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Rocket Knight
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Climax Studios
Platform: XBLA, PSN, PC
Genre: Adventure/Platformer
Release Date: May 12, 2010
Price: $14.99
Like many video game companies nowadays, Konami has decided to revive one of its classic 16 bit video games; that game is Rocket Knight. Rocket Knight first blasted onto the scene in his 1993 debut title, Rocket Knight Adventures for the Sega Genesis. It was a side scrolling platformer, much like Contra and Shattered Soldier. It starred a marsupial named Sparkster who fought his way through armies of robots and pigs, with his trusty jet pack and a handful of combat capabilities. Now Sparkster has returned in an all new adventure and this time he is in beautiful HD.
Flying environments are oh so pleasing to the eye.
Speaking of beautiful HD, let me get one point out of the way first; Rocket Knight is a great looking XBLA game. The environments are beaming with bright colors and wonderfully designed backdrops, which really immerse you in the cartoon-esc world of Rocket Knight. Sparkster himself animates fluidly and even sports some great smoke effects reminiscent of cartoon explosions, which emerge from his jetpack. There are good varieties of enemies throughout the single player campaign and some of them sport some pretty humorous death animations that shouldn’t be missed. The last visual detail I want to mention is that of the bosses. They are all beautifully designed and suitably overwhelming in their size and stature; breaking into the scene from the foreground or jumping through walls from the left or right; they always provide you with that classic 16 bit feel.
Yeah, he's big and angry but he's going down
Rocket Knight is in its heart, a pure side scrolling platformer with some interesting combat thrown in. Sparkster has a number of abilities, which mainly revolve around the use of his jetpack; including a jetpack dash, either straight forward, diagonally or vertically into the air, a spin dash attack, a spin twirl attack and more. The jetpack really is a great multi-use gadget, allowing Sparkster to jump and fly effortlessly through each level. The jetpack isn't an infinite use item, as it does have a rechargable meter on the upper left hand corner of the screen. The developers do play around with the meter; creating different gameplay mechanics around the recharge ability; especially in the winter levels of the game. Beyond the jetpack, Sparkster has his trusty sword, which allows him to easily dispose of the basic enemies strewn throughout the levels. All of the combat mechanics are fairly easy to pull off and mostly enjoyable.
The platforming aspects of Rocket Knight are perhaps the best part of the game, and rightfully so. Levels are designed with a sense of speed and ebon flow; allowing Sparkster to jump, hover and slide down pipes with ease. The flying levels are especially fun, and allow you to really explore the fluidity and enjoyment of flying as the Rocket Knight. You generally never run into extremely frustrating sections, except in the latter half of the game, where the platforming and enemy encounters start getting a bit more challenging; requiring you to really have a solid grasp of all the moves at Sparkster’s disposal. It isn’t exceedingly frustrating and instead harkens back to the old-school way of gaming; where games use to beat you instead of you beating them.
Coming at you!
In general, Rocket Knight runs well, however I did encounter a few minor and major bugs; some of which were entertaining, while others proved frustrating. The game did crash on me once, forcing me to reboot my system, which is generally not a good sign. I also did encounter a glitch in one of the boss levels, where the boss fell through the bottom of the level and I was unable to defeat him. It was a humorous glitch, which didn’t really force me to backtrack, since there was a checkpoint right before the battle but a glitch nonetheless.
Overall I would say that Rocket Knight is a fairly enjoyable side scrolling platformer and a great looking XBLA title to boot. It isn’t very long; single player clocks in at around 2 to 2 and half hours, however you do have many collectibles to go back to for achievements and speed runs. Unfortunately, I do have to take into account the pricing of the title, which I feel is a tad to high. Coming in at $15, there isn’t a great amount of content in Rocket Knight to support the high price tag. In my opinion, the sweet spot would have been $10. If you are a fan of the original or just looking for some fun platforming gameplay for the weekend, I would say that you should definitely check out Rocket Knight and enjoy what is there; while it lasts.
FINAL VERDICT
3 out of 5
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBxPrTlzlQc ]