‘Underrated’ is a time period too usually utilized recklessly, however for Rocket Knight Adventures, a collection that struggled to succeed in international stardom regardless of Konami’s three-pronged stab, it’s acceptable. Its preliminary entry resides within the higher echelons of every thing 16-bit and is likely one of the best titles on the Mega Drive. But, Sparkster, regardless of hitting all the fitting notes for an anthropomorphised gaming hero of the ’90s, inexplicably underperformed at market.
The Re-Sparked assortment options Mega Drive entries Rocket Knight Adventures (1993) and Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (1994), in addition to Sparkster for the Tremendous Nintendo (1994). Moreover, there are a wealth of choices and bonus options on board within the type of artwork museums, music gamers, boss rush modes, CRT filters, wallpapers, rewind options, and save states.
Rising from Konami’s most celebrated improvement interval, Rocket Knight Adventures — the collection debut — is godly. All the pieces in its meeting, from aesthetic to mechanics to its dazzling stage selection and unimaginable music rating, hits precisely proper. It is unquestionably the very best of the three, and stays a salient instance of tips on how to hone an action-game expertise with boundless invention and nil fluff.
Set in a fantasy kingdom that fuses conventional castles, knights, and princesses with big steampunk equipment and smog-spewing, oil-caked cities, intrepid Sparkster is tasked with recovering a good maiden from the clutches of Axel Gear — his knight nemesis — and the pig warrior horde generally known as the Devontidos. It’s a journey that can take him throughout land and sea, by big airships and proper into house; a movie-quality journey whose Again to the Future-styled font screams ‘cinematic’, and delivers with aplomb.
Sparkster is supplied with a close-range sword slash, a soar, and a rocket pack that underpins the collection’ integral gameplay mechanic: the enhance sprint. Holding the button prices the rocket pack in seconds, permitting its near-constant use. It has myriad purposes, too, in a position for use as an offensive weapon, piercing by enemies, as a defensive manoeuvre when you want to haul tail, and as a solution to traverse surroundings, usually revealing treats hidden simply out of view. Konami designed its phases across the rocket enhance to chef’s-kiss perfection, having you ping-pong between tunnel partitions and skate away from impending risks. It’s a recreation ploughed with invention, hitting you with one new motion set piece after one other; a tornado-like cocktail of arcade rules unfold over a powerful canvas. Whether or not dodging columns of fireside or hovering over stormy cityscapes; going through off towards big bosses or hitting rollercoaster ramps at breakneck pace, Rocket Knight endlessly dazzles. From fantasy Earth to fantasy starscape, the place you end up inside a pig-shaped model of the Demise Star, the sport reaches an exciting climax of gravity gimmicks and big mecha battles.
Whereas executed to nigh-on perfection and stylistically daring, Michiru Yamane’s musical composition ices this 16-bit cupcake with an outstanding vary of stirring and infectiously memorable tracks. Genius as she was and is, she took Konami’s specs and made it epic throughout the board. Particular point out must be paid to the gloriously arresting chainsaw grind she reserved for the sport’s final stretch: a bit so unremittingly filthy it raises the stakes past all expectation. In a recreation the place you play a Knighted cartoon possum, the blood-pumping aural brutality Yamane serves up for the finale is nearly paradoxical – however oh, how we enjoy it.
The sequel, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is a curious factor. When positioned side-by-side with its predecessor it seems like a straight-to-video sequel. Sparkster nonetheless appears the half, solid meaner and leaner, however visually it’s much less gritty, extra cartoony, and the general scale is diminished. It’s extra a console platform recreation within the conventional sense, shedding the daring arcade motifs and breathless selection that outlined its predecessor. The landscapes lack selection and element, and the layouts can be formulaic if it weren’t for the emphasis paid to the enhance mechanic.
Right here, your rocket pack prices robotically and sooner, and the right solution to assault the sport is to spam the hell out it. When you be taught to spice up, enhance, enhance, there’s enjoyable available right here. It replaces the pig military with lizards, and fortunately will get much less cluttered from stage three onwards. Though it feels clunkier and extra generic, there are nonetheless some good parts and concepts concerned, like corkscrewing big rivets, racing out of the depths of a pyramid, and negotiating trap-laden tunnels through the finale. By itself phrases, it’s nonetheless a strong motion recreation for the Mega Drive, and due to this fact worthy of consideration; and Michiru Yamane returns, opening stage one with a monitor so heroic it’s now the Rocket Knight de-facto theme.
Lastly, Sparkster, the third and last entry within the assortment, hails from the pastel climes of the Tremendous Nintendo – and its graphics actually pop. Once more, Yamane evokes the audio with driving tunes, and there are some good set items scattered all through the journey. Sparkster might be tough in locations, partly on account of stage design that doesn’t have the identical grace as the unique. And, whereas it appears the half and is unquestionably the second-best recreation right here, it nonetheless doesn’t obtain the identical highs because the collection debut.
That is, partially, right down to pacing points, and the constrictions of a conventional platform recreation construction. This turns into evident as early as stage two, which resembles a Sonic stage with its expansive, multi-tiered ranges and conveyor gadgetry, the place gung-ho boosting will get you insta-killed in numerous rock crushers. That mentioned, it’s nonetheless a robust Tremendous Nintendo motion journey, and one that appears nice, with mammoth bosses and distinctive autos to journey. It captures the spirit of journey, options Sparkster’s great appeal, and followers of the collection could have enjoyable returning to a title whose DNA is nearer to the unique.
Relating to emulation high quality, the Re-Sparked Assortment feels about proper. Having performed these video games endlessly through the years, there have been just a few teeny oddities that gave us a second’s pause, and loads of debate as as to if or not it was our creativeness. The overwhelming majority of gamers, nevertheless, wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
Along with all of the neat bonuses on board, you possibly can even play totally different areas of the video games for little presentational variations, and the artwork museum is especially fleshed out, stuffed with authentic flyers, journal adverts, manuals, and idea artwork for all three titles. There’s additionally an all-new animated introduction that’s very effectively completed — even when it doesn’t pip Japan’s authentic 1993 TV spot — and an up to date remix of Sparkster’s theme to get pleasure from.
Conclusion
Rocket Knight Adventures is a collection comprising two nice video games and one stellar, timeless piece of labor. Whereas the sequels are above common for ’90s platform gaming, it’s the collection debut that actually informs this overview’s rating. Rocket Knight Adventures is a title that sits comfortably alongside Gunstar Heroes within the pantheon of remarkable video games ignored of their heyday. It does every thing an arcade motion journey must, and extra, outdoing an unlimited variety of precise arcade video games within the course of. Its always evolving phases, unimaginable number of situations, and driving cinematic soundtrack make it top-of-the-line of its form. If that’s not the very definition of underrated, we don’t know what’s.
