Rotund Takeoff Switch Review – Chubbins is Back!

Chubbins was a tough-as-nails platformer on the Wii U that released back in 2014, but now it is back on the Nintendo Switch and has been rebranded Rotund Takeoff, although the original title is way better if you ask me. This version claims to be a “retro-overhauled” and “improved” version of the original, but let me tell you up front, this is just as difficult and sometimes as frustrating as before.

So is Chubbins better off as Chubbit in the renamed Rotund Takeoff? Let’s find out!

Rotund Takeoff starts off with our little protagonist, Chubbit (Why is it not Chubbins anymore?!), hopping through the forest until they encounter a bizarrely large, purple carrot/raddish (?) in the ground and decide to pull it out. Chubbit then bites into it only to find themselves tripping heavily and see the world around them change in strange ways.

These changes? Well, blocks with arrows on them begin replacing basic things in the woods, and trees and other animals start to look like demons of sorts (Chubbit is clearly having a bad trip here, huh?). For whatever reason, Chubbit feels compelled to embrace this new drug-induced world and bounce around as they take out baddies along the way.

It is a weird concept for a story, but I guess this is the vessel needed to make sense of the situation happening in the game. For what it’s worth, it works fine and gives purpose to our adorable main character as they traverse through the worlds and take out the bad (?) guys.

This is a pretty straight-forward mobile-style platformer where you pretty much control the entire game with one hand. Because of this, the controls are easy to pick up and learn, but be warned: Rotund Takeoff is really difficult. I mean, really difficult.

Although the controls are easy to learn, this is a brutal precision platformer with very little room for error. You use the various arrow blocks to bounce up or down as you avoid obstacles and pits. The game also pushes speed, as you are rewarded with Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals based on how fast you complete a stage, which creates more opportunity for mistakes and death. Also, since stages are relatively short for the most part, there are no checkpoints, so dying will start you all the way back at the beginning as well.

The game does do a good job of gradually introducing new mechanics as you progress, like disintegrating blocks and floating areas, but these additions usually just make the levels harder than they need to be. To be frank, even the very first stage may be too difficult for the casual player, so Rotund Takeoff may be a title that is subject to the elite players out there, which does seem to be the target audience despite the adorable visuals and super-cute main character.

Boss fights are also simple in theory but difficult in execution. The idea is interesting, though, as you are not targeting the animal itself but a glowing orb that Chubbit needs to bounce on repeatedly until it breaks. Breaking the orb defeats the boss, but sadly, simply defeating bosses does not gain you access to new areas. In order to do that, you have to earn a certain amount of Gold medals and/or Silver medals to earn passage to the next area and even special stages, and once again, this is no easy task, as speeding through some of the levels can become a chore.

Visually, Rotund Takeoff is a beautifully pixelated title where everything stands out nicely, and the animations, although stiff and mostly static, are adorable and give all the characters and the world a lot of charm.

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Musically, this is where the game shines most. Jarrel Lanchester leads the way with a stellar chiptune-infused soundtrack that keeps the game bumping from menu to overworld to each individual stage. Personally, I would have loved for a little more variety, but for the price, this is still a top-tier soundtrack for an otherwise brutally difficult platformer.

At the end of the day, Rotund Takeoff does offer a whole lot for its price, but it is not welcoming in the slightest. This is a game that will challenge its players from the get-go, which can be a deterrent for people looking forward to another fun and cute platformer, due to its high demand and precision accuracy.

Don’t get me wrong, though, as this is not a bad game. Quite the contrary, it is very well made, looks and sounds amazing, and obviously a lot of love went into its development. However, this is a title very much geared towards a particular audience, so if you are a casual gamer looking for a little fun with a cute rabbit, you may want to stay away from this. If you are a hardcore player that loves some precision platforming, you definitely cannot go wrong with this one, especially for the price.

But the greatest offense? Seriously, why is it Chubbit now and not Chubbins?! I need to know this answer, Dahku!

Rotund Takeoff Review provided by Nintendo Link
Developer: Dahku
Release Date: June 17, 2021
Price: $7.99, £5.79, €6,59
Game Size: 247 MB