Radical Roach Review (PC)

Vertical or horizontal shooters of the bullet hell variety were a staple of my childhood, as I had a lot of fun blasting away enemies using crazy ships and characters while exploring different pixelated worlds in the likes of Gradius and many others.

As such, when Radical Roach came around, I wasn't inclined to squash the intriguing horizontal shooter, as it promises a fun yet quite challenging experience that emphasizes not just great targeting but also great movement on the battlefield, while defeating the enemy hordes.

While its visuals do look charming and the premise of controlling a roach during a nuclear apocalypse does seem outlandish, it's going to be interesting to see if the game can deliver a good time.

Does Radical Roach manage to evoke the old-school roots of the genre or should it be squashed? Let's find out.

Radical Roach tells the story of a small cockroach that gains a couple of great abilities, not to mention a sweet red scarf, during the nuclear apocalypse that’s slowly destroying the human world. However, his joy is short lived, as many other insects, from fleas to bees, ladybugs, or ants, want to enslave the world.

However, the mute roach protagonist isn't exactly willing to bend to the will of other insects and starts taking them all on in a variety of environments.

Control a small roach ...

... and defeat the other insects

The story is told through small cut scenes before, during, or after levels and some moments are quite hilarious. Others, however, fall a bit flat, as the old mute roach routine gets tedious after a while. Some of the side characters are relatively funny, but don't expect any serious development in the narrative.

The actual gameplay is a typical horizontal side-scrolling shooter but it's not a bullet hell game per se, as you don't actually avoid bullets. Instead, you need to avoid suicidal mosquitos, moths, and other insects that come barreling towards you.

You have the ability to shoot them before they get close but, seeing as how you aren't being scored for kills and other such things, it's probably better to just find safe areas where their attacks can reach you and keep firing to make sure you clear out the path in front. Each level tasks you with reaching the end and you have a special slider at the bottom of the screen that shows how close you are to the conclusion of the stage.

Besides firing regular squirts at your enemies, the small roach can also deploy a special shield that guards him from enemy projectiles, and a huge death ray that, for a small period of time, can clear out the whole screen. Don't get too attached to them, as in some levels you don't have access to these abilities due to certain arbitrary reasons.

However, the shield behavior is rather erratic, as the game doesn't acknowledge its presence until a short time after it's been cast. As such, if you activate the shield and are immediately hit by a projectile or enemy, you'll still lose a life.

During each stage you can be hit two times – if you're struck a third one, you need to restart the level. Considering developer Decaying Logic specifically made Radical Roach for hardcore players, expect a lot of death and plenty of frustration. What's more, there are quite a few cases in which the game registers a hit on your tiny roach body even if the bullet or enemy didn't touch you on the screen.

Enemies include all sorts of other insects, from suicidal mosquitos to ladybugs that carry obstacles that you need to avoid, and much more. Many levels also have different objects that require tricky maneuvering, such as torn bicycle wheels.

Boss fights are also a bit annoying and require quite a lot of patience to complete, not to mention a bit of luck, as your three lives can be lost really easily during some of the cheap attacks pulled by your foes.

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Controls are relatively good, although you fire by pressing the left button of the mouse and, considering the huge amount of enemies the game throws at the small roach, you'll find your finger getting numb just by keeping the button pressed. You can opt to use a controller, but moving the roach about is done using the D-Pad, not one of the analog sticks, which makes everything even more tedious.

There are four main chapters with different environments and, while they are relatively well designed, the animations are quite repetitive. Even so, considering the intense action on the screen, you won't have that much time to take in the view.

The visuals overall are a bit hit-and-miss. While the whole style is pretty charming in a hand-crafted way, its quality isn't that great. The animations in particular are clunky and miss a lot of frames, leading to a really low-quality experience.

The soundtrack is rather good, if you take it alone, but the techno vibe doesn't really jive with the post-apocalyptic experience, even if it does complement the whole arcade feel. It's also quite repetitive, especially since restarting a level restarts the song as well, so be prepared to pretty much hate the opening moments of a stage.

What's worse is that you can't turn off the music, meaning you need to alt-tab out of the game and mute it from the Windows Sound Mixer if you want to enjoy your own songs. The game also missed a great chance in regards to timing the enemy attacks to the music. Sometimes, such a thing happens by accident, but most of the times the song and action on the screen contrast and draw away from the whole experience.

Deploy your shield ...

... and a massive death ray

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion