Rock Boshers
Review

Rock Boshers (2014) is a retro action adventure inspired by Spectrum and NES games, where you help young Queen Victoria fight her way to escape from Mars. You play by moving around the blocky Martian world, shooting enemies to clear a path for the Queen.

You battle your way through the landscape to get to the exit of each level by taking on soldiers, zombies, giant bugs and tanks. You need to avoid the cycling enemies, shoot through landscape to find secrets and sneak past guards. One stick controls the direction and the other controls the direction of shooting. As you progress you collect equipment and weapons (coal rockets and steam lasers for example.

Along with the main game are a collection of (even more) retro arcade games. You find these hidden in levels as snacks. There are also light puzzles to solve by collecting and using keys to open doors and circumvent enemy placements.

The result is a gleefully backwards and simplistic action adventure game. However, while the visuals are restrained and the music sticks to synth sounds of the 80's the gameplay offers more challenge and nuance than you would expect. It's a delight in all of its 15 colours (or a few more if you opt for the NES visuals).

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Rock Boshers a year ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.