Rocket Knight Review
By - Kai S.
Seventeen years ago an opossum by the name of Sparkster invaded the homes of thousands of Sega Mega Drive and Genesis owners. He warmed the hearts of many as they followed him on his quest to save the day in Rocket Knight Adventures. Sparkster was later called back to duty in Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 and later on the SNES in Sparkster. After years of adventure, Sparkster went into retirement and decided to settle down and start a family. But after learning of a new threat to the Kingdom of Zephyrus, the hero in Sparkster is ready for action as he dons his armor once more to save the kingdom yet again.
The story in Rocket Knight takes place 15 years after Rocket Knight Adventures. In the original game, Sparkster fought evil pigs, known as Devotindos, to save the Kingdom of Zephyrus. After Sparkster had learned that the Devotindos has moved into the Kingdom, he left and went into retirement. When he learns that the opossums and pigs are fighting together against an army of wolves, he steps in to help. After fighting off the wolves, the general of the Devotindos once again have the opossums under attack and Sparkster returns to save the Kingdom of Zephyrus, again.
Sparkster is armed with two very useful items that you will use throughout the game. The first is his sword. Your sword will be very handy throughout the game as you encounter various enemies along the way. Sparkster's sword also has the ability to shoot projectiles at enemies, though the distance you can shoot is quite limited. Also, the attack is not as strong as just hitting the enemies. It can be very useful when you need to get a quick attack in. Your sword also has the ability to deflect oncoming projectiles. While not all of the projectiles can be deflected, this ability is very useful at defeating enemies. The other item is Sparkster's rocket, which will be your most used item in the game. Using the rocket, Sparkster is able to jump higher and move faster. You can use the rocket to bounce of walls, assist in attacking enemies, and drill through walls; along various other moves. Mastering the use of the rocket is very important in completing the game as the platforming becomes more and more challenging.
During the game you will play in three environments, starting with the Kingdom of Zephyrus. Each level offers some different backgrounds and unique platforming, so you will never get bored. There are even a levels reminiscent of a side scrolling shooter, so there is a decent variety to the game to always keep you on the edge of your seat. Anyone that loves the challenge of retro-platformers will love Rocket Knight. The levels are challenging and offer tons of intricately designed platforms that will require you to sharpen your jumping skills to avoid a painful death. Throughout the levels, you will not only be faced with tough platforms, but you will also face countless enemies; from wolves to pigs, and even Sparkster’s arch nemesis Axel Gear. Along the way you can collect extra health and lives as well as gems that work as score multipliers.
For me, the biggest flaw of the game was the difficulty. The first issue with the difficulty was that it went from being fun, while also being challenging, to being so challenging that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. My opinion of the game really changed during level 3.2, Cyberswine Labs. This level had multiple areas that were very difficult to get past, before finally getting to the last part of the stage, which was also very challenging. It would have been a lot better, in my opinion, if this level was split into two parts so that you didn’t have to go through all of these areas again and again. The platforming was very challenging in some levels, often times you had limited time get through certain sections, and the problems with the controls made it extra difficult. I really enjoyed the first half of the game, but I was not expecting the difficulty to increase so much during the third level.
The other issue I had with the difficulty of the game is that it really jumped around. Instead of progressing in difficulty as you played through each level, one level would be extremely easy and the next would be extremely hard. What was especially odd was that the boss battles were often the easiest part of the game, only taking a few minutes to finish, while the other levels could take over 30 minutes. You never knew if the next level was going to be fun, or it was going to leave you frustrated trying to finish it.
Generally, Rocket Knight is the type game I would play again and again. Whether trying to collect more items in a level, or just going back to play the game some more, this is exactly the type game I enjoy. However, because of the difficulty of this game I will most likely not play it again. Finishing the game was a relief and actually felt like an accomplishment, which isn’t how I like to feel when I complete a game. I like having some challenges throughout the game, but when it becomes this difficult, I just don’t enjoy it anymore. I’m glad I was able to play through the game and I really enjoyed it while I played, but once is enough for me.
The game offers two modes of play. The first is Arcade, which is your classic style of gameplay. Anyone looking for a more retro experience and/or those that are trying to gain achievements or trophies will play under this mode. Playing under Arcade limits the amount of continues you have to 3. Now, be warned, if you use up all of the continues the game is over and you lose all your progress; requiring you to start over. The levels that have been unlocked while playing the Arcade side are, however, available to play in Freeplay mode. This mode does not allow you to earn achievements or trophies, but it still allows you to play for high scores. Unlike the Arcade mode, Freeplay allows you to play the level over and over; if you die, you simply choose the level again. This mode is perfect for anyone wanting to practice a particular level or trying to increase their score. Both modes also offer both a normal and hard difficulty.
