Rocket Riot blasts its way back into the Windows Store

If you are in search for a fast-paced shooter, Rocket Riot is a solid Windows 10 game to consider. Available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile, the game returns to the Store as an Xbox Live game. The game has elements of a scavenger hunt, combat game and racing game.

You pilot your character around 200 pixelated worlds, battling bosses and tackling missions. There are over 300 characters to unlock that range from Zombies to Robots to Pirates and plenty of power-ups to discover. Rocket Riot includes two game modes, Single and Multiplayer, and supports touchscreens, mouse/keyboard controls or USB Xbox Controllers.

The pixelated artwork is full of detail and color and gameplay nicely challenges your coordination to pilot a jetpack while blasting away at just about everything in sight. Rocket Riot is currently priced at $3.99 and is a fun game to spend a little down time with.

The primary menu for Rocket Riot offers the customary options such as jumping into gameplay, accessing the settings, logging into your Xbox Live account, tapping into the help menu and viewing the achievements/leaderboard. There is also the option to choose your character.

You begin gameplay with a single pirate-styled character available and as you progress through the battles, over 300 characters can be unlocked. These characters range from robots to zombies to lumberjacks to farm animals. There's even a flying taco and a banana man.

Single player games span a series of pixelated worlds, from pirate ships to deep space. These games involve a series of individual challenges where you face off against bosses or complete missions. The online multiplayer mode has you facing off against other Rocket Riot gamers to complete a series of challenges (destroy everyone, destroy specific objects, survive enemy onslaughts, etc.).

The single player game does begin with a brief tutorial that covers the mechanics of gameplay. For touchscreens, the left side of the screen controls your character's rocket and the right side of the screen controls your weapon. For keyboard/mouse controls, the WASP or arrow keys control your movement and the mouse controls your weapon.

The touchscreens can be a little challenging at first — you have to swipe the screen to ignite your rocket pack and then swipe around to steer your character's flight. Weapons control is a lot easier; you tap/hold the right side of the screen to aim and when you release your hold, the weapon fires.

In a nutshell, you fly around the various worlds and blast everything in sight. The pixelated structures can be blasted to open new pathways to travel and there are plenty of enemy characters to blast as well. Many of the structures regenerate, but with some levels, you are required to destroy key items.

The boss battles are especially challenging. Not only do you need to contend with the boss, but also their evil minions. Not every level is a free for all and a good strategy is needed for success. For example, hiding behind objects to ambush your opponents is a viable option that can keep you alive.

Along with the hundreds of levels and characters to discover, Rocket Riot also includes a boatload of power-ups. These power-ups appear randomly throughout a game and can give your blaster more explosive power. Just be careful, though, some of these power-ups are useless and power-down your abilities. For example, one power-down replaces your explosive rounds with a pop-out flag that reads "bang".

Overall, Rocket Riot is a fun, fast-paced, addictive, eye-appealing Windows 10 game. The touchscreen controls may take a few seconds to get the hang of, but work out nicely. The variety of characters available is vast and allows you to find the perfect match for your personality and likes.

The pixelated graphics simply look good and adds a nice visual effect when things explode. While Rocket Riot plays out nicely from the small screen of a Windows Phone, a Windows 10 tablet pulls out detail slightly better.

The game itself offers a nice level of difficulty, but nothing impossible. I personally liked the challenge of finding a football and scoring a field goal, all the while battling a host of characters.

Rocket Riot is available for Windows 10 PC and Mobile and is regularly priced at $3.99. The price is temporarily reduced to $3.49 as a re-release special. Also, as an added bonus, for a limited time, you can unlock all the characters free. Rocket Riot is a solid Windows 10 game, well worth the price of admission.

Download Rocket Riot from the Windows Store