Rex Rocket Demo

Art never seems to run out of material, since it’s always evolving and adapting to new ideas and cultures. Whether it’s music, movies, theatre or any other kind of art, new approaches are always beneficial and people are usually eager to try out new things as well. Hence, video games are no different in this regard either, because you’d think we’d run out of ideas by now.

Rex Rocket is not exactly a fresh idea in the industry, but it takes an old concept and it improves it in a variety of ways, in order to make it suitable for modern audiences. At its core, the game is nothing more than a mashup between titles like Metroid, Megaman and similar platformers, but the final product is a lot more complicated and fun to play around with than you would believe.

To begin with, there is even a story running its course in the background, although it’s obviously not as complex as what you might have heard in Witcher III or the Mass Effect series. In fact, it’s just the old ‘humans-vs-machines’ plot all over again, featuring a choice between two very similar characters: Rexford or Rexanna ‘Rocket’ Rexington. They both feature similar powers, and the gameplay shouldn’t differ too much from one to the other.

The actual gameplay starts off pretty slowly the first few minutes, but it gradually gets more fast-paced as you keep advancing. While some sections require you to perform precise jumps and acrobatics in order to continue further, others are just packed with traps and enemies that can shoot you dead in a matter of seconds. Hence, you need to employ good reflexes and a bit of imagination at the same time.

To make the retro influences even more obvious, the game features beautiful old-school graphics, complete with pixelated characters and sprites. However, the level design is gorgeous, and it really makes you wish for a SNES controller instead of a keyboard. In fact, getting some of the jumps right on a keyboard is quite frustrating, so you might want to try it with a controller instead.

Although not all retro remakes are worth the bother lately, Rex Rocket is certainly an exception and it can keep you hooked from start to credits, as long as you manage to deal with the inevitable frustration. Not only that, but it looks and sounds like something that could have been released twenty years ago, so it might prove to be a good cure for insomnia as well.