And you knew that Konami once had his own character-dalisman? Now, now you know, live with this.
Yes, not even one! At first they were a penguin of a Penta, who came from Japanese advertising of beer (I think, Antarctic Adventure from the genius will remember many), then-as much as a whole horseman superhero who first lived on Camo’s rights in Konami Games, and only then received the main role in the NES-classic Wai World. In a 16-bit era, with the advent of Konami’s mask fever, they also did not stand aside, and this is how Sparkster appeared. . Who?
Indeed, why did everyone forget about him? Even our foreign counterparts on the bulk cannot say anything about her except: “Yes, there was such a game in childhood, it seems to even play sometimes”. Are the games of the series so mediocre that people simply decided to delete them from history? Let’s try to figure it out, since the series does not differ in a large scope and consists only of four parts, the first three of which came out with a difference of one year. And I’ll start with the very first game called Rocket Knight Adventures.
There was 1993. After the victorious procession of one blue hedgehog on SMD, which is even more strengthened with the exit of the continuation, Konami decides to challenge him in his territory and puts the problem with the Nobuya designer to come up with a character who could be played on equal terms with the current Talisman company, and make a game about him. So the Rocket Knight Adventures platformer appeared, telling about the misadventures of a brave opossoma named Sparkster. Opossuma, dressed in massive armor, armed with a sword shooting energy clots, and carrying a real jet on the back. Opossuma, who rushed to the title of captain of missile knights and fighting with an army of pigs-technocrats.
Whether there will still be!
Although the tie is at the game and is banal: “The enemies attacked the home and stole the princess, it is necessary to save the princess”, the plot of RKA differs from its brothers in the genre of relative elaboration and occupies three pages in the instructions. The authors even told a pair of proposals the background of the kingdom, to whom the main character serves as faithful and truth.
In the distant past, the brave hero at the cost of enormous efforts repulsed the Empire of pigs Devotindos, which used the groove spacecraft Pig Star. Again, the laurels of star wars haunt someone. The hero sealed the vessel, left her hanging in orbit and founded the Kingdom of Zebulos. To protect the press from the forces of evil, a detachment of missile knights was organized, who defended the country throughout generations.
The situation is changing to the worst when the Axel Gir missile knight kills the current chapter of the detachment (or does not kill; the author of the manual was excited with all his might, but the words “kill” and his derivatives still escaped), for which he receives a death sentence, but runs out of the country. After these events, Sparkster was supposed to become a new captain of missile knights, but he preferred to start a hunting for a traitor and also left the kingdom.
He returns home ten years later and finds him in ruins. The new ruler of Devotindos with something is very interested in the old story about Pig Star, as a result of which he restored the country, attacked Zebulos and abducted the princess to request the same seal for it as a redemption.
Now Sparkster will have to be pretty to be award, especially given the fact that Axel Gir joined the enemy army as a mercenary and is personally responsible for the abduction of the princess.
The story is not very large, but for the platformer enough to perceive the world of the game as a world, and not as a series of screens.
But back to the game process. And the first thing is the difficulty is that the main character knows only two speeds: “very slowly” and “very quickly”. Opossum is capable of an unhurried step on its own, which is logical, given the mass of its armor and equipment.
When Sparkster uses his reactive satchel, he not only starts to rush along the screen at such a speed that it is difficult to track it, but he completely ignores the direction buttons until he lands. Because of this, the character management will have to get used to for some time, losing life one after another. But when you get used to it, the real fun begins.
But don’t think that management in RKA is lousy. Of course, a rocket satchel requires careful handling with it, but in all other respects the game is polished to a brilliance. In the movements of the hero there is no excessive inertia, each step he has taken and each perfect jump is literally felt by the whole gut, but the height of the jump is not fixed and depends on the duration of pressing the corresponding button.
Each attack has passed on the enemy is accompanied by a delicious clang and a fountain of graphic effects, and if a sparkster succeeds in some kind of technique, and he literally bites into the next villain, the process is accompanied by such a sound, as if we are not playing for an oposum, but for a gasopyer. And the protagonist also has a very funny sprite of how he hangs with the help of a tail upside down. He does this with such a touching indifferent expression on his face.
