Rocket Power: Beach Bandits
Score: 88% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Evolution Games Media: 1/0 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: Rocket Power: Beach Bandits, based on the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocket Power, is an entertaining, if simple, romp. While there's nothing really fancy, the graphics are certainly nothing to sneeze at. They are extremely clean and kept pretty simple. Everything is very clear and the graphics are easy to take in. Everything seems to be designed to help keep the game easy to understand and very playable. The characters all look faithful to the TV show, and the same voices are kept as well. The game is definitely suited for the younger gamer and fans of the show. It's pretty much ditto for the sound effects. Simple but effective seems to be the flavor of the day. There's never too much going on at once, so the sound effects remain effective. The music is that interesting combination of pop and something akin to light grunge rock which remains faithful to the TV show's intent of a cartoon, but a little edgy. I'm not afraid to admit that even I was diggin the tunes here and there.
Gameplay: The gameplay of Beach Bandits plays like a simple platformer with a wide variety of entertaining mini-games spread throughout. You'll be walking in and around Ocean Shores trying to stop the greedy Golem industries, and trying to find out what they've done with the beach. Most of the game consists of walking through areas near the city. You'll destroy monsters with your hockey stick and a wide variety of pucks. Then maybe you'll have to navigate across a river with floating logs, similar to Frogger. Do kids today know what Frogger is anymore? Anyway, spread throughout these activities you'll have to do things like have a skateboarding competition, roller blade across some railings, or even play some carnival games. On top of that, you can even be any of the four Rocket Power characters so kids can play through as their favorite character.
Difficulty: Being based on a Nickelodeon cartoon, it's not a big step to figure out that Beach Bandits is intended for kids, so it's not too hard. Most of the robots don't do anything really intelligent. For the most part, they just wander around shooting really slow stuff, like goop or lasers, at you. The controls for some of the more involved activities, like doing skateboard tricks, can be a little tricky. However, the expectations are never too high so most kids should do just fine. To give some older fans a little more of a challenge, you can collect hard-to-find silver and gold coins throughout the game to unlock hidden extras in the game. When that fails to challenge, the game also offers a multiplayer option to keep the rugrats busy. Heh, get it, Rugrats? ...oh well.
Game Mechanics: As the game is intended for a younger crowd, the mechanics are kept pretty simple. The game also includes a basic tutorial, although it would have been better if it were interactive; it's not really fun to watch the computer play for half an hour. You are asked to save the game progress every time you enter a new area, and you can also save the game whenever you want. My only real gruff with the game is that when you're in the city, it's too hard to change your character and mode of transportation. You have to go to the pause menu and pick it from a list, and then there's actually a bit of load time as it changes one little thing. They had a few buttons they didn't use - why couldn't they have let them change these? At it's heart, Rocket Power: Beach Bandits is a great game meant to entertain the droves of cartoon loving kids. But I think a few older people might also have a little fun with this game, ya never know.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
Shantae MX Superfly