Have you ever wondered what would happen if Queen Victoria would have invented a space program. Not destined with the Moon, but with Mars. Only to find out an evil politician is planning to overthrow the crown by cloning the Queen? Well, neither had I, but I enjoyed Rock Boshers DX a lot, so let’s find out why.
For those growing up with consoles like an Atari, or a Commodore 64 (which is not really a console, I know), or even a CD-I .. Rock Boshers DX will feel like a nostalgia trip towards the ’80s – ’90s. Set in the 1800s, with a steampunk setting, you are Queen Victoria of England! You are bored with the Royal duties and sneak away, incognito of course, in search of adventure. You sneak across a rocket destined for Mars, only to discover a coup de grace against your head!
Locked up and afraid, you are forced to work in the darky rocky mines deep underground. This is where the gameplay takes a nice nudge at the old school games. Rock Boshers DX mixes the top-down feel of most arcade games of these era’s, and combines it with side-on action. It made me feel like I was playing an adventure-action version of Space Invaders (which is a good thing).
The story consists of three areas, each containing normal levels (kill enemies, solve puzzles, collect cheese and tea) and boss levels. In the latter, your skill is tested to the limit. The levels really come at a nice learning curve, in which you’ll really have to master the movement of certain enemies to clear the level. To increase this ‘frustration’ even more, the creators added a completion-time in every level, so you can speed run your heart out. And yes, it is perfectly possible to beat set limits (although I couldn’t beat the world records I found online..).
Next, to the normal storyline there is also a bunch of mini-games, which includes a tuned down version of Aqua Kitty. Most of the mini-games are locked behind collecting some stuff in the levels you’ll visit, but one is simply waiting for the game to fully load on the ZX-Style. Anyone who grew up with dial-up internet will know the hardships of this loading screen.
You can choose between two types of graphics – 8-bit console (NES Style) or 8-bit computer (ZX Style). Personally, I liked both. I had a really fun time switching between them, to see if it helped to complete some of the harder levels (and it did, in my humble opinion). So try it! The pixel-ish art is nice and feels solid for the type of game. I don’t think this kind of game work with high-end Red Dead graphics or even the cutest animation style of a Kirby game. The soundtrack for the game is nice and solid, and you should just check out the game for it.
The game is not that long, you can easily finish it within a few hours, once you get the hang of the controls and the movement of the bosses and puzzles. I still had a lot of fun with it, and recommend anyone who liked Aquakitty (same developer) or pixellated games in general, to give it a try!
7/10
Tested on Nintendo Switch
