What you get in essence of Rocketbirds 2 is the same old uniformed, sometimes cleverly plotted 2D maps like in the first game. The platforming within Rocketbirds 2 is a great addition and I believe it is a little more sophisticated than in the previous version. Every few panels, as the game sometimes moves screen by screen, you see a small text conversation about the troubles being caused by your character as it storms a great big facility reeking havoc along the way. Of course, the levels do change, and it introduces some fun situations such as shooting alarms to stop enemies, making your way through several waves of other enemy birds, and so on.

Although this game is a mindless platformer – twin sticks shooter, what story that is fed from time to time had me chuckle a few times. And I did die from laughter —  literally. Well, literally within the game. And that’s one of the things with this game: you will end up dying quite a bit. This isn’t a family-friendly shooter as it contains dark references, but essentially it’s sometimes just very hard in certain areas. I found myself doing some waves over and over before I was able to over come some of the harder areas the game had to offer. But that’s just me. Some players may find it too easy, some may find it harder than I did.

"Although this game is a mindless platformer – twin sticks shooter, what story that is fed from time to time had me chuckle a few times."

What’s cool about Rocketbirds 2 is the incredible weapons the game offers. No, this isn’t Call of Duty quality. But what are available tend to be very entertaining and very accurate. The militaristic bird-hero can wield two weapons at a time but can have a larger arsenal to switch out with. This twin sticks shooter style game has enemies from every angle, and finding out which weapon works best for you is essential to making it through the game properly. I often found the shotgun and assault rifles to be quite entertaining and very well balanced. There are also grenades and other smaller surprises along the way.

Enemies, sometimes  attack in overwhelming swarms, can shoot, throw grenades, carry other heavy weapon rifles and objects and can even come after you with melee. This is quite troubling when you are just one bird and a slew of enemies that sometimes have incredible amounts of health are just pummeling you from every angle. Luckily, there are checkpoints to be earned. But again, these checkpoints are sometimes in bad spots where more waves and even stronger enemies are just ready to pounce. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not awful and most of the time the checkpoints are pretty good. But overall, it’s a little tiresome to die so often.

What’s kind of a disappointment within the second game is the color scheme. Too often you’ll see dull grays, whites, and blacks with very few eye-pleasing colors in between. I enjoy colorful games, though I don’t expect a game such as Gears of War to be full of wonderfully bright colors. But when you have a game that prides itself on its wit, whim, and senseless humor, adding a few colors would have made it a bit more fun.

"This twin sticks shooter style game has enemies from every angle, and finding out which weapon works best for you is essential to making it through the game properly."

Now, this is an indie title so you don’t expect any great orchestra settings or lots of great music anywhere. But what Rocketbirds 2 does offer is great for a wartime feel; again, it should be funny but the music doesn’t quite match the writing. With that being said, the music is a great ambient noise for a sometimes crazily intense game.

Overall, I would definitely give Rocketbirds 2 a try, especially if you’ve been wanting to play a shooter-platformer lately. It gives you just the right amount of platforming with a great amount of shooting. The humor is where the game’s strength lies, but it falls short with the sometimes too hard shooting areas.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Note: This interview was conducted before the launch of Rocketbirds 2 Evolution.

What’s the story behind Rocketbirds 2: Evolution? What should new players expect, seeing all these birds with guns for the first time?

The Rocketbirds universe is populated by anthropomorphic birds with guns and it is oppressed by the Penguin regime and their despotic leader iL Putzki, who keeps all the other bird species under his iron flippers.

In Story Mode, Hardboiled Chicken finds out iL Putzki is actually still alive (this despite being brain-bugged and walked out of his rocket ship into space at the end of Rocketbirds 1) and he goes back into enemy territory to kill him again (vengeance for what the Penguins did to him when he was just a wee chick). Of course, it’s never going to be as straight forward as that, and during this adventure, he’ll find out that different, sinister forces have been at work all this time.

There’s also a Rescue Mode, which can be played alone or with up to 4 players. In it, the Budgie Commandos (from Rocketbirds 1), led by General Puff, have set up shop in the old hotel from which they launch rescue missions deep behind enemy lines. As you complete missions and rescue stranded operatives, they’ll join your team and help shed some light on what those dastardly Penguins have been up to (from a different point of view).

Some of the characters cross over, as the stories happen roughly at the same time, so to get the full Story of the sequel, you’ll want to play both Modes to their conclusion.

How long is the new story mode? Can you tell us about the insane work that went into making it better than the original?

