Sparkster, my man. We gotta talk about your obsession with replacing my hedgehog-shaped heart.

You ever wish you grew up with something instead of looking at it through the lens of a jaded 30-year old who's played every piece of trashware and who-gives-a-shit release that had been readily available to them to emulate for the last two decades? You start wondering why they made the introduction fight with your rival skippable, when it's required for the golden ending due to the chaos emerald-laced sword you pull out in the cutscene afterwards, which goes along with the other six swords you're supposed to find later. Two of those swords just being things given to you, either from another fight with your rival or from some run amok stick figure mech in the final stage that sticks it into the ground for you and goes "hasta la pasta" as it heads off to Cucamonga to chill with the big wooden mannequin from Dynamite Headdy.

You ask yourself why the stage where you control your giant mech rampaging through downtown enemy territory is arguably the lowest point of the game. Why do the dumb little chicken walker mechs that the lizard soldiers use take so many rocket-propelled fist punches, thus enabling the auto-scrolling gameplay to become an act of juggling like a Tekken match? Why does Axel Gear in his already-repaired mech feel the need to show up in the background, and sometimes aim behind you where you can't interact with his giant flaming bowling balls and awkwardly punch them back to his ugly face and continue the segment? Why must we rematch in a rock'em sock'em robots bout again where I bait your projectile, and quickly run up and uppercut you in the jaw as you stare in amazement at my ability to block? How many times must we teach you this lesson old man?

Sparkster seems to have gotten a bit more jaded just like me, he's not quite as jovial and happy to be the hero like in Rocket Knight Adventures and has adopted a determined demeanor and a strut that could challenge a Belmont. He now refuses to use projectiles, because he has bought into his own hype and believes that all he needs is a sword and an expensive jetpack he bought at the Possum Boutique that automatically fills his meter. He's developed a gambling problem and started pulling slot machines full-time with all that jewelry he's acquired, and will continue doing so even after a bomb lands on top of his skull out of thin air. His overbearing hubris that has stacked on top of him after defeating the evil swine will surely be the end of him, but not if I can help it! I'll be the one to guide him to safety through the corridor-infested journey of his, and we'll surely take down the confusing mess of an airship layout that is his enemy's getaway vehicle and save the princess!

I still believe in him, for he is the coolest. Godspeed, hero boy.

definitely not a bad game but its odd to me how much of this game just feels like a step down from rocket knight 1. the entire time i couldnt help but think that this game felt like it should have been the first rocket knight when you compare the visuals, level designs, and mechanics with the actual first rocket knight game. it just makes me wonder what happened here to land on this being the sequel to rocket knight. again, i do think this game is a decent amount of fun and i dont regret sitting through and playing it, but it just feels like theres some essence of the first game removed here that just confuses me how this could be the sequel to such a unique and fantastic platformer that somehow came out before this one. i will say though that ost went crazy so at least they got that right

In a slew of mascot platformers that came out during the 8 and 16-bit era, I'd like to think that Sparkster was pretty good. It had a lot of charm and personality, it looked nice, and the music rocked. It had a unique gimmick in going fast and while it was hard as hell at first, gaining a grasp of the rocket mechanics was a core part of the game I enjoyed.

That being said, the game has a slew of old platformer crust to it, like randomly spawning enemies (sometimes cruelly), drab or repetitive boss fights, and level design that often is on the fringe of greatness but borders on frustrating more often than not with a lot of gimmicks that involve waiting around. Sparkster it at its best GOING FAST.

This game is fine. I have a lot of fond memories of it smashing my face against it as a child, but it's rock solid. A shame we never got any more games in the franchise.

One of the biggest drop-offs in quality I've personally seen in a gaming sequel.

Gone is the charm and creativity of the original, which was oozing in cool set-pieces. This one I guess also has "setpieces", but they are anything but cool, instead feeling like they drag on and on. Bosses in particular feel like a waste of time - in the original, you can decimate bosses if you know what you're doing, here you're doing the waiting game a lot.

Even the artstyle was changed, Sparkster's sprite is nowhere near as good as it was in the first game.

His sword is sooooo much worse. You'll now dash everywhere to deal damage.

A strange level design, and mechanical oddities like the slot machine that can punish you for exploring (????) makes the whole thing feel unpolished, almost unfinished. Development was most likely rushed and/or was given no resources.

