"Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut" is a neo-retro adventure game that is paying tribute to computer games from the cassette tape era namely the "ZX Spectrum (1982)".  In this game you play as a young princess named Victoria whom is living in a world where men in top hats and fancy trousers rule the streets (sounds like hell if you ask me).  There's a craze going on with the men in hats as they are all flying off into space in giant bullet shaped spaceships so they can get to Mars (the planet and not the tasty chocolate/caramel/nougat bar).  Princess Victoria is curious about Mars but sadly no ladies are allowed and so she disguises herself as a top hat fancy pants man and successfully catches a spaceship to Mars.  When she reaches Mars she finds out that it's not all that's cracked up to be as everyone who goes there becomes slaves to an evil man that wears a bigger hat and even fancier pants and so it is up to Victoria to save them all from this dastardly man.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).



The story in this game is a little bit weird and random but also very enjoyable and charming to where it worked very well.  I liked how the story progressed as well and it did become more level headed as it went along minus one part that I will not spoil.  The way you beat most levels in this game is by getting to an elevator shaft that's located at a certain point of the level.  In order to get there though you'll have to fight though enemies, find keys, blowing up computers, and even run laps on some occasions.  Also on each level you will find that there are items that you'll need to collect and those items are: Cheese, a cup of tea, and crumpets (maybe they are crumpets, I can't fully make out what they are supposed to be sadly).  These items do have some use to them as when you collect enough you'll unlock some bonus games in the arcade section.

Controls are really simple as you just simply walk around by using the W,A,S,D, keys and shoot with the directional keys.  You will find more weapons as you go along and when you do have another weapon you can switch between them by hitting either the Q key and/or the E key.  The weapon switching did get a bit uncomfortable during the more intense parts of the game but other than that I have no problem with it.  The weapons you have in this game include: A standard gun that shoots yellow bullets, a machine gun that shoots purple bullets at a rapid pace, a bazooka that shoots green bullets that do good damage and can go through weaker enemies, and these weird looking electric pallets that can damage tanks.  I liked most of the weapons in this game as they were fun to use but I didn't care for the machine gun as it runs out of ammo too fast for my liking and didn't do anything that the normal gun couldn't do (excluding the obvious rapid fire) *blows the barrel of gun*.


This game is easy to learn but hard to master as this game is only easy for a short time as it gets difficult very quickly.  This game isn't too difficult to where it is unbeatable but you will find yourself screaming at the computer screen from how intense this game can get.  While it'll make you scream like you're being whipped by a latex bound dominatrix with a barbwire whip, you won't stop playing until the game has been beaten as the gameplay is very addictive.  Once you do gain the skills to beat those tough stages you'll get a great deal of satisfaction from doing so.

Graphics in this game have an old school look to where it looks like a game for the ZX Spectrum.  The character designs during the gameplay are tiny, basic, and not very detailed at all and I love it for that as it really captured what it was aiming for and did the job well.  Level designs are also very basic looking but they were also designed well and they also have some neat secrets to be found so don't be afraid to explore...  Okay it might be a bit scary to explore some levels.


Character designs during the cut-scenes were much different and they were awesome and especially for Princess Victoria as she looked very badass like the character Strider Hiryu (from the arcade game "Strider (1989)".  The cut-scene artwork also captures that old feeling of how some box art looked much, much, much different from the in-game graphics like the old "Megaman (1987)" NES game.  Music in this game is brilliant with a nice sounding 8-bit tune that suits the game perfectly.  The music also builds up a nice atmosphere and is also very calming and boy does that help when playing this game.

Overall this is a very hard but very fun game and it will drive your nostalgia senses (and patience) crazy.  This is a game that is very easy for me to recommend you all play as you will have a great time with this and especially to those who grew up in the 8-bit and 16-bit era.  Fantastic game.

Game: Rock Boshers DX: Director's Cut
System: PC
Developer/Publisher: Tikipod Ltd
Genre: Adventure, Action, Neo-Retro
Price: $6.99 (Steam)
Recommended: Yes