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
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