The only standard attack by Sparkster is a swing with a pointed piece of iron, creating a small energy vortex flying somewhere about half the screen. The rest of the variety of techniques is achieved by the use of a rocket satchel. In order to drive it, you need to clamp the attack button, wait for the charge scale to fill the direction and release the button. In this case, Sparkster will make a super -speed jerk in the direction that kills all enemies requiring only one hit (he will inflict some damage and bounce back). If he can’t ask the direction at all, then instead of a jerk he will make a steep scope in place.
“And that this is so difficult?" – you ask. The fact is that Sparkster is landing after a jerk is not as successful as it takes off, and if you do not calculate the trajectory a little, you can inadvertently plopped down on a villain or even get into the pit. Moreover, the satchel can rush in place if the player will charge him for too long. Fortunately, it takes so much time that you can achieve such a result perhaps intentionally. I even sat down specially: for the hero’s jetpack explodes, it takes half a minute! Despite the fact that the effect of such a careless handling of the device is extremely ugly: Sparkster flies back and does not respond to control for some time, completely opening for a blow, there are practically no moments in the game so that nothing happens for so long.
Also, at times the hero switches his satchel into Non-Stop mode, turning the gameplay into a scroll-player (!). Unfortunately, during the flight of Sparkster can only wave a sword, so you can not expect a special diversity.
At first, the game seems to be simply unrealistic. There are not a lot of lives, it constantly arrives, comes running, crawls, or in another way, all dangerous muck reaches the protagonist, sometimes there are obstacles that kill from one touch. Such a platformer, and you sweat like in Contra!
But what is most cruel-for each level there are up to two mini-bosses with a mandatory basic at the end. If you play at an average level of complexity, then the first passage from beginning to end will be given in agony. The second and subsequent ones will already seem like a walk in the park. This is due to the fact that literally in everything in Rocket Knight Adventures there is a certain sequence of actions, understanding and accurate observance of which greatly simplifies the game.
This applies to bosses. They only scare the arsenal of various attacks and numerous phases, in fact they are extremely predictable and repeat the same actions in a circle. If you remember the behavior of each leader in the game, then they will not be more complicated than ordinary enemies.
It is still very important to learn how to properly wield a blade. Although at first it seems that the only function of a wave of a sword is to send a clot of energy into a flight, which causes damage to the enemies, the blade itself is also a full -fledged weapon. As a result, if you stand close enough to the enemy, so that the sword reaches him, Sparkster will be damaged about three times the usual. This is especially noticeable on the bosses that fall apart from such a close acquaintance at times faster. Only the drawback – it is necessary to approach the evil of the evil, which is fraught with unpleasant consequences.
But what wildly pleases me in the game is an unstable setting. If you forget for a moment that the protagonist wears a rocket satchel on the back is clearly not of medieval and not even magical origin, the adventure of Sparkster begins in the world of a typical fantasy: a typical green meadow against the background of the castle and playing an epic ballad, but you will not have time to think about it, how after ten seconds of the game you will encounter enemy reservationscars, and after another ten – with piloted Mech’ami. The last nail in the lid of a one-sided setting will cling to the first mini-boss in the person of a violent tanker.
But the most insanity begins from the fifth level. The remnants of the fantasy are replaced by steampunk, steampunk is replaced by industrial, industrial is replaced by a cosmic scroll-shutter, which, in turn, is replaced by science fiction. Moreover, in Rocket Knight Adventures, each transition between the stages was accompanied by a binder of the screech, which is why the game is not perceived as an accidental sequence of locations, but as a full-fledged world, albeit crazy in its diversity.
Of course, this attitude of the authors to the setting of the game could not but affect her soundtrack. And in the best way! A whole platoon of composers worked over Rocket Knight Adventures, among which you can find an author of music from Contra: Hard Corps and many soundtracks for Castlevania Mitira Yaman, composer Contra: Alien Wars, Masanori Adati and even the author of an excellent soundtrack for DynamiteHeaddy Aki Hata. And this is not even a complete list.
