Rocket: Robot on Wheels Game Sample - N64
0"Rocket: Robot on Wheels" is an excellent first game from the now-accomplished group "Sucker Punch Productions" who would later work on the "Sly Cooper" and "inFamous" series, and it is often included in personal lists as one of the top 50 N64 games of all time. Developed in 1999 and published by Ubisoft, the game revolves around the titular Rocket, a robotic assistant who aids Dr. Gavin (a "literally shady" nice guy who looks like Professor Utonium) in running Whoopie World, the happiest amusement park in the galaxy. As soon as the doctor leaves, Jojo, the "second" star of Whoopie World behind Whoopie himself , reveals his jealous intentions to get rid of Whoopie and be the #1 star. He knocks Rocket unconscious, steals all the amusement goods, and flees to the park where Rocket must retrieve everything.
While visually competent and aurally upbeat, the main draw here is the gameplay, which appears like your average collect-a-thon N64 platformer on the surface but is dissected into a variety of short-burst objectives, mini-games and unique physics puzzles. Speaking of physics, Rocket is one of the first 3D home console games to implement a realistic physics engine and it is showcased in the game to great effect as objects adhere to gravity and characters and enemies don't necessarily move on a dime. It takes some getting used to, but it ultimately adds to the immersion once grasped and helps distance itself from many other games in this genre. The game seldom feels too redundant and makes playing the game from start to finish rather satisfying.
This is a video of the game in action captured on original hardware through the "XRGB-mini Framemeister Compact UpScaler". Note that all sorts of tests will be done with the XRGB-mini as its results vary from system to system and game to game (beats the pants off the old quality though). Enjoy.