Game Reviews

Trixel Rocket review - "It shoots for the stars, but this arcade dodger doesn't quite reach them"

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iOS
| Trixel Rocket
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Trixel Rocket review - "It shoots for the stars, but this arcade dodger doesn't quite reach them"
|
iOS
| Trixel Rocket

Some games are hard. Some games are too hard. Trixel Rocket walks the fine line between those two options, but too often it slips and stumbles over into the too hard section of the divide, especially early on.

And that's a shame, because there's some really solid arcade ideas here. It's just unlikely you're going to push through to see them all after you've tossed your phone down in frustrated disgust.

Turning trixels

The game sees you controlling the titular triangle-ish rocket. You need to weave through obstacles, from lasers to comets, gas-spouting volcanoes to hunks of space trash. Hit anything and it's game over.

Your aim is to get as far as you can, and the world changes the further you get. You get little breaks between the challenges where you can collect gems to spend on upgrades and new ships to help you along.

You control the ship by sliding a digit left and right along the bottom of the screen. You've also got a set number of shields at your disposal, which you can trigger by tapping a button. These make you invulnerable for a spell.

Trixel Rocket iOS review screenshot - Flying through a volcano

And that's about it. Using that slim selection of moves, you need to fly through space and try not to get killed. And it's a lot more difficult than it sounds. Which, considering space is a vacuum filled with death, is no mean feat.

The first few tries you're not going to realise the benefits that a shield has to offer. And even when you start utilising it, you're still going to die early on more often than not. There's a lot of dying here.

In fact, you could say there's too much. That's not helped by the slow progression. It takes you what feels like an age to start unlocking new things, and there's a good chance plenty of players are going to give up before they get that far.

Playing trixels

There are some neat ideas here, but that makes the annoyance when you fail even stronger. Especially when it occurs in the first few seconds of a run. The desire to jump back in and keep playing just isn't going to be strong enough.

Trixel Rocket might have a unique style that sets it out from the crowd, but unless you really love grinding away to get better at a simple arcade game, then it's probably going to frustrate more than entertain you.

Trixel Rocket review - "It shoots for the stars, but this arcade dodger doesn't quite reach them"

There are some strong ideas here, but in the end Trixel Rocket is just too frustrating to recommend
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.