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Rolando – what were your Highs and Lows?

favourite_levels
It’s always great to get feedback, so if there are any Rolando players out there that have really strong feelings about any of the game, any elements or mechanics that you loved or hated, anything you LOVED doing or found frustrating, and above all any levels or worlds that really stood out as being super-fun or frustrating, do let us know! Did you prefer the puzzle-solving or the platforming? Did you like the bonus levels or guiding the prince?

If you could leave a comment on this post with any thoughts you had, HandCircus will love you forever.

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Comments

I haven’t completed it yet, but my [minor] lows are:

* poor dialogue. I like ‘hey Finger’ but some of the rest of it is a bit schoolchildy.
* I found myself wanting to make the rolandos move even faster, but even with maximum tilt they only go a certain speed.
* Sometimes the finger-operable bits (elevators and so on) can get in the way when you’re trying to select a rolando.
* The bonus levels where you tilt the screen rather than the roll the rolandos felt like a bit of a jump, and not as fun as the levels.
* it’d be nice if there was less ‘tutorial’ text. It would have been fun to discover the controls for myself. And the loading screens with the ‘tips’ are annoying. Could ditch all the references to ‘iSave’ too – I don’t understand what it is and I don’t care, so long as it works.

On the plus, I love the game. The design is ace, the sound is ace, and I love that you can play your own music too.

I absolutely loved the game because of the replayability. It was balanced extremely well: I had some challenge finishing the levels for the first time, and then after that I could go back and be challenged to get to other objectives (diamonds, Rolandos and time). The game was not too difficult, and it was a pleasure figuring out how to solve a level.

I think the different worlds were defenitely nice, even though the location of the first world will probably be the one everybody remembers Rolando by.

Oh and by the way, the interactive starting screen (with the 9 boxes) is great, it’s just a pity that the Sage is locked.

As for criticism: not so much. Some people have had issues with how to control the spikey Rolandos but I had no problems with them.

I had a great time playing Rolando, and just and much fun joining in the post-release hype, being one of the early adopters.

Right now I hope that ng:moco can keep the price at $9,99 and that it will generate enough money for a (free for existing players) update with new levels. :)

Thank you for developing this game!

  • spmwinkel

Oh, I just thought of one ‘issue’. Often when starting a level some of the Rolandos will speak, and the screen will automatically scroll, even though the time already started. It would be nice if the player could skip that conversation. (Or if the time would only start counting down when the game doesn’t automatically scroll the screen to places where you don’t need to look!)

  • spmwinkel

Well I finished an it’s great. Well polished; etc. But it’s too short. Needs more levels

Thanks for the general comments guys – it would be awesome if you have any more specifics. Do you have any favourite sections/levels? Two of my favourites are “Twin Keeps” in world 4 and “The Rescue Party” in world 2.

It has been a while since I played but I didn’t like the balance parts too much. Where you had to put a block on one side, and then Rolandos on the other side in order to transfer the block from one section to the other.

What I did like a lot were the sections where you had to use the special features of the spikey Rolando to get to a button. For example the Shadow Fortress, where you had to free the spikey Rolando and then get him over the green liquid, or Shadow Valley where he has to press the high button.

Jail Break is also one of my favourites because of the lights you have to control.

I like levels with the prince as well (The Prince Prisoner) but while I’d recommend to use more lights, bombs, buttons and drawable yellow lines, I’d suggest not to have TOO MUCH levels with the prince. They’re nice diversion, and it’s well balanced in the current game.

However, I didn’t like the dark scenery of the Shadow world too much. I prefer light worlds. :)

Finally I want to mention Fireworks Factory because of the fact how you need to destroy a lot of blocks with one cannon.

And I agree that the bonus levels (with the king, where you have full tilt abilities) weren’t as good as the normal levels. I didn’t buy Dizzy Bee, and I did it for a reason. :)

So in general I like the levels where you can use all kinds of objects and need to figure out a puzzle with them. Since the later levels make very good use of them, those are the ones I’d put as my favourites.

  • spmwinkel

I have one issue that bugged me. When playing through levels with a yellow element, you may be trying to jump, and instead you activate the yellow thing (platform, catapult, etc.) and then your little baby rolando falls to its death. If there was a way to keep accidental input from triggering the yellow things, it would be good. i understand that you have to disable jumps while operating lifts etc, but this came up a few times for me, especially in “two keeps”. That level was particularly hard, but at that point a challenging level was appropriate.

Oh, also, I think the stickyness of the imperial soldier rolando’s needs to be ratcheted up a few notches. Quick turns around sharp corners causes him to detach. This is especially problematic in the shadow level with the caged soldier on the left (sorry cant think of the name).

The twisty levels are a bit harder to control, but that’s ok because they are bonus levels. I think the leaf could have taken a bit more center stage too, but thats kinda a silly detail.