Together, they created one of the most diverse soundtracks, which can be imagined in the platformer. Music completely reflects the madness on the screen and actively switches between heroic ballads, rock music, rhythm’n’besis and even dark-electro/techno. Crazy setting crazy soundtrack.
I would like to praise the programmers who forced the audio chip console to sound so good. The tools are very juicy, the variety of sounds is impressive.
But the publication of the official soundtrack of brakes from Konami took as long as 25 years, and even then thank you for this, the American label SHIP To Shore, which has made the right to publish game music. The only nuance is from afar on Vinil, and what to do with this vinyl without the corresponding player, I am without a concept. Well, it looks beautiful, you can’t argue here.
The last thing I would like to stop at is regional differences. I don’t know why, but the first part of the series got in this regard especially strongly. Firstly, during transportation, a couple of things were redrawn:
Okay, I agree that the opening of the American-European version looks more epic, but the Opossumov did not please them?! Instead of him, a sparkster in various pathos poses flaunts on the screens of the onset of levels.
Secondly, the Americans for their version renamed the levels of complexity from the settings. It would seem that there is an unusual? Just look at how they renamed them:
JP: Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Crazy Hard
EU: Easy, Hard, Very Hard, Crazy Hard
US: Children, Easy, Normal, Hard
Moreover, the last two modes in the Japanese and European versions by default are blocked and open only after passing the game or entering a cheat code. The Americans, apparently, did not understand humor and not only opened them for conventional use, but also renamed them so that there was no hint of the original names in them.
It turns out that American children, playing in Rocket Knight Adventures on normal complexity, were actually held in mode, which in other regions was secret and was intended only for the most experienced players. It is clear that this was done solely so that the game does not return from the rental longer, but it is still funny.
American Sparkster against the backdrop of the Europropo-Japanese Fat Pirate Casino review straight just a displeased man
American Sparkster against the backdrop of the Europropo-Japanese straight just a displeased man
However, the regimes were not only renamed. If in the European and American versions to play at the very light level of complexity, then instead of a battle with the last form of the final boss, a message appears that, they say, you tried well, but the evil was not destroyed, try again in a more complex regime.
It is probably a few words to say about the Crazy Hard mode. In short, this is not the level of complexity at which you can pass the game and not lose your mind. Why? Well, how to say. From the very beginning you are given 0 lives, 0 continuations and 1 unit of health. If the hero at least one mosquito bites, the game is over. Of course, no one forbids gathering additional lives at the levels, but it is like giving a half -empty flask that is dying of thirst in the desert. The passage of RKA at the complexity level of Crazy Hard is the highest piloting of gaming skills, against which the American version of Contra: Hard Corps is already some kind of Hard Corps. And the fact that this mode is available in the American version of the game initially-some special form of sadism.
We can safely say that Rocket Knight Adventures is one of the best 2D platformers of the classical era. Funny process, excellent music, even a little plot was brought a little. Finally I will show you the advertising video of the game.
On this, the story of the Opeksum-throat does not end, and we still have a whole series ahead.
Konami all the rests and they will mumble everything.
After the success of Rocket Knight Adventures, the sequel was not long in coming. He only crawled out of a very strange place. Konami not only spat on the numbering of the games of the series, even without starting it, but also released for SMD and SNES two completely different platformers under the same name. Why was it to do so? Fortunately, during the release of the Megaraviv version in Japan, they nevertheless formed and attributed to the name Rocket Knight Adventures 2. So at least this game can be considered a full -fledged sequel with a clear conscience. We will consider it now.
First of all, the eye clings to the cover:
The character barely managed to be fulfilled for a year, and Konami already rethinks his appearance. As a result, Sparkster has grown up and even built in order, so that the armor looks not so bulky on it. Well, we say goodbye to the charming shorty and we will need to get it that the series has not undergone any global changes.
But no, the guys from Konami of the lungs are clearly not looking for. Otherwise why would they need to reinter the entire mechanics of the first part? As a result, their new brainchild is replete with the most doubtful innovations that can only be imagined.
