Rocket Riot is an XBLA game that barely caught my eye in the Marketplace.  With the likes of E3, Ghostbusters, Conduit and Red Faction haunting the hallowed days of June, a game like Rocket Riot has all kinds of potential to slip into the folds of the LIVE store unnoticed.  But this game is a gem that shouldn't be ignored.  No, it's not blow-your-mind-game-of-the-year crazy or anything; it's just a good time.

If I had to sum up the experience in one phrase, I'd guess I'd say that this one's a 2d shooter based on Geometry Wars mechanics in a goofy, unique, multiplayer world.  There's a storyline, individual levels with slightly varied objectives, obnoxious boss battles and online multiplayer.  Rocket Riot is a robust package with a ton of content.  We're talking 80 levels over campaign, 100 levels in total, unending multiplayer and a massive slew of unlockables.  Oh, and the soundtrack is hilariously fitting as well.

The gameplay itself is addictive as all hell.  Movement is controlled with the left analog stick while aiming and firing is done with the right stick.  You'll fire, wait for it, rockets by pushing the stick in the direction of your target, each shot travels on an arced path that changes based on the time you spend charging up the shot.  Release the right stick and rain pixelly fury upon your enemies.

You'll find a ton of pick-ups throughout the level that will either affect you negatively or positively.  Some are merely thrown in to change the look of the game; like making explosions rainbow colored, or turning your rockets into gym balls.  But the gameplay changing pick-ups are fantastic.  You'll find giant bombs, homing missiles, rapid fire rockets, etc.  It took me about an hour of play before I saw all of the pick-ups individually, and I was constantly grabbing them as they dropped.

The storyline won't be what keeps you strapped to your seats, so please do yourself a favor in come into this one without high hopes for plot progression.  The story is simple a means to an end, it serves its purpose in giving reason to changing the look of enemies and their environments through the campaign mode.  You'll be fighting folks like pirates, zombies and factory workers to name a few.  Kill them, unlock them, and then customize them to use as your main character in battle.

What's going to blow you away in this one, though, is the look of the game itself.  The developers took the 8-bit art style we're all familiar with and threw it onto a semi-3d plane.  The environments are colorful, bright and full destructible.  That's probably my favorite, and the most addicting, part of Rocket Riot.  Every time a rocket hits an object in the environment it bursts itself and the object it hit into a blast of pixels that spray out over the screen.  This glorious pixel-death is exactly what had me wearing a healthy butt mold in my couch as I sat down to play "only five minutes" of Rocket Riot.  Yeah, that five minute session turned into two hours way too fast.

I will say that the 800 Point price tag feels a little heavy for this.  Sure, there's a ton of content, but I'm still hoping the days of 400 Point shooters will return for XBLA.  It doesn't look like it's going to happen, so this point registers as a minor complaint.  I'm simply poor and cranky.

I also had a tough time connecting to anyone in multiplayer.  I don't normally feel these effects, so I'm assuming it's something either server side or based on the fact that this one might run peer-2-peer.  It was a good 15 minutes between games for a while for me.  But my findings may be unique.

With that said, Rocket Riot is a diamond amongst the games in the LIVE Marketplace.  If you've been looking at summer as a drought for solid gaming, pick this simple and addictive title up quickly... you won't regret it.

Crave Online Rating: 8.0 out of 10