Surprised by the consensus on this game, I quite liked it.

Let's get the bad out of the way first - it's kind of ugly, they didn't have to make everyone this ugly but I guess it comes with the territory when you have a western studio handling a Japanese mascot character.
It's also less willing to push the envelope like the prior games did, like yeah, RKA starts out in a grassy field and medieval castle but that game ends on a spaceship with you fighting some kind of AI super computer - this one doesn't really have anything like that and you don't even fight Axel in a 1-on-1 giant mech battle, did these guys even play the other games past the first few levels?!

Well alright, now that that's done I wanna say that Sparkster controls absolutely wonderfully in this game, I love how the developers took all the weird control schemes he had in the prior games and mashed them together into something more cohesive and responsive.
Basically everything is accounted for here except for the dash move from the SNES game, movement's a little slower than usual but that ends up working to the game's benefit since there's a lot more emphasis on the collectathon element this time around (and by a lot more I just mean they keep a tally of what you collect in each level, it's not actually that significant)

The levels themselves are much meatier than prior games, which is to be expected from a sequel coming out 15 years later, there's less overall stages though which can end up making the game feel a tad short despite it taking almost double the amount of time to complete, but there's enough fun combat and platforming challenges here to keep you engaged, and nothing feels as haphazard as some of the gimmicks in the other sequels.

Do I think this game surpasses the original or even matches it? Well no, RKA has a lot of fun original ideas which this game kind of lacks and the faster pace of the gameplay and more focused level design gives it an energy that's kind of missing here too, but as someone who really did not click with the sequels to that game I think Rocket Knight 2010's attempt at creating an experience that still tries to encompass them is to be commended and it ends up making a game that I'd say is much greater than the sum of its parts.

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.

Didn't really like this game that much.

Compared to the original it feels like it's throwing way too much stuff at the wall, the level design feels sparse and haphazardly thrown together with no sense of flow or connective tissue, they're going for like a Sonic-esque thing where there's multiple paths through the levels but it doesn't really feel appropriate for Sparkster's moveset which tends to be very stop and go.
The bosses also feel much less thought out this time around with it mostly just being a matter of throwing yourself at them and hoping you kill them before they kill you.

Another slight against this as a sequel to RKA is how the aesthetics just aren't nearly as nice - the colors are much more garish this time around and the level themes aren't as cohesive as they were in the original.

I made it as far as the robot fight against the rival knight before I gave up on the game, the shmup section took a huge hit and despite this game's overall faster pace it was sluggishly slow compared to the equivalent bits from the original, just the thought of having to go through the whole thing every time I die to the RNG robot boss fight fills me with dread.

It's a fine enough game I guess, if you've never played the original you might get more enjoyment out of it than I did, but as it is I think I'm fine with not touching Sparkster again for the time being.