Credit where credit is due, it was kind of annoying that dashing straight up didn't allow you to control Sparkster's fall in Rocket Knight Adventures, but does it matter when the controls and level design here feel worse?

(this is probably my last review of the year. It's been a fun year y'all!)

The last of three Sparkster games releasedin the 90s, this one seems to be the least well-liked judging from online reception. As for me? I like it quite a bit. Rocket boosting feels slightly different in this one, and one of the biggest changes is that even though you are invulnerable at the start of the boost like in the other games, you somehow feel a lot more vulnerable on the rebound. This made rocket boosting a more deliberate affair, as spamming the boost button against bosses was a quick way to lose a life. I know the cramped level design has its critics, but I still found it fun to rocket off walls like a pinball. There are some cheap 'gotcha' moments, but nothing more than in the other Sparkster games; I would say the difficulty is generally very fair. My one criticism of the gameplay here is that it feels slightly sluggish, lacking the sense of blazing speed that defined Rocket Knight Adventures and Sparkster on the SNES.

This is one of the franchises I wish had gotten more love, and while technically this was the game to 'kill off' the series, I think that's a little bit simplistic. Let's sum up what I think about the three games:

Rocket Knight Adventures had the best soundtrack by far, and my favorite aesthetic. It also kept things fresh thanks to its 'situation rush' approach; this proved to be a double-edged sword because the various set-pieces and different gameplay styles led to plenty of instances of poor balance and cheap difficulty.

Sparkster on the SNES was a more refined platformer - it had lots of depth thanks to its expanded moveset, but it was slightly bland compared to RKA and didn't quite get the difficulty curve right either.

Now this game had IMO the best difficulty curve - lots of hazards and some 'gotcha' moments, but lots of health pickups kept things fair. The level design wasn't as creative as RKA but had some great setpieces (the fight against Axel Gear being a highlight). Unfortunately it feels sluggish compared to the other two and has arguably the weakest soundtrack - it seems to be aping the style of the SNES Sparkster which doesn't work quite as well with the Genesis' slightly crunchier sound palette.

What am I getting at here? Well, I don't think this game specifically killed off the series; I think it was the fact that three games came out within a year of each other, all with different strengths and weaknesses i.e. they were all 'sidegrades' of each other and I don't feel like there was a 'definitive' Sparkster game. If the three games were to fuse together into a Frankensparkster with the strengths of all three (RKA's aesthetic and creativity, SNES Sparkster's moveset and level design, and Genesis Sparkster's difficulty curve) the result would arguably have been THE game of the 16-bit era!

NOTE: This is a review of the Genesis version of the game, which is a completely different game from the SNES version, which I will review next.

Going from playing Rocket Knight Adventures to this feels like a complete downgrade. The game looks like a Java mobile port of the original and plays so stiffly compared to the smooth Donkey-kong country-like RKA.

The boost attack, which was the main selling point of the original, feels really weak and inconsistent. In the original, most enemies would die to it in one hit. Here you just bounce off most enemies, which makes you not want to use it. Even when you try to use it for platforming, it is quite horrible as sometimes you will bounce off surfaces and other times you won't. Having your main mechanic be inconsistent like this is not good.

Levels are just bad. No proper design, just go from left to right while shit is thrown at you. The last couple of levels were abysmal and soured my taste even further. Cool setpieces the original were known for are drastically reduced. The robot boxing match setpiece played worse than the original and every other setpiece included is not fun at all.

I don't know how the visuals were messed up this badly. RKA was one of the BEST looking games on the Genesis. Here it looks like a megadrive launch title. It's seriously off putting if you're playing this right after RKA.

If you liked the original RKA and wanted a sequel, please skip the Genesis version of Sparkster and go play the SNES version that actually feels like a sequel.

This game makes the decision of having Sparkster's rocket pack constantly charging, which actually feels kind of inspired - in the original there was rarely a reason to not be charging the rocket during downtime, so I like that change here where it's simply a matter of releasing the automatic charge rather than having to charge it yourself.

Unfortunately every other aspect of Sparkster's moveset in this game has been absolutely gutted in favor of having you constantly zipping through the levels with the rocket, the walking speed is abysmally slow and just generally jumping, using your sword and hanging from tightropes just doesn't feel good to do at all.

