Sparkster is so cool! They tick so many random checkboxes for me!

[X] Anthro
[X] Cool Armor
[X] Jet Pack
[X] Goggles (Goggles are cool)
[X] Expert Mech Pilot

What endeared them so much to me too was actually their idle animation! They look so jovial, they're happpy to be the hero! Sparkster doesn't brood (Ignore the NA cover here), he's anxious to start the day and get to the rescue of their fair princess! He's a gallant jet-propelled knight who's a zoom zoomin' all around and beating up all the bad guys! Mr. Nutz, Punky Skunk and Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel are so angry that Sparkster is actually awesome! They are so mad! Sonic's got nothin' on Sparkster! Except merchandise apparently! What gives Konami? Where's my Sparkster nendoroid , Sparkster YGO cards, Sparkster party accessories, and Sparkster line of clothing?

Ah well, knowing my luck they'd use this look instead, and I'd be an absurdly sad rabbit. Fuck that guy, this is the boy you want.

This game rips, it's Saturday Morning Cartoon down to the empowering theme music that blares from the first stage and goes off after every victory. Sparkster's here to fuck shit up! Those damn pigs won't know what hit'em! You got that patented Konami difficulty, but thankfully they kept themselves in line and didn't Bayou Billy this one. As a matter of fact we actually got all the difficulties unlocked by default over here in NA! Thank the lord above that Konami wasn't dumb enough to make their mascot platformer harder than 90% of the Famicom library, although they were cheeky enough to call Japanese "Normal" the "Children" difficulty and cut you off from the final boss if you played on that. Couldn't help yourselves could you?

Konami: "Nope."

Easily one of the most memorable titles I ever played on the Genesis back then, you know it's memorable when I didn't even own this shit and only played on Sega Channel! I so wish I had owned it growing up though! I would've been a master at it and been Rocket Royalty of some sorts.

You're the coolest Sparkster! Look at him! AAAAA HE'S SO FUCKIN' COOL!!!

Around this point in time, say, 1990-1992, Konami, despite having plenty of successful titles under their belt, didn’t really have any kind of mascot to call their own. Yeah, they had plenty of successful franchises, like Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, and so on, but they didn’t have a main character that had that worldwide appealing factor to them, as can be seen with other video game mascots like Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and Bub- I MEAN, UH………. Aero the Acro-Bat. Nice save there, Mega. But anyway, these characters were all the rage back in the day, so they figured that they needed to throw their hat into the ring somehow, and they managed to do so by not only creating a cute animal mascot to call their own… but also by giving them a rocket pack! This character would then get to star in the first of quite a few games known simply as Rocket Knight Adventures.

For the longest time, I had never played any Rocket Knight game before, but I REALLY wanted to, as it looked to be right up my alley. I am a big fan of these mascot platformers from back in the day, and it looked like it had the exact kind of chaotic energy that Konami usually put into their games back then, which I adore, along with charming characters placed right alongside it. It’s almost as if they made this game just for somebody like me! However, I still hadn’t checked it out in a long time, so I knew it was about time that I finally gave the series a proper shot, so I played through the first game, and yeah, it was just as great as I expected it to be. This is definitely one of the best mascot platformers that you can find on the Sega Genesis, giving you everything you could want from one of these games, mixed with a dash of Contra-level energy and craziness that makes it damn near perfect for someone like me.

The story is pretty decent for a game in this genre, where chaos erupts in the kingdom of Zephyrus, with the fair Princess Sherry being captured by the evil Axel Gear, along with a mysterious force seeking to reactivate the power of a destructive starship known as the Pig Star (hey, if Sonic can do it, so can this series), so it is up to Sparkster, taught in the ways of being a Rocket Knight, to set out to not only save the princess but also to stop the Pig Star from destroying everything, which is a story that basically decided to take the two most generic plot points for platformers from the 90s and combine them into one, which I can definitely respect. The graphics are wonderful, having plenty of colorful levels to travel through, accompanied with plenty of characters and enemies, Sparkster included, that have wonderful designs, the music is pretty great, having plenty of up-beat, yet still menacing-at-times tunes playing throughout the game, with this just being one of the many great tracks to be found here, and the gameplay/control feels just right for this kind of game, giving you plenty to work with for a typical platformer, while also mixing in plenty of fresh and exciting elements to help it stand completely on its own.