The management was especially strong. This is not the second and third part of Sonic the Hedgehog, in which the character behavior has slightly changed. In RKA2, you have to literally re -learn to play.
Firstly, the slowly slowly slowly became even more clumsy. It accelerates very tightly, and in the air is controlled as if it is under water, because of which, for example, it becomes difficult to slip into a narrow space between two platforms without the use. Yes, and now he always jumps to the same height, regardless of the duration of pressing the button.
Secondly, significant changes in the ability of the protagonist have undergone. Sparkster has forgotten how to throw energy waves and is now forced to rely only on cold steel in battle. Despite the fact that he waves a sword much better than in the first part, the need to constantly approach the villains for a dangerous distance does not please at all.
With jetpak the situation is different. He did not lose his former functionality and even learned to charge automatically. And now he does it much faster than before, allowing the hero to almost non -stop in the air and get to any corner of the map without any problems. The levels played this and provided more or less extensive spaces for flights. Even inside the pyramid from the second stage you can find a couple of places that allow you to fly.
Another radical innovation touched the collection of crystals and was, perhaps, the main nominee for victory in the contest “?". If the jewelry was originally gathered only for the sake of glasses (well, the following additional lives), then in the sequel now, after each tenth of the assembled crystal, a miniature one -armed bandit is activated, which gives out a random bonus or dumping a bomb on the hero.
And the word “random” means generally any object that can be selected in the game, whether it is another crystal or additional life. Because of this, there are situations that amaze with your absurdity in the game: run, for example, you are on the path, collect crystals, suddenly you are falling on your head for a satchel and you fly away. But that’s not all. The higher the level of complexity, the more often a bomb will fall out of a one -handed bandit, which makes the collection of crystals at all undesirable.
And, perhaps, this will sound somewhat strange from my lips, but in terms of graphics in general and the drawing of locations in particular, Sparkster is even inferior to the first part. A rare case when a console sequel visually loses to the original that came out for the same console. Konami so much wanted to save on development? Of course, there are very pleasant backgrounds, but basically from the visual series there is a feeling that the game was supposed to be released at Master System. Only the spell of the main character pleases the eye.
The composer composition has also undergone significant changes. This time, a duet from the Soundtrak worked on the soundtrack Akira Sowji, better known under the pseudonym Akiropito, And Akira Yamaoki, better known as Akira Yamaoka. Yes, Sparkster is one of his earliest works in the gaming industry, while before the famous Silent Hill there are several more years.
The music has become tangibly harder, there was no trace of the funny recklessness of the first part. The local compositions literally shout: “Action! More action!»Particularly succeeded in local boss themes. Say that they are powerful – proudly keep silent.
And yes, this is the next game of the series, which received the official soundtrack one hundred thousand million years later, when only a couple of great -age technology -norfals (like me) will recall the game. And again thanks to Ship to Shore for the fact that the release in principle was able to take place. Yes, again a bulky vinyl, but check out what a gorgeous design has a gorgeous! Direct "missile knight under the acid".
Behind the plot you will again have to climb into the manual, because no one is going to tell anything in the game itself. And this time, no good news from there can not be deducted. The developers simply reprinted the background from the first part, only a little reformulating some phrases, and at the end they wrote a couple of sentences about the plot.
“The king of the country of lizards Gedol took advantage of the universal chaos caused by the military activity of the pork of the Empire, and with the help of evil spell seized power throughout the planet, including the Kingdom of Zebulos. Having learned about a certain great hero named Sparkster, the sorcerer orders his troops to find him and destroy him."
That’s all that they could squeeze out. As for the main architect of Sparkster, Axel Gir, who somehow miraculously survived the events of the first game, of course, sided with the villain.
The help came from a very unexpected side. Publishing company Fleetway Publications Within the framework of Sonic The Comic, she produced at one time a series of short comics about various heroes of video games that were published on the SEGA consoles, and among them was one brave mirror. It is ironic that the authors chose the second part for adaptation. The history of Sparkster was published from 53 to 58, the release of inclusive and consisted of a total of 30 pages.
