No genre is better represented on the Nintendo 64 than the platform genre. Heck, the system itself was originally designed with one platformer in mind (Mario 64). This holiday season has seen the greatest lineup of platformers yet on the Nintendo 64, with Donkey Kong 64, Rayman 2 and Rocket: Robot on Wheels all arriving at roughly the same time. Despite being the least-hyped game of the trio and being developed by a relatively unknown company, Rocket: Robot on Wheels is perhaps the best one of the three.

In Rocket: Robot on Wheels you are Rocket, which is of course a robot. The game opens with a well-done cutscene. It's the night before the opening of the brand new amusement park Whoopie World, and Dr. Gavin puts you in charge of the park for a while. In separate cages are Whoopie the Walrus and Jojo the Squirrel, the two main attractions at the park. Well, as soon as you turn your back Jojo (who's jealous of Whoopie and has plans to turn it into Jojo World) escapes from his cage, and kidnaps Whoopie and all of the ride tickets. Jojo then proceeds to sabotage the entire park the night before it's scheduled to open-turning once-good robots into evil drones to do his bidding! It's your job to go out, retrieve all of the tickets, and defeat Jojo before the park's scheduled opening and Dr. Gavin's return.

Gameplay

Rocket is a robot equipped with a head-mounted tractor beam on the side of his head. With this tractor beam, he's able to pick up and move things (he lacks arms). The tractor beam really forms the core of Rocket's moves. With it he's able to pick up and grab just about everything in the game world, and this ability provides a number of different moves that Rocket learns as the game progresses. Rocket learns new abilities from Tinker, the lovable park maintenance robot. Of course, you have to collect a specific number of Tinker Tokens (think coins in Mario 64) before you can learn each new move, and much like the Zelda series learning new moves opens up previously inaccessible areas and worlds.

The "overworld" is set up very similar to Mario 64. From the main area (the opening gate of the amusement park), you can enter the different worlds in the game. Basically, you must collect the Tickets scattered the world (12 per world) to advance in the game and open up new worlds. You recover tickets through a variety of different methods. Some tickets are awarded after you solve puzzles, some are hidden really well, and some guarded by creatures. When you collect a certain number of tickets you are able to activate different Ticket Switches, which usually open up new areas to explore and secret areas.

This is all standard platform-fare, but what sets this game apart from other platformers is the amazing physics engine in the game. Virtually everything in the game world has weight relative to its size, and will react very realistically when it's manipulated. This results in some very clever puzzles, as well as providing a decent challenge to the player (for instance, when you walk across a floating ice block it will move realistically and tilt). It's really tough to describe it in words, but it adds a dimension to the gameplay you won't find in games like Donkey Kong 64.

Overall, the gameplay is excellent. This is old-school platforming at its best, with very unique and challenging puzzles, clever game world elements, HUGE game worlds to explore, and TONS of stuff to collect. Throw in a variety of mini-games and other extras, and you've got a virtually flawless gameplay experience. In fact, it would be flawless if it wasn't for the sometimes-awful camera system. Camera problems have plagued 3D platformers since Mario 64, and Rocket is no different. Although it isn't bad enough that you'll die unfairly, it does take some time to master the camera system. So while the camera system isn't bad compared to other platformers, it's still worth mentioning because it can be a bit frustrating at times.

Graphics

The graphics can best be summed up in one word: unique. Since this is an amusement park (an artificial world), the game designers were free to create very unique and varied areas. As a result, each world is full of variety and graphical flare. There's no draw-in to be found anywhere in the world, and the world is filled with nothing but rock-solid polygons. Although characters are a bit simplistic looking, they're very clean and have virtually no "jagged" edges that plague other platformers.

Each of the seven different worlds is extremely huge, and despite this there is virtually no pop-up to be found. Every environment is gorgeous and unique. Each of the seven different worlds have unique themes, and these are represented well in that they all feature elements within the game world that suit that theme very well (ex: Roman columns).

Perhaps the only complaint that can be leveled at the game is that everything is extremely cute looking. In fact, it's probably the most "Lovable Huggable Super Happy Fun" game yet on the Nintendo 64. Gamers used to games like Shadowman and Goldeneye may be a bit turned off by the cutesy look. Overall though, the game is gorgeous, textures are detailed and clean, and the game has enough graphical variety to keep the gamer interested in seeing what's next.

Sound

The music in this game is good, and provides an appropriate platforming experience. Some of the tunes can become repetitive after a while (and given the challenging gameplay you will spend a lot of time on each level), but they are mostly well done and quite catchy. Sound effects are simply done to perfection. No low quality sound samples here. Different surfaces make different sounds as you travel, different enemies provide well-done and appropriate sound effects, and elements you interact with in the world all sound as they should. Overall the sound quality is excellent, with only a couple average songs preventing it from being perfect.

Overall, Rocket: Robot on Wheels is a brilliant platforming experience. It's challenging, creative, and most importantly fun. If you didn't get this one for Christmas be sure to pick it up.

Overall: 9.6