There is a recent new trend in games that I have discovered called the "action roguelike". These games are characterized by endless waves of enemies and lots of ways to stop them. Brotato is a quite good take on this genre and a fairly amusing one.

The plot is, according to the Steam Page:

"A spaceship from Potato World crashes onto an alien planet. The sole survivor: Brotato, the only potato capable of handling 6 weapons at the same time. Waiting to be rescued by his mates, Brotato must survive in this hostile environment."

It's with this super simple concept Brotato basically launches into an excuse to kill lots of enemies. In the typical action roguelike, the action takes place in a top-down, bird's-eye view. You can move your character around shooting at anything all around you. Typically, these games have constantly spawning enemies in a series of waves. These waves last a set number of seconds during which you must shoot down as many enemies as possible while avoiding taking a lethal level of damage. After each successful wave, you can pick from a series of free upgrades, such as increased range and damage. You can also pick up currency from slain foes to purchase additional weapons, power-ups (which are permanent), and so on.

The upgrade system is pretty vast and broad in scope. Weapons can be bought with the currency and upgraded by buying more of the same type. They can even be "combined" to make stronger versions of the base weapon. Power-ups are vast and almost absurd in their variety and application. Some include armor, various weird knick-knacks, and all can increase stats while some can decrease other stats. These items are retained as the waves continue, so it can be worth it to make sure you trick out your character for optimal slaying of enemies. I especially advise picking up the "Life Steal" upgrades and stacking them; it will make later waves way more bearable.

Graphically, this has a hand-drawn cartoony style. Everything from your potato protagonist to the absurd amount of guns he carries to the enemies has a delightfully silly look to them. Even the intermission store graphics convey a silly tone. The sounds and music have a fast-paced techno-funk feel. Given the absurdist sci-fi premise, this fits the tone like a glove.

This title can be played with a keyboard and mouse or any Steam-supported controller. I played this mostly via keyboard, but the controls are super simple to learn on anything.

Stability is pretty solid. This game is made in the Godot Engine and runs natively on Microsoft Windows. It will run out of the box on Linux and the Steam Deck via Steam Proton. Requirements are quite modest, so even low-end computers can enjoy this game. There is also Steam Workshop support for this title. I tried some mods as well as playing unmodded and found this game is equally fun either way.

Morally, there isn't too much to complain about. There is some cartoonish arcade-style violence (minus blood and gore) and some references to magic, but that's about it.

Overall, Brotato was a fun game. Technically, it's pretty solid. Morally, any older child on up could easily handle the themes. If you want some quick and silly action roguelike gameplay, Brotato is perfect for that.