{"id":65805,"date":"2018-11-30T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/rock_boshers_dx_directors_cut"},"modified":"2018-11-30T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T10:00:00","slug":"review-rock-boshers-dx-directors-cut-englands-dreaming-with-this-old-school-blaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/30\/review-rock-boshers-dx-directors-cut-englands-dreaming-with-this-old-school-blaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Rock Boshers DX: Director&#8217;s Cut &#8211; England&#8217;s Dreaming With This Old-School Blaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/rock_boshers_dx_directors_cut\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/rock_boshers_dx_directors_cut\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"\">\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93815\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93815\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Steampunk wasn\u2019t really a &#8216;thing&#8217; back in the heydey of 8-bit video game development, but if it had been, there\u2019s a good chance something like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/rock_boshers_dx_directors_cut\"><strong>Rock Boshers DX: Director\u2019s Cut<\/strong><\/a> would have appeared in glorious cassette or cartridge form. With its Victorian dandies on a space-age adventure for gold and glory, developer Tikipod has given us the kind of silly period sci-fi that would have had H.G. Wells jumping into his time machine posthaste.<\/p>\n<p>Coming from the same studio that gave us <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/aqua_kitty_udx\"><strong>Aqua Kitty UDX<\/strong><\/a> (look out for plenty of Easter Eggs for said underwater feline scattered across the game), this unusual indie started out as a PlayStation Mobile exclusive before being given the \u2018Director\u2019s Cut\u2019 treatment on PC and consoles almost four years ago. It\u2019s even had an outing on PS Vita, so its debut on the semi-handheld Nintendo Switch certainly seems fitting. And while it&#8217;s yet another port of a game that\u2019s long been lauded elsewhere, its mixture of retro aesthetics, feet-tapping chiptunes and twin-stick shooting shouldn\u2019t be so swiftly dismissed.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93921\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93921\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>After all, this is a game that places you in the shoes of a young Queen Victoria, who decides the recent advent of rocket engineering and a plan to colonise Mars shouldn\u2019t exclude members of the Royal Family. So Queen Vic dons a disguise (including goggles and a top hat, as befits a punk of steam) and rides a bullet-shaped rocket directly to the red planet. Of course, all is not as it seems and our crownless monarch finds herself unceremoniously thrown into a labour camp. She soon escapes, grabs a gun and starts unleashing some royal justice.<\/p>\n<p>So yes, it\u2019s ridiculous. <em>Utterly<\/em> ridiculous. But that\u2019s what makes Rock Boshers DX so enjoyable as a result. The developer has perfectly recreated the look and sound of a proper ZX Spectrum game \u2013 right down to the roughness of the audio to the cassette tape-esque loading screen \u2013 making it an ideal fit for the eShop\u2019s pro-retro track record. But while it has all the hallmarks of an \u201880s top-down adventure, there\u2019s still very much a modern twist to be had.<\/p>\n<p>Victoria can move and shoot in any direction, with an unlimited supply of shots with her pistol and limited ammunition for a variety of other guns she\u2019ll pick up along the way \u2013 ranging from machine guns to rocket launchers and beyond. This is a twin-stick shooter after all, and with movement mapped to the left stick and your firepower to the right, it takes seconds to get a feel for Tikipod\u2019s steampunk adventure.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93816\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93816\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>The further you push into the story and its many single-screen maps, you\u2019ll find the same basic premise \u2013 locate various colour-coded keys that systematically remove any blocks of the same pigment anywhere on the map \u2013 then reach the elevator to rise further through Mars\u2019 crust. Of course, it\u2019s never that simple and you\u2019ll encounter myriad foes along the way, each with their own threat and tactics. You\u2019ll need to dodge the fire of red guards and spray and pray when mowing down waves of respawning yellow zombies, for instance.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>real<\/em> fun is learning how best to take each one down, especially more than one kind are spawning at once. Orange larvae will slither towards erratically but can be briefly knocked away with a well-placed shot, while pink centipedes can\u2019t be killed and will follow you wherever you go. You\u2019ll need to lead them through a complicated path if you want to grab a key from a chamber or dead-end and avoid&#8230; well, a <em>dead end<\/em>. It can get really tricky the further you progress through its many levels and areas, but with a wealth of hearts to collect (each hit removes a heart) there\u2019s always an ideal route through each map.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93817\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/93817\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" \/><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>A lot of work has gone into recreating that retro feel, from the choice of playing in 8-bit computer or an 8-bit console (with the former adding in that tape-loading intro and a more basic set of colours and details) all the way down to the brilliant chiptune soundtrack Electric Caf\u00e9 has served up. The soundtrack is a selling point all by itself, and will have classic VGM enthusiasts nodding with approval. Sprinkle in zombies, moustache-twirling villains and in-game arcade cabinets and you\u2019ve got one bizarre little curio that deserved to shake off the death sentence release that was its PlayStation Mobile exclusivity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>At this stage, Nintendo Switch has plenty of retro-inspired titles to its name \u2013 the eShop is practically brimming with them \u2013 but despite such considerable company, Rock Boshers DX: Director\u2019s Cut saunters in with gameplay that confidently straddles the old gaming world and the new. Fans of the ZX Spectrum days will lap up Tikipod\u2019s faithful recreation of the 8-bit era, and with a ton of levels and modes to unlock there\u2019s plenty of replay value to be had with Queen Victoria and her Martian odyssey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steampunk wasn\u2019t really a &#8216;thing&#8217; back in the heydey of 8-bit video game development, but if it had been, there\u2019s a good chance something like Rock Boshers DX: Director\u2019s Cut would have appeared in glorious cassette or cartridge form. With its Victorian dandies on a space-age adventure for gold and glory, developer Tikipod has given [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}