Rescue Mode is designed as a replay-able meta-collection game, with semi-procedurally generated missions and lots of characters, items and weapons to unlock during missions or from the shops.

Story Mode, on the other hand is a carefully scripted, immersive affair, but with multiple ways to traverse the giant Chapters and lots of hidden stuff for you to find and use on your second, or third run-through. Story Mode also has some puzzles and includes Jetpaction and submarine action and will have some big-assed boss fights.

Depending how good you are, we estimate you’ll take between 6-8 hours to complete Story Mode. Rescue Mode can be played a lot longer, but the key missions would keep you busy for at least 4-6 hours, but there’s lots of cool stuff and weapons to unlock (over 100 items). We’ve even added a Dojo mini-game in which you can battle against your team mates using your favorite two weapons to see who has the maddest combat skills and who gets to eat crow.

Making the sequel took a lot of work, I think every single aspect has been improved over the original, like: for the environments we still wanted to maintain that hand crafted, cinematic look of the first game, but you’ll notice each screen needed to tilt both ways to enable you to check for breakable walls, so the background tools were reworked and each screen is now completely 3D with baked lighting and unique details; the look of the characters also received an upgrade, after the characters are rigged and animated, each character texture is repainted with normal maps, so that they would look closer to the painted posters and could react to the dynamic lighting; the characters used to talk only through speech bubbles, but now their lines are fully voiced in English and Japanese by talented, professional voice actors; we have created a unique host of characters for each different chapter and the number of animation frames per character has at least quadrupled in size over the previous game; the game now supports a proper inventory system with customizable clothes and gear as well as a very large array of weapons. Rescue mode is a completely new Co-op game over its predecessor, with mission map generators a hub with four large shops and a PvP arena; the list goes on.

"There’ll be weapons in the later stages more suited to your play style, but in the end we did balance weapons out a bit using ammunition cost, weapon cooldown times, reload times, damage, destabilizing damage and clip size, so we hope to see groups of players play with a variety of weapons and look different from one another."

What can you tell us about the improvements made to controls? How different does the game feel now in terms of responsiveness?

We went out of our way to make the controls feel fast and super responsive – Tech wise, we support full res 60 fps on both PS Vita and PS4, so that’ll help, but we also took care to keep the animations and transitions smooth by supporting animation masking from the start – this opened up a new level of freedom for players where they’d be able to do multiple things at the same time, such as aiming and firing in any direction while climbing up ladders, or reloading their guns while running for cover, switch their weapons during a double jump. Because there is virtually no delay in the game character executing the player’s will, the game has turned into a skill based, action game. This is a far cry from Rocketbirds 1, which is in essence a step based cinematic platformer, which allows only single actions over set periods of time and you could only shoot horizontally.

The other key change was to the controls themselves. Since you can carry out multiple actions at the same time, we needed a simple controls scheme which would allow you to do all these things at the same time (and have it work identically for the PS Vita, which has a few less buttons than the DualShock 4). During combat, you really only want to do four main things – apart from being able to position yourself (L thumb stick) and firing your weapon (R shoulder/trigger), we wanted players to aim as much as possible (R thumb stick), but players also need to jump out of harm’s way (Cross button).

With jump on Cross Button, this meant that your thumb would need to slide off the right thumb stick and onto the Cross Button and slide back onto the right thumb stick, where you’d need to re-aim, which isn’t ideal, especially during the heat of combat.

The X button still works as a jump and I’ve seen people play just fine jumping with X, but we encourage players to start using the left shoulder button (L shoulder/trigger) to get really good.

We reward precise aiming, by having shots at enemy heads inflict serious amounts of damage (and could cause head shots where the head would pop right off); Reward continuous movement, where enemies fire where you were, rather than where you are; And reward jumping, where bullets and projectiles will fly through you during double jumps.

I guess as icing for the cake, we added a mini game called the Dojo, where you can battle against your friends. If you accepted the tweak and learn to use the “shoulder jump”, you’ll perform much better than friends who did not.

BTW: The thing it also allows you to do by completely separating movement-stuff (left) and gun-stuff (right) on the controller is to actually play Rescue Mode with two controllers at the same time, where your left hand controls the movement of the bottom budgie – and your right hand controls aiming, firing, reloading, weapon swapping and stacking of the top budgie – once they are stacked, you can run around and play both characters at the same time so you have an extra chance to survive should one budgie get K.O’d. It just gets a bit crazy when your stack collapses and you’ll have to try and avoid ducts, but it’s still pretty fun and a different way to play the game.

