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Combine Geometry Wars with LEGO blocks, add pirates and attach rockets to their backs,
and you start to get a sense of the genuine insanity that defines this game.
To say nothing of the bazookas. It’s Rocket Riot HD.
Rocket Riot HD is the iOS version of Rocket Riot, a game that debuted on the Xbox Live
Arcade in 2009. The original was praised by most reputable outlets in the games press,
and for good reason. Rocket Riot is as awesome as it is unique, and although touch control
hasn’t done it any favors, it’s still a great experience on the iPad.
Rocket Riot HD is a twin-stick shooter, a kind of game perhaps best associated with
Geometry Wars these days. You control a ship—or in this case, a guy—with one stick, and
you fire your weapon with the other stick. Obviously, for all the advancements the device
has made for gaming, the iPad is most decidedly stick-less...and so you’re playing Rocket
Riot HD not with dual analog, but with dual fingers.
Now, Rocket Riot didn’t have the most intuitive controls even on the Xbox. Unlike Geometry
Wars, you couldn’t shoot just by aiming the right stick. You actually had to release
the stick to fire, which worked just fine but took a little getting used to. This is
something you could also say about Rocket Riot HD, only it takes a little more time
getting used to.
Okay, it takes a lot more time to get used to.
So the controls are kind of interesting. You move by dragging your finger across the bottom
left side of the screen, and you fire by doing the same on the bottom right. The game has
other control options, including motion, but this is the most precise way to play Rocket
Riot...and the funny thing is, it’s not even remotely precise.
Now, does it work? Sure. But is it ideal? Absolutely not. This game plays exponentially
better with a controller. In fact, it cannot be overstated just how much better Rocket
Riot is when you’re pushing joysticks instead of, you know, general places on a screen.
So how does the game get away with this? Well, Rocket Riot was never a game about precision.
This is a game about total and complete **** chaos. It doesn’t matter if you can’t aim right
because aiming doesn’t really matter all that much. Your gun is capable of destroying
anything in its wake, so the game turns into a pixelated explosion.
Speaking of pixels, that’s the game’s biggest hook. The levels take place in these
surreal 3D boards that look like 8-bit pixels from the front...but actually have depth,
similar to the effect in Super Paper Mario. Since these levels are fully destructible,
you’re flying through these chaotic fields of tumbling pixels, as if an NES sprite swallowed
a stick of dynamite.
It’s a really cool aesthetic, and it gives the game an irresistible retro charm.
Rocket Riot is a great little shooter, but it’s definitely better on a console. The
game controls better on the Xbox, and the iPad version also lacks the multiplayer modes
in the original. But even in this abbreviated form, this is a terrific game. And at the
App Store price of just $3.00, the value is tremendous.
So blast off to fun with Rocket Riot HD. That was pretty lame.