The game is an 2D action platformer, where you take control of Sparkster, go through a set of seven different levels spanning many different environments that range from peaceful and simple to deadly and chaotic, slash your way through many different enemies using your trusty blade or your rocket pack in many different situations, gather plenty of fruit to keep yourself healed throughout the journey, as well as extra lives for whenever you die (not IF you die), and take on plenty of large and insane bosses, each putting the player’s skill to the test in plenty of different ways. You have all the right ingredients for a fairly standard platformer present here, but then you have the standout elements that make Sparkster what he is, mixing them together with these standard elements, to end up with a concoction that provides a sweet and satisfying experience all the way through.

Sparkster himself does many of the typical things a platformer mascot should, such as running, jumping, and slicing down foes with a weapon of his choice, but alongside all of that, he also incorporates the rocket pack in with everything else, making for one of the best mechanics of the game. With this rocket pack, you can charge it up and launch yourself in any direction you wish, allowing you to not only speed along through plenty of different parts of the levels, but to also reach certain areas you wouldn’t be able to do so otherwise, and to cause MASSIVE damage to enemies and bosses while swinging your sword, and that shit right there ROCKS, I don’t care what anyone says. Mix all that with some other small, yet nice touches, like how you can hang onto trees and other platforms at some points, along with level gimmicks like going in and out of the background and high-speed cart segments, and Rocket Knight Adventures gives the player plenty of challenges to overcome with some kick-ass tools to boot, and it is a joy from start to finish in every way.

Not only that, but the game also makes sure to keep the gameplay fresh and unexpected as you go along, with there being plenty of sections and entire levels where it will change up the gameplay style to make things interesting. There will be plenty of instances where you will be continuously rocketing forward, taking on a horizontal shmup style, slicing down many things flying in your way, dodging plenty of projectiles coming from all over the place, and taking on plenty of bosses along the way. It doesn’t do anything too crazy with these segments, certainly not to the level of actual shmups out there, but it manages to be refreshing and fun enough to where you can definitely get behind it a lot of the time. If all of that wasn’t enough for you, how about an entire boss fight of the game where you control a GIANT ROBOT, swinging punches at Axel Gear, who is also in a giant robot, in an over-the-top game of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots? It isn’t necessarily the best segment in the game, but it does still manage to be fun and fairly tricky, to where when you manage to take Axel Gear down, you feel like you truly triumphed over a hard foe.

And speaking of triumphing over a hard foe, that belatedly leads onto one of my only real criticisms for the game as a whole: it is REALLY HARD. In the good ol’ classic Konami tradition, this game will not hold any punches, sending plenty of enemies and hazards you way at any chance it gets, some that can even insta-kill you if you aren’t careful, and you need to react accordingly and carefully in these situations, otherwise that rocket knight suit will be donned by nothing other than a rotting marsupial corpse. Granted, there are plenty of difficulty options that can help you make things easier for yourself, but once again, this is a Konami game, which means that not only will you not get the true ending by playing on certain difficulties, but the amount of lives and continues that you get vary greatly depending on which difficulty you choose, mostly not in your favor. Also, this may be just a little personal grievance, but I think the final level gets a LIIIIIIIITLE too trigger happy with its bosses, as you have to go through, like, five or six of them before you have truly beaten the game, even during sequences when you think you are truly save. Again though, that might just be me.

Overall, despite how brutal it can be and the final level dragging things out further than they needed to be, I can’t believe I didn’t try out any of these games sooner, because this first entry manages to get just about everything right, having wonderful and charming visuals, a soundtrack full of bangers, incredibly fun and satisfying gameplay, and that classic 90s Konami insanity that I just can’t get enough of. I would definitely recommend it for those who are a big fan of mascot platformers, as well as those who are looking for more games from the Genesis to play, because if you haven’t given this game a shot yet, then you, my friend, like me for most of my life, were truly missing out. And hey, it’s even coming back in a brand new collection, so that means you will have very easy means to try it out!............. unless you wanna play it right now, in which case, if you aren’t willing to go out and find a copy for yourself, yar-har-fiddly-dee it is.

Game #569

Many of you will just have to trust me when I say there's no niche furry following for this guy and that's shocking. Klonoa hasn't had a game in a thousand years either but that guy's fuckin popular. Is it because the 360 game sucked? Would we have gotten a revival if it had been good? The only option is for me to make a Sparkster OC, they'll be green with TWO swords.

