App Army Assemble: Brotato - "Is this new Survivors-like shooter worth picking up?"

Brotato is the latest entry in the increasingly popular Survivors-like genre. It comes from Erabit Studios, who are no strangers to this sub-genre, having previously released 20 Minutes Till Dawn. Brotato sees you controlling the titular potato against waves and waves of enemies until help arrives. We decided to hand the game over to our App Army to see if they have what it takes.

Here's what they said:

Jojó Reis

Here you control a potato with several weapons and have to annihilate hundreds of enemies that fill your screen. The game is super fun and well done. The potato your character falls on an alien planet and has to fight until he is rescued by his friends, with this you have a huge amount of weapons to survive all this chaos. Its gameplay is super well implemented and works very well, and its graphics are well done, along with its soundtrack. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest mobile action games. I really liked it.

Oksana Ryan

This game is a great way to spend 10 minutes. It’s a simple-to-master, frenzied shooter that is fun to play. You can upgrade weapons and abilities after successfully defeating waves of enemies. Graphics are basic but with the quick-fire gameplay, you don’t really notice. I found the sound in the background repetitive and turned it off. If you’re taking a boring bus trip or in need of a quick game until your favourite tv show, then this is the game for you.

Mark Abukoff

This is a fun, bullet-hell rogue-lite arcade shooter. In a very crowded field, this stands just far apart enough to make me want to keep picking it up and playing. Simple graphics and sound. I wasn’t in love with the onscreen controls so I snapped on the Backbone controller and that made it a lot better. I like being able to specialize your character and add-ons between runs. It’s challenging enough to make me feel good each time I live a little longer, but just easy enough to make some progress. This is a fairly simple game with lots of customization available (and more as you advance) that I can happily recommend.

Eduard Pandele

Brotato is the latest in one-man-studio Thomas Gervraud's collection of potato-styled roguelites, and the first to be released on mobile. Brotato is an arena shooter roguelite reduced to the essential: choose a starting potato (I recommend choosing the lucky potato for your first few runs - it gets epic gear fastest of all), choose a starting weapon (I recommend the slingshot. Yes, really. Primitive bonus increases max HP, and upgrading it means your stones bounce multiple times. Firepower FTW.), then try to survive as many waves of nasty baddies as you can.

Dead baddies drop gold and in-between waves you can upgrade your weapon or buy new weapons (your potato can hold up to six weapons), new items (like Ricochet, that adds another bounce to your stones. Six upgraded slingshots plus Ricochet is clearly OP.) and new perks (Ranged Damage ++ FTW). Building a monster potato that would survive 20 waves is very fun - and the game gives you a TON of potatoes to play with (unlocking them all is part of the fun), as well as a BAZILLION of weapons and items (again, unlocking the OP ones is part of the fun).

And that's all. A perfect mobile game, then, you say? Not so fast. The PC version is flawless. The mobile port, not so much. The controls are nice, but clearly not as responsive, and there was ZERO effort to adapt the interface to a phone screen. As in, the text is tiny. But if the only thing you can play Brotato on is a potato of a phone, then by all means, play it. It's still fun.

Jc Ga

Brotato is a very successful game. The roguelike dimension works perfectly, and the many characters invite you to test the different combinations of objects. The objects to be unlocked motivate to relaunch "one more last run". The music, responsive controls, visual choices, everything is very good and nothing disturbs the satisfaction of repeating many runs in a row. The higher difficulties also make it possible to renew the experience, thanks to new, more varied and more dangerous enemies that appear.

However, I think that the perfect realization would have allowed choices so that the game stands out completely from its competitors: we can regret a lack of diversity in the map design, and a sort of exploration of the dungeon would have been immersive. But the game is already quite a success for its arcade side, and I absolutely recommend it.

Pierpaolo Morgante

Brotato is a ‘twin stick’ shooter game. We control a character as we try to survive waves of enemies that shoot everything they have at us. After every wave, we get loot and upgrades. The attack is automatic, so our only worry is to keep the character alive. The game is well done and well designed, the art is quirky and fun, and the movement always feels good and tight, with no lag or ‘defects’. Perhaps a tutorial would improve the overall gaming experience, especially for those players that are new to the genre. All in all, the game is well worth its price tag. Highly recommended for fans of shooters.

Chad Jones

When I went into this game I thought I would be similar to their previous game 20 Minutes Till Dawn, but with a different skin. 20 Minutes Till Dawn plays like Vampire Survivors as well as Brotato with the exception that Brotato has a smaller playing field and a shorter timer. It also has different levels of upgrades. After each level, you get to pick upgrades for your character and then buy weapon upgrades to use on the next level(s). The games are faster and a bit more intense than the vampire survivor clones. The downside is that the playing field is smaller and a bit harder to escape the enemies. I like what they did with this game and it feels a bit different than the rest of the Vampire Survivor clones. The music and graphics are good. The virtual controls work really well. Another great job by Erabit Studios.

Michael Purdy

This game is really fun. I guess it is best classified as a twin-stick shooter, but attacking is done automatically so you only have to worry about movement. And the movement on the touchscreen is very tight and accurate, which is extremely important for a game like this. The art style is a lot of crude drawings and dull colours, which reminds me of the Binding of Isaac. And much like Vampire Survivors, Brotato is extremely addictive due to it encouraging you to do multiple runs with better and better weapons. Highly recommended.

Jim Linford

Brotato starts off looking like a twin-stick single-screen shooter but the computer aims and fires for you. You survive a wave upgrade and continue. The rogue elements that come into play are each time you start a run you select a character who has different stats choose a weapon then blast away. Risk reward comes from rushing to hoover up XP and money before the round time runs out.

Each round you get another weapon you can hold up to six. You get a modifier of some kind or an extra perk. Stat upgrade etc You can combine the same weapons to make that slot more powerful. Have a weapon type powered up. Each round you have more powerful enemies and longer to do the run. You also have to level up your character as enemies get stronger and more varied.

The game appears simple but is complex under the hood. I really like the fast-paced gameplay and the graphic style. Very Binding of Isaac in style. I just wish the map would change from time to time. Maybe it does? I haven’t played nonstop but it is a really good game. Despite the possible single map. Maybe just me but the idea of a changing landscape would push it from good to great. The more I play the game the more I really enjoy it.

I would love it if you had a maze run style mode and just the ability to launch a bomb-style attack to me that would push it over the edge the game is really run. Nice music. Nice feedback loop and progression just feels to me a bit repetitive as there seems to be one level

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