PixlBit

Sparkster rockets his way into a fantastic action game for the Genesis. 

Rocket Knight Adventures is the first game in the Sparkster series (all of which were good, by the way). The game was developed and published by Konami and was released for the Genesis in 1993. It's considered an action platformer, but it goes beyond that, partly being a side-scrolling shooter, and so much more. 

The game stars Sparkster, an oppossum knight who has a jetpack and a sword. Yeah, he's pretty rad. As Sparkster, you can jump, shoot out beams from your sword, and zoom in specific directions using the jetpack. The villain is, what else, an ugly pig. Don't even ask me about the plot. All I know is, a princess is captured, so the plot is pretty typical. Along the way, you'll fight pigs in giant mechs and other crazy contraptions. 

      No mercy! Sparkster hits the bad guys so hard that their clothes fly off!

Hold down the attack button, and Sparkster's jetpack will begin to power up. Once the meter is full at the top of the screen, let go of the button and Sparkster will zoom in a specific direction. For instance, hold up, and he'll go straight up, then fall straight back down. The first level does a great job of introducing this meachanic to the player, giving arrows on long vertical walls. The only way to get up those vertical passages is to use the jetpack and bounce up the walls (which is awesome!). Sparkster can also hang from trees and poles with his tail. 

The best part of RKA is the sheer variety and creativity found throughout the game. The stages are long, broken down into three segments: part 1, miniboss, part 2, part 3, and the boss of the stage. I was shocked by the variety of gameplay found in each stage. You literally don't know what to expect next. For example, stage 2 begins with you fighting a miniboss in the water; then you progress to a swimming section with platforms to jump around and hang from with your tail; then you fight a miniboss; then you move to a swimming section with water that rises and lowers over spikes; next you have a mine cart section with carnival music; finally you ride into a cave and fight the boss of the stage. Don't expect the next stage to be the same; it will be completely different, and that's what makes RKA such a great game!

A couple times Sparkster gets unlimited flying power and the game transforms into a side-scrolling shooter where Sparkster shoots his sword beams. These sections are great since Konami is known for its solid shooters. Stage 4 resembles Contra 3 for SNES; Sparkster hops from rail to rail on the outside of the villain's huge ship, taking down baddies that jump out of hatches. It feels exactly like one of the levels from Contra 3. The reason for this is the fact that Nobuya Nakazato is the lead designer, and he was also the designer for Contra 3. He must have had a thing for jumping around on airborne airships. 

The bosses in RKA are fantastic. They range from "cool," to "awesome," and even "epic." The first boss is a giant robotic centipede that lunges at you with its teeth. The second boss really surprised me; it has three phases! Three! He's only the second boss, Konami! Anyways, the third boss is a giant robotic fish in lava, and that boss was insane! It eats the platforms you're standing on in a frenzy, so it really keeps you on your toes. Overall, the bosses were very creative and very fun. Sometimes it was difficult to figure out what to do and how to hurt them, but that's part of the fun. 

                                           Awesome boss fight!

The difficulty ramps up in stage 5. Sparkster flies to the evil city of the enemy. I was impressed by the background as he flew through a side-scrolling section. Then, once you enter the compound, these weird dog guards march right at you; you can't hurt them. One part has you racing to get to the bottom of the screen before they do; your goal is to get to a teleporter; if they beat you there, it's an instant death. Pretty vicious. In another section, the floor is rising quickly, and you must move from side to side without getting squished. But the hardest part is the boss of stage 5. The dark oppossum knight gets in a huge robot and begins walking towards you; you have to run and zoom as fast as you can as he chases you. Should you time your rocket to zoom slightly too soon or late, too bad; if the robot barely touches you, it's instant death. I can't tell you how many times I played this part (okay, I'll tell you: gobs of times!). Once you actually make it, you'll jump into a similar robot and battle it out. Why couldn't they just have put you in the robot to begin with? Suffice to say, RKA is a difficult game. Plus it has four difficulty settings, so if you find Normal too easy, try Hard. 

The music is great. Several stages had music that I enjoyed listening to while playing. The main theme is adventurous and fun, and the boss music was pretty cool. As always, check below for a few of my favorite tunes from the game. 

I only have a couple gripes with the game. The platforming parts were a little tricky due to Sparkster handling a little too loosely and slippery. He tended to slide a little bit, and this caused some frustrating deaths. I also wish there was a password system so I wouldn't have to go back and play through the whole game to get to that difficult spot where all my continues were drained.  But these are minor complaints, especially since this was the first Sparkster game, and Konami would only improve on the formula for the sequels. 

Once again, the creativity in this game shocked me. One section has a reflective sheet scrolling up and down just beneath Sparkster. If you touched it, instant death. But it reflected the paths which you could not see due to some overhead stalactites; very creative! Another stage opens up with a bad guy throwing bombs at you; the only way to not get hurt was to hit them back at him, so in a sense, you play a game of Tennis with bombs! You have to keep hitting them back at him until enough blow up to cause him to run away. I could not believe they had something like that in the game! 

Final Verdict--4.5 Stars: Highly Recommended

Sparkster is a versatile hero: he runs, he jumps, he flies, he swims, he fights in giant mechs, he hangs from trees, I mean, what can the guy not do? Mario and Sonic can't seem to hold a candle to this guy! But seriously, RKA is a fantastic game that has some of the most creative level design and gamepley mechanics I've ever seen. The game never becomes repeticious or boring; on the contrary, it makes you say, "I wonder what's next." When a game can do that, it's already succeeded where so many games have failed. RKA is an unconventional, untypical action platformer, and that's a very good thing. It's a must-own game for any Genesis owner. 

Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.