Rocking Pilot (PC) Review

Rocking Pilot is in most regards a standard twin-stick shooter. Enemies approach from all angles, sometimes firing bullets at the maniac pilot. Countering this endless stream of adversity is easy enough. All the player has to do is move the mouse cursor in their general direction, and hold down the fire button. Movement is handled via the arrow keys or WASD, which takes a little practice. Alternatively, it's possible to use an Xbox 360 gamepad. In either case, colliding with a bullet or an enemy vehicle is instant death.

There are a couple of features that help to make this helicopter unique. First off, its propeller rotors are actual blades. They're made of razor sharp futuranium, and will chop up practically anything that gets close. The copter also has an overdrive function. While the mouse button is held down, the vehicle is invincible. Naturally, this effect doesn't last for long at all. Overuse can lead to situations where the player becomes trapped.

The game is divided into 42 missions. These missions can have various requirements for completion, such as not firing the machineguns or rescuing a certain amount of survivors. They're not particularly difficult, especially for someone familiar with the genre. The serviceable controls and fast-paced action provide a fairly smooth and genuinely compelling bit of entertainment. It doesn't take long to adjust to whatever scenario is presented to the player. Destroyed enemies leave behind orbs, which add to the multiplier bonus, as well as the special weapon gauge. When enough orbs are collected, a power-up appears. These weapons have extremely limited ammo, so they won't last more than a few shots. Therefore, knowing when and where to fire can help in the most critical of situations.

There are also 16 score missions to partake in. The objective here is to get a high score, though its approach is different compared to what gamers are used to. Unlike the average arcade game, which resets the score to 0 whenever the player loses their last life, Rocking Pilot has milestones. Whenever the indicated score is achieved, the pilot will restart from that score. In other words, death only sends someone as far back as their last milestone. Attaining a high score worthy of the top leaderboard spot is more a war of attrition than anything. Skill and knowledge of the game's mechanics tends to take a backseat. It's a very unfortunate design decision.

Progressing through the game will lead to numerous in-game rewards, such as special weapon upgrades and new helicopter designs. It's a nice little addition, but it's not as involved as in similar games. To put it another way, it's impossible to come up with specialized or creative builds, ones catered to specific playstyles. All of the upgrades are universal, and won't make a dramatic difference in the midst of a mission. Still, it is rather amusing to unlock things, even if their usefulness is questionable.

The level and enemy designs are pretty varied. Sometimes the pilot will have to avoid trucks armed with nuclear warheads while rescuing survivors, use the helicopter's rotors to push poisonous gas away, or engage in a boss fight. These encounters help to keep the game fresh, for the couple of hours it takes to complete it. Unfortunately, the lack of replay value - due in part to the poor score missions - guarantees that this shooter won't stick around in one's library for long. There's also an overabundance of screen shake whenever anything occurs on-screen. It's an obnoxious feature that can't be disabled.