It's a fact! Game reviewers love to define games that are difficult to categorize in terms of two or more other, familiar games. So with that in mind, I ask: What is Rock 'n' Risk? It's Mario combined with Simon...no wait. It's Sonic the Hedgehog meets Guitar Hero...no that's not it either. MegaMan and Breakout? Fancy Pants and Sveerz?
Let's try this: in Rock 'n' Risk, you control your stick-figure avatar to jump on upwardly moving colored platforms. A sort of JumboTron in the background tells you which color to jump on next, and you earn more points if you can complete longer sequences without error, before jumping off to the side to claim your jackpot. So Simon meets platformer is not a bad way of thinking about it, though there is quite a bit more to it.
A rather lengthy and detailed tutorial will instruct you on the particulars. You control your stick figure guy entirely with the mouse. His motions follow your mouse-based motions, and he will jump with a click. He'll also bounce off of any platforms you stomp on. You can double-click to move to a location with rocket-like speed, or hold the mouse to deploy your parachute, slowing your motion to a gentle hover. These maneuvers take up energy, so be conservative with the fancy moves.
The idea, as mentioned, is to earn points by correctly stomping on the colors indicated in long, accurate, unbroken chains, all within a certain time limit. Before each stage, you can add challenges, like more colors, or a faster time limit, that give you more "career points" to let you access further stages.
Energy is the operative word for Rock 'n' Risk. The whole thing is built like an action game show, with cheering crowds and an upbeat, "dude" commentator praising your every excellent move. A cool soundtrack and zippy stick-figure design and animation help to keep the energy up. All this supports the lively heart of the game. At it's best, the gameplay gets you into a Guitar-Hero-like zen-state. Once you adjust to the mouse-only controls, hopping from one appropriately colored platform to the next becomes an act of serenity and grace, and you feel like you're dancing.
So call it Super-Color-Breakout-Simon-Hero-Brothers, or whatever you like. Rock 'n' Risk is an energetic, animated experience that, in the end, is purely its own animal.
Hrm... crashed my browser both times I tried it; seems to happen as soon as the pre-loader gets near to completion. FF 3.6.3, fwiw.
This is a great idea and seems like it could be fun, but it needs an option for keyboard control. It's just frustrating to play on a laptop.
I also feel like the platforms rise a little too quickly, or that the guy bounces too high, or something--I was constantly being pushed up above the top of the screen.
I don't understand how to unlock more levels. The numbers beneath the level number stay the same no matter what I do.
Nevermind. Now I get it.
I have two alternative names for this game:
Tower of Greed: The Musical
OR
A Completionists Nightmare.
It is a fun little gem, although to me it gets a bit repetitive after a while... The new colours add to the difficulty a little, but it still feels like you're doing the same thing over and over again. The least they could have done is given a new soundtrack or background every few levels, or maybe different "challenges" to add at the beginning of each level. Granted, I did not play past level 10, maybe it changes up slightly after that?
Good for a time waster for a few minutes, but not anything more than that for me. Could have been a bit more difficult too.
I can't get it to load.
Interesting idea, but overall it plays more like a concept piece than an actual game. Different modes could help explore the simon/guitar hero aspect, improved sound effects would add more of a rhythm feel, and there needs to be a better way to show the color pattern. Without any outlines, same color strings are a guessing game (is that 3 or 4 blues in a row). Finally keyboard controls really are a must. Standard platforming "run and jump" would be much more comfortable than the "always bounce".
This is excellent fun! Surprised it's got such a low score...
At first I thought falling to the bottom would result in an instant loss, and I had a hard time at the beginning. After I found that landing at the bottom bounces you back into the air, I started having a lot of fun with this game.
Great soundtrack and voice work.
Good concept.. but can someone please explain to me the score system? Throughout the game, I only found out where to check how much money i'm making, but that's apparently not the same as my score...
You mean the "Credit Points" or "Career Points". You can add risks at the beginning of each level and you will see how that will affect your CP, if you manage to complete the level.
Btw. thanks at all for the feedbacks and thanks at the JIG crew for the review
Update