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Sonic the Hedgehog had that nebulous deameanor known
as "attitude". On the title screen, he waves his
finger, perhaps chastising the player for being less
cool than he is. Leave him standing still for too
long, and he'd tap his foot impatiently. Players
everywhere loved it, and so did Sega, who reaped the
financial benefits of such a quasi-lovable character.
Obviously, other game companies caught on, shoving
more attitude down our throats than we could possibly
imagine. Bubsy the Bobcat was voiced by a "famous"
comedian, Rocky Rodent was gifted with a radical
hairdo, and Aero the Acrobat...well, he's irrelevant,
because nobody liked him. Unfortunately, not many of
these corporations realized that Sonic not only had
attitude, but also he happened to star in a damn fine
game.
Sparkster was Konami's entry in the overcrowded
"xtreme rodent" market. He's an opposum, but you can
barely tell it, since he's clad in a think suit of
armor. He has a rocket pack and a sword that can shoot
flames. Sparkster's smirk on the cover of his first
game seems to be saying, "Yeah, I'm smarmy, and I'll
totally kick you ass. Buy my game, and all my assorted
action figures!"
Except there were no action figures. There were
advertisements for a Sparkster fan club in the
original Genesis manual, but the little bastard didn't
exactly catch on. This is extraordinarily sad. It's
easy to be cynical, considering he's crafted from the
same "focus test approved" mold as Awesome Possum -
but this game was made by Konami. The same Konami that
pumped out some of the best 8 and 16-bit games ever
made - Sparkster's games have all been directed by
Nobuya Nakazato, the man responsible for Contra. From
the minute you start Rocket Knight Adventures, you
know this is vintage Konami - clever graphical tricks,
outstanding level designs, bosses that refuse to die.
Much like Sonic, Rocket Knight Adventures puts a heavy
focus on blazing fast speed. Charge up your rockets
and you'll hurtle forward, sword thrust outward,
skewering everything in your path. Sparkster also
deflects off of walls and ceilings, allowing you to
richocet through tight hallways or scale towers. In
addition, Sparkster can also spin in place, making
himself temporarily invulerable to enemy attacks.
Sparkster's first title debuted on the Genesis under
the title "Rocket Knight Adventures". There are two
sequels, one for the Genesis and the other for the
Super Nintendo, both named "Sparkster". Despite the
identical names and coverart, they're completely
different games, with their own unique level designs,
graphics, music and even control schemes. The Mega Drive version was subtitled "Rocket Knight Adventures 2" on the cover, but this was dropped for all of the other releases.
It still shows up on the intro screen to the Genesis version.
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Rocket Knight Adventures
Sparkster SNES
Sparkster SNES
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Rocket Knight Adventures (1993) - Genesis
American Cover
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Rocket Knight Adventures
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Rocket Knight Adventures
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When Konami first started making games for the
Genesis, nearly all of its titles were watered down
ports of SNES games (Sunset Riders, Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist) or new installments
in established franchises. Rocket Knight Adventures
was the first property exclusive to Sega's system, and
it was a remarkable debut. You guide Sparkster through
seven stages to not only rescue the princess, but save
the kingdom from an army of evil pigs. In addition to
the legions of swine, Sparkster also must face his
archnemesis Axle Gear, equipped with the same armor as
him.
Unlike most animal mascot games, Rocket Knight
Adventures is much more of an action game than a
straight up platformer. There are a few shoot-em-up
segments, which feature plenty of reference to
Gradius, and a particularly amusing fight in gigantic
Rock-em-Sock-em style robots. Konami had some of the
best graphics programmers back in the 16-bit era, and
they really put the Genesis to task, with reflection
effects, multi-segmented bosses, and other crazy
effects - only Treasure games like Gunstar Heroes or
Alien Soldier prove themselves better. The only real
problem with the game is that you rarely get to take
advantage of Sparkster's rocket powers. They're vital
when fighting bosses, but most of the stages are
fairly narrow, and flying around haphazardly is a good
way to get yourself killed.
