The 90’s played host to an endless stream of gaming icons and whilst the likes of Donkey Kong, Sonic and Crash made their transition to the noughties eventually, others were tragically forgotten. The biggest tragedy heading into the 128-bit era is those great icons that never made it, the likes of Croc, PLOK! and... Rocket: Robot on Wheels. Today we dedicate Throwback Thursday to that beautiful little robot with a wheel and sun-visor.

Rocket: Robot on Wheels arrived in Europe and America in the December of 1999, never making its way to Japan. With great graphics, platforming, music and variety, it's surprising that this was the first title to come out of developer Sucker Punch, but what a way to start.  

From the moment you fire it up you can't help but fall in love with the charm of this game. Visually, Rocket as a character is about as 90’s as they get, sporting purple shiny skin that plagued characters of that era, his Easy Jet headset and radical robot sun visor, this little robot skidding around on one wheel (despite the name implying more than one, perhaps he lost it to a clown?) is as cute as they get.

The title starts off the day before the grand opening of Whoopie World, a space-like theme park created by Dr. Gavin, the genius inventor of Rocket himself. On the night before the opening, Dr. Gavin leaves for a party, putting Rocket in charge of things but sadly a wimpy little robot with one wheel was not the best choice for looking after a theme park and bunch of animals. As soon as Gavin has left, Jojo the sly raccoon immediately whips out his plans to ruin opening day and take over the park for himself (written on the chunkiest paper I've ever seen). Knocking out our robot hero, Jojo captures all the animals and goes on a rampage around the park leaving it up to Rocket to rescue them and get things back in order before Gavin arrives home.

So there's the setup, and it's as good an excuse as any to go on another 3D N64 adventure!

The game offers plenty in the way of traditional platforming fun but the best aspect of this title is the creativeness beyond that - it's a game based around a theme park and it has the fun and variety of one.

Rocket can't hit enemy's thanks to his lack of arms so instead he has an electric spark shoot out of his head which can pick enemies up, press the button again and you can aim the enemy with the control stick before throwing them. It controls really well and throwing stuff is satisfying as your chosen enemy, vehicle or rock will bounce off of walls or tumble down hills majestically thanks to the games realistic physics engine, a first for home console games. With a neat double jump and the ability to slot your little wheel into a bunch of awesome things like a hotdog racing car, rollercoaster or big paintball machine, this was an adventure like none I'd experienced.

By the time I got Rocket, I was pretty burnt out on 3D platformers so it says a lot about this title and the creativity in it that really got me back into them. By this point I was also used to the fact that a big 3D world didn't necessarily mean that there's lots to do. Donkey Kong 64 had plenty of collectables and was massive but other than jumping from object to object, a lot of the landscapes were barren and this is where Rocket excelled.

Entering world one I was wowed by the fairground on the peer that I could see in the distance as it seemed to have everything and went up really high, with a towering great mechanical dinosaur and a beach surrounding it with masses of big sand dunes.

Those sand dunes weren't just for decoration or an obstacle to traverse to get to the main event, as after wandering around in the dunes for a while you’ll find yourself a car and go racing on the dunes. The car section still stands out to me now as it controlled beautifully, moreso than the rally games we had back then, possibly thanks to the physics engine and also because everything in this title has such polish.

After a drive around you'll enter the fairground and try to rush your way past some creepy clowns that steal anything you're holding. Gazing atop the peer you’ll notice an arcade and inside there’s a bunch of great card games to play with cards being chosen by picking up and throwing rocks on the one you want. Elsewhere in the arcade you're challenged by a big chicken to play tic-tac-toe, and it's a chicken that doesn't react kindly to having rocks thrown at it.

Elsewhere, the giant dinosaur, when approached, has a hole in its moving foot, so when the foot goes up in the air, you can quickly slide in. From the inside you do some classic platforming up to the top and come out of the dinosaurs mouth. It was another great moment where the awesome dinosaur that you first gaze upon turns out to be more than just decoration.

The highlight of the first world though, and where countless hours were spent, was the unfinished rollercoaster. It's up to you to complete this coaster, and you have full reign to make whatever you want, with loops and corkscrews – then when your creation is done you can ride it! What's more, there were literally no restrictions, if you wanted to leave it incomplete, you could, even if it sent the cart shooting off onto the beach and suffering massive damage in the process.

All of these great memories are just contained within world one which says a lot about how much there is to do and how much they squeezed into each area. There were plenty of highlights outside of the beach area though, with one of my favourites being misuse of the paintball gun. In world two, the gun is meant to be used to change the colour of the walls, but if a lone sheep comes by you can shoot that too... And all of its wool changes colour. I had hours of fun blasting them and having a level full of rainbow sheep.

Gameplay aside, the style of this game is truly fantastic, full of big chunky characters, but in a very intentional stylised way and not just a low-poly mess like Mario Tennis or Party. There was always a certain ‘adult’ feel to the world, despite clearly being a cartoon platformer. It didn't have the cheeriness of Mario or the fairy-tale style of Banjo, JoJo the raccoon seemed genuinely nasty and slimy and some of the characters you come across seem quite sullen whilst the clowns rolling around on their ball legs are just plain creepy. All of this topped with an awesome jazz soundtrack and some great piano pieces made for a really great atmosphere.

Rocket was a fantastic game and a lot of fun, and it's a shame we never got a sequel. His legacy lives on though, as Sucker Punch went on to develop the Sly series that borrows its inspirations heavily from this title, especially from characters such as Jojo the Raccoon. This may be one of the harder titles to find out of the Throwback Thursday’s so far, but it's one I'd highly reccommend.