Publisher: Shaun Inman
Price: $2.99/£1.99
Genre: 8-Bit Platformer
Fullscreen Support |
Mouse Support |
File Size |
Launch Date |
Required Specifications |
Yes (but iPhone screen size) |
All (Keyboard Control) |
0.9 MB——- |
16th August 2012 |
None Specified |
Pros: The silly sci-fi art style is very well done, good retro gameplay.
Cons: The Last Rocket has not been optimised for Mac in any way at all, you even play it in an iPhone/iPad screen resolution, sometimes unintuitive controls.
Review
The Last Rocket is an 8 bit platformer, a genre that has stood the test of time with its utterly addictive gameplay that hits a nerve unlike any other type of game can. Sadly however, The Last Rocket fails to provide an experience above average, and when this is coupled with the lazy optimisation for Mac, it makes for a disappointing play.
Most of The Last Rocket’s gameplay is what you would expect from a platformer from the days of old. Moving platforms, obstructive objects, switches, coin collecting, and spikes. The gameplay itself is good enough to enjoy and involves you controlling the last rocket in existence after the finale of a great gilactic war. Your purpose has been expended, and you are left exploring the 8-bit world around you.
Your objective is to reach the exit door on each level, collecting coins along the way is an option, but doesn’t serve much of a purpose. To do all of that you have 4 motions at your disposal; fly forward, fly backward, shimmy right and shimmy left. You can also crouch to duck under objects. You use all of these motions to fly around each level, landing on vertical and horizontal walls. Fans cause you to hover in-midair or change direction (depending which way it is blowing) and spikes are the obvious threat to your little orange object.
The gameplay is quite fast, and so you’ll need fast reactions to keep up. The controls are simple, but are inadequate for the role they must fill. As your perspective changes when you land on a wall or ceiling, so does your arrow buttons. This means that crouch is now the up button rather than the down one, and so on. It’s a tricky situation because I am always having to re-evaluate what button does what, leading to accidental movements and slow reactions which is a pain with the fast-paced gameplay. It’s not game breaking, but certainly worth mentioning.
The art style in and of itself is actually quite good, the purposely low quality particles from the fans and the silly sci-fi texture work is pulled off really well, especially when combined with the blipping and bopping soundtrack. It’s the graphical settings, or lack there of where I find most of my complaints pent-up. The Last Rocket was developed for iPhone and ported to Mac with absolutely no effort put into improving the game. In fact, the game still plays in the iPhone or iPad native screen size and resolution, which leaves huge black gaps either side of the screen that the game could have really benefitted from.
The Last Rocket is a good-looking platformer that provides an average, yet enjoyable experience at the best of times. It’s just a shame that the work required into making it a native Mac game was not committed, leaving it with an unsavoury aftertaste.
Gameplay Video
