Rocket: Robot on Wheels
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
From Mario 64 to Rayman 2, we've all guided some character around in a 3D world, running and jumping and occasionally fighting. Rocket: Robot on Wheels takes the tried-and-true platform genre, flips it on its side, and splashes wildly-colored paint all over it.
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One, Please.
In a nutshell, you are Rocket, a maintenance robot at Whoopie World, the greatest amusement park ever. The secondary mascot, Jojo, has kidnapped Whoopie the Walrus and taken over the park. Sounds ridiculous, but it's all in good fun. Your mission: explore seven levels of puzzles in search of tickets and tokens that will fix the rides and stop Jojo in his tracks.
The most interesting part of gameplay is the laid-back pace. Unlike your typical run-and-gun platformer, you must solve puzzles and explore levels heavily to unlock all the secrets. By the time you're done, your brain will have exercised as much as your thumbs.
Let's Get Physical
A great deal of Rocket's playability comes from the physics engine. Objects in the game behave as they would in the real world. A box caught in your tractor beam will bounce off a wall if you throw it, as will sheep (unless the wall is covered with thorns, in which case you have amazing Velcro livestock). Swinging from handles requires a little thought of trajectory and momentum, and jumping onto floating platforms involves staying centered so you don't fall off the tilting side. If physics were this fun in school, everyone would want to be a nuclear physicist.
The engine also applies to the seven vehicles you'll need to accomplish your task. Each handles differently and presents its own unique set of abilities and drawbacks. You can hotdog over sand dunes in the DuneDog or paint the town red in the aptly-named HoverSplat or even ride the skies on the ShagFlyer. Fun Physics allows everything in Rocket to act and react intuitively, which breathes life into each puzzle and level.
Of course, no game is perfect, and Rocket has its share of problems. The sound is limited at best, and the theme-parkish music gets annoying. Thankfully, the sound effects are fine, from water splashing to sheep bleating to bombs exploding. The background graphics tend to lose some detail, but since the loss of detail keeps everything moving smoothly, it's not really a problem.
The most annoying part of the game is the below-average camera, which shifts unpredictably and forces you to make adjustments on the fly. If you're not quick, you might go plummeting into the Great Unknown because of camera error.
Is It Real?
Rocket works so well precisely because it is so different from the typical platform game. The realism of the gameplay, set in the surreal world of a cartoony theme park, makes this a game well worth any gamer's time.
