Aevers' Rockin' Kats Review
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Rockin' Kats
While we all know Atlus for their Shin Megami Tensei games (particularly Persona 3 and 4), they did make a bunch of other games. Rockin Kats is one of them, and while people like to act like it's this underrated classic... I actually thought it was pretty mediocre. It's got a gimmick that had the potential to make things interesting, but in combination with its pedestrian bosses and level design, the gimmick is more annoying than it is fun.
Even the story is pedestrian! Rockin Kats has you playing as Willie, who has to rescue his girlfriend Jill from Mugsy, the local crime boss. He'll have to traverse through five lands to rescue her... five different times. While there is some dialogue right before you fight the boss, it's just the same thing over and over again, only Mugsy changes a sentence to introduce a different henchman of his. But then again, complaining about an NES story's lack of... existing is like complaining that great grandpa is never around, so moving on.
I know where this is going...
Let's just get the gimmick out of the way - Willie's weapon of choice is a punch gun, which launches a close range boxing glove at a million miles an hour before retracting. Not only does it hurt and then kill enemies, but it also lets you swing on certain surfaces. It's kind of like the bionic arm in Bionic Commando where you can grab onto surfaces, except Willie can't grab onto walls and he doesn't pull himself towards the glove. It does give you at least one swinging segment per level, but it's not really something that you'd want. The swinging, first off, requires almost pinpoint precision aiming just to start it, and it goes further downhill from there as you have to seriously have hairline precision during your swing to get the right amount of lift to conquer the gap. Well, it's either a gap or to get up onto a platform during a vertical bit. The sad part is that it's not even used all that extensively. Oh, you'll cross maybe 1 or 2 gaps per level like this and there's maybe 2 vertical segments in the entire game, but... well, that's the thing. It's seldom used, really. But then you'll be grateful because the timing is just hard to get down on this thing due to how fast you spin, and some of the designs were done in a way that's meant to force you to fumble for minutes on end until you finally progress through it! Maybe I'm just thinking that it could be more creatively used or better developed, but even as is, it's annoying. There are a couple of parts where you can utilize the glove's ability to bounce off of it. But the detection for it to work is just as sensitive as you have to hit the ground just right to utilize it, and... did I say you only use it for a couple of parts? Yes. Yes I did. It's something worth being thankful for due to its awkward control...
But then you'll want more just so that you can get something out of an otherwise monotonous, uninspired platformer. The levels are boring; most of them are just a straight line with like two gaps. The enemies are boring; they don't offer much resistance and are disposed of easily. The bosses are boring; they have an easy to memorize pattern of attacks and very obvious weak points. If this was a good game, it could still utilize those elements and be fun anyway - Mario's been getting away with it for over 27 years and yet his games are still fun to play! Well, that's because Mario games add in excitement! Rockin Kats just goes through the motions, hoping that its seldom used and yet annoying gimmick can carry it. Oh, and between each level, you can use the money you've earned throughout the game to buy items from the shop. Said items include a cherry bomb that'll blow up what's in front of you; a stronger, non grip punch; a punch that shoots two balls out of it; jet shoes that'll slow down your descent; and extra lives. You'll be earning quite a lot of money unless you go out of your way to avoid killing enemies and getting money. There are also the mini games that do utilize the glove like throwing balls into pipes or swinging yourself into a basket, but getting the timing down on these isn't even worth it. Oh wow, you get more money - like you don't earn enough through playing the game itself!
Wheeeeeeeeee
Hell, even the presentation is boring. The graphics are serviceable, but the only exciting thing about it is when it hurts my eyes. Some of the backgrounds have this really fluorescent tinge that wind up making the level look really tacky. I suppose it makes up for the fact that you'll be seeing gray fairly often as there are a lot of sewer/underground segments. There are also plenty of solid color backgrounds, with maybe a pattern and/or a background object slapped on in a vain effort to spice it up. But that's all that there is; just a few things here and there. There's no real style or anything that helps it stand out. It just... exists.
Likewise, the soundtrack is just bleh. Rather than be jazzy or rocking like you would think it would be, it's just circus music. Now, it can work really well - just ask Mr Bungle. But given that we're dealing with 8-bit sound chips, it tends to sound bland. This is especially true here. A few songs are alright, but others tend to sound dreary and just plain bad. Nothing that'll want you to go deaf, but nothing that you'll want to listen to ever again either. There's really nothing of interest to note beyond that unfortunately.
Rockin Kats receives a 3.5/10 from me. Beyond its awkwardly controlled gimmick, it's just a bland and boring platformer that does nothing to engage you. It's the kind of game that exists to fill up space in your collection. Even if it was released nowadays, it would be shafted due to its poorly implemented gimmick that had oh so much potential, but given its release date of 1991... well, we all know what was popular at THAT point in time, so maybe it's better that this game was ignored. It's a shame because coming from Atlus, you would expect something quirky or at least good. But I guess we all have to sort of start somewhere. If this game sounds interesting to you, you could give it a shot, but personally, I'd avoid this like The Simpsons avoids giving a shit.
