Rocket Fox Review

Usually when you would think of games staring a fox with multiple tails, a certain Sega owned hedgehog is in tow.  This time, however, Bandai Namco has pulled a bit of a bait and switch with their new freemium game, Rocket Fox.  Is it worth spending the time on, or will it simply flame out on re-entry?

Probably the best way to describe a game like this would be to call it a top-down puzzle platformer.  Players are snuck into the pelt of a rocket propelled mammal by the name of Guy Fox, (seriously, we are not kidding) with the goal of clearing out all of the flowering foliage in each stage.  See, each flower actually contains a rocket inside of it, that when landed directly on top of, sends the poor fox jettisoning back into the atmosphere.  That seems logical, right?

For some reason, Guy is instructed to get rid of all of the different plants in the stage by using the iPad tilt controls to guide the helpless little critter onto his next potential launching pad.  There are many different types of plants, rockets and even power ups, that will help players along their path to plant extermination.  The problem is that the environments do not provide very much in the way of variety, at least over the free portion of the game.

Though the core gameplay mechanics are fun enough to keep players occupied temporarily, there is one component that may not have been as well considered: tilt controls.  In order to play the game effectively the iPad must be sitting in a flat position in one's lap, while looking down and tilting accordingly to control Guy's descent.  It won't take long before this can actually start to form a strain the neck, making extended sessions extremely uncomfortable.

Another mark that doesn't exactly work in Rocket Fox's favor is the relatively short amount of gameplay that is available for free.  It won't take more than twenty minutes to complete the meager tutorial, and suddenly Namco is asking for players to shell out $1.99 in order to play the rest of the game.  While they are certainly not the first party to every attempt such things, there probably isn't enough meat to the demo to justify forking out the money.

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