Rocket Riot Preview

Xbox LIVE Arcade has long been a way for Xbox 360 gamers to find titles that they wouldn’t normally have a chance to play otherwise. The platform offers a great means of playing quirky and innovative titles, as well as those that add some great new elements to classic gameplay mechanics. Rocket Riot, a quirky shooter from publisher THQ and Dutch developer Codeglue, fits into that category. The game is a take on the tried and true shooter formula, offering charming characters and nostalgia-inducing 8-bit pixilated worlds set on a 2D plane. The game has a lot of personality, and the fast and furious gameplay will appeal to any number of action fans.

Essentially a 2D shooter like Robotron 2084, Rocket Riot has you controlling your flying avatar across the playing field with the left thumbstick, and aiming and launching rockets using the right thumbstick. Your attacks will not only destroy your on-screen enemies, but can also destroy entire chunks of the environment, which is composed of tiny blocks that will gradually regenerate as you play through. You’ll also be able to zoom out the map a bit so you’ll have a better look at the level, as well as use special power-ups that you’ll be able to pick up, but ultimately the gameplay is pretty easy to grasp.

Each level has its own gameplay style to it, as some stages will require you to simply kill a certain number of enemies to move on, while others require you to destroy certain parts of the environment, knock a football through a goalpost a couple of times, or find a special person on the map playing a game of “hot and cold”. There are also boss battles to be had, where you’ll have to take on a stronger enemy and defeat them to move on, all while other enemies are trying to take you down.

Stylistically, each grouping of levels and the enemies within it have their own motif that they follow. These vary quite a bit and with levels with pirate, zombie, and other themes, the game has a great amount of character to it. Additionally, as you defeat certain enemies throughout the game, you’ll unlock them and possible avatars for your character.

Graphically, the game is extremely charming. The characters are pretty unique, looking like tiny legless rockets with faces, and the 8-bit worlds look great and will tug at the heartstrings of many nostalgic gamers (the 8-bit cassette tape loading screens are likely to bring a tear to your eyes if you’re a child of the 80’s). Even though the on-screen action will get quite intense, the game never slows down. The sound is also a clever throwback, with a nice 80’s synth-pop soundtrack that sounds great and never really gets annoying.

Rocket Riot is also set to offer some robust multiplayer features and gameplay modes, including a host migration feature that will keep a game going even after the original host leaves. Look for it on Xbox LIVE Arcade next February.