Rocket Knight trailer sparks our interest
by JC Fletcher 
{ Oct 9th 2009 at 12:40PM } 
- The stylized projectile/jetpack effects
- It's a Rocket Knight Adventures game
And, to our delight, what we see here is true Rocket Knight: Sparkster has his sword and his jetpack, the latter of which is used basically to bounce all over the screen. It's here that the 3D remake actually benefits the game: with the wider area and the smaller Sparkster, he seems to have a lot more freedom to fly around. Even the shooter stages have returned, with some interesting dynamic camera work.
If you never paid attention to this series because of mid-90s animal mascot platformer overload, you should start getting familiar with it now. Forget Gex, Aero the Acro-Bat, Punky Skunk, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Awesome Possum, and Socket. This one's actually good.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dr. Bradwart @ Oct 9th 2009 12:44PM
Again, Konami. Snatcher remake. Get busy.
Gambit07 @ Oct 9th 2009 1:23PM
Agreed, if I remember correctly, Sparkster made a cameo appearance in the strip club scene in Snatcher.
Heavytoka @ Oct 9th 2009 12:46PM
This is a definite buy for me
Ramifications @ Oct 9th 2009 12:53PM
Looks like a blast! hahaha pun intended
James @ Oct 9th 2009 4:22PM
AH, I C WAT U DID THERE.
Well played, sir.
dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Oct 9th 2009 1:00PM
Ok, I recognize the rest, but I'm gonna have to look up Punky Skunk...
Enosoma @ Oct 9th 2009 1:03PM
A lot of these new side-scrolling games seem to have the same Little Big Planet-like atmosphere to them.
rudimentalist @ Oct 9th 2009 1:10PM
The still screenshots make the game look like Donkey Kong Country or something. In motion it looks a lot better. It just has a look about it like "Japanese license that was handed to an American studio." But the gameplay itself looks promising. I just hope they add several more layers of paint and give it enough attention that it has it's own unique style.
that_other_guy @ Oct 9th 2009 1:15PM
...but I like Gex.
Shadow Hog @ Oct 9th 2009 1:55PM
Yeah, the first Gex was pretty fun.
Granted, I couldn't play it with the constant yapping, but the developers had the foresight to include an option to turn it off! Good for them.
Levi @ Oct 9th 2009 2:18PM
I actually dropped in quick to say that I really liked Gex too... Though I was thinking the 3D ones... I never played the 2D ones.
parsec @ Oct 9th 2009 6:11PM
The 3-d Gex games seemed to take a bit of heat for being "rip-offs" of the Mario 64 3-d collectathon formula, but, unlike many of the other mascot-based collectathons of the time, Gex was really fun.
They definitely stuck to the genre, with the overworld, themed levels with nonlinear goals to complete (to collect star...er, remotes), and horrible camera issues. But the levels were designed well and the movie genre themes were a nice departure from the usual grass/mountain/snow/water/desert levels of your typical 3-d platformer.
I wish there were a few more decent platformers (and yes, collectathons) in the market now. Galaxy is the only thing that really comes to mind, and that could only fulfill my need to collect shiny things from imporbable places for so long.
Devastater9951 @ Oct 9th 2009 1:30PM
New high budget 2d sonic game, a Splatter house remake, and now Sparkster Genesis fans rejoice!
(if only we could get a new Ristar game c'mon sega)
Dig @ Oct 10th 2009 12:05PM
There is no statement that encompasses my desires as a gamer more than "new Ristar game". It is great to see that I am not alone.
Jrejre @ Oct 9th 2009 1:38PM
I liked Aero the Acrobat and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel. Socket is pretty fun too. But sparkster is the best. . .Hopefully konami will release a compilation disc with all these retro revisits on it.
Mewchu [Super Kawaii Power! ^.^ ] @ Oct 9th 2009 1:40PM
I'm no longer worried about this franchise's future.
DomoBraden @ Oct 9th 2009 1:41PM
Needs more textures... Other than that, I'm sold.
Seishino @ Oct 9th 2009 2:17PM
I really liked the personality of the art style of the original. The expressiveness of every enemy was impressive. You could knock the pig-beast armor off, for example, and they'd run away in fear in their undies. The lighthearted styling details were really nice.
I hope they manage to carry that over to this version.
Vexorg @ Oct 9th 2009 1:41PM
Hmmm... I happen to think these look decent, but over on the finicky niche gamer board I occasionally read, reactions to this game tend to range from "travesty" to "abomination," mostly due to it not using 2D graphics.
Kombat @ Oct 9th 2009 1:47PM
Shit looks pretty good
WINterfang ( Now with the power to piss you off ) @ Oct 9th 2009 1:48PM
Those graphics are ew.
