Platform: Xbox Indie Games (Xbox 360)
Price: 240 MSP / $3 USD


Halfbrick Rocket Racing taught me two important things, brick is better than gold and that 2D racing is still alive.

Gameplay:
The game offers one single player mode named "Time Trial Mode" and two multiplayer modes, "Head to Head" where players race against each other (locally, not online) and "Hot Potato" being the other which allows you to play with up to 3 additional players with only one controller by taking turns to see who can get the best time.

As the name states, Time Trial Mode is pretty much about getting the best time in order to earn medals which are required to unlock the remaining stages. In order to unlock every stage you'll need to earn 115 medals and the maximum amount of medals that you can earn per stage is 4 (bronze, silver, gold, and brick). In case you haven't figured it out, the brick medal is the best one in Halfbrick Rocket Racing and as such is the hardest one to earn however, when it comes to the required amount of medals each one counts as just one medal so you can get away with earning the easier ones for a while. Eventually, it will be necessary to earn some of the harder ones though and this is where the game will get more challenging (as well as possibly frustrating) since you might have to retry a particular stage several times until you manage to unlock that shiny gold or brick medal.

Just like in most racing games, speed is an important factor and in order to get the fastest time you'll need to use that rocket boost to your advantage by grinding off the wall in order to pick up speed. You need to be careful when doing this as you might accidentally crash against the wall instead causing you to slow down and increase your time by a second (this is not good as you're striving to get the fastest time) when this occurs which means that you'll have less of a chance of getting that record time or winning the race if you're up against a human opponent. Speaking of controlling your vehicle, there are 3 control schemes and out of the 3, I recommend the stick one as I found it much easier than the other two although while playing around with reverse I managed to boost more easily but at the same time, I also lost control more frequently and thus it was more frustrating than beneficial so I stuck with stick. You can easily change the control scheme at any time so don't worry too much about choosing the "right" one the first time.

As for obstacles and power-ups, there are some things that come quite close to be considered that at least from what I encountered in the 29/40 stages that I unlocked. For example, there's this trippy looking purple/blue surface that will slow you down and not allow you to boost while you pass through it so that can be considered an obstacle. There is also a green surface that serves as a power-up as it increases your speed a bit when you go over and I highly recommend you rocket boost off the wall when you approach it to gain even more speed.

If you're wondering about how the level design is, most levels significantly varied from the previous ones and some of them had some rather cool designs while others were pretty simple. Also, there were different types of levels, in some you just had to reach the checkpoint while in others you had to do a certain number of laps while in another you had to run through mini-checkpoints on the way to the main checkpoint. The ideal medal times for each varied but just to give you an idea, some were as short as 4.377 seconds for a brick medal (which is not easy to earn) while others required 47.481 seconds for only a silver medal. Don't let these short times mislead you though as it's not easy earning these medals and a simple 5 second stage could end up taking you several minutes or even hours to fully earn every medal in it "correctly" or in other words, within the proper time limit. I will note that it's NOT required to earn every medal in each stage but like I stated earlier on, in order to unlock some of the later stages you'll have to earn more than just one on each and possibly several brick medals.

Graphics & Audio:
The 2D graphics aren't particularly stunning but they are crisp. I would have liked the vehicle's graphic to have been a bit better though however, the one it currently has gets the job done and at a 240 MSP price tag, you can't get too picky. As far as the music goes, there are some nice tracks that will get you pumped but if they aren't up to par with your tastes then just load your own tracks as the game supports it. In regards to the sound effects, they were quite effective and that's all there is to say.

Replay value:
Unless you manage to get every single brick medal you'll probably have some work to do even after unlocking every stage and considering that there's online leaderboards, you might still have some #1 spots to claim.

If you're struggling to unlock the remaining stages, you could always just call it a day and race against your friends via one of the two multiplayer modes. That's probably the best feature of the game as it provides unlimited replay value assuming you have others to race with and unfortunately, it's offline only so you won't be able to race against your friends via Xbox Live. You will however, be able to compare scores though so you're not totally isolated from the Interwebs.

Another form of replay value would be to try playing the game with one of the other two control schemes that you did not choose and see how well you do as the difficulty does tend to change unless you've mastered all of them.

Overall:
For 240 MSP, you get a fun racing game that doesn't have all the useless crap you usually find in most racing games nowadays. Licensed cars and realistic driving is overrated, 2D racing is where the fun's at. There were some things that I didn't like though, for one, it would have been nice to select your vehicle's color rather than being forced to play as red if you were player one which was in a way sort of essential as most racing games do let you select your vehicle or at least the color of it if there's only one to choose from which gives the game a more personalized approach. Another thing that I briefly mentioned before was that the vehicle's appearance could have been a bit better, the current look made it seem more like a butterfly than a rocket powered speed machine but alas, it wasn't a big deal as after a while I hardly noticed as I was having too much fun to care. In closing, even if you're typically not a fan of racing games (such as myself) Halfbrick Rocket Racing is worth your time checking out, just don't expect Gran Turismo gameplay...

Some pros/cons and then the score:

Pros:
+Great price considering the possible replay value
+Budget multiplayer (only one controller needed for "Hot Potato")
+Online leaderboards
+2D racing revival
+Simple yet challenging

Cons:
-Earning gold/brick medals can be rather frustrating at times
-No vehicle selection (more than 4 colors would have been nice as well)
-No online play (would have made it a lot better but also would have probably increased the price so at 240 MSP it was not expected)

I'm giving it a 8.5/10, which is very good considering I'm not typically a fan of racing games and that the game actually motivated me to take up the challenge of getting some of those taunting brick medals. As stated before, I did not complete the game 100%. I managed to get 71/115 medals and unlocked 29/40 stages. If you constantly have friends over and manage to get them hooked, the game will probably be a lot more appealing but at the same time if you don't meet that scenario and plan to play solo only, make sure you'll be able to handle the medal earning system or else you might be disappointed if you don't get too far. Just play the trial though as it'll give you a good idea of what to expect.

This game was obtained from the developer rather than purchased, for review purposes.

I can't get a hang of the controls....and I tried all three control options. But, I'm not good at racing games normally anyway.

I'm not good at this genre either but managed to get a decent grasp of the stick option after "getting into it".

The boost was probably the hardest thing to adjust to as it's so easy to lose control IMO. I've missed record time countless times due to it but once you get the hang of it, the fun reaps in.