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.