The work turned out to be rather stupid, having inconsistencies even with the only cut-scene in the game (where, sorry for mercy, the king disappeared?), but I really like some rear backgrounds showing the kingdom – such a gloomy fantasy dieselpank.
Although if you think a little, the comic book is called “Sparkster: the last of the missile knights”, while in the user instruction about the protagonist it says: “The strongest of missile knights”, which implies the presence of more than one missile knight besides the Sparkster himself. It turns out that the events of the comic book occur after all the games? This is even less sense, if only because at the end of the game the hero cuts the sorcerer of Gedol in half, which is very problematic to survive. I will be more willing to believe that no one began to strain about the plot and simply stabbed the gagger deprived of any logic.
The authors planned to continue the release of comics about Sparkster, but Konami included Konami and the rights to use the character fity. The bench eventually had to turn. Honestly, even a little sorry. Despite the holy naivety that created on the pages of the comic book, I would not refuse to continue.
Repeating the first part, in RKA2 it is impossible to get a good ending at a low level of complexity. The game not only instead of the final battle shows the symbolic “The End” and sends to the main menu, but also pretty shreds the levels, due to which greatly simplifying the passage. But with the true ending is still more interesting. Konami did what to do to them. did not follow.
In order to finish the forces of evil once and for all, Sparkster needs to collect seven magic swords during his journey, which will turn him into a golden sparkster and defeat the final boss. Well, what can I say. A series, which was originally positioned as the answer of Sonic, reached the direct borrowing of his key gameplay features. No, I know that Sonic Team himself pulled this idea with super-forms from Dragon Ball, but Konami does not justify at all.
It is even strange that this part of the adventures of a missile knight among platform lovers are customary to hawe, scold and in every possible way to offend. She, of course, is worse than the ancestor in almost all parameters, but it is still interesting and fun playing it. But okay, the last game from the classic line remains.
Konami should be given to Konami. Instead of making a banal port of one game, they pretty much strained and did something original. Almost. This time, the developers rushed to another extreme: they excluded all innovations from the game, regardless of the degree of their doubtfulness and tried to make either a rethinking or a clone of the first. It is ironic that Konami really planned to make a Rocket Knight Adventures port on SNES, but for unknown reasons they refused the idea. Because of this, I will try to limit myself to the review only by comparison and not go into details.
What you immediately notice after the SMD version-they paid the appearance where there are more attention. The rear backgrounds are pleasing to the eye, the main character and enemies are reflected in the water on the coast – and in general, the details of the levels are corny higher. So far, in my opinion, the most beautiful game in the series.
Due to the fact that Snes’ovsky Sparkster uses the first part of the RKA as a guideline, the protagonist was returned manually a loaded satchel and the ability to create and send energy vortices to the sword with a wave of sword. And so that the game does not look like a remake, the hero learned a couple of new tricks. Now he knows how to move crawling, and also make small jerks in the air forward and backward. In general, it is strange that the first appeared so late, despite the fact that in the genre of platformers the opportunity to crawl somewhere not so new.
The jerk allows Sparkester to be in the air longer and “jump” to the platforms in case the ranger was not enough. This can really be called the development of the original concept, unlike a one-handed bandit that outstanding random turns-up. As for the collection of crystals, the concept was reduced to the good old formula: "100 crystals = life". It would seem a miracle happened, but.
The management is going wrong again. I find it difficult to say whether the reason was the lesser horizontal resolution of the picture issued by the console (256×224 versus 320×224 at SMD), or not, but in this game it is sometimes impossible to adequately control the reactive ranks. At least without harm to health. The fact is that it is also too powerful and is quickly discharged. A satchel one jerking the hero sends the hero into a flight at such a speed that I can’t imagine how to adequately react to the danger that appeared on the horizon.
The difficulty is not even that Sparkster is getting too fast. At first, he flies normally with a sword at the ready, then the satchel is cut down, forcing the hero the rest of the way in a panic to wave their hands, always at the end made a terribly inert braking on the earth’s firmament. In the conditions of a constant crush (and in the case of the second level, the abundance of obstacles that can kill in one touch) seems to be more reasonable at all to abandon the use of a satchel, limiting himself only with rare jerks on particularly arrogant muzzles or in moments when it is impossible to pass otherwise.
