Fun combo of arcade shooters
Despite starring one of the least charismatic and charmless 'heroes' in videogaming history, Rodge Rock is a reasonably entertaining mix of platform shooter that plays out like an unholy mix of Robocop, Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug. While it lacks the style, wit and sheer frenetic fury of these games it remains an undemanding actioner that makes for a brief diversion. As ever with this kind of game, there isn't exactly an overload in terms of narrative development and complex characters and instead the game focuses on one thing and one thing alone: blowing stuff up. As Ridge Rock, your average over-muscled and under-brained thug, you must make your way through a series of side scrolling levels that are occasionally and rather inappropriately bright and cheery, with an abundance of fluffy clouds and lush green fields. Along the way of course, you will find a myriad of enemies such as weird lizard-like bat creatures who must all be terminated with extreme prejudice by the xenophobic Rodge. Helping him out in this task is the obligatory range of weapons and power-ups which add to the fun and which provide some suitably satisfying blasting moments. Rodge Rock is certainly far from being a classic but it is undeniably fun in an undemanding way. The levels are quite varied and are populated some inventive beasties, while the shooting action itself is pretty intense, with said beasties putting up a pretty stiff challenge even for hardened veterans of this kind of thing. The graphics are nice and chunky and overall, if you're looking for an obscure slice of arcade-style action, you could do worse than check this out.
