PN Review: Land it Rocket (WiiU)

Land it Rocket is a new puzzle game from the people at Petite Games, also the creators of Toon Tanks, Midnight and Super Destronaut (available in the WiiU eshop). Land it Rocket is a simple game with a simple goal, land the rocket on the designated area without crashing into a wall or being hit by the many things flying around the screen. Seems easy enough right? Well it is, but it doesn’t come without its many frustrations and setbacks.

Adding to the simple-ness of Land it Rocket, its pretty much a one button game. You press A to accelerate in your rocket ship, whichever direction you’re pointing (with the D-pad or joystick) is the way your ship will go. Once again that seems pretty easy but there’s no way to slow down! I found myself tapping A quite a bit so I wouldn’t get too much speed and slam into a wall, but going too slow can sometimes cause you to hit  the obstacles that are lurking in each level. It adds to the difficulty of the game but it caused me to almost throw my controller at times because it can be very tedious.

There’s not much to say about the content of the game. There are 28 levels all together, each getting tougher as you proceed. You can earn up to 3 stars in each level depending on how fast you completed it. Once I thought I had done very well on a specific level only to find out I’d earned just one star. So the time frames and difficulty for hitting them is a bit tough, which gives it some replayability I guess?

The look and feel of Land it Rocket is very much like an app store game you would find on your mobile device. Like the concept and controls, the graphics are also…you guessed it! Very simple. Not that it needs much, but almost all of the levels resemble each other in some way, the enemies and canons that try to murder you are all very similar and the music throughout the game doesn’t seem to change much either.

While it may be a game anyone can pick up and play, I doubt its one you’re going to go back to often. After you earn 3 stars in each level all you have left to do is play endless mode. Endless mode lets you fly around continuously dodging obstacles to see how long you can last. You can play to beat your highscore but that’s about I. I wouldn’t say Land it Rocket is a horrible game, it just needs a little more flare to keep you interested. Its not a bad price at $2.99 but you’d be better off checking out one of their other titles (I recommend Toon Tanks).