There has been the announcement of customizable characters. Does this mean players can choose different load-outs and appearances for their characters?

Yeah, in Rescue Mode, your characters are fully customizable and the different items you wear adjust your stats a little bit. You can switch to different characters during the game inside the Hub and you can access your inventory and change your get-up and weapons whenever you wish to.

Will there be different abilities to earn and upgrade for your characters?

Since this is a skill based game, we wanted your characters upgrade when you improve 😉

There’ll be weapons in the later stages more suited to your play style, but in the end we did balance weapons out a bit using ammunition cost, weapon cooldown times, reload times, damage, destabilizing damage and clip size, so we hope to see groups of players play with a variety of weapons and look different from one another.

"In rescue mode, at the end of a mission, players are ranked and the best player receives a larger piece of the cash bonus than the others."

Will Rescue Mode have any additional objectives with twists on them similar to stacking hostages and carrying them to safety?

In Rescue Mode, during missions you can find strange, hidden artifacts which the budgie scientists can use to reconstruct some kind of alien portal. Also some walls are breakable and you’ll need to use bombs to blow these up and gain access to hidden treasure which can contain additional clothing items, or special weapons, like melee weapons.

How has the online multiplayer been improved and how does the drop in, drop out system affect co-op play? Is it possible to match make with players in the middle of games?

We basically rewrote the networking code from scratch and Rescue Mode features a lobby where you can select the room you wish to join. It also has a drop-in/drop-out feature, so you’ll not need to wait for your friends to join in and can host a game by yourself. If you need additional fire power when you are playing on your own, you can also Rent-A-Duck, who will aid you and ride shotgun on your back as you go on rescue missions, until reinforcements arrive.

What kinds of new weapons can players expect? How much more expanded is the arsenal from the previous game?

In the old game we had just a hand full of weapons. We did not have a robust inventory system to support more than 5 weapons or so – in the old Co-Op mode it was even less. The weapon you picked was tied to the budgie you picked. This time round, you can unlock some 40 different weapons – we picked the iconic ones like AA12, Frachi-Spass, M60, M16, RPG-7, Flamethrowers, Mossbergs, Bazooka, AK47, Steyer, Uzis, Dessert Eagles, Mortar guns etc. and made sure they reloaded and behaved how you would expect them to behave, but have each weapon offer something unique over the other weapons. There are six types of ammunition – grenades, bullets, shells, fuel, rockets and plasma – and six main types of guns, like the single shot guns (ideal for precise head shots), burst weapons (short, controlled bursts), assault rifles (pull the trigger and shower them with love), scatter guns (able to fire a spread of shot), charger types (like mini-guns which require a run-up) and projectile launchers (like good ol’gas powered grenades and such). In the later locations, you’ll be able to unlock some made up, sci-fi ones as well, like guns that fire bouncer particles and tractor beams etc. Oh and we also have a bunch of melee weapons, like Zulu spears, bowie knives and meat cleavers.

Are there plans for other competitive modes like the Dojo, perhaps a score-based mode for players to compete in involving the main missions?

In rescue mode, at the end of a mission, players are ranked and the best player receives a larger piece of the cash bonus than the others. While it’s great to show off your skills and be the best player with the most kills and headshots, we think it’s also fun to go head to head against your friends, which is why we created a Dojo mini-game – for short bursts of fun in between missions (or to test out that new weapon you bought in one of the shops). Nothing is set in stone yet, but we just might expand on this mini-game if it gets a good response from players!

I am assuming that you must have heard rumors about an upgraded PS4 (code name Neo) flying around the internet. According to sources, there will be boosts in CPU, Memory and GPU.

As you can see, there is a marginal improvement in CPU but impressive improvements in the GPU and Memory bandwidth. As someone who is in the development industry, what is your take on this? What kind of improvements do you think this will result into?

According to this sheet, we can expect games with Higher Resolutions, instead of revolutionary game play J And those GPU-bound games will receive a boost in framerates as well. From this table it looks like it would benefit games that need additional visual speed to hit those higher framerates and resolutions needed for VR, where your game would need to render left and right eyes for stereoscopy to work.

From a theoretical perspective, if you were to work on two PS4’s one which is the current model and the other being the Neo, would you be happy to invest the extra time and effort into developing two games for two platforms?

According to your information, we think the development cost will increase a little, but the testing costs will definitely double to test two systems. I’m not so sure I’d be happy (if this were true) – we developed Rocketbirds 2 for two platforms and it runs in stereoscopic 3D on the PS4, but the PS Vita clearly offers some added utility next to the PS4 for our customers, you can own both or either system and it would make sense to own our game on either, or both systems. Having two systems would just divide the market between those players owning the new PS4 and those players owning the old PS4, because it’s unlikely they’d want, or have the luxury to keep/use both systems.