The quality of the graphics was one of my favorite things about the game. The graphics were bright, colorful and sharp; they just popped off the screen. They were very much like a colorful cartoon, as they were very enjoyable to look at. The developers did a fantastic job of updating the graphics and bringing them into today’s standards without taking anything away from the original look of the game. Sparkster looks very similar to how he did in his original adventures, but what they did update works perfectly. It is great seeing a classic character in his original form put into an environment that is more modern. I thought everything worked perfectly the way it was done.
The sound affects in the game worked well. They were basically what you would expect from swinging swords, jumping around with your rocket, etc. The sound affects worked well for the game and I don’t think there was much that I would have changed. The music on the other hand was not as good. There was nothing wrong with the music, as I thought it worked well for an adventure game. However, my problem was that the music didn’t really do anything to stand out. To be honest, as I went to write my opinion on the music, I couldn’t remember it. I had to actually go back and play the game some more to listen to it. If you are paying attention to the music, it is great, but, it is easy to miss while you in the middle of playing the game, especially in the more challenging areas where it just blends into the background.
Replay value will depend a lot on your style of gaming. If you like to go through game and collect everything, there is quite a bit to find and it will take several attempts before you find it all and are able to collect each item in the game. There are also some unlockable items, such as skins and difficulty levels. If you are a gamer that enjoys trying to get the high score or beating your previous times, then you will find a lot of extra replay value in the game. If you enjoy collecting achievements and trophies, you will also have some replay value in the game. In order to get all of the achievements/trophies, you will need to play the game several times. I thought the trophies and achievements for this game were pretty challenging to get, I personally didn’t get a single trophy during my first play through of the game. However, if you aren’t looking to collect more items, increase your score, try to beat your time, or get achievements and trophies there isn’t much reason to go back and revisit the levels.
The game is a little pricey for the amount of gameplay you get. Each level has a par time, which is how long they suggest it takes to finish each level. If you beat the level in that time, or less, you get bonus points. Adding up the time for each level, they are suggesting the game only takes 1 hour and 25 minutes. On some levels, I had no problem coming in under that time. While on others, I went over. I would say most players will get 4 hours or so out of the game, depending on how concerned you are with collecting items, defeating all the enemies, if you replay it, etc. For the price, I would have liked to see some additional levels so the game lasted a little longer. But, as it stands, the amount of gameplay doesn’t really justify the $15 price.
The controls in the game could be a little tricky to get used to. They weren’t too challenging to learn and the way the controls worked, made sense. However, I found that the controls didn’t respond like I wanted them to way too often. If I wanted to rocket from one side to the other and I was holding the analog stick so it was just slightly above or below the direction I wanted, I would end up spinning in a circle or jumping diagonally. It wasn’t a huge deal in the easier levels, but in the levels where you had to move quickly and not mess up to get to the end, it became more of a challenge having to make sure you were doing everything perfect. When I didn’t need to jump diagonally, I would use the d-pad instead to avoid making mistakes, but even then the game didn’t always respond as I wanted it to. It became a matter of just trying several times to get the controls to respond as you wanted, unfortunately, time didn’t always allow for this in the later levels.
Overall, Rocket Knight is a great game, if you can get past some of its flaws. I recommend this game to anyone that is a fan of the original games, anyone that enjoys a good challenge and anyone that loves side scrolling platformers, as long as you don’t mind some very difficult gameplay. Anyone that is looking for an easy game that isn’t going to put up much of a challenge or wants a game that will last them a good long while may want to look elsewhere. If you’re questioning whether or not you will like this game, you can find demos on the Xbox 360, PS3 and through Steam. The demo should give you a good idea of how the easier levels play, but keep in mind they do get much more challenging later in the game. Being a big fan of side scrollers and platformers, I would love to be able to recommend this game to everyone, but due to the some time’s overwhelming challenge the game offers, this game isn’t for everyone, despite being one of the best retro styled platformers to be released in a while.
PROS
* Fun update to an old classic
* Great graphics
* Fun, unique gameplay
* Great puzzles and platforming
CONS
* Slightly Overpriced at $15
* Short - Game can be finished in under 2 hours.
* Controls can be finicky at times
* Very difficult
* Hard to obtain trophies and achievements
RATING: 8/10
A download copy of Rocket Knight was provided for review by Konami
