Foreword: After having reviewed Rocket Knight Adventures, it only made sense to go ahead and review Sparkster on the SNES, a game that I didn’t discover until much later (at the time, I thought that he only had one game!), but is still a very enjoyable game nonetheless. This game never even got the popularity or praise that the original game did (nor did Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 on the Genesis), but how well does it actually stand?


Sparkster is a spin-off from the hidden Genesis gem, Rocket Knight Adventures, developed and published by Konami in late 1994, only a few months after the official sequel, also titled Sparkster, was released on the Sega Genesis. Despite having the same name, as well as the same boxart, these are two completely different games, with different mechanics and levels. Unlike the other two games, however, the spin-off was released on the Super Nintendo, instead.

This game also stars the oddly lovable opossum knight, Sparkster, only with a much-improved jetpack that will have you flying around in no time, although controls are very slightly more complicated (still more intuitive than Rocket Knight Adventures 2, a game I may review in the future). The mechanic of the game is almost identical to the original Rocket Knight Adventures: hold down the attack button, hold a direction, and let go. However, this time, the jetpack charges faster, and you can recover it using a new move, simply labeled as a roll, which is normally assigned to the L and R triggers, one for each direction. He deals a light attack while using it, too, so you can bulldoze through enemies in the process. But will these new abilities and better jetpack be enough to impress?


Konami just finds ways to make things look beautiful.

Sparkster has such amazing overall aesthetic, it’s hard to think about where to start.

Let’s start with the shading of the game. There was clearly a lot of work put into the shading quality, and one look at the screenshots proves this. It’s clear that it’s still a 16-bit game you’re looking at here, but it’s a very beautiful one, with smooth sprites, detailed backgrounds, and plenty of color. Unlike Rocket Knight Adventures, the aesthetic feels truly complete in Sparkster. It’s easily the most nice-looking game in the series (and yes, that includes the latest Rocket Knight title…).

The aesthetic gets further points for not lagging much from the depth of color and rather fast action of the game. Somehow, Konami, through the Rocket Knight series, had blurred the lines dividing what made the Genesis and Super Nintendo better than the other.

Note: It’s hard to find much information on this game from a hardware perspective, and since I currently lack the original cartridge of the game, I can’t open up one and see if it has any graphical enhancement chips. I assume it contains at least one graphics or performance enhancer within the cartridge itself; however, I have no means of proving this.

A little side-note: Sparkster just looks absolutely adorable when hanging from his tail in this version.


Wow, what a crazy boost in this field from the original.

Konami gets back up to speed in the sound department of Sparkster, greatly improving what was overall a forgettable (although gleaming in quality) soundtrack in the original Rocket Knight Adventures into something much more memorable. Almost every track fits the atmosphere very well, especially as the final levels approach. The sound effects, as well, are right on target (except when Sparkster exclaims “What?!” in a very odd voice; the girly scream that the original had was far more funny and enjoyable). Every bit of the sound track and sound effects feels planned, and that’s the best thing you could ask for in a game from its soundtrack.


Whoa, what happened here? What kind of review is this? You put an eight after two tens in two categories?

It’s not exactly that this game is…bad…in this department. An eight for this category is still okay. However, it’s no doubt that the original Rocket Knight Adventures had that bit of extra charm to it. It is most likely due to the fact that, while still colorful, Sparkster’s whole output takes a much more somber turn, and most of the levels that he goes through suffer from the same treatment. And that’s not exactly a bad thing in itself, but this is a series that shouldn’t be the recipient of a more somber environment, even if the story can actually be kind of dark throughout the small existence of the series. Of course, this is a very tentative and subjective point, and if you enjoyed playing and replaying Rocket Knight Adventures, you’ll do the very same for this faithful spinoff.

Overall, everything I had mentioned of Rocket Knight Adventures applies here. The controls are very intuitive, the game is fast-paced and action-packed, and, specifically with this game, the levels are designed much more openly, allowing for better use of the jetpack, alongside the ability to recover from helpless fall after using your jetpack by using a roll in midair (you can do this multiple times in the air). A lot was done to make the jetpack a good deal more useful and less situational, and the level design followed suit for an excellent experience.


While this game is not a canonical continuation of the original Rocket Knight Adventures game, it follows a very similar story. Princess Sherry (once again, there IS actually a King, as well, so the Princess title makes sense) gets kidnapped by Axel (Axle) Gear, who is working with the leader of the yellow dogs, Generalissimo Lioness (yes, that’s really his name; you can’t make this up sometimes). So Sparkster must set out and rescue Sherry before Lioness uses her key to completely destroy the planet. Just another day in the life of the leader of the Rocket Knights.