Anyway this game kicks ass. I only really played the sequel (Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, not Sparkster, the SNES game, which also exists to confuse you) and I loved it back then but knew this one was supposed to be better. Gamers are incredibly hyperbolic about this kind of thing so I'm pretty sure it's fine, but I admit part of my argument for that was the robot boxing section and turns out this one ALSO has a robot boxing section which pokes a big hole in my identity as a defender of Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (not Sparkster)

Apparently, the goal with RKA was for Konami to prove that the loss of the Treasure developers would not stop them making fantastic action games, and they succeeded. Fantastic Genesis synth jams, cute and memorable characters, and a ton of neat bosses and gimmicks, paced out perfectly, it's all there. It really stands out as an action game of the era by eschewing the kinda "jungle level, water level, fire level" structure for something more narrative. The first of seven stages sends you through enough different environments to justify 2-3 stages of lesser games, but each one after that gets progressively smaller in scale, not that it really matters. Just an observation.

If I was going to complain, it would be about all the things that can instantly kill you with pits and crushing and such, many of which can't be easily forseen on your first go. But honestly I know I wouldn't be dinging the game for that if it was one I'd already played enough to smooth over it, so I won't.

Fuck man you get a recurring rival that's just you but cooler and purple. Can't be beat. Looking forward to playing the other, worse games and giving them a 3 or a 4 on here probably.

A joyous, breakneck festival of goofy moments and ideas, sort of in the shape of a mascot action-platformer. It's one of those games where there's basically one "normal" level right at the beginning that explores the mechanics in a straightforward way and then it becomes a weird rush of bosses and setpieces and never goes back. This makes it feel breezy and fun, but shallow. Not everything works, but when one thing doesn't you know something totally different is like 30 seconds away. Super playable. It goes.

Also 10/10 top-tier Konami soundtrack and sprite art. Some of the best of both on the Genesis.

Sparkster could’ve, should’ve, would’ve been one of the prime gaming mascots of the 16-bit era, but didn’t. Sonic alone couldn’t have crushed Nintendo under the might of his blast processing-fueled swiftness, despite what Sega would have you believe. Sega formulated Sonic as a means to give Mario some gruff, but they failed to realize that Mario has compadres at Nintendo. While Mario is Nintendo’s golden boy, their lineup of other first-party franchises could possibly sustain the system even if Mario had been left to fester in obscurity in some alternate timeline. The Sega Genesis provided some solid exclusives, but the blue blur always eclipsed every other game in their library due to Sega giving him goliath-sized precedence in their company. Something like Super Smash Bros. could come to fruition for Nintendo because they didn’t put all their eggs in their Mario basket. Link, Samus, Kirby, Donkey Kong, etc. are all iconic figures with the same quality and longevity as Mario. Nintendo has always had a roster of mascots representing their brand, albeit to a lesser degree than Mario. Sega, on the other hand, would have complications in achieving the same impact with their roster. Ristar? Vectorman? Who the fuck are they? Sparkster of Rocket Knight Adventures fame (using the term tentatively) would also fail to inspire excitable recognition from most people like Sega’s other underlings. Unfortunately, his first exclusive outing on the Sega Genesis also sold horribly, giving Rocket Knight Adventures a cult classic status. It’s a damn shame considering if more people purchased Rocket Knight Adventures, there would’ve been a potential to give Sega a bigger advantage in the 16-bit console wars.

