|
 |
Welcome to PocketMatrix.com, a Mobile Devices enthusiast website. If you're a developer, be sure to check out our developer forums.
You can change your sidebar preferences in your Profile. |
| Rocket Elite by Luciano U. Werner |
| |
 |
| |
| Introduction |
| Douglas Beck must be very proud of his game, Rocket Elite (RE). It is an original and addictive game. You play the roll of a pilot of a pod fighter ship. These little space crafts land and take-off vertically on planets and moons, a la Apollo modules. If that was the only challenge to the game, RE would be very boring. What makes it so addictive are the additional objectives you have to accomplish. |
| |
| Installation |
| Installation is easy, just use the executable file that you downloaded. The game can be installed in main memory or on a Compact Flash card, and afterwards you can move it to the directory of your liking. The 2.01 version occupies about 5.3MB of memory and the full retail downloadable file is 4.9MB. |
| |
| Graphics and Sound |
| I really liked RE’s graphics. On my 3670 iPAQ objects are sharp and easy to see, but in broad day light things get a little fuzzy (well, that’s Compaq’s fault and not Douglas Beck’s). The pod is a silver delta V ship about 4 mm high, and is easily seen in the games backgrounds. The power-ups are all well made and totally different from one another. The upgrades could be better, since they are just little colored balls with a little frame around. There’s no music, and to my taste it’s fine this way. I just don’t see the need of some techno beat in this kind of game. The sound effects aren’t very profuse, with basically one or two explosion sounds and distinctive sounds for each type of weapon. For the rhythm of the game they are fine. For those who have the previous version (1.142) and upgrade their iPAQs to the new 1.87 ROM, you will hear a popping sound on the beginning of missions and on the menu screen. The new 2.01 version resolves that problem. |
 |
|
| |
| Controls |
 |
Using the stylus you control the flight of the ship by little rocket bursts that propel the ship in the opposite direction. Since all scenarios are played in places with at least some gravitational force, you control your motion by firing your rockets. The farther away (above) the ship you tap the screen; the stronger the burst will be. With short little bursts you’re able to hover in mid-air, and by touching the screen a little to the left or right of the ship, you’ll be able to change direction. It’s very easy to do and in order to increase the challenge, every planet or asteroid you visit has a different gravitational force. That means that on the Moon, for instance, you will have to make very soft jet bursts to hover, while on Jupiter, with its extreme gravity, you’ll be using every pound of thrust your engines can muster. The fuel is limited, so if you use too much and empty your tank, you’ll plunge to your death. But the problem is not only fuel management. The places you visit consist of caves and crevices, where you have to land and fit the ship threw openings in the wall. Sometimes the ceiling is so low that the ship only fits horizontally, so you will have a lot of trouble maneuvering in these tight spots. With a shield on it’s easy, but you will not always have that kind of power-up at hand. Sometimes you can blast open a bigger entrance with missiles and bombs, but usually not. |
|
| On the iPAQ, the outer-left and outer-right buttons fire weapon and activates power-ups, respectively. The inner-left and inner-right buttons control the tractor beam. The left and right gamepad buttons change the power-up on the item list, so you can scroll through all the stuff you have collected so far. The upper gamepad button shows all the upgrades you collected and the lower button will pause the game. You can take snap-shots (.bmp) of the game by pressing the middle of the gamepad (they are saved in the My Documents folder). And, finally, the recording button exits the game. |
| |
| Missions |
| The game consists of about 21 missions. On these missions your objectives are as diverse as destroying enemy ships, rescuing lost pilots, recovering defective droids, and more. To accomplish these tasks, throughout the planets and moons you explore, you’ll find weapons, power-ups and upgrades to help you out. The upgrades for the ship are fuel, shields, weapons, beams and defense. The power-ups are many, from extra fuel to bombs and missiles. Depending on the mission, it’s fundamental to have a certain power-up or you won’t be able to complete it. For instance, in some missions, if you don’t have a shield and missiles, you won’t be able to destroy the enemy required to win that scenario. The missions that I found most interesting were the ones where you have to recover other ships, minerals or droids. On these, you have to go down and around caves to find what you were looking for, and then pull it up to the surface using your tractor beam. When rescuing ships, you could even attempt to bring more then one at a time, but as the mass of your cargo increases, your pod is attracted to the ships too, so you can crash. Maybe the most original of them, was the one where you have to find some droids that went amok in a mine. You just have to pull them up to the surface, but the problem is that if you bring them into contact with the pod, they enter your ship and make it crash immediately.