Despite the kiddie demeanor, Rocket Knight Adventure
is in no way easy. While the "Child" difficulty is
managable up until the final stages, the other
difficulty levels greater reduce the number of lives
and continues, posing quite a challenge to even the
most diehard gaming vets.
For some reason, the Japanese and American/European versions of Rocket Knight Adventures have completely different intros and stage introductions. The Japanese version begins with a group of pigs terrorizing kids opossum kids in a field, while the shadow the evil emperor hovers above. The stage intro screen shows a small cute rodent orchestra playing the music. The American/European version instead begins with a view of Sparkster, standing on a mountain, facing the screen. He unsheathes his sword and the camera pans around, showing the evil castle, while the emperor's shadow appears. The stage intro shows a picture of Sparkster against a starry background, which changes at the beginning of each new level.
MP3s
Level 1
Boss Theme
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Rocket Knight Adventures
Rocket Knight Adventures
Rocket Knight Adventures
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Version Differences
Sparkster (1994) - Super Nintendo
American Cover
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Sparkster SNES
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Sparkster SNES
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The SNES Sparkster title plays almost exactly the same
as its Genesis predecessor, but refines it to create
an even better game. This time, the little rodent is
fighting against evil wolves, but otherwise the
concept is much the same. Sparkster has a new move
where he can fling himself forward in short bursts by
pressing the L or R button. Rocket Knight Adventures
was a little restrictive in its level designs -
Sparkster has many more open levels that allow you
play around with jetpack much more than its
predecessor. The levels themselves are much more
creative as well - one stage is themed after musical
instruments (??) with gigantic pianos and trumpets
that spew you into different parts of the level. The
side-scrolling shmup sequences have been replaced with
a single overhead shooter stage, which is still plenty
of fun.
Sparkster definitely benefits from the graphical
prowess of the SNES - Sparkster's sprite looks much
cooler than before, and background graphics are full
of brilliantly vibrant colors, even if they don't rely
on any gimmicky effects. The music is much better too,
as Sparkster finally gets a "theme" music that's
played at a few different spots in the game. There's
still some annoying slowdown, but Sparkster still
zooms with near unfathomable speed, negating any of
those silly Sega "blast processing" ads.
Though the game is only seven levels long, the easier
difficulty settings cuts out some of the stages, and the
password feature makes the adventure a bit more managable than the Genesis
original.
MP3s
Level 1 - Main Theme
Level 2
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Sparkster SNES
Sparkster SNES
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Sparkster - Genesis (1994)
Japanese Cover
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Sparkster Genesis
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Sparkster Genesis
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For some reason, the Genesis version of Sparkster is a
completely different animal than either of its
brethern. First off, the controls - instead of holding
down the attack button to charge your jetpack, it
fills automatically, and is activated with the "A"
button. The meter also refills pretty quickly,
allowing you to boost multiple times before you hit
the ground. It gives a much greater control over
Sparkster, since you're not flailing out of control so
often.
Unfortunately, the rest of the controls have been run
through the mud. Sparkster no longer shoots flames
from his sword, and his regular attack is pitifully
sluggish. Even his regular walking speed has been
slowed down. Much like the SNES game, the level
designs in the Genesis version have been expanded to
allow better use the jetpack. However, there's an
extra incentive of exploring each of the levels, as
most of them have a hidden key. Finding all of them
before the end of the game will make the ending
segments much easier.
Once again, Sparkster has been completely redrawn and
looks a bit cutesier than he does in the other
version. There aren't as many impressive effects as
Rocket Knight Adventures, but the graphics are much
cleaner overall. The bad guys this time are lizards
and dinosaurs,. which aren't quite as interesting as
the pigs or wolves. The music can't quite stand up to
the SNES version, although they do share some songs
with each other, primarily Sparkster's main theme.
While the sluggish controls do hamper the game a bit,
the Genesis Sparkster is still an excellent addition
to the fine Genesis action game library.
MP3s
Level 1 - Main Theme
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Sparkster Genesis
Sparkster Genesis
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