“My existence alone is a form of me.”
Rubato is such a fun game, oh my god. I initially found this due to the fact one of my friends actually worked on this game, and the trailer sold me pretty well on what this game wanted to do. A 2D platformer that focuses on experimentation in the genre with a ton of variety in its obstacles while also letting you play as a frog? That’s so Susie coded I knew I had to get it day 1. Well, the game has finally arrived, and I ended up being met with one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year and then some.
You play as Rubato, a tiny little frog who’s tasked with saving the solar system after one of your company workers accidentally breaks it apart in a game of pool. This separates the planets into tiny pieces known as planet bits, with you being sent out to collect as many as you can in order to restore the shattered galaxy. That’s a rather basic outline, but the plot evolves way beyond this, in ways that I never even expected really, and it became an experience in itself. There’s a lot of dialogue here, arguably more than gameplay sometimes, but it’s never dull, and the directions the story takes kept my eyes locked to the screen, with me audibly screaming at several points of the game, it was an experience. Graphically, I really adore the art style here, it’s a very cartoonish vibe the whole time, and there’s a lot of visual humor combined with the dialogue that the art style greatly enhances, it’s great pixel art! There’s tons of npcs to talk to, tons of little secret areas that do nothing but present a gag, the game is very good at getting a chuckle out of you, and it’s always a blast seeing what joke the game comes up with next!
Rubato presents itself as a 2D collectathon experimental platformer, and for the most part that’s what you get here! You have 4 open areas to explore littered with a bunch of planet bits to get with the only real sense of direction given is to collect a certain amount to open the boss door. Rubato is equipped with a double jump and his tongue, and these are what you’ll use the most. The tongue can be used to grab onto various objects, pick up enemies, and swing on hooks, it’s pretty fun to mess around with, and the level design compliments it a lot, it’s fun workshopping just what you need to do to get each planet bit, and while there are intended methods to get each one, you can easily do your own way, it reminds me a lot of Mario 64 in terms of the freedom you are being given to collect everything. The more worlds you beat too, the more items you obtain, such as a rocket launcher, a sponge gun that lets you attach platforms to the walls, a shield that lets you block enemy attacks and lasers, and eventually a jetpack that lets you soar through the air, collecting whatever you can find along the way! The levels are just big enough to where finding the planet bits aren’t that much an issue, but also still have a ton of variety jam packed in them in order to spice up the gameplay, it’s great seeing all the creative ways they hide planet bits here, and I had a blast collecting them all, enough to get every single one and do that final gauntlet! You can also collect various costumes and these are very silly! They got a lot of cool ones like the ones that put Rubato in a different art style, but there’s just as many funny ones like one that makes you into a Globe, or another that just makes you an entire car, it’s super fun collecting them all and grinding the money out just came naturally from exploring everywhere.
Experimentation is part of the game here as well, and that’s where Rubato truly starts to get interesting. Scattered through each level are various sub doors, mini areas basically that have two planet bits for you to collect. These were my favorite areas to explore, as a good majority of them brought in entirely new gameplay mechanics exclusive to that sub area to spice up your run! Not all of them hit, they got a few stinkers here, such as the fishing minigame, that one was just plain annoying, but nearly all of them are fantastic to play, and I was excited to see just what new mechanic they were gonna cook up next. From picking up cows with a UFO, to having to construct a boat in order to survive acid waters, turning into a ball and rolling down hills at high speed, and even playing minecraft of all things at one point, Rubato is full of ideas here, and the siderooms are easily the best part of the game because of it, the variety here is just non stop, it made 100% all the more worth it!
Now, Rubato is interesting in that the first half of the game is a tad underwhelming? It’s not anything bad but the base platforming feels a little underbaked at points, and it took me a little bit to really get hooked on the game. This is only the first half though because once you hit the back half this game goes from a pretty fun collecathon to one of the most hard hitting experiences I’ve ever had. Major spoilers ahead, though this will be the only time this review will have them so don’t worry about the rest. The basic premise of restoring the solar system eventually evolves into having to take down a giant corporation run by a being known as Upper Management. When you finally confront Upper management, the story begins to take a sudden shift, and it starts to tackle themes of identity, sense of self, purpose, and what it means to exist. Rubato isn’t just a frog, Rubato is actually a person who was put into a frog, and had only just discovered this upon confronting Upper Management. Rubato isn’t just a frog, it’s a concept, a product to sell, to capitalize on, to spread everywhere, something upper management wants full control of. Upon this revelation, Rubato breaks down, hard, wondering about what they’re purpose is, if they even have that, if they even have a right to exist, and it sends them spiraling, nearly letting Upper Management get the upper hand. In a cascade of memories though it suddenly hits Rubato. They don’t belong to anyone, they only belong to themselves. Upper Management can take who they are, their experiences, their body, all of it, but they can’t take them. It won’t be Rubato’s life, it won’t be Rubato’s memory, it’ll be Rubato in name only, it doesn't take away from who they really are. They live not for everyone around them, not for what everyone expects them to be, but for themselves and no one will ever get in the way of that. This gives Rubato the strength to fight back, to win, to save their friends, it’s an inspiring moment that comes after the longest cutscene in the game, and it solidified Rubato as one of my favorite game experiences of all time. .The way it mixes the visuals with the dialogue creates an experience that just hits directly home, that feeling of wanting to live for yourself, for who you are, to fight forward not for anyone else but for the you that’s been there a long, not caring about acceptance from others, not caring about what people want from you, but only caring about the you that’s been with you this entire time. No one can ultimately take that away from you, no one can rob those experiences from you, no one will ever strip away who you are from you ever again, it’s time to start living for yourself. It’s something I didn't expect from this game, but it’s one I greatly welcome. It puts so many aspects of the game in a completely different light, and the entire back half being about this made the whole journey worth it. Rubato is more than it seems, it’s a journey, it’s about discovery, about self, about love, about YOU, and nothing can change that! I adore this game!
I adored my time immensely with Rubato, it may be a little underbaked in terms of its platforming mechanics, but everything else comes together to create an experience no other game has been able to recreate for me. It may seem like a funny frog platformer from the outside, but once you start playing it yourself, you are met with one of the most memorable and heartfelt experiences in well, anything ever! If the game looks interesting at all to you, you owe it to yourself to pick it up, this game truly is something special, and I will always treasure my time with this game dearly. What a phenomenal experience.
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