Rocket Ranger is another of Cinemaware's classics. Released at a similar time as It Came From The Desert, the game features a storyline revolving around Hitler winning the second world war by using lunarium bombs to decimate the world. Lunarium - mined from the moon and transported back to Earth on rocket ships - is a highly explosive fuel and warhead. Donning a lunarium fueled rocket pack and flight suit sent back from the future, you must participate in a variety of different action sequences to attempt to liberate the world from Hitler’s Regime.
Levels are broken into take-off sequences, shooting/flying sequences, ground shooting sequences and one on one combat, like dog fighting. The difficulty curve is moderate to steep, especially the frankly infuriating take-off sequence (especially when your pack is full). The key to success appears to be patience, concentration and much, much practice.
The game also features an entirely innovative (for the time) copy protection scheme. The game requires use of a decoder wheel (or modern excel spreadsheet) with the calculations for lunarium fuel usage. Get it right and Rocket Ranger immediately flies to his destination automatically. Get it wrong, however, and you’re greeted by a lovely animation of Rocket Ranger dropping out of the sky as his pack runs out of fuel.
Although
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a sad truth, this is one of those games that I myself never managed to finish. The game requires you to fly around the world, stealing rocket parts to build a ship to go and destroy the lunarium operations on the moon; sadly I never got further than the fourth rocket part much to my own frustration. It always seemed that the guard you had to beat up to steal the part became impossibly difficult to beat after the fourth part was collected. Better luck to you.
Rocket Ranger showcases the highlight of the Golden Amiga age with great graphics and awesome sound and has always been one of my favorite games. It is one of the few games I honestly wish there was a modern remake of similar to the remakes of Prince of Persia such as the Sands of Time and the Two Thrones; I merely worry that it would be slaughtered, though, by the wealth of modern crap that seems to placade the shelves of GameStop and EB.
All in all, Rocket Ranger is outstanding and should be played at least once by all. It is a legend!
