by Shawn Schafer

Created on: February 03, 2009   Last Updated: September 13, 2011

The Adventures of Rick Rocket is a game where you control a space ship and have to defend earth and other things from alien invasions. You fly around and shoot at various types of alien ships in diverse and entertaining missions. I had a lot of fun with this game, and unlike most demos, this demo actually gave me a decent taste of the game; the first 8 levels.

I'll start with the graphics. Even though they're 2D, they add to the fun of the game. They are purposefully cartoony and have a "3d-esque feel" to them. For example; the exhaust on your space craft looks like a combination between goo and fire, kind of like magma i suppose. When you blow up asteroids they shoot off in different directions and there is an appearance of depth. Overall, the graphics were pretty sweet, although the shooting animations could have been a little better. I give graphics a 4 out of 5.

The game has decent sound. I particularly liked the background music, but I thought that some of the sound effects could have been better. But sound was definately acceptable and adds to the game rather than hinder it. I give sound a 3 out of 5.

Now on to the important part, gameplay. On the first level you fly around destroying asteroids, and you encounter a random hostile alien ship on this quest. On the second you destroy some alien ships. There are all different kinds of missions and I never found myself saying "aww man, not another one of those!" The game is quite challenging at points, in one level I had to figure out a strategy to survive a boss battle with a centipede-like ship. There are all kinds of power ups, like extra shooting, missiles, sheilds, and a particularly useful one that shoots a ring outward from your ship. Gameplay was actually good enough to make me consider forking out the $19.99 for the full version. I give gameplay a 5 out of 5.

A thing that really struck me about the game was how original each level felt. Every one of the eight levels was completely different. The first has you blasting asteroids, another has you fighting alien ships to defend a space station, another has you rescuing human ships, another has to killing motherships that drop more little ones. Still another has you fighting this insanely large centipede like ship that sprouts more heads to shoot you with if you kill it the wrong way. The last level has you capturing a disabled enemy ship. The point is, the developers really go creative with the missions, and because of this the game never feels dull or repetitive. I give creativity and innovation a 5 out of 5.

This game is very entertaining and if the demo is any indication of how good the full version is then it is well worth the 20 bucks.However, I still can't quite bring myself to give a 2d game that costs 20 dollars a 5 out of 5. So I give this game a 4 out of 5. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 if thats allowed.

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