Otto

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Otto is an Arcade-style game that has players using motion controls or the touchscreen to manipulate two pulleys at either side of the screen, manipulating them to tug on a rope attached to a platform holding the titular blue hamster, bringing him to collectable nuts and the exit.

The presentation here makes this feel very much like a mobile game, even though it’s a Switch exclusive. It has a simple, cartoony look, with light, repetitive music, and kinda’ annoying chipmunky sounds coming from Otto when he does something. It’s not horrible, and I can definitely see this appealing to young kids, but it’s not anything that I care for all that much.

As for the gameplay, this is… actually, surprisingly good for a game built around gimmicky controls. When using motion controls, you kinda’ have to tug on the Joy-Con like you would with an actual rope, and while it lacks some precision, it overall does a good job of feeling like what it’s imitating. Touchscreen controls also work well, although just by their nature they don’t do as good of a job replicating the feeling of tugging ropes that the game goes for.

The game has 90 levels, which feels like a decent amount of content for a $5 game, although I will say that I wish that everything in the game was smaller to allow for more variety in the level design. The game has a few “boss” levels, but overall it’s largely a matter of avoiding obstacles and grabbing pickups using the unorthodox controls, and it can get a bit repetitive fairly quickly.

Overall, Otto is a decent, simple Arcade game with a gimmicky control scheme that works pretty well for the game. It’s a fairly simple game, and there are multiple ways that this could have been improved, but if you’re looking for a simple, unique Arcade-style game on the Switch, this one might be worth a look.

tl;dr – Otto has you using either motion controls or the touchscreen to tug on a rope holding Otto to maneuver him through levels. The gimmicky controls actually work pretty well, but the levels are overly simple and repetitive. It’s still a decent distraction that’s fairly unique, just don’t expect much depth or variety.

Grade: B-

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