Rocket Knight Adventures

"Konami's glorious but underappreciated debut on the Genesis."

In September 1993, the famed Konami released their first game for the Genesis and what's arguably their most obscure game ever- Rocket Knight Adventures.

Sparkster the Opossum (THEIR'S an animal you'd never expect to see as a protagonist), the rocketpack-sporting hero, was the most valiant knight in the kingdom of Zebulous. He had a rival knight named Axel Gear that also had a rocket pack. Axel Gear was very rambuctious and disloyal. He soon got to the point where he attempted to kill Sparkster partly because he hated the way he was so popular and respected and partly just for an ego boost (no pun intended). However, Axel lost the fight and Sparkster banished him from the land ''forever''. Years later, a new evil emerged- the malignant Pig Emperor and a plethora of powerful pigs. They devastated the kingdom and eventually overran it. Even worse, it turned out that Axel Gear had pledged his loyalty to the Pig Emperor- Not that Axel cared much about anything but revenge. The army soon went after the Key to the Seal- a royal family relic haned down from generation to generation and also a key that can activate an extremely powerful spaceship called the Pig Star. That would allow the Emperor to quickly take over the kingdom.

Sound interesting? Sorry to suck half the fun out of the plot, but I have to tell you- after the the army stole the key, they captured the princess. Now Sparkster must single-handedly save the day.

The controls of the game are pretty simple; you can jump, and you can slash (the slash gives a blue shockwave that goes about three inches forward). If you hold the slash button down for two seconds, it will power up your rocket meter. When it's at full power, you can thrust forward in any one of eight directions with Sparky's sword protruded ahead of him. The rocket boosts go pretty far (about 8 inches on a 14 inch tv), but after you go those 8 inches, Sparkster falls down and is open to attack when he lands. If you hit an enemy with a booster attack, you ricochet away a few feet in the opposite direction you attacked, and that also makes you pretty vulnerable on the landing. Last but not least, if you don't push in any direction while you let the button go, you'll do a two-second spinning slash good for when the enemy comes to you.

OVERVIEW I

GAMEPLAY: 10!

Who would ever have thought that so much technique could be stored in two measly buttons? There are so many different strategies that are necessary to defeat certain enemies and bosses. They make sure that you use every move frequently. The gameplay is always fast-paced and exciting- you never need to hold a button down for a whole level because Sparky walks pretty fast. The control is near-flawless and completely responsive. Jumping is very controlable, but the rocket boosting is not- you can't change the direction at all in the middle of thrusting. But that doesn't matter anyway since they go so darn fast.

The collision is quite interesting; when you slash an enemy, they flash for a split second and can't hit you. sometimes they can even pass right through you without hurting you at all if you're slashing them quickly enough. When they hit you, you get knocked back a few inches. That also happens when you hit enemies (or a wall) with rocket thrusts. That can be annoying sometimes since it often sends you to an enemy on a silver platter- worse yet, a cliff or some spikes! Good thing the game controls so well!

GRAPHICS: 9+

The backgrounds are very detailed in most areas, but lacking in others. In the first stage, there's grass and dirt in the front, a few burning huts and some trees behind that, and clouds and mountains behind that. There are few Genesis games that have that much depth to the backgrounds, albeit they could be just a little bit more vivid and colorful- seeing that most levels only have five-color backgrounds. Nevertheless, they're still effective. Some of them are extremely good, like the industrial level where you can see pig-shaped buildings in the at four or five different planes. You can even see smoke puffing out of some of them.

Sparkster is dressed in a blue knight outfit with a bit of his brown shirt and pants plus his ears visible. You can also see the rocket pack on his back and his goggles when he takes flight- his tail even swipes around! Of course, he doesn't look as repulsive as a real opossum, but maybe that's because you can only see his face and tail. For such a silly character, they sure try to make him look heroic and ''serious'' sometimes (like on the intro). They can even pull it off at times. Most of the other characters aren't as well designed; there are way to many pig soldiers. It can get kind of old to look at them after a while since 90% of the enemies are pigs. The only difference is rather they're driving a truck or operating a robot. However, the robots and such can look very cool sometimes.

The effects are quite exceptional; this is probably the highest amount of explosions you'll EVER see on a mascot platform game! They're everywhere since you fight so many machines. They're some pretty amusing animations at times, like when Sparkster falls at the end of a rocket flight and he flaps his arms while sweat flies from his face. Last but not least, they're some very entertaining cinemas after you beat each level. They manage to tell a story that's cool from beginning to end, but NO text or talking is used at all! That's amazing!

