Rick Henderson Review | TheXboxHub

It could possibly be a sort of persona check. If I instructed you a recreation was known as ‘Rick Henderson’, what sort of recreation do you assume it might be? I’m going for an action-platformer, which might be me exhibiting my age and channelling Rick Harmful. Maybe it brings to thoughts an arty strolling simulator, or a point-and-click. 

Manner down on the backside of that record could be a hardcore area shoot ’em up. Nobody goes to name their R-Sort-killer ‘Rick Henderson’. Are they?

Nicely, stone the crows, Rick Henderson is definitely an area shooter. An excellent area shooter, at that. The dissonance shouldn’t trouble us, but it surely does.

Rick Henderson is a forty-three 12 months previous, chubby area pilot on the helm of a spaceship, dealing with off in opposition to fleets of enemies earlier than an end-of-level boss. Rick isn’t desirous about issues like story or cutscenes: he’s all in regards to the pure, arcade capturing and the rating chase. It’s as pure a online game as you may count on. 

Bounce into Rick Henderson (nonetheless doesn’t sound correct), and your first alternative is recreation mode. There’s a Commonplace Countless Mode, which thrusts you right into a collection of recreation ‘loops’ (simply the sport’s marketing campaign, performed again and again), a Laborious Countless Mode, and a Boss Raid Mode. It’s a skinny providing in shoot ’em up phrases, particularly as Rick Henderson is dishonest: the Laborious Countless Mode is extra an issue setting, and the Boss Raid Mode is only a copy-paste of all of the bosses within the recreation. We’d say that there’s a mode-and-a-half right here. 

Then you definately’re selecting your pilot as a result of – shock horror – it isn’t really the Rick Henderson present. It’s also possible to select Ben X9 (which we assume is a Ben 10 joke), who’s an alien vampire, and Thoraxx, who’s the spit of Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This alternative is extra vital than you would possibly count on. Not solely are there base variations to statistical data like pace and the variety of life factors, however the totally different characters have specials if you press Y on the pad. Rick has a frankly horrible decoy, whereas Bebop will get a useful screen-wipe within the type of artillery. Ben X9 will get the flexibility to teleport forwards, which is alright, we suppose. 

Then you definately’re into the sport’s loop, and Rick Henderson’s high quality shines via. It’s, within the fundamental stuff of its capturing, actually quite good. The ship strikes lithely, the collision detection is precise and the bullets have an effect and heft that makes you are feeling highly effective. The foundational stuff is on level. 

Transfer into the weapons and issues are even higher. You have got three core weapons at hand, fired with X, A and B. X is your conventional bullets: the all-rounder that fires in a straight line and offers the identical harm to all unit sorts. A is your power weapon, which offers harm to shields, and fires randomly such as you have been pissing bubbles. B is an artillery weapon, and it carves into armoured, quite than shielded, enemies, which is especially true of bosses. 

What this implies is that you just’re always switching between weapons relying on the enemies which were spat out. Matching the weapon to the enemy is enjoyable sufficient, and retains you in your toes. However the true magic comes from the weapon power-ups. Every of those three weapons could be swapped out with 9 various weapons, totalling twenty-seven. These may have been formulaic and, to be truthful, a number of are. However so lots of them are imaginative and positively beckon you to check them out. 

Our favorite was the Randomiser, which is sort of a pinball multiball in shoot ’em up type. Bullets randomly bounce across the display, and you’ll hearth off so many that you just’re given a sort of bullet armour. A sniper-like weapon creates a reticule that can be utilized to one-shot enemies. Chain weapons, channeled lasers and ricochet bullets all make an look. It’s an overstuffed arsenal, and it’s fabulous. 

Ranges are comparatively easy, in shoot ‘em up phrases, with waves of mobs coming and going in numerous permutations and patterns. However Rick Henderson has a mild randomisation algorithm which implies that waves seem barely in a different way on every playthrough. Bosses have a number of phases, however name on them randomly too. It implies that you’re in your toes: you may’t memorise ranges within the method that you just would possibly with different video games. If something, we’d have favored extra of it: Rick Henderson begs to be replayed, however the sequence of bosses by no means modifications. We’d have taken some boss- or level-variance. 

The bosses are a tad nameless – virtually completely spaceships with simplistic silhouettes – however they’re enjoyable to combat, they usually’re telegraphed extraordinarily properly. You may quickly be taught to grasp them if in case you have the endurance and skill. 

However it’s what occurs after they’re downed that we love. They explode in a bathe of shields (progressing your rank, and due to this fact your factors and achievements) and gems, however in addition they provide one in all 4 totally different perks. You would possibly go for smaller advantages with no downsides, or greater advantages with plentiful downsides. We beloved creating builds that emphasised rating, at the price of issues like well being and defences. We have been a rating machine made out of polystyrene.

There’s little or no else to complicate issues. As talked about, Rick Henderson isn’t one for story, so that you don’t get something to chew on by way of cutscenes or endings. We’d have taken some narrative color, however we didn’t notably miss it when it wasn’t there. A ‘graze’ counter accumulates if you narrowly miss a bullet, and it may be spent on good bombs that obliterate your opponents. 

What all of this quantities to is a particularly succesful shooter with a cargo-full of concepts. We is probably not on board with that identify, however the whole lot else is supremely strong, from the arsenal of weapons to the end-of-level perk system. We had a gormless grin on our faces as we performed it, and you’ll’t ask for greater than that.

Rick Henderson is just a little slice of arcade-shooting goodness, and typically that’s greater than sufficient.

You should purchase Rick Henderson from the Xbox Retailer