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| Check out those sweet neon contrails |
- Reviewed by: Mark Goninon
- Developer: Radial Games Corp
- Publisher: Radial Games Corp
- Release Date: 2 May 2015
- Time played: 4.8 hours
I seem to be getting good mileage from the Humble Freedom Bundle that came out earlier this year; I've completed and reviewed a few games from it already such as Monster Loves You!, Rituals, TIMEframe and Potatoman Seeks the Troof. Turns out that ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS is another game from this bundle but I mainly installed the game since I wanted to find something I could play on the couch with my daughter and the game seemed colourful enough with minimal violence (the only violence here is your rocket being destroyed).
The game has a simple premise: fly your rocket around and look for other rockets to destroy. Use your weapons such as rockets, bombs and mines to destroy your enemy. Seems easy right? Turns out it's a bit trickier than you'd think. You're able to temporarily deflect weapons using a shield that lasts for a second and the rockets themselves can sometimes deflect incoming attacks. Consequently, a lot of your time is spent trying to find the optimal attack vector on an enemy without exposing yourself to attack – and you're doing this against an enemy that's trying to do the same thing.
The game allows up to four human players to play and you can either pair up in teams or go against each other in Free-For-All. If you don't play with human players, then you get to play against bots instead. There's also a Zen Mode where you can just fly around the map without having to shoot at each other at all.
What I like:
Groovy soundtrack
The soundtrack is so good I almost feel like ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS is one of those games that was built just to showcase its music – a bit like Undertale (did you know, the developer of Undertale, Toby Fox was already a composer?) – even the price of the soundtrack is dearer than the game itself! If you like French House or Nu Disco (think Daft Punk or Justice), you'll like this soundtrack by Ben Lam.In sync with the music
And on the topic of music, did you know that the lights on the in-game map pulsate with the music too? It's like a giant disco party with rockets trying to destroy each other.Family friendly couch co-op fun
You know, it's actually quite difficult to find a game on Steam that's "family friendly" (at least for younger kids), happens to work on the Steam Link with full controller support and has co-op play. Thankfully, ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS ticks all the right boxes. Admittedly, I had some issues playing the game before on an older wi-fi router/modem but that was mainly a hardware issue and not really a fault of the game.Randomness
This could potentially be seen as a flaw but it's also what makes the game interesting and creates a level playing field for the younger players and those new to the game. Attacking enemies feels a bit like jousting, similar to combat in Elite Dangerous or some kind of "ballet" as Brett Makedonski at Destructoid mentioned when he described the game.Steam achievements and trading cards
There are 42 Steam achievements to unlock and 11 Steam Trading Cards to collect.What I dislike:
There really isn't much to it
The only flaw with the game is that there's only really one game mode to play here (Zen Mode doesn't count as it's basically a cut-down version of the main mode). There's also not really much to the game besides flying around, firing at some enemy rockets, dodging some enemy rockets, repeat. So, in terms of longevity, ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS may suffer especially if you're just playing it single player (you really need to treat this as a multiplayer-only game).Zoomin' on out
I don't really know how you get around this mechanic without going split-screen but if another ship decides to start going towards the other end of the map, the game proceeds to gradually zoom out. At a certain point, the ships become tiny, abstract symbols floating around on the screen and then it becomes quite difficult to see what you're doing which makes combat especially challenging.Score – 7/10 (Good Fun)
ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS is a fun, colourful, couch co-op shoot ‘em up that's great for parties and young kids. The game also has a groovy soundtrack that mimics the likes of Daft Punk and it's definitely one of the game's strengths. The only issue I have with the game is its longevity since the game has in reality only one game mode you'd be willing to play and despite allowing you to play it single player, I think this is a game better suited for multiplayer.Is the game worth $6.99 USD?: Yes, that's just under $10 AUD which I think is a fair price if you're in the market for a fun, colourful couch co-op/versus game.
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[ LINK: Official ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS Website ]
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