Unfortunately, this is not the only problem. Second – damn scrolling. Here it is made so that Sparkster should “push” the screen for some time, so that he moves forward and began to show what is in front of the hero, and not behind. When the enemies run on both sides, programmers of this miracle want to fry.
A banal example is straight from the first level:
If the hero falls, then he flies back and moves the screen. To move it back, you have to go forward, but there is somewhere a gun, which is no longer visible!
The need to constantly butt with enemies and the camera is perhaps one of the most serious problems of the game. But there is, unfortunately, another. Initially, I did not want to go into details and describe every sprite, but exceptions, as they say, confirm the rules. It will be about the battle with the seventh -level boss, which occurs in the form of a duel on robots with a view of the top. In it, the developers embodied the three most terrible things: control, inert physics of movement and unpredictable behavior of the villain scattered through the gamepad.
But the most important thing: this. Boss. Fucked. Chiter. Not only is he stronger than a similar robot of the hero a million times, but even on any of your tactics, he can easily cut the maniac regime, press to the corner and very painfully punish. If you sit in the block, then the sinking after a few strokes will tear your hands off your robot, press again to the corner and painfully punish. Sometimes it is possible to crush him for some time and even tear off one hand, but by that time Sparkster’s robot is usually pretty broken. And in general, the boss in which you need to rely on luck = bad boss.
As for the soundtrack, most of the compositions are taken from the megaraviv namesake. And after adaptation to the Snes’ov sound system, they sounded somehow unusually soft, sometimes causing associations with some classic jrpg. But they arranged them very well, some compositions do not even recognize. Also, the authors of diversity wrote several unique melodies for the game, and some of them just burn with napalm!
Similarly, oddly enough, and with the plot. Sparkster script is a banal tracing paper with RKA. Only pigs were replaced by wolves and gave out another princess under salvation. Despite the fact that rather funny moments are traced in places (for some reason, Colonel Wolfheim, who spoke in the role of a boss), did not leave the feeling of secondary to the most secondary.
The transitions between levels are no longer accompanied by any KAT scenes, so the procedure for stages seems to be random. First, the hero fights with wolves at the factory, then he will fall into the mountains, from the mountain falls on the submarine, which brings him to the desert (!), where does he get into the country of musical instruments (?!). Imagine, somewhere there is a whole state made of huge drums, pipes and other tools. The world of the series has always been distinguished by some madness, but it has never been chaotic.
The game also suffers from mania not to give the player a true ending if he plays at a low level of complexity. But specifically, this version went further and for a battle with the final boss requires passing itself on Hard! Not a single Sparkster has yet reached such a lead.
As a result, this is a good beautiful, but a little crooked game that did not reach interestingness not only to the first part, but even to the second. It is strange that it is placed above RKA2, very strange.
Years passed. The character, who was prophesyed to become the main talisman of Konami for a long time, slowly went into the background and was forgotten not only by players, but even by the creators. So it was destined to be Sparkster to become one of the many mascots who did not survive the mass transition to 3D, but in 2009 the news appeared that Konami was working on a new game in the series. Yes, not above the remake;The development was official 2.5D sequel RKA! Which is called Rocket Knight.
I don’t know why Opissum was so guilty and what kind of magic Voodoo was used on it, but the frenzy with the numbering of games continued. In total, we received the following series: Rocket Knight Adventures (first part), Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (second part), Sparkster on SNES (branch) and Rocket Knight (third part). Well, Konami themselves are to blame that the game Sparkster is now mistakenly ranked for the first part, and Rocket Knight is all completely called a remake.
One way or another, a year later the game was released in the appropriate digital services PS3 and Xbox 360, as well as on Steam. And in the latter case, they opened the game only in the American region. Honestly, until that moment I have not heard about regional locks in Steam. What would these konami.
However, they did not study the creation of the game themselves, but the British from Climax, a well-known (maybe for someone and “notorily known”) two sequels of the Saylet Hill series: Origins and Shattered Memories. What to expect from them after such a track record – let everyone decide for himself, but it is better to play once than to imagine a hundred times.