|
 |
|
| There are some funny bonus missions where you have to abduct monkeys or cows from Earth for points in a limited time frame. On other bonus missions, you just have to make the most landings in a set time. Overall the missions are fun and manageable, at least on the easy setting. On medium and hard, you have less power-ups, and usually stronger gravity and more enemies to deal with. Of course, you will score more points too. |
| |
| Scoring |
| The best way to score points is by making good landings, and that’s while you are dodging enemies or picking up data disks or bringing other ships to the surface. You can only land on flat surfaces wide enough to accommodate the base of your pod. The closer to the center of that landing spot you manage to land, more points you will earn. You will make more points on narrow spots than you will on large ones. Of course you can’t just drop the ship down, unless you like to see your own debris afterwards. You have to aim for the center, but always lay it down gently. There is a technique called a three point landing, where you lay the pod down on its side. If you do that in the middle of the landing area you will receive bonus points. Once you touch down, that landing spot may be used again but will not produce any more points. You will have to find new landing sites if you want to score more. Every enemy you kill also gives you points, as does picking up power-ups. After each mission you receive a score and an Internet code. If you wish, you can then post your scores at RE’s web page, and compete for medals and awards. On the score page, all the scores are divided into easy, medium and hard categories, and for missions and campaigns they are from. Once you send the code, the web page will automatically tally up your points on the missions you have already completed and add them to your overall score. It’s a nice feature to keep gamers always trying to better themselves on a particular mission or on the whole campaign. |
| |
| Support |
| If you have any trouble, go to the Rocket Elite website. Once, I lost my hard-drive and with it went all my purchase information and my hard copy of RE. I just sent an e-mail to their support service and in two days I was able to download another copy. The previous version (1.142) had a sound compatibility issue with the new iPAQ 1.87 ROM. After I installed the RE 2.01 version, the sound was perfect again. A very nice feature is the add-on missions, made by players on the web. On the RE page there is a Download Section where you can get new missions and campaigns. There’s also a tutorial on how to make your own missions and scenarios. Maybe one of the best add-ons offered at writing time was the Star Trek conversion mod, where you can play RE missions using Star Trek ships and a brand new plot. When you buy the PPC version, if you wish you can also download a PC version of the game. Unhappily, on my system (P3 450MHz) it ran absurdly slow, even in window mode. From what I was able to see in the short fives minutes I played, it has the same feel as the PPC version, but you use your mouse as the stylus. |
| |
| So, What Could Be Better? |
The only feature I miss is a save option. Every time you accomplish a mission, your progress is recorded and the next time you play you are able to start at that new mission. The problem is that all the power-ups you gathered are lost, though you keep the upgrades. For example, if you had five shield units that you did not use the last time, you will start this gaming session with none. Sometimes you have to go back one or two missions just to get an extra power-up that you need for the current mission. It also would be nice to be able to swap between other applications when playing. To do this now, you will have to quit the game and then go to the desired program.
|
| |
| Conclusion |
| Rocket Elite is a very well made game, with attention to details. It has a very good replay value and that’s not even considering the custom made missions and campaigns. It’s my opinion that it is one of the five best PPC games ever published, and it deserves the rating of 5/5. So, are you Rocket Elite enough? |
| |
| |
| 10 out of 10 |
| Pros |
Cons |
- Addictive Game Play
- 3rd Part Add-Ons
- Simple Interface
- Just a GREAT game
|
- No save feature
- Can't switch to other apps
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
