RocketCop: Great Addition To The Line Drawing Genre | It’s Free

RocketCop [rating: 3.5/5]

You know the drill, tap the taxi, boat or plane that you want to control, drag your finger across the screen to draw a path to it’s destination and watch as your vehicle travels your predefined route to it’s destination. It’s a tried and tested formula for success on the iPhone/iPod touch and the latest to throw its hat into the crowded ring is RocketCop from Headlight Software, Inc..

In RocketCop you are in control of a plethora of rockets as they come into land on a distant planet. Each planet has a variety of colored bases on them and your task is to land your rockets in the base that matches its color. As previously mentioned this task is simple enough as you drag your finger along the path that you wish your rocket to take.

As you can imagine this starts off relatively easily and you will find your rockets swiftly and successfully making there way to their bases. The drawing of the rocket paths isn’t as smooth as some similar titles and the rocket movement can also be a little jerky at times but nothing that will take away from your enjoyment of the game too much.

rocketcop iphoneAs the levels progress you will have obstacles thrown in your way which adds a nice challenge to the game and increases the difficulty level too. The main obstacle to your rockets successful docking are the asteroids that begin to float across the screen. Your only defense against these large pieces of floating rock however are not just reflexes for your bases are also armed with an unlimited supply of missiles to blow up the asteroids and ufo’s that appear on later levels.

Launching your missiles is just like directing your rockets and a quick swipe of you finger will define the course for your missile. however once the missile has been launched it can’t be re-directed so care must be taken as to not blow up your own rockets. An emergency abort feature is available and a swift shake of your device will see all launched missiles blowup immediately where ever they are. Extra points can also be achieved by rescuing the spaceman that periodically float across the screen. Once again you must be sure that you don’t hit them by mistake with your missiles.

Incidental sound effects are your standard space sounds and these could be improved on and there are no sound effects at all when your missiles hit an asteroid which is not good. The overall graphics are functional rather than breathtaking but then again this genre of game doesn’t thrive on it’s looks, more so it’s game-play and overall feel.

The free game will give you 2 levels to play with and to get all the levels you will need to spend 99c. In essence RocketCop takes the form of providing you with a Lite version and then paying for the full version via the in app purchase of the Cheat Codes that not only gives you extra features such as your rockets not hitting planets or being able to pick up the rouge spacemen from further away but also unlocks all the current and future levels too. All that for just 99c, what a bargain.

Achievements also add value to the game in the form of badges which are awarded for completing certain tasks. These badges and your scores can then be posted to Facebook allowing you to show off your best achievements to your family and friends. This functionality is seamlessly built into the game although the option of a global scoreboard is missing which would have been nice.

On a couple of occasion while the planet was initially drawn the bases were not appearing meaning that your rockets had nowhere to land, however as this was evident immediately from the start of the game it was easily resolved by starting a new game, hopefully this small glitch will be resolved in an future release.

Overall RocketCop is a great addition to the genre and with all of the levels unlocked/purchased will provided many hours of fun. There are a few areas that need updates to smooth them out but with those fixed and the promise of more levels to come RocketCop has the potential to be a solid contender.

Price: Free (iTunes Link)

The Good

  • Asteroids and missiles take genre to another level
  • Excellent Facebook integration
  • Achievements to keep the game interesting

The Not So Good

  • Rocket movement can be a little jerky at times
  • No explosions when missiles hit their target
  • Occasional glitches when starting the game

RocketCop: iPhone Gameplay

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k-3QaX9pSo]

Reviewed by: @CraigWillis

Expedited Review: Request received on December 16 and published on December 17.

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