It’s pretty much a standard princess kidnapping cliché once again, but at least this one, much like in the original Rocket Knight Adventures, actually has a legitimate purpose, since she is the key to the entire plan and is absolutely essential for any of it to come to fruition.


For all this game is worth, depth is something that Sparkster is certainly lacking in.

Overall, this game somehow manages to be even shorter than the original, albeit by a very minute amount. Thanks to the more frequent use of the jetpack, however, most of the game goes by very fast, or, at least, it goes by much faster than the original Rocket Knight Adventures would go. While that isn’t, in itself, a problem, the fact that the game is overall the same length gives you much less game to work with, relatively speaking. It’s saddening, because if this had even a bit more content, it would be potentially even two points higher in this category. It’s enjoyable, but the depth falls short, and that’s a huge blow to the entirety of the enjoyability of this game.


This was one of the hardest aspects of this game to judge, since it has one of the hands-down worst difficulty spikes I’ve ever experienced (yes, worse than Death Mountain), and it happens very late in the game (end game of Normal difficulty, and near-end game of Hard difficulty) in the form of the (assuming you are playing the game on Hard difficulty) Penultimate Boss. Yes, it’s true that most of the bosses throughout the game thoroughly test your skills with the rocket pack, and just general mastery of the controls. However, this boss in particular is one of the most difficult things in platform games as a whole, especially for new-time players who are expecting frequent openings, since this boss can deal multiple attacks at once, and every single one is a lasting attack. It’s not unbeatable, but it’s a very sudden shift from an otherwise average time, difficulty-wise. It’s a spike that’s completely uncalled for.

Much like Rocket Knight Adventures, you can choose from multiple difficulty settings. This time, however, instead of affecting the number of lives and continues you have, it affects the amount of damage you take, and significantly affects how many levels you play:

• Easy (Digest) As the word “Digest” means, this mode is very short, and skips a lot of the tougher levels. It also ends before the real climax within the plot, so only play this if you have no familiarity with the controls, because nothing interesting happens.
• Normal This is the main mode of choice for those familiar with the game. It does not skip any levels, but does leave out the final level in the game, still actually ending the plot. Anyone who’s mastered the controls won’t be too troubled by this difficulty until the aforementioned difficulty spike, but they may have to tread carefully in some of the levels they may not have seen in Easy, especially the instant-death traps they contain.
• Hard You had better master this game before touching this mode. It is a living hell once you enter this difficulty level, unless you have fully mastered and memorized the game back and forth. You take tremendous damage, so every mistake hurts badly. This is the only mode that contains the true ending of the selectable ones.

As well as those three modes, Sparkster also has two harder modes that are accessible through the password system in the game. I even have yet to touch these difficulty levels, so play them at your own risk.

==Final Result: 9/10==

This game has a lot of “notoriety” for not being as good as the original Rocket Knight Adventures, or even as good as Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, which is also on the Genesis, by a large majority of the fans surrounding this otherwise little-known series. My main goal with this review was to settle for myself which one was truly better, and the end result may seem like a cop-out, but I call a tie.

While the original Rocket Knight Adventures has more overall length to it and a better addictive quality to it, if only because the game’s aesthetic matches the feel of the game itself, Sparkster is a masterpiece in the aesthetic and sound department, while still keeping most of the mechanics and ideas that made the original great. Both of these games are great for one reason, and it goes by the name of replayability.

Sure, Sparkster didn’t take many brave steps away from Rocket Knight Adventures, but Super Mario Bros. 3 didn’t do that with the original Super Mario Bros., and people praise that game to no end as the best game on its console. Just because a game is similar doesn’t mean it can’t be better than its source material. If Sparkster had more depth to it, it would have certainly surpassed the original. Nonetheless, this is still a very fun game to pick up and play again and again. Any fan of platform games will not be disappointed in playing this game.

Although I would have love a little more detail on the music, you did an excellent job for this review. You structured it well, you detailled it well and you also made abundant comparisons with the original game to show the differences (and even with other games to give an idea of the difficulty). I hope you more reviews!

Great review! 
I didn't know this game even existed. I was a big fan of Rocket Knight Adventures, so I am glad there is a sequel (or sequels).

I always found SNES to have better sound that Genesis, so that is a no-brainer there.