Burning Out His Fuse Up Here Alone
HIGH Playing these games for the first time.
LOW Not much in the package.
WTF It would be so funny to get a modern remaster or port of Plok.
As a retro gaming fanatic and platforming fan, I love discovering games from the past that I’ve never had a chance to play. I’m obsessed with Kirby, Sonic, Mario, Donkey Kong, and so many other loveable mascots, constantly replaying old favorites and keeping up with their current iterations. Of course, I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of the 16-bit era and that’s even more prevalent with one of my major blind spots — Rocket Knight Adventures.
Originally released by Konami back in 1993, Rocket Knight Adventures is a 2D action-platformer starring Sparkster, a possum knight with a jetpack and sword. Players fight their way through linear areas with a series of melee and ranged attacks, occasionally fighting a boss or two. At home alongside other Konami staples like Contra and Castlevania, RKA was followed by a sequel on Genesis and a spin-off on the Super Nintendo. After years of being dormant, Konami brought the mascot back with Rocket Knight in 2010, but we’ve seen nothing else from the series since then. Thankfully, Konami and Limited Run Games sought to remedy this absence with Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked Collection.
This compilation includes the first game, Sparkster Rocket Knight Adventures 2 and Sparkster. Every one comes with an optional boss rush mode, save state support, and a rewind feature. They also have great options for visual presentation, like optional filters and aspect ratios, which is especially refreshing since many retro collections don’t seem to care about this sort of thing.
The action in each is fairly solid, involving a simple-yet-effective gameplay loop of running, jumping, and fighting. It’s classic side-scrolling action, and I love Sparkster’s ability to charge up his sword to launch it at enemies. Occasionally, players will engage in sidescrolling shooting levels when his jetpack is on full blast, flying and reminiscent of other Konami work like Gradius. These segments do a great job of mixing things up.
I was also a big fan of the visuals, especially in Sparkster. I adore the art style of most pixel-based SNES games and this nails it, though all three look and sound amazing.
Being older titles, they do occasionally get a little difficult, so I was appreciative of the rewind feature saving me from frustration. The save state feature also makes it easy to pick up from anywhere I stopped. These modern concessions are nice, but on the whole, the package does feel a bit barebones.
Aside from the three games themselves, there are some cool pieces of concept art, scans of the instruction manuals, and a solid animated intro for the collection. A music player is also a nice little treat, but that’s it.
There just isn’t much here, which is a damn shame considering Rocket Knight’s extended absence from the spotlight. I mean, I’m well aware of this series and its importance to gaming without ever having played it before, so it would have been cool for Konami to go all out — maybe even doing something as wild as adding other games Sparkster just appeared in, like Contra: Shattered Soldier. As it is, retro gaming enthusiasts who want a comprehensive look at this IP will be disappointed.
Despite the barebones package, the real meat of Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked! are the games and they’re solid. It’s great to see what I’ve been missing out on all these years, and Sparkster is a cool dude with some awesome adventures — it’s just a shame his collection is a bit lacking.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is published by Konami and developed by Limited Run Games. It is available on PC, PS4/5 and Switch. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 5 hours were spent in single-player and the games were not completed. There is no multiplayer.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10 for Cartoon Violence. According to the site: “In this side-scrolling adventure game, players assume the role of Sparkster, a rocket-wearing possum knight who fights hostile armies of wolves and pigs to save the land of Zephyrus. Players run, jump, and use their rocket pack to traverse colorful medieval, punk, and jungle environments. Players mostly use sword slashing and a “rocket-rush” attack to defeat giant robots, pigs with guns, and wolves that attack with dynamite. More frenetic combat occurs when players take to the air to battle hand-gliding enemies amid bright, cartoonlike explosions. Enemies cry out in pain when hit, then fall off the screen or run away.“
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are plenty of visual cues in gameplay and no crucial audio cues, despite no options to resize any text or menus. Even so, I’d say it’s fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped and there are no diagrams. On PS5, X is to jump, circle and square are to attack and the triggers are to rewind.
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