While we all know Atlus for their Shin Megami Tensei games (particularly Persona 3 and 4), they did make a bunch of other games. Rockin Kats is one of them, and while people like to act like it's this underrated classic... I actually thought it was pretty mediocre. It's got a gimmick that had the potential to make things interesting, but in combination with its pedestrian bosses and level design, the gimmick is more annoying than it is fun.
Even the story is pedestrian! Rockin Kats has you playing as Willie, who has to rescue his girlfriend Jill from Mugsy, the local crime boss. He'll have to traverse through five lands to rescue her... five different times. While there is some dialogue right before you fight the boss, it's just the same thing over and over again, only Mugsy changes a sentence to introduce a different henchman of his. But then again, complaining about an NES story's lack of... existing is like complaining that great grandpa is never around, so moving on.
I know where this is going...
Let's just get the gimmick out of the way - Willie's weapon of choice is a punch gun, which launches a close range boxing glove at a million miles an hour before retracting. Not only does it hurt and then kill enemies, but it also lets you swing on certain surfaces. It's kind of like the bionic arm in Bionic Commando where you can grab onto surfaces, except Willie can't grab onto walls and he doesn't pull himself towards the glove. It does give you at least one swinging segment per level, but it's not really something that you'd want. The swinging, first off, requires almost pinpoint precision aiming just to start it, and it goes further downhill from there as you have to seriously have hairline precision during your swing to get the right amount of lift to conquer the gap. Well, it's either a gap or to get up onto a platform during a vertical bit. The sad part is that it's not even used all that extensively. Oh, you'll cross maybe 1 or 2 gaps per level like this and there's maybe 2 vertical segments in the entire game, but... well, that's the thing. It's seldom used, really. But then you'll be grateful because the timing is just hard to get down on this thing due to how fast you spin, and some of the designs were done in a way that's meant to force you to fumble for minutes on end until you finally progress through it! Maybe I'm just thinking that it could be more creatively used or better developed, but even as is, it's annoying. There are a couple of parts where you can utilize the glove's ability to bounce off of it. But the detection for it to work is just as sensitive as you have to hit the ground just right to utilize it, and... did I say you only use it for a couple of parts? Yes. Yes I did. It's something worth being thankful for due to its awkward control...
But then you'll want more just so that you can get something out of an otherwise monotonous, uninspired platformer. The levels are boring; most of them are just a straight line with like two gaps. The enemies are boring; they don't offer much resistance and are disposed of easily. The bosses are boring; they have an easy to memorize pattern of attacks and very obvious weak points. If this was a good game, it could still utilize those elements and be fun anyway - Mario's been getting away with it for over 27 years and yet his games are still fun to play! Well, that's because Mario games add in excitement! Rockin Kats just goes through the motions, hoping that its seldom used and yet annoying gimmick can carry it. Oh, and between each level, you can use the money you've earned throughout the game to buy items from the shop. Said items include a cherry bomb that'll blow up what's in front of you; a stronger, non grip punch; a punch that shoots two balls out of it; jet shoes that'll slow down your descent; and extra lives. You'll be earning quite a lot of money unless you go out of your way to avoid killing enemies and getting money. There are also the mini games that do utilize the glove like throwing balls into pipes or swinging yourself into a basket, but getting the timing down on these isn't even worth it. Oh wow, you get more money - like you don't earn enough through playing the game itself!
Wheeeeeeeeee
Hell, even the presentation is boring. The graphics are serviceable, but the only exciting thing about it is when it hurts my eyes. Some of the backgrounds have this really fluorescent tinge that wind up making the level look really tacky. I suppose it makes up for the fact that you'll be seeing gray fairly often as there are a lot of sewer/underground segments. There are also plenty of solid color backgrounds, with maybe a pattern and/or a background object slapped on in a vain effort to spice it up. But that's all that there is; just a few things here and there. There's no real style or anything that helps it stand out. It just... exists.
Likewise, the soundtrack is just bleh. Rather than be jazzy or rocking like you would think it would be, it's just circus music. Now, it can work really well - just ask Mr Bungle. But given that we're dealing with 8-bit sound chips, it tends to sound bland. This is especially true here. A few songs are alright, but others tend to sound dreary and just plain bad. Nothing that'll want you to go deaf, but nothing that you'll want to listen to ever again either. There's really nothing of interest to note beyond that unfortunately.
Rockin Kats receives a 3.5/10 from me. Beyond its awkwardly controlled gimmick, it's just a bland and boring platformer that does nothing to engage you. It's the kind of game that exists to fill up space in your collection. Even if it was released nowadays, it would be shafted due to its poorly implemented gimmick that had oh so much potential, but given its release date of 1991... well, we all know what was popular at THAT point in time, so maybe it's better that this game was ignored. It's a shame because coming from Atlus, you would expect something quirky or at least good. But I guess we all have to sort of start somewhere. If this game sounds interesting to you, you could give it a shot, but personally, I'd avoid this like The Simpsons avoids giving a shit.
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