Sparkster’s design simply screams mascot material. How could anyone not love a sword-wielding possum dressed like a knight with goggles seated on his brow? If Sparkster doesn’t melt you with that adorable smile on the cover, you might be a cold-hearted sociopath. I wanna pick up the little guy and give him a big bear hug, only if his armor probably didn’t weigh a ton. Sparkster is a brilliantly designed character. Gaming companies consider their respective mascots to fall on the spectrum of either cute or cool and Sparkster is the perfect mesh of both. All checks out in the design department, but how does this tech-savvy varmint control? The gameplay of Rocket Knight Adventures is much like its 2D platformer contemporaries. The gameplay is simple and easy to use, but the player must hone it to a certain degree to make it through the varied platforming and combat challenges the game provides. Sparkster, however, comes with some extra frills to his gameplay that makes Rocket Knight Adventures stand out. His base attack is the swing of his sword, but his blade is not a contact weapon. Each sword swipe will unleash a swirling projectile like Link’s sword in The Legend of Zelda. Unlike Nintendo’s elfin wonderboy, getting hit at maximum health for Sparkster does not remove this move. In a way, Sparkster’s projectile-based primary weapon makes his gameplay more like a run-n-gun than a standard platformer. On the scope of platforming, Sparkster isn’t the most agile of platformer characters, but he does have some unique attributes. Sparkster will climb and swing off of various tree branches, vines, and other thin, ropey structures by his tail, cultivating his possumhood and using it to adapt to the land of the levels. It’s a wonder why he also doesn’t play dead to thwart unsuspecting enemies and then sneakily dispose of them like Solid Snake. More importantly to Sparkster’s platforming abilities than his innate marsupial instincts is the “rocket” alluded to in the title of the game. The jetpack on Sparkster’s back is an essential asset to Sparkster’s platforming gameplay and can be activated at any point. Holding down the attack button until the meter will charge the jetpack and releasing it will shoot Sparkster across the map. Jetpack blasts can be also launched in a myriad of directions for different uses. Besides carrying Sparkster past tall obstacles, it can also be used as an attack move that does slightly more damage than a standard swipe. Charging the jetpack without a clear direction will execute a spin move that will damage any colliding enemies. The developers also implemented what can only be described as less fluid, more violent wall jumps to get more utility out of the jetpack than simply rocketing past everything. With a full charge meter, Sparkster will bounce off these walls in the blink of an eye, placing him at unprecedented heights. One must not use the jetpack too liberally, however, as the trajectory of its blasts is erratic and can often lead to Sparkster careening off the stage to his death. Sparkster’s moveset is one of the most interesting I’ve seen across any 2D platformer. It’s bombastic and requires a bit of practice to master, but his overall control still carries an aura of accessibility.

I mentioned before how Sparkster’s basic attack makes the game feel more like a run-n-gun game than a 2D platformer, but this extends to many other elements of the game as well. Rocket Knight Adventures was developed by Nobuya Nakazato, a Konami mainstay most notable for developing the Contra games. If there is one franchise synonymous with the run-and-gun genre, Contra should be the first to come to mind. While Sparkster’s arsenal doesn’t extend past his gleaming energy sword, and it technically isn’t a gun, Rocket Knight Adventures still exudes the high-octane action of a run-and-gun game one would normally find in Contra. Enemies will bumrush Sparkster instead of waiting diligently for him to face them like the goombas and koopas of the Mushroom Kingdom. An immediate correlation that reminded me of Contra was the vehicle filled with enemies that attempted to turn Sparkster into roadkill. Vehicles of this kind are incredibly common in the run-n-gun genre. Often, the screen will stop scrolling when Sparkster is moving to introduce an enemy that will burst from the screen.

In the second level, Sparkster finds himself on a railcar and has to defeat enemies while it speeds on the tracks. Sometimes the level will suggest the intended direction by planting a hovering “go!” sign on the screen. I’ve never seen any of these elements in any platformer game, but all of the aforementioned properties border on being run-n-gun cliches. Then again, I’ve never seen the platforming challenges Rocket Knight Adventures presents in a run-n-gun game either. Some particular highlights of the platforming sections are the vines accessible beneath the cascading water, seeing Sparkster’s reflection to see hidden platforms in a cave with rising lava, and a pulley machine which Sparkster can change the direction lest he hits the series of radioactive spikes. Each level is also the perfect length that combines all of these elements and incorporates different themes and obstacles that make them individually fresh. Rocket Knight Adventures also incorporates another gameplay style, although not as subtly. At a point in the first level, Sparkster will find a radiating capsule that propels his jetpack to full power as he glides across a body of water with his goggles over his eyes. These sections of Rocket Knight Adventures are highly reminiscent of the scrolling shooter sections of run-n-gun games, and there are no platformer elements interwoven in the makeup of these sections. These scrolling sections are orthodox to the typical run-n-gun game, but they are still a welcome addition to shake up the already nuanced and varied gameplay.