Do you see devs aiming higher performance parameters for Neo and delivering sub-optimal performance on current base model PS4?

That really depends on the developer and the games they are working on. CPU-bound games will still have a harder time achieving superior performance on the newer model.

If recent reports are anything to by, Sony is all set to reveal an upgraded model of the PlayStation 4 sometime this year. The updated SKU, rumored to have the code name NEO, is expected to have significant amount of boost to GPU and memory. However, it will still keep the same Jaguar CPU configuration with only the clock speed getting a bump from 1.6Ghz to 2.1Ghz, which according to our technical expert does not really matter that much.

GamingBolt recently got in touch with Ratloop, who are working on Rocketbirds 2: Evolution (a PlayStation exclusive) and we asked them about their thoughts from a theoretical perspective about working on the PS4 NEO and whether they will be comfortable working on two different models of the same console and the possible implications behind following such a model.

“According to your information, we think the development cost will increase a little, but the testing costs will definitely double to test two systems. I’m not so sure I’d be happy (if this were true) – we developed Rocketbirds 2 for two platforms and it runs in stereoscopic 3D on the PS4, but the PS Vita clearly offers some added utility next to the PS4 for our customers, you can own both or either system and it would make sense to own our game on either, or both systems. Having two systems would just divide the market between those players owning the new PS4 and those players owning the old PS4, because it’s unlikely they’d want, or have the luxury to keep/use both systems.”

Two console SKUs can result into a number of concerns for players. Developers may aim for higher performance parameters for NEO and deliver sub-optimal performance on current base model PS4. The developer told us that such a scenario varies from developer to developer but the real problem is the CPU which may still be a bottleneck for games heavily dependent on it.

“That really depends on the developer and the games they are working on. CPU-bound games will still have a harder time achieving superior performance on the newer model.”

We will see how the NEO will pan out in the coming months. Stay tuned for our full interview with the Rocketbirds 2: Evolution developers in the coming days.

Rocketbirds 2 comes at a great time this year as a number of games from last year’s holidays start becoming stale. Sure, a bunch of other bigger games have come out since then, but this game definitely gives some breathing room for those looking to take a break from heavy AAA games. Ratloop have put a lot of hard work into this sequel and it really pays off. Well, at least the first three chapters do, as those are the only levels that I can preview at this time.

This game has a distinct look of Cold War era Russia, with its steel grey walls, brick red flags flying proudly everywhere, and snow all over the ground. This is definitely a game that wants to pretend it’s serious. That is, until the chickens come out! Rocketbirds 2 focuses its comedic power over the use of many different avian creatures. Oh, and they’re armed and dangerous, and kind of cute.

"Level designs picked for this preview are standard fair for most 2D shooters. There really is not much of getting lost as the game does a great job in assisting every step of the way."

You’ll definitely get your fill of humor in this platformer– anything from birds talking in another room about your shooting style, to roosters gearing up with some comedy gold. These birds have you covered when it comes to laughs and a giving you a hilariously good time.

Starting out, you get two weapons: an assault rifle and a shotgun. Ammo isn’t hard to get and the shotgun has unlimited ammo, but isn’t very good, even up close. The left analog stick is used to traverse and the right analog to aim and shoot; the mechanics of the controls work very much in line with top-down shooters. I was having trouble at first using the left analog to move my bird around the level. The analog just feels too big for a 2D game. So I went into the controls and found out I could switch them for the D pad. After that, the controls felt perfect for this title. Shooting is as satisfying as it could be for a top-down shooter in a 2D platformer. It works, but you won’t be getting too gruesome in this funny game. There are a good variety of other types of weapons as well, but we won’t spoil any of that here.

Though, the controls are well suited for a game like this, it won’t be making everyone happy. The game is challenging and it takes time, patience and practice to do the objectives right. You need to figure out that running, jumping, shooting and aiming all at the same time is going to be standard fair going forward within just the first few minutes. It’s not a constant, grueling chore, but it does take time. Luckily, the checkpoints are always right around the corner.

Level designs picked for this preview are standard fair for most 2D shooters. There really is not much of getting lost as the game does a great job in assisting every step of the way.

