A futuristic Soccer (or Football) of sorts
(?)…
A friend of mine, the same Nokia fanboy’ friend who sometimes updates me on the N-Gage..yes the N-GAGE (which does still exists btw in the form of a downloadable client, compatible with a few Nokia devices)!, found a couple ‘Instant Action‘ games pretty enjoyable. He suggested I play them whenever I had a chance to. It seemed worth a try, afterall, it’s FREE to play and all the games are browser based (no need to download a client). I tried to register for my Instant Action account at work but at this point the games don’t work on Linux… Instead, I went through the quick and painless registration on my home PC and tried Rokkitball.
Rokkitball!
The first time I played Rokkitball was a month or so ago. The reason I blog about it only now is because I must have seen that Rokkitball ad on my 1UP blog page more than ten times in the span of an hour or so last week. Every time I would go back to my blog the ad rotated between the Rokkitball ad and another one. Definitely subliminal advertising by its placement below my profile photo on the left-hand side of the page 
Reminiscent of aPhantasy Star Online soccer lobby, Garage Games’ Rokkitball was actually quite entertaining to say the least. The first time you play the game takes a little longer to load but after that it should only take a few seconds. I joined a game already in progress that consisted of two 2-person teams. The goal, of course was to get the ball into ‘the net’. There was more than one net per stage which kept things interesting. The challenge was trying to reach that net before being shot at and the ball stolen from you. It’s also a lot of fun jumping up high to try to reach the higher nets and seeing the other players jump with you to try to grab the ball. Stealing from the other players is tricky but can be done. The frustration begins when the ball is constantly being stolen and no one can get to their net.
I thought the graphics for the browser based game was pretty good. It wasn’t slow at all even with a full game and it’s an easy game to play, very straightforward with little to learn in way of the controls. Although, I vaguely remember the controls being displayed before you enter the game.
Your technique of choice is helpful, but teamwork is the underlining factor of the game. If your buddy has the ball it makes sense to defend them so it doesn’t fall into enemy hands. Like any other team sports, you must work together, or the opposing team will have an easier time stealing and scoring on you.
A great fun way to pass time and a little addictive as well, Rokkitball is one game on ‘Instant Action‘ that’s definitely worth it.