It genuinely feels like a bootleg knock-off of the original - like, you know, it kind of tries to replicate all the stuff from the original game, but it was made in a sweatshop so they barely work and everything feels off since they couldn't actually replicate the nuances of the mechanics?

I couldn't stomach playing it for more than a few minutes.

While it's an alright game on its own merits, as a sequel to Rocket Knight Adventures, it just feels "off" in just about every way aside from the OST (which is still peak).

Visually, this looks more like a generic fantasy action/adventure that can't measure up Disney-meets-Steampunk aesthetic the first game had going on. That's not to say the game looks terrible by any stretch, but it's a noticeable step down from what we got with RKA.

Mechanically, there's a lot of changes that just don't make much sense. Why is there a random slot machine gimmick that may rain bombs down or a (mostly useless) rocket boost when I'm in the middle of trying to cut up some lizard samurai? Why is Sparkster's sword gimped? I do like the idea of having the jetpack charge automatically up to two tiers (presumably doing more damage if you let it charge twice), but the level design really stops complimenting the mechanic altogether at several points. (You really don't want to use it during autoscrollers or some of the tight corridors in the last stage for example)

There are a couple things Sparkster does a bit better than the previous game, though- oversized mechs and exploration. While the mech fight with Axel isn't nearly as fun (and has to be done twice for the best ending with literally no difference between bouts), you do get a whole stage dedicated to running around a scorched city with it and this was a nice change of pace. Secondly, to get the best ending, you need to acquire several hidden swords throughout the course of the game. The only real issue with this is that most players are bound to miss the very first one since you're locked out of it if you skip the opening the cutscene. (Spoiler- getting them all lets you turn into Not-Super Sonic at the end)

Difficulty is kinda all over the place compared to RKA, which had a gradual curve. The first four stages of the game are pretty easy, save for the hidden sword in the desert. It then becomes Konami hard in stage 5 with several gotcha moments (IE a giant insta kill laser that drops in without warning and a bunch of random ass crushers at the last leg of the stage) and dick-ish enemy placement. Mercifully, you don't lose your progress with the swords if you continue but continuing is very limited on normal (just twice). It's just worth slogging through to see the final boss, though. It's actually pretty awesome and I'm not going to spoil it.

While it may be the second worst of the small spattering of Rocket Knight games, it's still worth playing. Just don't go in expecting the same level of polish as RKA- that game was like lightning in a freaking bottle and I don't think it could ever be replicated.

Alright I'm on record, ON THIS WEBSITE, as being a Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (Not Sparkster) defender. Maybe I was a little hasty on that.

Not completely. This game is fine and the whining I was reacting to was the kind of thing Gamers do when they don't have a great articulation of their actual issues where they just list differences. Like for example, the jetpack works differently in this one. But being different isn't inherently making it trash or anything. That's a separate decision, which was also made. Okay that was mostly a goof too.

The jetpack, like everything else, really hits on something I can only call the enSonicification of RKA here. Sparkster himself is drawn just a bit COOLER here, even if there's definitely a cartoony edge to a lot of his animations. The jet dash being so at-will, automatically charging, and not actually bouncing if you hit a surface head-on lead to him feeling way more competent by default. The dash isn't a super-powerful measure to be deployed with a lot of consideration and skill anymore, but a thing you can do constantly without losing much control. You're agile as hell. You're COOL now!

The other Sonic thing is that the levels are now much more open and much more themed. Grass level, desert level, and so on. There's less of a narrative to it. You fight a living tree thing that punches you in the first level because it was just a boss they thought of. How is it working for the lizard kingdom? No idea.

I am much less of a fan of Genesis Sonic than most but really my problems here are just that the checkpoints are kinda frustrating and the level design isn't quite up to snuff. Whatever. It's a perfectly fine game.

RKA2 doesn't really reach the highs of the previous two Rocket Knight games, but it's still pretty good. The main things dragging it down are weaker presentation, lower budget and unlocking the actual ending behind hard mode. Sparkster on SNES does a similar thing there, but I think it manages to conclude satisfyingly enough on normal difficulty, whereas here it just features a screen that says "End" on it.

There are also some parts of the gameplay that are just kinda rough. The mech stage is really bad and just reuses the boss battle from the cold open, which is probably the clearest point where you can tell they weren't given as much money this time. There are also collectibles in most stages that you need for the true ending, and they're typically in somewhat annoying to reach locations a la the early Sonic installments on the Master System. The other two Rocket Knight games don't have anything of the sort, and I think it's better off that way.

