Imagine a giant boulder barreling down a hill towards a medieval castle, catapults launching to try and slow it down to no avail, the giant rock picks up speed it somehow jumps over a series of explosives and smashes full force into the castle's gate "One more roll oughta do it". Rock of Ages combines atypical tower defense mechanics with Marble Madness style gameplay spruced up with some bizarre historical context to become one of the most unique experiances available on XBLA.
Rock of Ages tasks you with control of a gigantic boulder as you roll down increasingly complex and obstacle heavy courses to reach a castles gate at the end. Your objective is to break down that gate and squish the historical figure hold-up within. While your waiting for your boulder to roll you spend money -- earned by destroying buildings-- to build weapons that will be used to protect your own castle gate from the enemies boulder. Its a simplistic formula that proves to be unprecedentedly fun and even challenging as the AI becomes more relentless and courses become more complicated. Speaking of the AI it is the one gripe I have agianst this game, it can be to precise in its tower placements, it seems to know exactly the right spot to place a catapult that will damage you or knock you off the course. That mixed with the spotty hit detection can become frustrating as you navigate the labyrinthine maze of towers and track obstacles.
The weird artsyle composed of boulders with goofy faces carved into them and famous historical figures that are portrayed as little paper puppets in amusing cut-scenes that establish every enemies. The game is rife with pop-culture references from 300 references when you fight King Leonidas or just plain silly attributes like zombie Plato and Socrates. Its all jovial and completely insane but it adds to the charm of an already quirky fun game.
(4 out of 5)
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