Roterra- Flip the Fairytale (iOS, $4.99) is available for pre-order in the App Store. I played a beta copy of the game that I received a review code for, but that has not influenced my opinion of this title in any way.
When the first Monument Valley came out in 2014 I was drawn in by the art style and the Escher-esque puzzles. I am a die hard puzzle game fan. At the time of it’s release my daughter was about 6 years old and I still cuddled up with her every night to read or tell her a story. I was also prone to falling asleep with her so it became a regular practice for me to set an alarm on my phone before we started story time so that I could get up and finish all of my post kiddo bedtime chores. One night she saw the icon for the game and asked what it was, that was the beginning of our bedtime gametime. Monument Valley’s calming colors and sounds lulled us to sleep many nights after we had read a story and sometimes we laid there making up our own stories around the level of the game that we were playing. That was our M.O., one level at bedtime until we finished the entire game.
Roterra has the feel of Monument Valley, you manipulate the landscape in order to get the princess, Angelica, to triggers that allow you to further manipulate the games blocks by rotating and/or flipping them. But there is more to this princess and her journey than a stroll through the forest.
“Betrayed by her brother Orlando and left alone in a magical forest, Princess Angelica must traverse a world of cubes to gain her rightful place as Queen. But this Princess is no damsel in distress–she has the power to literally change the world! Join Angelica on a journey of discovery as she harnesses the magic of Roterra and creates the path to her destiny. -playroterra.com”
Angelica’s story is inspired by Ludovico Ariosto’s 16th century epic poem, “Orlando Furioso“. Weighing in at a hefty 38,736 lines (making it one of European literature’s longest epic poems), “Orlando Furioso” might not be the best bedtime reading for littles, but it might be interesting to excerpt or paraphrase the portion that inspires Roterra. In Ariosto’s epic, Angelica is a pagan princess who first escapes being offered as a prize to the best soldier and later as a sacrifice to a sea monster and is pursued by Orlando throughout the world and she eventually escapes him and his unwanted advances, saves a wounded African, falls in love with him, and elopes with him to her homeland of Cathay. For older children the poem offers an opportunity to talk about toxic masculinity and the treatment of women in literature and history.
There are also numerous operas based on “Orlando Furioso” including George Frideric Handel’s Orlando (which I mention specifically because I recall listening to it in a high school choir class) that you could share if you wished to explore the store of Angelica in more depth.
This week I got to share Roterra with my daughter. It wasn’t premeditated. We’d both been sick and when she climbed into bed with me one morning I was playing the game on my phone and she asked what it was. I showed it to her and she exclaimed that it was like Monument Valley and asked if we could play it together. We spent the next hours passing the phone back and forth, giggling, bickering about whose turn it was to drive (good natured as always), and helping one another through the beautiful spatial puzzles. It reminded me of those nights before adolescence loomed far too close when we shared our ups and downs of the day over puzzles and a girl in a pointy hat and it made me glad that I had these memories and reminded me that we should also seize whatever opportunities we have to make more.
All in all, Roterra is a beautiful game with a rich backstory and all kinds of potential for expansion for parents, teachers, homeschoolers, etc. Roterra also does a beautiful job of scaffolding it’s puzzle solutions, adding new elements in higher levels like ladders, additional characters with different abilities, and different landscapes. The game provides enough of a challenge to keep you engaged (and collaborating if you so choose) without being frustrating. It also provides a great opportunity to kick back and just play with your kids.
Roterra – Flip the Fairytale
Dig-It! Games
ESRB Rating: 4+
Players: 1 (One)
Platform: iOS ($4.99 USD)