SOUND: 8+

Okay, so the slashing doesn't sound like real slashing, the rocket pack thrusting doesn't sound like real rocket pack thrusting (not that there IS a real rocket pack thrusting sound) and the explosions don't sound right either. But all of them are quite satisfactory. The slashing sounds like you're throwing swords, but that's not really a bad thing. The explosions are the best I've heard on the Genesis next to Contra: Hard Corps. The rocket boosting sound (which you'll hear quite often) is annoying at first, but gets unnoticeable after an hour or so. Those are pretty much the only sounds aside from a few you'll only hear once or twice. The voices (actually, pig squeling and rodent squeaking) are very irritating, but that only adds to the humor and feel of the game.

MUSIC: 8

Pretty hard to explain. The music is as much of a hybrid as the setting; a bit over half of it is the stereotypical medieval music with a couple of twists. It sounds cute yet heroic. The rest of it is quite opposite; futuristic techno style music that also has a bit of a ''cute'' feel to it in some places. Both types are solid in most cases and barely lacking.

DESIGN: 10!

The setting of the game is a very weird hybrid of Medieval times and futuristic times. The very fact that he's a knight with a rocket pack proves that!

The level design is the some of the best on the system! It can really have you thinking that this was an arcade game first, but it wasn't. The ONLY straightforward level on the game is the first part of the first level. After that, you go through some very exciting scenes. That includes a part with a constantly rising and descending pool that shows the reflection of everything on the other side (an amazing effect), a part where you rush to the top of a constantly enclosing room and even a few shooter sections! Of course, that's all topped off with the clic`e levels like the rollercoaster ride and the opening village. Even cooler, you're never in the same level for more than a few minutes (if you don't die 100 times, that is). I'm not going to spoil any more about them, so I'll just say the level design constantly keeps you on your feet, and as far as Genesis games go, the only superior it has is Strider.

As I've said before, the normal enemies are cool, but I just wish that the pig characters didn't hog so much of the game (again, no pun inte- oh, who am I kidding!). At least most of the bosses aren't pigs. Speaking of the bosses, that's my favorite part of the game! You fight about three mid-bosses and one main boss per level! I love bosses! They're very well designed- ranging from a COLOSSAL spaceship that takes 30 minutes to beat (probably longer than any level) to a centipede that attacks you with his tail on one side while he tries to bite you on the other!

CHALLENGE: 6+/8/10+!

Easy mode is very good for beginners- as it will take them about 5 full tries to beat it. That's the same with an intermediate player on normal, but make sure you start on normal! Hard mode is {ahem} another story. They give you ONE life, ONE hit point and NO continues! They could've at least given you three lives and continues! It is a good contest for experts to see how far they can get on the hard mode, though. They really should have a difficulty level between normal and hard. Some of the levels can be just plain evil for the target audience sometimes on any mode- like the next to last level.

The levels can get pretty tricky sometimes- and they really know how to lure you into wasting a few lives trying to get a 1-up near a cliff or some spikes. The bosses can be very tough, but most of them are just based on timing and placing. I wish that the enemies didn't have such set patterns. They could've done at least ONE different movement each time you fight them!

REPLAY VALUE: 7

It will take a while to beat this on the choice mode, but when you do, you probably won't want to come back to it for quite a while. Last time I've played it today was in 1997. The patterns really hurt the replay value. The most you can frequently do with this after finishing it is to waste tons of your time trying to beat the hard mode. Or just compete with someone. It's a better bet if you play it on a Nomad. But it's still cool without one.

OVERVIEW II

YES!!!
*tons of bosses
*lots of technique
*beautiful graphics and effects
*the arcade game-like level design
*unexpectedly decent plot for a mascot game
*spikes don't kill you in one hit!

NO!!!
*the very set boss patterns
*the uneven difficulty levels
*the monotonous pig images (on buildings, ships and all)
*no secrets, different characters, or different weapons

SAY WHAT?

Despite it's low popularity, Konami was kind enough to give this game two sequels. Sparkster for the SNES and Genesis. Yes they ARE completely different.

MOMENTS OF GLORY

Definitely the robot suit fight. I'm not spoiling that one. A close runner-up was my reaction when I first saw Axel shoot from that blaster of his on the space level. Over-the-top!

OVERALL: 9+

This is the best Genesis mascot game next ONLY to Sonic 2. This game has more technique and especially plot than ANY other mascot game you can name- because the rest make even less sense than this game (Mario, Sonic, Earthworm Jim, Bubsy, etcetera)! The cool effects and big bosses alone can carry the game. True, it has it's flaws, mainly with the replay value, but overall, this is one of the best bets for the Genesis, period.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/00, Updated 10/29/00