I remember finding the mining level frustrating on first go, but on replay it seemed fine.

The Boss battle at the end could have been a bit more varied in its execution (maybe he escapes to another chamber, and you have to shine the light on him in different ways and in different environments. That means a ton more puzzles and it feels more like an epic battle versus just redoing the same thing three times. Now that I think about it, there could have been some fun light puzzles where you have to take out the lumbering black guys who make the funny noises too.

Anyway, this was great, worth the wait, well balanced, well executed and your reviewers are correct. Its the best game on the phone, period.
Congrats!!!!

  • adam

Oh, also it would be nice to be able to reactivate the checkpoint balloon when each rolando passes it, if you desired… maybe by clicking it after?

Lastly, the starting screen is brilliant, but it would be really cool if it was actually a big puzzle that allowed access to bonus levels when solved. I know, that’s being greedy, but it would be pretty awesome. That’s all I have now, will hit you back with favorite levels once I get back to the game.

  • adam

Great game on all fronts. The game design, graphic design and character design are all top-notch and as good as anything I’d expect to see on the psp/wii/DS. Congrats to you and Mikko and your team.

A few minor lows;

1) When you’re controlling a yellow platform widget (the up-down type), I think the screen should pan with the platform regardless of whether you have a Rolando selected or not. I found myself hitting the top of the screen a lot after which I’d have to scroll up, reselect the widget and continue.

2) The time challenge for level “Under Construction” in world 3 was very difficult to complete, and even when I did it was with 2 seconds to spare. I’m willing to entertain the possibility that I wasn’t executing it in the most efficient way, but tried many angles in over 50 tries

3) I was also expecting some reward, on the home screen or otherwise, after completing the game and/or completing the challenges.

If you’re planning a sequel (I sure as hell hope so), I’d like to see another thread (and contribute) with suggestions/ideas for the follow-up…

  • Bregman

Hi

Brilliant game – i’m on the last world but not complete yet. Its one of the few apps that wasnt riddled with bugs in v1.0 – so well done! nice graphics, good gameplay – brill.

A few minor details:

1. Sometimes the rolandos are a bit slow. They are easy to control though – wish sometimes they had a turbo!

2. sometimes the bridges can be a bit awkward. I have got them stuck up before and cant get them back down

3. I’m not so sold on the bonus stages

4. For next time some sort of social element would be cool – maybe create your own rolando likeness (like a nintendo mii) – share online etc. or online challenges – or best scores or something. its just such a solo game at the moment – that some sort of social element would be cool

5. the home screen is awesome

6. the time is very tight on some stage. Maybe that adds to the challenge?!?

thanks for a brilliant game

Awesome game! I just finished it and I didn’t find too many problems. While playing double roll bonus stage with 2 kings it was a bit hard to see when one went off the screen because then I could see neither one. Besides that controls worked great. Took getting used to the spikey controls while moving on walls. (Left or right?) XD

The prince part was actually my favorite because he couldn’t stay in one place. This made a nice variation between regular/prince/royalty stages which is nice not doing the same thing over and over again.

I can’t wait for the sequal! :) maybe we can play as royalty? I found the enemies to be easier then the puzzles at times but it was good strategy. My other favorite original idea was the “drawbridge” that was brilliant and it came in handy several times. The mix of drawing, jumping, stategy, accm, touch, interactive controls, and the graphics makes this a brillant awesome game!

  • Dan

Overall the game is good, replay value is high and it was easy to pick up.

I find the Royal Commandos a little annoying in some circumstances, such as when you’re jumping from side to side in a vertical chimney and they will roll different directions on each side.

Occasionally when you’re trying to select a rolando, the finger-operated bits get selected instead, making things difficult.

I’ve also had the draw bridges seem to activate (as in the yellow light is on at both ends) but there’s no bridge. I can withdraw the bridge into either end when this happens.

Lastly, on some of the larger levels, it’s very hard to get a feel for the overall layout of the level. Being able to zoom out to a “bird’s eye view” would be fantastic.

  • Kai

As with everyone else, I totally loved the game. This was fun. Genuine fun! And I could play it whenever the hell I wanted, cause it was on my damn mobile phone!

That aside:
1. As some dude said above, accidentally activating yellow objects- bridge makers, flingers, rotating bars, etc. -instead of jumping a Rolando was a little annoying.
2. The dialogue was hilarious, ignore whoever said it was lame. The cheese was good.
3. All the levels on the Rolando Central world were a bit frustrating. I’d constantly get stuck under the eves of little Rolando-buildings when trying to jump. Maybe fix that up a bit.
4. I found the first world of the game pretty mediocre in comparison to the other 3. I’m glad I kept playing, because I found the whole game got so much more interesting once I was out of the green meadows. So my recommendation would be to get the little puzzle pieces cranking early on.
5. The last thing the dude above me said is totally true: when the level starts a zoom-out and then a 5-second quick pan through the level would be perfect.