And, oddly enough, there is a plot! Despite the fact that the narrative is not far from the games of the fifteen years ago (a couple of text paragraphs plus a little dumb Kat-scenes), the Rocket Knight script more or less normally connected the entire trilogy together.
When Sparkster destroyed the very heart of the Empire of Svine-Technocrats Devotindos (the first part of the series), the country was left without a commander in chief. There is no empty place, so General Sweinhart, who participated in the war, quickly came to power. And while Sparkster struggled with all his might with the Gedol Empire (the second part of the series), the general tried to packet the sins of the previous ruler in full swing over the Zephyrus Opeksums, depleted by the frequent wars (the corrected translation of the crooked name Zebulos), helping both humanitarian and financially financially.
And when, having returned home, Sparkster sees that pigs flooded the country, he was, to put it mildly, in shock. The king explained to him the situation, but the racket flatly refused to believe in the sincerity of the Devotindos empire. In the end, without reconciling with severe reality, he folds weapons and goes to the outskirts of the country in search of a calm life.
Fifteen years later, a new war is flared up, this time with the wolves (rethinking the Snes’ovsky Sparkster, in fact), and Opissum, having acquired a wife and child at that time, is again forced to take up the sword. Arriving in the capital, he sees a strange sight: pigs and opossoma fight with the invaders side by side, and the traitor Axel Gir became a missile knight in the service of the king. Now Sparkster will not only repel the attack of the invaders, but also figure out what happened in the country during his absence.
This is the scenario of the new game. I think all future plot moves can be seen through and through. Compared to previous games of the series, Rocket Knight has become more difficult for a whole gyrus, which is somewhat sad for 2010, but, given the genre, it is quite tolerant. But I am amazed at how ease the scriptwriters wind up years from the game to the game. In the first part, Sparkster was preparing to become a captain of missile knights, but due to Axel’s betrayal he leaves the country for ten years. Then he refuses chivalry and lives a quiet and calm life for another fifteen. By the time of the events of the last game, it turns out that it has been hit for half a century? It is very unlikely that he rolled in the place of the captain of the knights at 15-20 years old, at least 25 then he should have been fulfilled. In vain, I’m trying to look for logic in platformers, oh in vain! Well, okay, it’s time to turn on the game.
Well, the gameplay pleasantly surprised. The authors approached the creation of the game with understanding and did not attach their own ingenious solutions to it, requiring the complete reinforcement of all mechanics. Climax acted easier – they took everything that worked well from previous games, added a little from themselves, mixed thoroughly and served us in this form. As a result, Sparkster regained most of the old abilities and acquired a couple of new.
The most significant change was subjected to the satchel of the protagonist. It is now not only charged automatically, as it was in the second part, but even after use it is not spent immediately. And here you will immediately encounter the first restriction introduced – no more than one jerk in the air at a time. Yes, the lime of a satchel in zero for one session will not work. But after three or four jumps-quite.
In cases where you almost reached the target, the second improvement of the jet satchel will help – an auxiliary jerk that allows the hero to fly forward a couple more centimeters. A kind of jump that previously found in the games of the Klonoa series, only in this case it is more likely. But keep in mind that any action with a satchel is eating fuel, which is replenished much more slowly than in the same RKA2, so you should not abuse, otherwise you run the risk of being under the nick of the villain without anything.
The last improvement of the satchel allows the hero hanging on something upside down to make a “sun”, knocking down all enemies that are nearby. Used in practice, however, not as often as we would like.
As for the right sword, the development of the developers was Solomonov: to give the player and the usual wave of the blade, and a wave that creates an energy clot. The difference is that firing with a sword compared to a conventional blow causes much less damage to enemies and spends the energy of a reactive satchel, but allows you to keep the distance.
The rest of the hero’s abilities over time have not changed. He still cheerfully bounces from the walls during the flight, also uses the swing of the sword around its axis, if you do not set the direction for a jerk. In general, the classic sparkster, only improved and supplemented.
