Rocketmen: Axis of Evil Demo PS3 Review

Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is a top down shooter that is downloadable from the Playstation Network. You create your character, upgrade weapons and traverse an alien land while the story unfolds through a series of comic book panels with voice. The game looks to be a Sci-Fi incarnation of Commando trading guns for phasers, camouflage for space suits and a bit more free roaming as well.

First you choose from a race of characters and talents they will hold along with a few personalized items like suit and hair color. The game has brightly detailed graphics that while not necessarily next-gen they are very crisp with a wide color palette. At the beginning of the mission you are given some back story and also your mission objective by way of comic book panels with spoken speech bubbles. YAY! I don’t have to read. Well I really wish they wouldn’t have gone there. The speech is bad, and not just in a so bad it’s funny and adds to the campiness of the story it just feels stale.

As I mentioned before you start your quest and you are immediately hit with Commando in a Sci-Fi setting vibe. Again a problem crops up, while Commando has a mostly vertical progression, Rocketmen has enemies coming from all sides but seem to rush in clumps. More often than not the only reason you don’t kill them all at the same time is because your laser beam end at a certain distance instead of traversing the whole screen. You use dual analog sticks to control movement and firing but it doesn’t feel solid. With so much going on and enemies coming everywhere it feels like you don’t have a good grasp on where to be laying down fire.

The graphics being 3D also sometimes hinder what would normally be easy. Enemies sometimes get stuck or drop power-up behind something obscuring your view. You end up wasting time shooting and checking behind every rock before moving on in case you missing something. Also sometimes I would go for a power up only to have the screen scroll just enough to not be able to get another power-up off the lower edge of the screen. So it sits there rotating into my character when I finally do get back to it, but since I cannot hit the middle of the power up it just taunts me.

Pros:

• Colorful Graphics
• Character Creation
• End of Level Weapon Upgrades
• 80’s Arcade Action
• 4 Player Co-Op

Cons:

• Bad Voice Acting
• 3D Perspective Hinders View
• Hit Boxes for Power Ups Are Bad
• Enemies Attak in Clumps

Conclusion: While this game oozes out cheesy 80’s arcade action it falls short with the bad voices and weird quirks. Ultimately the bad pulls what should be a must buy for action fans to a download the demo and beware.