Rocket Knight Adventures also possesses one of my biggest pet peeves in video games that is quite common among games of this era. For all of its charms, Rocket Knight Adventures will also kick the player’s ass from here to Indochina. This aspect, however, is not what irks me. Hard-as-nails games from this era also tend to have an unnecessary arcade style of continuation that forces the player to start the entire game over upon losing all of their lives. At least Rocket Knight Adventures grants the player multiple continuations, unlike other games on the Genesis (cough Sonic cough*). Normally, the charm of a game would wear thin upon multiple deaths, but at least Konami understands the challenge and gives the player some leeway. Besides the four difficulty selections ranging from ball-bustlingly hard to “children’s” difficulty (the old-school platformer equivalent of Uncharted’s explorer difficulty), the game gives the player plenty of health items and extra lives spread across each level. Sparkster’s health and damage input are also reasonable, so I can’t be too steamed at dying in this game despite it happening very often.

Rocket Knight Adventures probably tells a grand, epic tale that supports the gameplay, but one wouldn’t know just by playing it. The game has subtle cutscenes that take place spontaneously in each level, and all of these aren’t enough to weave together a cohesive plot despite their individual charm. Sega ostensibly likes to borrow the looming, superweapon trope from Star Wars as a plot device (see the Sonic games for another example) because Rocket Knight Adventures shares the same commonality. The death machine in the case is the Pig Star, and the evil race of pigs Sparkster has been fighting are dangerously close to usurping the power of this annihilation planet-sized contraption. Axel, a rogue rocket knight who resembles a dark Sparkster, abducts a princess with the key that accesses the Pig Star, and Sparkster must mow down hundreds of pigs to save the princess and prevent total annihilation. He faces Axl (in a dueling giant robot which is one of my favorite parts of the game) and the enigmatic pig leader Devilgus and manages to escape their space headquarters with the princess and save the day. However, this is the canon “true ending” that the player must beat the game on the hardest difficulty level to unlock. What qualifications does the player have to meet to see this ending? What must the player endure on the hardest difficulty of an already hard-as-nails game? A run with no continues where Sparkster dies with one hit. Seriously. I thought the unlocked ending content qualifications for Mr. Gimmick were bad, but this game ramps it up to an absurd degree. I suppose I can be happy with an ending where Sparkster at least leaves the base unscathed, and I guess I’d have to be, all things considered.

If I were Konami, I’d be pretty pissed at Sega. They carefully crafted this game to support Sega in their fight against the Nintendo giant, but Sega ultimately subordinated it in favor of their speedy blue bundle of joy, just like with the rest of their exclusives. I’m going to take a stand and say that Sparkster and Rocket Knight Adventures as a whole does what Sonic don't (see what I did there?) Sparkster has much more mascot allure than the smarmy Sonic, and his game is far more varied, engaging, and fair than Sega could dream of for their penultimate title. Nakazato made the most adrenaline-fueled platformer or the most intricately designed run-n-gun game here, and I think there’s enough evidence for both outcomes. The foundation is tight and bursting with so much appeal and charisma that it might be the best game on the Sega Genesis. It’s just unfortunate that most people, even at the time, didn’t come to the same realization.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

Oh, wow. This had, like, no right to be this good. I mean, Rocket Knight never really picked up enough steam to remain a big franchise, and from a glance, it just seems like one of the many early failed attempts at cashing in on Sonic's popularity. But Konami pulled no punches here, this is not only a great platformer, but an impressive demonstration that Konami really knew how to take advantage of the Genesis, and would go on to do it several more times later.

Rocket Knight Adventures has a spectacle on a similar level to Contra III, showering you with plenty of bosses with individually animated limbs, actiony setpieces, and constantly changing visuals. Due to the short 1-hour length, these moments are relentless, and relentlessly exciting. The difficulty may slow down your progress at times, but it's worth it to push through and see what's gonna happen in the next stage, and the next stage, and the next.

The big gameplay draw of Rocket Knight beyond just the usual jumping and attacking, is how you use your jetpack. The jetpack acts as a sort of 8-directional speed boost that you charge up in order to use. After which, you blast off at high speeds, ricocheting from one wall to another like you're in a pinball machine, at the expense of losing control for a brief amount of time. This gives Rocket Knight some minor strategical lean, as you'll often have to position yourself accordingly to make good use of the mechanic. Figuring out ways to abuse it to get around the stage faster is exhilerating, and makes up a lot of the game's fun.

