Roundabout
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Critic Reviews for Roundabout
Kuru Kuru Kuruin meets gleefully silly FMV in this wonderfully tactile arcade game.
Roundabout's story is short-lived, but it's jam-packed with humor and crazy, quirky action.
While those complaints are niggling to perfectionists, it's not the takeaway here. What's remarkable is that No Goblin took what had all the makings of a gimmick mechanic and turned it into something that feels like a legitimately useful staple, something that requires patience and skill to figure out. Roundabout manages to be simultaneously cumbersome and stiff, and brilliant and endearing -- chances are you'll go 'round and 'round. Actually, that's precisely what you'll do.
Wacky is the word which first comes to mind when reading about Roundabout, and it's the lasting impression players will have even after they've stopped spinning. The mechanic of driving a limo which never quits revolving is utter nonsense but is actually a tremendously fun gameplay challenge.
No Goblin's open-world puzzle game puts the player in control of a spinning limousine, and things only get weirder from there.
Roundabout would probably work better as a PlayStation Vita game, which you could jump into for five minutes while you're riding the tube, bus, or a perpetually rotating limousine. Fortunately, the game was announced for the handheld last year, so hopefully that version still comes to fruition. On the PlayStation 4, there's definitely still fun to be found in this highly stylised game, but the novelty soon wears off if you play it in long bursts.
Roundabout is simply overflowing with personality, offering the best bad acting around and clever missions that even make the aggravating city exploration worth plodding through.
