Rock'n'Roll [1989, Commodore Amiga] Review - It's a Pixel THING

Developed and released in 1989 by Rainbow Arts, Rock’n’Roll was available for a bunch of systems, like the ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, PC and Atari ST.

You’re looking at the Amiga version which, besides the fabulous gameplay, 

features music composed by the great Chris Hülsbeck.

In this action arcade puzzle game, there are 32 huge levels (plus 1 secret bonus level) divided across 7 continents where we control a ball with the mouse and the objective is to reach the exit in each one of them. But this apparently simple task can be, sometimes, really hard and stressful. Thankfully, the superb soundtrack keeps us tapping our foot on the floor making every level an awesome and extremely joyful adventure.

There’s numerous objects scattered throughout each level that help or hinder our path to the exit. These take the form of ventilators, which blow the ball away, magnets, which attract the ball, arrows, which roll the ball in a specific direction, etc. Many objects can also drain your energy. If you lose too much energy, your balls.. sorry, your ball will collapse.

You must avoid some occasional gaps on the surface that shows a nice parallax scrolling effect with the background. If you roll into one of these gaps, you will be dead, unless you happen to possess a little parachute. Prepare yourself to open it up before you hit the bottom and your ball will live to roll once again!

Besides the useful parachutes, there are other essential items for you to pick up, that will help you finish the level, like keys to open doors, armor for your ball, spikes to help you on ice, repair kits to fix gaps on the floor and bombs to blow up obtrusive barriers and uncover previously hidden sections of the walkway. But before you can collect any of the useful items, you must have some money to pay for them. Coins are left lying around on each level and, if you search carefully, you’ll also find valuable colored diamonds.

The ball rolls around very realistically and the programmers have got the inertia effect just right. The way the ball slips and slides over patches of ice and the way the view pans as the ball travels through pipes, are nice and extremely well done.

Rock’n’Roll is one of the most brilliantly addictive games I’ve ever come across!

Backed up by impressive graphics and a great soundtrack, Rock’n’Roll is a must for everyone who enjoys arcade puzzle games.


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