While there isn't much else to say, there doesn't need to be anything else to say. If you like cool boss fights, Genesis games that went crazy with their special effects, and are in the mood for a good ol' platformer, this'll fill the hole in your heart. Just a solid-ass effort, is what this was. It's a shame the other games did not match up to this one, perhaps Rocket Knight would've still been with us if they did.

this game is awesome. theres so much to love with the style, the music, the way the game feels, overall i just had a great time with it. it is very difficult and i remember the first time i tried this game i turned it off pretty quickly because of the difficulty but trying it again now im happy i gave it a second chance even if i used save states a couple times here and there. honestly though i would love to go back to this some time and try to get better at it not dying as much or trying to go save stateless, i think i would find a much deeper appreciation for it on subsequent playthroughs

One of the more under-appreciated mascots of the 16-bit era. Rocket Knight Adventures feels like it was crafted with love, being one of the best looking games on the Sega Genesis.

An action platformer with a rocket boost mechanic, the game feels like Donkey Kong Country with the ability to shoot out of a blast barrel at will. Absolutely satisfying gameplay and Konami knocked it out of the park on their first try.

Difficulty is hard but fair. If you play with unlimited continues, the challenge level is somewhere around the challenge of a souls game, maybe a little easier. Bosses are easily the best part of the game.

I remember being super impressed by all the setpieces in this game, and now having finished the game, the setpieces absolutely do not slow down until the credits roll. Quite impressive again for a Genesis tile. Pls bring this boy back Konami.

This game was so damn cute and kicked so much ass. One of the best soundtracks on the Genesis and some truly creative levels with amazing set-pieces. Definitely one of my favorite platformers!

Thoughts on replaying (18 Feb 2021): Don't let the cuteness fool you; the game is tough as nails! The boss fights are tense multi-phase affairs and quite a few of them flirt with "frustratingly hard" territory. Quite a few sections of the game are impossible to avoid damage or even death unless you know what's coming in advance, but I can give it a pass because that was par for the course for this era, and because of how cool the game is. What I like about the difficulty is that it forces you to get very familiar with the game's core mechanic of rocket boosting as both an offensive as well as a defensive tool, with its invincibility frames, making the whole experience even more distinctive. Holds up very well for sure!

disappointed by this one, I expected to find a new fav but this thing gets pretty frustrating, and the north american version making the JP 'very hard' mode its default difficulty is such a kick in the teeth

I gave up at the giant robot fight but the lava section and the "haha don't stay at the top left of the screen :)" moment when the stage 5 shmup section's boss flies in were some real lowlights too, I haven't audibly expressed frustration at a game in a while but that did it for me

sparkster is a perfect little guy though. would die for him

I've had to tattoo a bunch of crap to my body Memento style to keep these games straight. But, if memory serves me correctly, this is the first Rocket Knight game on the Genesis out of two, and isn't to be confused with Sparkster on the SNES, which is a totally different thing that doesn't take place in the same continuity but features the same characters. They didn't need to do it like this. They didn't need to do this to my brain.

Complicating this is that I'm pretty sure I did not play these in the correct order, and generally I find them to be similar enough that it's easy to assume a certain level is from one game when it's in fact from another. I gave myself a little refresher since it's been a couple years since I last beat this game, and I've taken all my dementia pills, so when I say this is my favorite one to play I hope you can just take me at my word.

Rocket Knight Adventures puts you in control of the titular marsupial. Armed with a sword and a jetpack, you are unleashed upon a world of pigs with orders to terminate indiscriminately. Challenging platforming sections act as buffers between some amazing boss encounters, which for me is the real draw of Rocket Knight. You might be able to call this game a boss rush, though I think that's stretching things a bit, and perhaps underselling how good some of the platforming is. There's also sections where you're flying through levels laying waste to anything that dares to impede your path of destruction, which gameplay-wise are less autoscrollers and more ridiculous showpieces.

The benefit of there being multiple games spread between both consoles is you have a direct point of comparison for music and sound quality. Personally, I like the soundtrack in this game the best, I think it's a lot punchier coming through the Genesis. I feel similarly about the graphics, though I do think the Genesis follow up is more vibrant and a fair bit more expressive. That's not to say any of these games look or sound bad.

If you're looking for a good 16-bit platformer to kill an afternoon with, you can't go wrong with Rocket Knight Adventures. Or Sparkster. or the other Sparkster.