Whatever the case, this is still a good game. I wouldn't play or recommend it before the original game or SNES Sparkster, but it's good. At the very least, the mech fight at the start definitely triumphs over the one on SNES towards the end of the game. That game is my favorite of the three but that part is so fucking bad.

RKA on Genesis was a smash original for Konami, and they intended to bring their success over to SNES. But one thing led to another and their RKA SNES port became its own game, titled 'Sparkster', with less emphasis on rigid enemy setpieces and more high-speed vertical platforming. Not wanting Genesis owners to be left out, Konami produced another similarly-titled follow-up, with a proper '2' in the name - unfortunately, it's the weakest of the 16-bit trilogy, with pretty low production value and oddly-cheap restructuring of the core game philosophy.

Like Sparkster on SNES, RKA2 brings vivid JRPG colors, new character design and rocketpack-focused platforming. Movement is the floatiest of the series here - which is nice during hallway and open sections. Sparkster doesn't enter a fall state post-jettison, and your rocketpack auto-charges; with careful aim and rebounding, you can 'air-bounce' through levels freely. It's a very neat, alternative approach from the other two, where movement is conditional to making big gambles from safe point to safe point.

On the downside, combat wasn't rebalanced with these physics changes in mind, and most levels don't give you much movement freedom. Sparkster has really slow running acceleration and a huge wind-up time on the sword; it feels really bad to use and I opted for dashing 90% of the time on instinct, even when slashing gave me better damage investment. There's also just not a lot of platforming centric levels: Stage 3 is an abominable mess that's one-part pipe maze, another-part auto-scroller, Stage 4 is the mech level, and Stage 6 is the final boss.

But moreso than anything, RKA2 is just really diminutive in design: No overwhelmingly-powerful moments and even its better moments don't feel properly playtested. Sprites have more immediately-appealing designs and better use of animation frames and posing, but are much smaller and often less-detailed than both other games; same goes for the background art.

Unintentionally, RKA2 reminded Jenny and I of the Master System Sonic games, with its slower approach, smaller sprites, chaos emerald-like collectibles, and thematic branches between stages. I have a soft spot for its ability to at least feel fully-realized in that compressed vision. I just wish it didn't have so many hiccups along the way.

Reviewing the Sparkster games is no simple task. Before you can even sit down to commit one word you need to shuffle through a mountain of paperwork, checking off countless boxes, double-checking signatures, cross referencing material and sourcing footage in order to ensure you're prepared to talk about the correct game. It's a laborious task, and a thankless one at that. Unfortunately, I fear my previous review for Rocket Knight Adventures (the first of the two Genesis Sparksters) was colored by my inability to distinguish aspects of these two games. There were a few set pieces I mistakenly believed were from Rocket Knight Adventures, but as I've come to find out were in fact from Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, and I suppose it's possible maybe a bit of Sparkster (SNES) was peppered into my memory too, further poisoning the well.

I've started drinking again.

One key area of difference between the original Rocket Knight and RKA2 is how each game utilizes Sparkster's jetpack. In the first game, levels were tightly designed around the jetpack, which not only made navigation with it feel fun, but integral to the experience. While it's not rendered worthless or unenjoyable in RKA2, levels do feel less intelligently designed and more focused on rote platforming, with a few particular stages being much more closed off, limiting how you can use your jetpack. The lowest point of RKA2's level design comes somewhat late in the game, in the form of an airship level where you must knock out portions of the ship while jumping through tubes which transport you to other sections of the stage. The maze-like structure of this level isn't helped by the fact that everything kinda looks the same. It's not great and it takes too long to complete, a blemish on what is still a fine game despite the more regressive way it handles one of Sparkster's key features.

Everything else about RKA2 is fantastic, though. The sprite work is bursting with character and looks even better than the original, and the soundtrack is just as energetic as its ever been. Sparkster still feels great to control, and even though the jetpack is under utilized, it still avoids feeling unwieldy even when you're literally bouncing off the walls with it. Combat is swift, has good impact, and the pacing of levels outside of the aforementioned airship is top notch. Odds are, if you liked the original RKA or Sparkster, you'll probably dig Rocket Knight Adventures 2, even if you may not like it quite as much (like me.)