RotAKoko by Rakugaki-Otoko is a real labour of love – a two year labour of love that’s emerged as a rotaty maze game that’s a shootery spin (hoho) on the Super Nintendo’s On The Ball / Cameltry, except its got cuteness and joy oozing out of its pores, and a brilliantly bewildering intro. Check this out:

See? Awesome.

The game itself can’t live up to that promise of that intro – you simply guide your ‘rotating agent’ around some probably over-complicated and under-populated mazes, grabbing coins as you go. There are some nice ideas later on – like darkness-shrouded levels you can light up by pelting bullets at enemy lightbulbs – and the odd tough boss level that ups the adrenaline a bit. The author is so sweetly concerned about all that spinning making you dizzy, he’s put a signed disclaimer on the loading screen.

“Please take a rest, ok? Keep yourself healthy.” My heart is exploding here.

Honestly, it’s not the greatest game you’ll ever play, but the sheer love that’s gone into it, the nostalgia-triggering innocent ’90s-ness of it all, the lovely music, the beautiful visuals… it makes me happy for so many reasons, I’m not sure 21st century mathematics has invented enough numbers to count them all up. Play RotAKoko (Windows, download)