Rocketmen: Axis of Evil (Xbox Live Arcade) Review

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 03.27.2008

Vitals

Genre	Shooter
System	Xbox360
Release Date	03/05/2008

Xbox Live Arcade gets another dual-stick shooter...but this one has four-player co-op!


If there's one genre that's well-represented (some would say over-represented) on Xbox Live Arcade, it's the dual-stick shooter. You know the kind - one stick controls movement, while the other controls which direction you'll shoot.

With fierce competition, Rocketmen: Axis of Evil had to stand out if it wanted to do well - and it's fair to say that it manages to do that.

The game has a cartoony look that takes some time to win you over. I really disliked the title screen, for example, but found myself liking the cartoony science fiction graphics ingame more and more as I played. The simple look gives the developers a chance to implement a variety of terrains pretty easily, and the game runs without any noticeable slowdown even when there's a hail of bullets and enemies on the screen - even when there are four players in action.

That's right, the 'four-player co-op' bug has hit XBLA dual-stick shooters as well, with up to four people able to join in on the action on a single console. Each can have their own customized character, which helps keep the "I thought I was that guy" problems to a minimum.

There's actually a lot of customization in Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, driven by collectibles found in each level. One collectible allows you to buy better armor, for example, while another allows you to improve your characters stats (speed, demolition, damage, health, etc..). You can also hit the store to stock up on items like health packs, a resurrection ability, secondary weapons, or droppable weapons - love the deployable turret!

The cream of the crop is the ability to upgrade each of the weapons you'll find in the levels. You start with a basic pistol, but - as with any game - sticking with that basic pistol is pretty much just asking to get your ass kicked. Instead you'll find yourself relying on weapon pickups, ranging from shotguns to lasers, to do your killing. These pickups don't last forever, of course, forcing gamers to keep finding new weapons. Each of these weapons can be upgraded in a variety of fields, including speed, spread, and damage. The Vulcan machine gun, when fully upgraded, is a monster.

While the presentation is a mixed bag on the visual side of things, the audio work is uniformly good. Catchy music and good sound effects for the large variety of weapons lend the audio a degree of polish that I didn't expect from a port of a board game.

There are a few problems with Rocketment: Axis of Evil, of course. In terms of presentation, the game looks OK in action, but the cutscenes are pretty low-end, with a weird 'static screen, with moving parts' animation that doesn't work very well. On the gameplay side, for a dual-stick shooter the game moves pretty slowly - a real downer for a game that relies on beating a set time to get a gold medal on the level.

The 411:

To stand out among the crowd, a dual-stick shooter needs to do more than just provide the basic gameplay - and Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, warts and all, does just that. There are a lot of customization options available, especially when creating your character, and four-player co-op is a decent time killer if you have friends over. At $10 it's a tough one to recommend blindly, but give the demo a shot and see what you think.

Graphics	7.0	Weird, but it'll grow on you. No framerate issues, even with four-player mayhem.
Gameplay	7.5	A basic dual-stick shooter that adds in secondary weapons and a lot of customization. Slow paced, but acceptable.
Sound	7.5	Good work with the weapon effects, and the music is suitably catchy.
Lasting Appeal	6.5	The desire to max out all the weapons will keep you playing for a while, but there's not much more here.
Fun Factor	7.0	The pacing is a bit sedate, but the four-player co-op option makes for a good time.
Overall	7.0   [ Good ]

Screenshots
All 7 Rocketmen: Axis of Evil Screenshots