Brotato Review: Simply Fun (PC)

Brototo is fun. It’s that simple. Brotato is a twin-stick shooter roguelite where the gun auto shoot. So in a game where guns shoot automatically, how does one play it? The game is all about the character’s movement dodging the bullets and enemies, getting lucky, and picking the best power-ups. The game is simple in that regard. Are you picking only guns as weapons? Then only pick up the ranged powerups. Are you going fully melee? Then, melee weapons, dodging and health are key.

These simple but very much understandable differences create a game that is easy to pick up to play and kinda hard to master. The way each powerup stacks on each other is something to be mastered. It is really satisfying for the few runs you actually pull the crazy strats off. And the game wears it all, being as fun as possible.

Brotato is out of early access and available on Steam and Nintendo Switch for $3.99.

Story – Non-Existent

The game has no story except the one which is provided in the description of the story page, and even it is simple and quirky. The Store page says that we are a potato man, and our spaceship from a Potato World crashes onto an alien planet. The sole survivor of this crash is Brotato, who is the only potato capable of handling many weapons at the same time. The runs are essentially him waiting to be rescued by his mates, surviving in the alien world.

Brotato Title Screen

And it completely works. There is no story needed for this game. It is an extremely simple and fun game about a potato shooting up aliens. That’s it.

Gameplay – Grindy and Fun

The gameplay is all about weapon management and the powerup stacks with the weapons and character. The game offers about 45 characters to play. Each of them have their quirks and powers, which the power-ups are to be chosen. The gameplay loop is simple. Shoot the aliens, pick up the green tokens they leave and level up as you pick them up. Each level-up will have a passive power-up. And this green currency can be used to buy powerups, with each having its own specialization. Some power-ups can be easily played to break the game, but getting to them is rare.

Projectiles and Gameplay

The game overall feels balanced around the fact that the power is rare. The weapons, too, can be used in their simple way to be combined to get a higher rarity version of those guns as the waves go on. For me, the fun of the game is discovering all the best ways two power-ups can stack on each other over time.

Powerups and Dodging

For example, there are a few simple power-ups which increase the number of trees which spawn and another power-up which destroys trees in one hit. These, both on their own and even together, are really good in terms of gameplay, as more threes mean that there are more things to heal from. But to stack on top of it there is a powerup which makes a turret spawn every time a tree dies, and once you completely stack on these, the game gets insane. There were, at one point, 50 turrets around me, just killing alone can see, and it was fun. This is just one of the builds I discover. I bet there is a way lot more to see.

Projectiles and Gameplay

The other aspect is doing the bullets. It is simply to get out of the way of the enemies and try not to die. There is nothing more or deep to it as the guns do shoot themselves, with most buffs being passive, so dodging is one of the few actions that the player does, and it is good.

Unlocking the Powerups and Enemies

So there is much to unlock and many goals the game gives the players to chase. There are five difficulty options and an endless mode. As one can tell, the difficulties increase the enemies and new types of them. There are more bosses in the arena and more power-ups. The boss fights are simple, with patterns to be followed. Most of the enemies are melee, but the ranged ones often have a red projectile and other red stuff to dodge.

Shop

It is all good fun and challenging. But Brotato is no cakewalk, and it feels genuinely great to be overpowered as, for most of the game, you barely survive the hordes of aliens. It feels reasonably well-balanced all over.

Graphics and Sound – Plain and Simple

Brotato is a good-looking game. It is simple with clear and simple character models, which helps the game a lot as it can get very hectic. The power-ups are shown on the potato, and they are good to see as an indicator of all we are stacking on to this potato man. It is simple and compliments the frantic gameplay.

Video and Sound

The settings for the game are adequate and work well. The music was fun but, personally, not as memorable. It flowed well with the vibes and atmosphere of the game but never really stood out.

Blobfish Games provided the key for Brotato on Steam.