6. The above were minor grievances, but nothing too serious. My only “hmm annoying” moment was with the Royal Spiky Commandos and their movement. Was just frustrating, I kept rolling the wrong way thinking it was the right way, then jumping into a bunch of spikes. Not exactly sure how this could be improved, but I’m sure you guys can work on it.

Thanks again!

  • Nick

Wow, fantastic game! I just beat it but have not unlocked all of the achievements… I can still get a few more hours of fameplay out of it.

Pros:

Not at all too short… longer then most $9.99 games…

I like how you can choose to rush through the game and try to beat it as fast as you can or tackle the acheivements,sorts like different difficulty settings

The puzzle to action ratio was perfect,as well as the difficulty of the puzzles

Cons:

The only big one was that there weren’t any hidden levels that you could uncover that would perhaps lead you off the beaten path a little bit… (unless there are and I just havn’t found them yet)

When jumping, sometimes I would catch the end of a yellow movable object and my rolando would miss the plarform and plummet into the void… That was a little annoying.

The last level (without giving anything away) felt a little anticlimatic… I dunno, I was expecting a little more action and less repetative puzzle.

Overall, though, it ruled… keep it up HC

  • Bryce

Thanks again for all of this great feedback :)

Loving the game. Not yet finished. The art style is gorgeous and gameplay fantastic. The humour and personality of the Rolandos are great.

I agree the spikey rolando controls can occasionally be a bit unresponsive or cause him to detach with quick turns. He is still my favourite character though. Such an upbeat little dude.

Awesome soundtrack by Mr Scruff! Would love a way just to listen to the tracks (like a jukebox in the sound options). I keep replaying levels just to relisten to the tunes. I don’t know if this is a reward in the end but it would be great to be able to listen to the level themes as each stage is unlocked.

I know its a bit ambitious but what about a level editor? And ability to submit levels to the community.

:)

Keep up the great work.

  • ddesigns

Great game, I love it! Especially the replayability with different goals like time and diomond count is a nice touch. The combination of puzzle and jump’n'run was just about right.

Levels I really liked were the “Orinoco Mine”, because it has lots of physics puzzles, and “The Great Escape” and “Shadow Fortress”, because they had some real challanges.

The bonus levels were in my eyes a welcome diversion from the usual gameplay, but I have to second a few complaints: I agree with the spikeys detaching more easily than I would have expected, and the drawbridges lose the finger to easily at small hinderances. Also the last level seemed a little too easy. An overview mode would also be really useful.

I was a little disappointed that the large violet grumpy Rolando from the first preview video (the one to which the other Rolandos stuck) didn’t show up. He looked interesting. Could have been the imprisoned king who has to be moved into a certain area where he is transformed back and promptly falls asleep.

If there will be more levels, would it be possible to add them to the same app instead of just adding another icon and disc space for Rolando 2? Maybe there is a way to do this and let the people who already purchased part 1 only pay for the additional levels instead of the combination of R1+2 which would then be one package?

  • PigOnTheWing

The game is just awesome! Nice music, super cute rolandos and funny comments.

I agree to the “lows” pointed out by Frankie Roberto except that I like tutorial text. But it could be more like “told by rolandos” in the loading screen or something like that. Just to make it fit better in the game.

A question to the developers:
Is it to hard to control the rolandos when they speed up at maximum tilt?
And are you working on a sequel or another great game? ;)

Anyway, rolando is one of the best games i ever played on a mobile device (including nintendo etc.)!

PS: Sorry for my poor english.

  • LordSavage

First of all i love this game it’s cute funny and very nice but i wish you guys would a more level i think people would pay for an upgrade with more levels and please fix spikey i love the guy but somtime he won’t jump off a wall when i need him to adding more level consistently will make people want to lay down their $6 more easily even if you have to charge a dollar up upgrade

I really liked the bonus levels but I think the would play better if they had a higher FPS. I also like bouncing the light off of the yellow twistymajjigers so they set on the jems which makes a door open or a section of wall to go away reavealing more Rolandoes although that mechanic could have been introduced earlier on. Overall really awsome game. Really liked the boss level. I also noticed that a few features in the first commercial went away. For example the little ball guys that you could draw a platform out of (I assume turned into the yellow one with the fixed bases), and the big purple Rolando that all the small Rolandos stick to. But yeah REAALLLLLLLLYYYY GGGOOOOOOODDDDDDD GGGGGGGAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE!!!