"Rocketbirds 2 is shaping into a really solid 2D shooter platformer along with a funny story about birds going commando. This is definitely looking like a game that you should get your feathers on. "

Along with some zany sound effects that you’ll realize will only work in this type of game, there are the standard sounds of any shooter. Nothing special, but nothing of low quality. What caught my ear was the fantastic opening song in the main menu. It sounded like modern rock, so if this is the type of music that’s to be featured throughout the entire game then it will be a big boost to the game’s soundtrack.

What’s left after the hilarious bird antics, solid controls, and what feels like a build up to an excellent soundtrack? Nothing much, really. But there really doesn’t have to be. Rocketbirds 2 is extremely comfortable in its own shell (pun intended) just being what it is. Rocketbirds 2 is shaping into a really solid 2D shooter platformer along with a funny story about birds going commando. This is definitely looking like a game that you should get your feathers on.

This game was previewed on the PlayStation 4.

And for those who’ve already partaken of the PlayStation 3 version, two additional co-op characters – Sniper Budgie and Agent H – will be made available along with a discount on the Vita version. Did we mention Playstation Plus members can avail of special offers when Rocketbirds releases? Lucky ducks.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is now out for the PC, and you can buy it just for $10 via Steam, Rain Digital Games, GamersGate and GameStop. Having been released on the PS3 last year via PSN, the PC version has bonus contents such as new game modes, new difficulty levels and more, according to the devs.

“The PC version of Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is a terrific next step for the Rocketbirds franchise, and with the addition of off AND online co-op, people everywhere can now experience a terrific campaign with their friends on the couch or across the world,” said Ted Lange, executive producer for Reverb Publishing.

The game includes co-op and a single player campaign. It “expands the Rocketbirds universe” with extra characters, puzzles, missions and more.

You can buy the game through the links given above.

Stay tuned for more info.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken will be releasing on the PC and we have the release date for you as well. The game comes out this month on October 15 and will be priced at $10. We had reviewed the game on PSN long time back and liked it. You can check out our review here.

The game will be on all popular digital distribution services like GamersGate, Rain Digital Games, Gamestop and more. If you “pre-order the game from Rain Digitqal Games, you will receive four songs from the original soundtrack as well as an extra co-op character (Agent H.) and weapon (Photon Blaster).”
“October has always been a great month for gaming, and what better way to start it off than with a hilariously unique side-scrolling action shooter featuring fantastic and addictive gameplay,” said Ted Lange, executive producer with Reverb Publishing.

“There’s something deeply satisfying about unloading clip after clip into a hapless horde of evil birds, and it’s only made better with a friend on co-op.”

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken expands the Rocketbirds universe with new characters, missions, puzzles, exclusive music videos, retro cut scenes, an enhanced Hard difficulty mode and more. Set in Albatropolis, a land full of birds taken over by a totalitarian penguin regime, Hardboiled Chicken, the original Coq of War, must assassinate the evil penguin leader Putzki. His mission will unlock the secrets to his mysterious, hard boiled past and uncover the real enemies of Albatropolis. In single-player mode, take on the role of Hardboiled Chicken and destroy your enemies with a slew of weapons you collect and unlock in each chapter.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Ratloop Asia and Reverb Publishing have accounced that Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is up for pre-order on GameStop.

Those who pre-order the game will get four tracks from the game, written and performed by New World Revolution – “The One,” “Illuminate Me,” “Double Agents,” and “Once I Was Lost (KF Remix)”.

You might want to have a look. Who knows, maybe you’ve got an excess of time and money on your hands.

Set out on a mission to assassinate the totalitarian penguin leader as Hardboiled Chicken. Destroy enemies with a slew of weapons and illuminate the secrets to his past while uncovering the real enemies of Albatropolis. Master fowl play in the co-op campaign as a pair of Budgie Commandos on a mission to save the general’s daughter. Many lives will be destroyed, countless penguins will die, and an astonishing past will be unveiled through a series of unlockable cut scenes and videos.

For those who pre-order, they receive an exclusive Agent-H Budgie Command co-op character and 4 new songs by New World Revolution. And of course you get the game, which looks quite interesting at this stage.

Yes, it’s basically Angry Birds meets side-scrolling shooter, but it still looks quite solid at this stage (even with the slightly dark graphics). The game will be available for PSN soon.

Check out this launch trailer for Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken builds upon the browser-based game Rocketbirds: Revolution! and expands the Rocketbirds universe with new characters, missions, puzzles, exclusive music videos, retro cut scenes and more. Set in Albatropolis, a land full of birds taken over by a totalitarian penguin regime, Hardboiled Chicken, the original Coq of War, must assassinate the evil penguin leader Putzki.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.