Competitive multiplayer maps where you are racing for a top spot, and fun, frantic single-player levels that are open to finding the fastest route are just some of the fun that RocketBoots Mania has to offer.
In RocketBoots Mania, you are, as the name suggests, wearing rocket boots that can propel you quickly forward, but you have to build up your rocket power to use them. In order for you to do that, you must make small hops around each level, and doing so will both help you move faster and charge up your rocket boost. Additionally, you can also wall run, wall jump, slide and ledge climb, giving you plenty of ways to play. Chaining these movements together will not only help you reach distant platforms or climb faster, but will lend a hand in boosting your way up the leaderboards.
I spoke with Antonin Tripes who is the lead animator on RocketBoots Mania and he told me the game was intended to be easy to access but hard to master. He first showed me a demo of a PAX-exclusive level called ‘Shuffle’ where players are given a random start point and have to clear a set of checkpoints around the level to finish it. Hitting each checkpoint starts a bonus timer that gives you extra points depending on how quickly you access the next one. The layout each time was the same, but having where you start from altered made each playthrough and strategy of the level unique.
Beyond that, Antonin showed me a taste of the final game’s campaign mode, complete with a sprawling overworld adorned with a tapestry of levels of various environments and challenges. There are even boss fights that use the parkour nature of the game to offer additional challenges. The core goal, however, is reaching the lowest times on the leaderboards, beyond just completing each level, so there’s plenty of challenge for everyone. Appropriate medals are awarded — all the way up to Ultima — for record-breaking times.
RocketBoots Mania is currently available on Early Access on Steam. There is also a demo for the game available at their Discord channel. You can follow further development of the game on Twitter.
