Rocket Knight Adventures

"With his jetpack and sword... Sparkster could roast those pigs on a spit."

Often when I purchase a game to include in my collection, it's one that I loved as a kid and never had an opportunity to play or because I know I will like it. There are other times I buy for the sheer obscurity of the title, or because I had never played it. With the Genesis, my sources are so dry my habits are more like ‘buy any game that has an inkling of being good,' as Genesis games are hard to find where I live and good games are scarcer still. Thus when I came across some Genesis games for cheap on a trip, I was thrilled and weighed my options. Some of the better ones I had already bought, some were potentially nice. But Rocket Knight Adventures (RKA) lured me in with a few factors. The prospective content was intriguing, Sparkster seemed to be well received as a character, and it just seemed fresher than the other offered titles. Of course, a collector can tell you that sometimes something marvellous happens, sometimes we fall in love!

Corny vacuousness aside, it's a true joy of collecting to take a chance on a game and be wowed by it. It happened with Xexyz and Phantom Fighter, and it happened with Rocket Knight Adventure. Sparkster himself helped a lot in this respect. He's giving me this serious glare on the game's box, setting off an “uh oh! Another 90's attitude mascot!” alarm I built in back in the day, but the actual Sparkster, at least as portrayed ingame, gave me a fresher feeling. He does have a potentially gaggy pose when you leave him idle (hey, at least he isn't swinging his head and arms and bending his knees like the caffeine-enriched heroes of today!) but it's more of a confident and reassuring pose. Otherwise he's a pretty comical character throughout much of the game's story based scenes, yet a serious character in the game's manual. It's a nice mix, serious background material to the game and it's played out more or less light-heartedly.

Not to mention he's an opossum with a sword and a jetpack. Man, that would have made me shriek with glee when I was a kid had I had the foresight to actually play one of the games. Err, as it was I shrieked with glee anyways, but it wouldn't have been so out of place if I were still a kid! As a shootemup fan, I was impressed that there are a few flight levels in RKA. You know, Sparkster may have armour but it's not overly complicated - it keeps his character design decent. Yet they stuck these goggles on his head! My goodness, if there's something plaguing character designs these days it's useless goggles. Well, Sparkster wears his goggles when he flies! As silly as it may be for me to be writing praises about this, useless doodads on characters is a serious annoyance when it comes to the art direction of game.

The flight itself is pretty fun, your attack itself may lead to some issues due to its range but that makes the game a little more difficult. As it is, I've played my fair share of shootemups so I had little problem dodging the assaults of the stock enemies and obstacles, but the bosses were well made and later flight bosses proved worthy. But here I am singing praises over the flight aspect of the game and I haven't even touched on foot-based levels which do make up the majority of the game.

It always seemed more typical of the Genesis than SNES to load their games with minibosses and bosses than focusing more on maybe a miniboss and boss per level., take a peek at Contra Hard Corps for instance. This game doesn't deviate from that formula, there are plenty of minibosses and large enemies to go around. As a result, the actual levels are pretty pedestrian. While there are some excellent ideas, they're usually too short. While you do get to bounce off walls with your charge attack, (just charge your attack, pick a direction and let her go) most of the time these instances are very obvious. But hey! At least the bosses and enemies in general are all fun and inventive. While the aforementioned charge attack can render you nigh invulnerable to bosses' attacks, and your standard attack is ranged, some are hard your first few times against them. Of course my difficulty was set to easy my first time through, that could have something to do with it. On hard, you have considerable less men and no healing items.

I've always loved adjustable difficulty, it solves difficulty problems for everyone. I like a challenge myself (ha, kind of hypocritical when I first played through on easy, but I do that to get a feeling for the game, no? ) but some people complain if a game is too difficult. Optional difficulties are beautiful in the simplicity and practicality of the concept. Where it was so mundane in older generations, it's become a saucy and sordid mistress in the current generation. The game has a Children, Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty. My little brother suggested that I “may as well start with children,” I'll tell you that sure gave me confidence in my abilities.

So I can more or less forgive the small intervals in between bosses, as the levels are actually pretty long. I was impressed when the first level, after a couple miniboss fights still had more to go. I said “this has got to be level 2, the scenery changed totally!” but after beating the boss of this section, I got a stage wrap-up scene and the title card for Stage 2. So the game only has seven levels, but for the most part they're adequate in size. And I can clear my conscience and say that I don't mind the small intervals between bosses, because I like bosses too much. One of my guilty pleasures, I tend to like enemies a little too much. There's one miniboss there that will be a very pleasant surprise to fans of another Konami series. There is a picture of it in the instruction manual if you want to cheat the surprise, but I recommend catching the reference on your own.

There is one enemy I didn't tend to like as much as the rest, Axle Gear the Black Knight. Every hero needs a nemesis I guess, and a time tested success is the “evil twin syndrome.” As Rocket Knights corrupted by greed and power, the Black Knights are prime candidates for this role. Axle gave a grievous wound to Sparkster's master, so Sparkster hunts for the black knight. In the game, Axle will elude Sparkster throughout the levels, and they will clash a few times in some pretty fun fights. You have to pay respect to bosses that are the same size as you and can hold their own. Most of what I know about Axle is from the manual, there's not much exploration on the characters themselves in the game. Which isn't bad in so many respects, the story is there if people want to pay attention to it, but the game isn't long enough to merit truly drawn out scenes.

Not to say the game is short, because I did mention the levels are long, but the build of the game makes it too short for much character exposition. Well, think about it like this. Say you have a game with a save or password feature, even something like Super Mario World where there's a world map with a considerable amount of levels. Then, a lot of story would be acceptable. Games with RKA comparable or inferior length with a bunch of story elements can get dry. Yet at the same time, there isn't a whole lot here. The most a game like this could stand is Ninja Gaiden (NES) style cutscenes, but the style of the game demands they be quick regardless. The game moves at a quick pace, so they let us know what we need to know with respect to how Sparkster reaches the next level. That's really all we need in the end, a story isn't absolutely essential to set the mood because the aesthetic qualities of the game accomplish that on their own.

As I write about the game, I'm compelled to play it through again. Again, the build of the game is partly responsible. It's the kind of game you can pick up, play, and enjoy. You don't have to sit down for multiple hours every time you start a gaming session. The fundamental virtues of “pick up and play” are vastly underrated and ignored. It's the kind of game that can retain it's replay value and keep drawing you back. Personally, when I beat an RPG, I stay away from it unless there are some rad sidequests I feel compelled to complete. With a game like RKA, I'll keep coming back. While the total playtime of the RPG will be larger, the amount of times I'll have completed the action game will be greater. They're different beasts and really shouldn't be compared, but it's a useful comparison when explaining the strength of RKA's replay value.

Overall, the game's great. There's room for more storyline in between levels, but it isn't necessary and might not even fit correctly. The segments in between bosses are inventive albeit short, but the bosses are great. The game portrays them in a fun, refreshing light - nothing too serious. Sometimes taking things a little less seriously can really shine, and it serves to enhance the game's fun factor. when it all comes down to it, Rocket Knight Adventures is a very fun game with some wonderful ideas. Not to mention the enemies are pigs, and honestly, who can deny pigs?

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/05