  • Theemporor23

Hi, first of all I would like to say that rolando is a brilliant game, probably one of the best handheld games to date.
Some of my favorite parts of the game include:
-Trying to get 100% although it seams nearly impossible at parts.
-The rolando central levels.
-Catapults
-All the artwork, especially the odd fox or other wildlife on some levels.
-Brilliant idea with the credits
-The music(I don’t understand why some people dislike it!?!)
-The bonus levels are fun(remind me of dizzy bee)

some minor dislikes:
-The spikey comander will sometimes not grab onto walls on the first try, this is irritating when you are trying to runthrough a level in under the time limit.
-Hints/Tutorial text is very annoying when you are trying to move the camera, one example of this is on one of the earlier levels: “Hail to the King”, one of the Rolandos is telling me how to look around levels but since he was talking I couldn’t look around the level to see where the king was :D
-As just about everyone has stated sometimes the sacred objects get in the way of selecting rolandos.

thanks a lot for making this game
Greg

  • Greg Richardson

Loved this game and agree with everyone for the most part. Music, look, feel of the game (it felt like it was made out of construction paper, super cool). I liked the bonus levels as was pointed out for breaking up the game a bit.

I think that the screen should follow platforms
I had a hard time figuring out how to get a rolando to jump properly on tramplines
It was hard to know why a yellow bridge could go to one point but not another and generally seemed to frustrate me a bit
the final level was a bit of a let down and after doing it twice, I quit to try it again to see if I was doing it wrong.
pressing the home button while in the continue,restart level, quit menu would close out anything you had saved and you’d have to start at the beginning of that level.

All that, I really enjoyed the game. well done guys
josh

  • thegreatstate

I love this game, and there are many good things about it, but if you want to know what to change, heres a list:

-as someone said, no secret levels, i always thought those were cool
-more enemies
-more characters
-camera was tough to control
-spicky was tough to control
- umm, not that great achievements

I LOVE THIS GAME, AND YOU GUYS ROCK!

  • Watmat

Fireworks Factory is the hardest level! Before I’ve came to this level, I loved this game, but now I hate it. Somebody HELP ME

  • Cookie

Up points is definately the build quality, graphics etc all react as they should and the visuals and music work great…

By the way what’s the music in the background on the bonus level? I’m sure I’ve heard it on the TV show SPACED in series 2…

Good tune, Good game.

  • alsomedia

This is the best game I’ve ever played, on any system, and it still has me coming back for more. But there are a few quirks: That level in the Mine (or whatever it’s called) bugs the hell out of me. I’ve gotten every achievement on every level of the game except for that one. I’ve played the level for three hours, and I’ve gotten the diamonds and the all the Rolandos back, but the time kills me. I hate that level more than anything. Another thing is the dialogs at beginnings of levels where you have to press the skip button. Sometimes, I want to go for speed in the level, and so I restart several times to cut off a few seconds. Unfortunately, I have to watch the dialog every time! I only want it once… Or never would be best. The final problem: Sometimes I get a real good time to the first checkpoint, but then I screw up and make it just a few seconds late at the finish… And then the game doesn’t give me an option to try again from the checkpoint, and I have to do the whole level over again. I’ve only had one bug in the game, and that’s on the fourth level (I think) of the bonus levels. I jump from the finger-yellow-platform to the finger-yellow-windmill thing, and my Rolando gets inside the windmill somehow, and I have to restart. Big bummer.

My favorite parts of this game where the music, art, and gameplay, my least favorite (though the problems are minor) the presentation.

Correction: By “Bonus Levels,” I meant the new updates that were just issued by an update.

I love the first level of Rolando Central! It’s very easy. It’s a relaxed level. My dad and I are having a lot of trouble beating the last of the bonus levels. Wow it’s hard! Please make a sequel. We think an ice-world would be cool.

Joshua Quinn, age 6

  • JQ Harris

I would love to see in a new Rolando (maybe part 3):

- more story, maybe a short animated intro / extro
- try to get the “hey finger” idea better involved into the game/story

- Rolandos should roll faster
- bigger levels with maybe more save points

- more worlds (the 4 in Rolando were nice, but not too different – I don’t know why but I keep thinking about the first Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis)

- maybe a level transition like the Rolandos have to get to a castle and in the next level they are in the castle, later they get out again and move on…

- maybe interactive musik, when the situation gets dangerous the music gets faster…

- more characters with different abilities
- more animated graphics (moving grass, trees, leafs flying around,…)

- some level ideas: ice/snow, dark castle, metal, lava, underwater/water in general, something cloudy in the sky

- the start screen was nice, but maybe with every completed level something is added which will eventually unlock something new / or after completing the whole game players can do another challenge on the start screen which will unlock extras

- unlockable extras like wallpapers and more in-game content (every good console game has unlockable extras)

Hope this helps?
Take care!

  • Phillip

I loveeeee this game , but I am completely stumped on orinoco mine. Someone help me ? Thanks.

  • Dan123abc

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