 time use.)
• Starfish - Removes 10 metal blocks. (1 time use.)
• Super Explosive - Clears a quarter of the screen! Remove 25 red blocks to get this shiny silver bomb. (Endless use.)
• Rainbow block - Removes a random number of blocks across the board. (Endless use.)

While I like the concept of the shop, I like playing "plain" most of the time. The rainbow blocks in particular can start to take over the board.

I see what you mean.

If you want to get stuff from the shop, I recommend the Super Explosive, the Starfish, and the Pink globby thing.


Tickets

You get 100 tickets for ANY score on Rotato. If you tie it in with your facebook account you can get more! There's a new batch of prizes on Candystand with only a month entry now, which makes me a lot happier. ^_^ Use those tickets to buy entries!


Final Rating

I really enjoyed playing Rotato. ^_^ But as always, I have to ask myself whether this is a one night stand or the start of a beautiful relationship. And for me at least, I think Rotato is a one night stand. If the score was recorded for endless mode, I'd probably come back and play some more, just to challenge myself. But once I waded through all 50 puzzles, I didn't feel pressed to go do it again.

But it was still fun! ^_^ The graphics are playful and game play is smooth. Try it and let me know what you think!

3.5 stars out of 5!