There are only four levels in the game, which is less than in any other game from the series, but they are unrealistically fat! The first two stages are divided into four each, the last two – into three. In total, fourteen levels are obtained, four of which are devoted to bosses and three – flights with the help of a satchel. About the latter.
How else this part differs from the previous ones is a great emphasis on the scroll-shuttle stages. If earlier they were purely episodic, now they have been made much more complete. But this mode has one small minus-the absence of any rols-ups. Sparkster in the air has only three abilities: to give fuels to a satchel for more nimble maneuvers and attacks of enemies from behind, shoot energy clots and shoot a ray of death, killing everyone on the same line with a hero, but requiring time for recharging. AND. It’s all to the end of the game. Когда уровень один, на это внимания не обращаешь, но здесь монотонность ничем не разбавленной перестрелки в воздухе виднеется более явно.
Everything seems to be good in the game, but, alas, she greatly slowed down in complexity. And this is even for the fact that a limited number of lives and continuations is issued for the passage! Apparently, they were afraid of Climax to fall into their creation elements of hardcore. Well, what can I do, time now is different. The largest drop in the degree of complexity is achieved using a camera very much pushed back – enemies are now visible per kilometer and you can uselessly use a reactive satchel.
But not only this greatly facilitated the game. In Rocket Knight as a phenomenon there are no traps that instantly select life. Even the bottomless abysses simply take one heart from the hero and revive nearby! For my first passage, I have died only twice, which already shows how simple this game is for those who survived the previous three parts, and those who survived the seventh boss Snes’ovsky Sparkster! Therefore, I strongly recommend that you immediately start going through Hard mode, because only then all the advantages of the game are revealed and the same Sparkster begins to feel in it.
By the way, about Hard Mode. The developers blocked him in a very extravagant way. At first it is available only for the first level, and to open the following, you need to find vulnerability from the bosses and at least once hit them. Why should I convince the game that I am worthy to pass it in a seriously?
But about music, I find it difficult to say anything. For the first time in the entire series, when it is difficult for me to say anything about the soundtrack. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he did not quite the path that I expected from him. What did they create such? So, I ask you to love and complain the first orchestral soundtrack in the Rocket Knight Adventures series!
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, it is amazingly unprofitable during the game. This is doubly disappointing, because the music in the world of the brave spossum-rake occupied one of the leading places. Here we have quite standard epic bow and wind passages that cause associations with our triols except with some “pirates of the Caribbean”. As a result, even after twisting the slider of the music volume in the settings for the maximum, the ear is unlikely to catch on something. Even a few arrangements of compositions from previous games of the series do not particularly make the weather.
The situation was to correct the transition from the symphony to electronic music, but, firstly, they are mixed in a ratio of 9: 1, secondly, local electronics are also not enough from the sky. But it at least brings a little diversity. Made the soundtrack, by the way, obviously not for users of headphones. For some reason, the authors smashed the panorama, which is why there is a feeling that the orchestra is sitting around you and blowing straight into the ears.
But I in vain I pump the atmosphere. Despite the overall poverty of the musical background, there are good compositions there, which take the soundtrack to the level of "above the average".
Yes, it does not catch as much as compositions from previous games (and this is even despite the godlessly outdated iron of those consoles where they went out), but this does not prevent him from complementing the gameplay, which he copes within the limits. And yet I expected something like that from the game:
The last thing I would like to say about is graphics. Well, I think, in screenshots and so everything is clear. The game does not even like what could be released in 2010. It can be quite accepted for one of the debut projects for DreamCast. But let’s not about sad.
In my opinion, the Old Believers who know the character from the diapers, the game was too criticized. Yes, the game does not look advanced in terms of graphics and slightly changes the original concept. Just one advice – play right away at Hard, then you will feel the spirit of that very sparkster.
It’s time to summarize. Such were the long -time years of the life of the same mirror. Opeksum, which appeared at the very peak of talisman fever and without proper support from Konami quickly drowned in it. Opeksum, the first part of the game about which not a single sequel is so surpassed. It is a pity that, given the current state of Konami, you can not even wait for the new story about the adventures of Sparkster. But maybe even for the best.