Rocket Riot Review

Written by: Adam Tewkesbury Posted: 17th August 2009

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Tick, tick, tick, tick... BOOM!

Rocket Riot Details:

	Arcade
	Xbox 360
	Codeglue
	THQ

Out Now

Judging books by their covers is generally frowned upon, and despite a lack of a physical cover to judge, it is very easy to glance at the download screen for Rocket Riot and make assumptions about the game. These will largely be spot on, of course, and assuming you like rocket packs, bazookas, and pirates, the decision to download should be a no-brainer.

Rocket Riot keeps things very simple. Back story is kept mercifully brief and suitably stupid- never mind the how or why, but a nasty pirate has stolen everybody’s legs and it is up to you to hunt him down and sort him out, by shooting him with rockets. Control is via the thumbsticks (one to move, one to aim, charge shots and fire) with A used to activate items. Each level is constrained to a single arena, and your objective (kill a certain number of baddies, or break certain bits of scenery, for example) is displayed clearly so you’re never left wondering how to progress. Occasionally a boss will appear to give you grief, and some special challenges (including American Football) are thrown in to mix things up. I’d definitely watch more American Football if the players had rocket packs and bazookas.

Comparisons with the Worms series are inevitable, but Rocket Riot actually owes more to Soldat, a similar game based around two-dimensional arena shootouts and loosely justified rocket-pack propulsion. More original is Rocket Riot’s decision to construct levels out of self-repairing Lego bricks, an idea that sounds odd on paper but works very well when bombs start flying. Players are encouraged to tunnel through the scenery to find power-ups, which include a wide selection of rockets, armour and useful tit-bits to help you chalk up an impressive tally of cartoon death, but there are also less helpful hidden items aimed to add a modicum of risk and frustration- picking up a homing bazooka only to have it overruled by a power-up that replaces your missiles with a ‘Bang’ flag can cause outbursts of language unsuitable for the generally PG- friendly nature of the game.

Graphics maintain the retro theme with big, blocky sprites and plenty of primary colours keeping things clear and uncluttered, the simplicity helping to ensure a rock solid frame rate no matter how much chaos you cause. Background music is exclusively cheery homemade electro pop, which should become unbearably irritating but somehow manages to remain innocently charming for much longer than you might expect, whilst sound effects are simple but serviceable, and include lowbrow highlights such as a flatulent parp to accompany a certain power-down that reduces the distance of your shots. Childish, but perfectly in keeping with the game as a whole and likely to cause a guilty chuckle the first few times (especially if you have a meaty subwoofer).

And there you have it. Rocket Riot isn’t a huge game (80 arenas, which can be revisited if you’re obsessive or an achievement junkie), and does little to inject new ideas after the first dozen or so, but to a certain extent it doesn’t need to. This is very much a lightweight arcade hit, providing a few hours of fun without outstaying its welcome. In fact, the biggest criticism of RR is levelled at the multiplayer experience, which you might expect to be the biggest selling point of the game but instead seems to be a sad story of empty online lobbies and scant options for those wanting to fire rockets at human opponents. This might change if RR’s audience increases of course, but until such time it feels like a missed opportunity.

It isn’t very big and it isn’t especially clever, but Rocket Riot has a certain something which succeeds in putting a big sloppy grin on your face. As a full shop release it would be unlikely to win many accolades, but it fits perfectly as a Live Arcade impulse buy, and you might find yourself playing for longer than a lot of comparable 800-point treats.