Yourself @ Oct 9th 2009 1:51PM
RKA was good, but it was Sparkster that was truly fantastic. Regardless, I'm glad to see new life in the series and hope that the originals will be released on VC as well.
These graphics are... well the effects are good. But the rest looks kind of lackluster and it's a bizarre choice to make the character models so ridiculously small. It makes the environments look empty, and there's something about the way the crystals stand out that makes it even weirder. Oh well, all I really care about is whether it's fun, and all it really needs to do to ensure that is stay true to its origins.
Storm Eagle [Resident Capcom Megafan] @ Oct 9th 2009 1:59PM
You know, I never played Sparkster sadly. I played Rocket Knight Adventures to death. I still have it complete with case and manual. Too bad both my Genesisis.....Genesises......Genesi? don't work.
I will definitely be getting this. It looks just as good as the originals!
emperorzeroxx @ Oct 9th 2009 2:16PM
Oh man I loved that rocket knight guy! I will definitely buy this, can't believe they are making another. One of my fav old school games.
Enosoma @ Oct 9th 2009 2:39PM
Does anyone remember the movie Howard The Duck? That was such a great film.
neoalec @ Oct 9th 2009 2:41PM
I don't like the look of the 3-D graphics. Too blocky.
Dopple Boppler @ Oct 9th 2009 2:59PM
I'm still not entirely sold on the graphics. 2-D gameplay mixed with 3-D graphics can actually be great (Klonoa on the Wii being the first example that pops into my head), but these just look kind of generic, I guess. Regardless, my hopes are still relatively high for this one.
Cyber-Tyrant @ Oct 9th 2009 3:16PM
You should see the other forums. 3 to 1 downright hating it right now.
While not graphically perfect, it overall looks pretty good.
Jacksons @ Oct 10th 2009 12:45AM
Why? Geez, I love these types of games.
Brandon @ Oct 9th 2009 4:07PM
I loved the original. I don't care if other people hate this, gameplay is ALWAYS more important than graphics. Always. (Always).
Cyber-Tyrant @ Oct 9th 2009 4:39PM
agreed.
Don't know why that's such a problem with most folks...
LPG @ Oct 9th 2009 5:32PM
I loved Sparkster, and I'll play this one too for sure.
I just didn't dig those graphics and wind waker effects yet. Hope they change it before release.
Emceay @ Oct 9th 2009 5:47PM
now, give me another assault suits leynos/ target earth, assault suits valken/cybernator and my life is complete.
Kenoji (aka Neo Asuma) @ Oct 9th 2009 6:29PM
Looks nice. Have to see more footage, but overall a very good effort by Konami so far.
BPMOmega [XBL, PSN, Steam] @ Oct 9th 2009 7:30PM
"Forget Gex, Aero the Acro-Bat, Punky Skunk, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Awesome Possum, and Socket."
Who?
Spencer @ Oct 9th 2009 8:43PM
They forgot the other Sparkster :C
I'm not a big fan of the art style of the game. It looks off. But hey new Rocket Knight, I'm not complaining.
Jacksons @ Oct 10th 2009 12:39AM
Wow. Never would have guessed I'd see Sparkster again.
Jarlino @ Oct 10th 2009 8:14AM
Yeah, I don't recall the "Sparkster" game with fox-enemies.
In my game they were demons or imps or something.
With a pretty weird final-boss that changed bodies with you in mid-battle.
Because it's a smart thing to do to give a player the ability to throw meteors at you...
God I loved that game..
If this game is gonna be good (I loathe the new design of sparkster's Rival) after the trial, I'll definitely pick up it.
sleepydumbdude @ Oct 10th 2009 2:26PM
Sweet. I remember Sparkster being the last 16 bit game I bought from KB on clearance for 3 bucks. Loved playing it.
Liquid man @ Oct 10th 2009 10:33PM
i loved the original and now i can't wait for this one!
Everready @ Oct 12th 2009 12:38AM
looks like a school project to me, but will buy
The_Cartesian @ Dec 5th 2009 12:50AM
The first RKA was by far and large my favourite, the others were fine but I don't think they tried as hard with the graphics. I just loved the style of the first one, before they tried giving little sparkster that sonic-esque bad attitude, and the music was unbeatable.
I hope to death that this new game is great, I loved the first one, and in retrospect feel privaledged to have played it in it's own time and not just sheepishly played it on an emulator. This guy holds a place in my heart rival to that of sonic or mario.
Opossum + knights' armour + magic sword + jetpack ? I don't know how the origional wasn't more of a success. On the flipside I'm glad it wasn't in some ways, it looks like they really want to capture its essence. I'd hate to see Sparkster turned into a monstrosity like the majority of Sonic's 3D exploits.