We've documented 26 accessibility features for Rubato, including Guaranteed Progress, Custom Difficulty, Remap Buttons, Play Without Hearing and Fully Subtitled (Or No Speech). Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Getting Started but it also has features in Reading, Navigation, Visual, Difficulty and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
External examiner, Dylan Connolly, first checked Rubato accessibility 5 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 5 months ago.
Accessibility Notes
Button remapping is currently only on the PC version of the game.
You can adjust the difficulty to double your health. You can also enable invincibility and disable the ability to die in bottomless pits so that you get thrown upwards.
There is a simple objective system that notifies you what to do/where to go with a message that appears as a notification and on the pause screen. The list of collectable planet bits contains clues about where they could be. The button to press pops up for actions that utilise unique control schemes or uncommonly used buttons.
The main text in the game is 1/20 scale but there are instances where this deviates.
There is a trail of arrows showing the main route to get where you need to go. This eases the nonlinearity of the game which can be confusing to newcomers.
Game Details
Release Date: Coming soon
Coming Soon: PC, PS5, Switch and Xbox X|S
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Collecting, Platform, Simulation (Action, Adventure, Fighting and Narrative)
Accessibility: 26 features
Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels
Developer: Dconn 537 (@Dconn537)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 10 accessibility features for Controls in Rubato which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.
Mouse And Keyboard
Can play with the following:
Keyboard Alone: Can play with just the keyboard.
Mouse and Keys: Can play with mouse and multiple keys.
Remap Controls
Can customise the controls for the game as follows:
Remap Buttons: Can re-map all buttons so that you can use alternatives that better suit your play.
Remap Mouse and Keyboard: Can remap mouse and keyboard key bindings, on systems that support these controls.
Remap One Action to Multiple Buttons: Can remap multiple buttons to perform the same action to reduce the need to memorise buttons and make the action easier to access.
Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.
Invert X/Y Axis: Can invert the direction required to control looking and aiming. This enables you to match your instinctive orientation when looking.
Controller Vibration
Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.
Sensitivity
You can adjust
Adjust Mouse/Stick/Touch Sensitivity: Adjust how sensitive touch/mouse/stick controls are.
Difficulty
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in Rubato which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.
Difficulty Options
Customise Difficulty: Customise different aspects of the game to create a challenge of an appropriate level. Adjusting elements individually enables you to tailor gameplay to suit your needs and style of play.
Adjust After Setting
Adjustable Between Levels: You can adjust the difficulty between levels/rounds. Although you have to restart your checkpoint or level, this enables you to adjust the difficulty after selecting it at the beginning of the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Difficulty
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Difficulty accessibility features you require, this similar game extends the Difficulty accessibility:
- Disney Illusion Island (3 Difficulty Features)
Getting Started
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Getting Started in Rubato which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Practice Area: You can practice freely without opponents or time pressures. This can be a specific practice option, or the ability to play levels with the easiest opponents to improve understanding and skill.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Guaranteed Progress With God Mode: There is no fail state for any game level, where you lose progress or have to start again. Or there are options to make failing impossible: infinite health or lives, unlimited time. Sometimes called God Mode or Unfailable.
Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints: If you fail you can retry that level or aspect of the game without losing a lot of progress (less than 5 minutes). This is often provided via Frequent Checkpoints combined with restarting without losing time, equipment or score.
Assisted Progress With Hints: The game notices if you get stuck (or you can press a button) and provides information to help you progress. This can offer hints or tutorials popping up during play. This includes hints after you have died, where it can suggest strategies or difficulty settings to adjust or offer to skip past problematic levels.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Disney Illusion Island (7 Getting Started Features)
- Mosa Lina (6 Getting Started Features)
- Esophaguys (6 Getting Started Features)
- Bonito Days (6 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Reading in Rubato which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Text Visibility
High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.
Subtitles
All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Grapple Dog (7 Reading Features)
- Disney Illusion Island (6 Reading Features)
- Metroid Dread (6 Reading Features)
- Lil Gator Game (6 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Navigation in Rubato which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Clear Mission Objectives: The game provides clear, structured missions with directional guidance and advice on which can be attempted next. This also indicates (ideally on maps where they are provided) which missions can't be attempted because you do not have the appropriate items yet.
Menu Navigation
Digital Menu Navigation: Menu choices with Gamepad can be made without using an analogue stick to guide a cursor to a selection. For example, using D-Pad, buttons or the Stick to change menu selection in a single action.
Remap Game Menu Access: Can remap buttons to pause, access and navigate the game menu. This enables you to specify which buttons pop-up the game menu.Whether you can remap menu navigation buttons isn't considered here.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- Esophaguys (5 Navigation Features)
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (5 Navigation Features)
- Metroid Dread (4 Navigation Features)
- Chariot (4 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Visual in Rubato which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Contrast
Medium Contrast: Game uses generally well contrasting and bright visuals, or has a slider to make this the case.
Interactive Elements
Large Game Elements: Game characters and other elements are large and distinguishable. Enemies and player characters are at least 1/6 of the height of the screen. Or there is a zoom feature to make them larger.
Motion Sickness Friendly
Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Esophaguys (9 Visual Features)
- Bonito Days (8 Visual Features)
- Grapple Dog (7 Visual Features)
- Harlow (6 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Rubato which deals with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play Rubato, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Disney Illusion Island (3 Audio Features)
- Lil Gator Game (3 Audio Features)
- Pompom (3 Audio Features)
- Grapple Dog (3 Audio Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.
PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.
PlayStation 5
PlayStation 5 has a range of system-wide accessibility settings.
Xbox Series X|S
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Andy Robertson