Carota! Review

Puzzles are among my favorite games for iOS and retro, 8-bit style graphics are also interesting to me (Minecraft is one of my favorite games). So when I stumbled on Carota!, an iOS puzzler with SNES-style graphics, I immediately had to try it.

Gameplay is simple but the puzzles can be challenging. The rabbit will walk regardless of what the player does, so the puzzles are time-based in a way. Players move the tiles and rotate them by double-tapping with the goal of getting the rabbit to the exit. There are five sets of five levels, each with a different monster.

The game introduces new elements with each monster by adding new tiles. For example, in the second set of puzzles, a new color tile is introduced (green). Sometimes the rabbit has to step on a certain number of the colored tile before it’s allowed to finish the level. Also, when the rabbit switches between default grey tiles and green tiles or vice versa, the tiles behind it will disappear and make room for new tiles to be placed.

The game’s retro, SNES-style graphics are great. Even the OpenFeint and Game Center buttons have been pixelized to look like they’re on a low-bit system. I love when developers put that much attention into those tiny details.

The music is perfect. It reminds me a bit of both older Zelda games and the earlier Final Fantasy titles. It has the epic adventure element to it. The way the rabbit walks also helps give it the Final Fantasy feel. Like the earlier Final Fantasy’s the rabbit’s walk animator only really includes two different frames with the legs in different positions. Add that to the fact that the legs don’t move at all at the speed the rabbit is moving and we have a Final Fantasy-style rabbit. Now if only we could equip him with Excalibur or Ragnarok...

The only real problem I had was that the tiles were tough to move and rotate sometimes. The controls just weren’t as responsive as they could have been. I’d say 10% of the time the tile wouldn’t move when I wanted it to. Otherwise, the controls worked great.

Generally, this kind of simple game would sell for $0.99. Now, personally, I have no problem paying $1.99 for a game of this caliber. I honestly believe most good $0.99 games should cost more. Since it’s a universal app, I definitely believe the $1.99 price point is fair. But some will pass over this game because of the price. In my opinion, most will get exactly their $1.99 worth of Carota!.

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