Roundabout review (PC): A B-movie Crazy Taxi meets Kururin

Release Date: September 18 (PC), Early 2015 (Xbox One, PS4)
Platforms available on: PC
Developer: No Goblin
Publisher: No Goblin
Genre: Action, puzzle

Not many people remember Kuru Kuru Kururin, an obscure launch title for the Game Boy Advance in Japan, Europe and Australia.

It was a quirky little game about controlling a constantly spinning propeller through a series of increasingly intricate mazes and obstacle courses.

The developers at No Goblin clearly remember Kururin, though, and for the studio's debut game have created Roundabout as a hilarious love letter to the handheld oddity.

In Roundabout you play as Giorgio Manos, the world's first and best revolving limo driver.

Yes, a revolving limo, and like its Kururin inspiration, that means piloting a constantly spinning death machine through a world that was meant to be driven in a straight line.

Navigation is tricky at first as you become acclimated to the limo's spinning speed, but quickly clicks into place as you learn to take advantage of the rotation to squeeze between obstacles.

Whether it's a loving couple awkwardly failing to make eye contact or someone speaking with a painfully fake accent, it is all made to look like amateur hour, but in a way that is too hilarious and expertly executed to be a mistake.

Of course, as a limo driver the main focus of the game are its missions, which have you driving customers all over the city.

Missions force you to take challenging routes through the city that will put your spinning and spatial relations skills to the test. The routes are cleverly laid out with a combo system that rewards you for not crashing, but also a checkpoint system generous enough to recognize that you'll be crashing quite a bit.

But where Roundabout really shines is in its story, told through live-action video skits that bookend each mission.

All of the acting is tremendous in the most B-movie way possible. Whether it's a loving couple awkwardly failing to make eye contact or someone speaking with a painfully fake accent, it is all made to look like amateur hour, but in a way that is too hilarious and expertly executed to be a mistake.

One of the most interesting aspects of Roundabout's story is that the whole thing is a rather explicit commentary on gender.

It is immediately striking that your protagonist, Giorgio, is a woman despite her traditionally masculine name. And at first, the discrepancy is easily brushed aside due to the game's purposefully hammy acting and B-movie aesthetic.

However, as the game progresses, you'll start to notice that most characters seem to interact with Giorgio as if she were a man.

This comes to a head at one point in the story when a photograph is supposed to depict Giorgio with another character, and instead of the red-headed woman you've spent the entire game with, with the photo shows a dark-haired man wearing Giorgio's signature powder blue suit.

On a meta level it works simply as a joke toward the B-movie aesthetic, as if there had been a last-minute casting change and no one bothered to change the script.

Roundabout is simply overflowing with personality, offering the best bad acting around and clever missions that even make the aggravating city exploration worth plodding through.

But the fact of the matter is that the story works just as well with Giorgio as a woman despite interactions that seem scripted for a man. It may even work better, thanks to Kate Welch putting in a tremendous performance as the master of quizzical facial expressions.

The bizarre yet charming story and clever missions carry Roundabout, through, but the structure surrounding all of that goodness is rather less enjoyable.

Roundabout uses an open-world map when between missions, allowing you to explore the city at your leisure to discover limo upgrades, hidden piles of cash and even properties to buy for a little extra income.

The problem is that you are still navigating the city in your purposefully awkward spinning deathtrap, which frequently crashes into a fiery wreck.

While the missions have plentiful checkpoints to mitigate collisions, that same convenience is absent when driving around the open-world map.

It often felt like exploring the city was more trouble than it was worth, and had me wishing for a fast travel option to simply select a mission on the map and warp to that location.

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The desire for fast travel only increased as the game went on, with three city maps to explore and the only way to drive to a different map was to navigate through even more obstacles to a specific highway tunnel.

It's a shame that navigating the city feels like a tedious chore, because after finishing the story, there are even more entertaining missions to challenge and hidden secrets to unlock.

Roundabout is simply overflowing with personality, offering the best bad acting around and clever missions that even make the aggravating city exploration worth plodding through.

4

Roundabout