Hyper_Ridley
Smash Champion
Link to original post: [drupal=3368]Video Game Review: Rocket Knight[/drupal]
This past year has been a great one for retro game fans, considering all the classic revivals we saw. New Super Mario Bros Wii, Konami’s rebirth series, Excite Bike and Blaster Master remakes/sequel, and even before then, games such as Punch-out! Have helped to restore classic gameplay (as well as games) for their fans. Last week I got a hold of one such new-old-school game, Rocket Knight for the PS3, Xbox360, and PC.
Rocket Knight is a side-scrolling platformer starring a possum named Sparkster who lives in the forest kingdom of Zephyrus. Sparkster is naturally our game’s titular “rocket knight”, as he’s a knight…who’s got a freaking JEPACK and gets to fly around and he can use his jetpack to power up his sword and shoot LAZAHS! While Mario’s using launch stars to get around the galaxy, Sparkster’s busy flying right up to Bowser and blowing him away in the face. Sparkster has his work cut out for him this time as a tribe of wolves have invaded Zephyrus and it’s gotten to the point where his old enemies, theAmericanPig Empire, have to lend a hand. Now, being a retro platformer, the story doesn’t exactly get deep as the game progresses, but in the main menu you can get a little backstory which ties the game in with the old ones.
And so our hero finds himself in an adventure as he has to make his way through 14 spread across 4 worlds. Most levels are your classic “get to the end” type of levels, with various enemies and stage hazards to defeat or navigate. You can’t kill enemies by jumping on them; instead, you get to slice them with your sword, shoot LAZAHS at them (this is actually the weakest attack you have lol), and use a variety of Boost Moves which take advantage of your jetpack. The most important one is the Burst Dash, which has Sparkster jet forwards in any direction you wish, including downwards in the air. This can damage enemies, and perhaps more importantly, aid Sparkster in platforming challenges by giving him more height/distance than his regular jump and allowing him to ricochet off of walls to go even further!
The level designs themselves are all good fun and make great use of Sparkster’s abilities. As early as level 1 I found myself flowing from boosting through an enemy, attacking the next one in mid-air as I fell to a safe platform, boosting across a gap and having enough distance to hit the enemy on that platform, then with another boos bouncing off the platform so my angle strikes ANOTHER enemy…good stuff. Later levels still allow for this but require more skill to do it unscathed. There’s very little vanilla platforming in this game; you’re almost always tasked with using your jetpack to maneuver through differing types of obstacles, and the game does a good job of keeping things fresh throughout its entirety.
The other level type is a simple gradius-style shooter. These are enjoyable enough, and you can even charge up your sword in these levels to fire EVEN BIGGER LAZAHS! However, I’d much rather play the platformer levels. The final level “type” would be the boss fights. In short, the bosses of the first 2 worlds are “meh” for me, while worlds 3 and 4 have pretty good fights that I like to replay. This game also has that same phenomenon I’m noticing with games today where the first world has the most bosses in the game; thankfully the mid-point boss of world 1 is actually a worthwhile fight.
Difficulty-wise, I found the game strikes a pretty good balance. Starting on normal difficulty, the game starts out easy enough then picks things up as you go along; I eventually had to use a continue on the final boss (speaking of continues, the game’s main “arcade mode” is traditional lives-continues system, so don’t run around thinking nothing happens if you keep killing yourself). Hard difficulty gets much more difficult, with the very first level taking away one of my lives, and this time I was on my very last life when I finally emerged victorious. One thing I really liked is how this game does a great job of teaching players the mechanics. There’s a “how to play” section of the main/pause menu which tell you how all of Sparkster’s moves function, and the first level has signposts in the background to tell you new controls/mechanics as you go along. The brilliant part is how these never get in the way of, you know, actually playing the game. Sorry XboxFPS #308880823, locking my movement and forcing me to tilt the right stick to look at glowing circles won’t cut it anymore. Indeed, in subsequent romps through level 1, I just ignored the signs and started kicking butt however I felt like it.
Now, let’s talk aesthetics. The graphics are a mixed bag. I like the artwork of some the character designs, but the in-game graphics feel like diet cel-shaded, if that makes any sense. Granted, this isn’t a realistic series in the first place so cartoony graphics are to be expected, but I feel like sprites would have looked much nicer than the 3d models they have now. On the bright side the animations are pretty nice and in some cases have a lot of character to them. The music…is also a mixed bag. Rocket Knight has joined the countless other games that need to sound “epic” and often it comes off as forgettable. I mean, the premise of a possum-knight with a jetpack is pretty epic, but we don’t need to have it forced down our throats! Thank God the final boss doesn’t have a choir in the background. There are a few tracks which I enjoyed though, so it’s not all bad.
The game is pretty short if you’re a “beat and forget” kind of person. Neither difficulty took me over 2 hours to beat. However, beating hard unlocks an even harder mode that I have yet to get past world 1 on. The only other unlockable I’ve come across is a skin that changes your appearance to Axel Gear, Sparkster’s arch-rival. He doesn’t control any differently, but getting to play as the villain is fun, and it actually shows him instead of Sparkster in the cut-scenes, so bonus points for that. There’s also a free-play mode where you can play any level as much you like, and there are leader-boards for score and time. There’s one of those “kill lots of enemies in a period of time to increase your multiplier!” deals, but it applies to both enemies and any collectables you find, so it can be pretty hectic when you’re trying to ricochet off the wall, through a gem, then landing and trying to take out the nearby enemy before the multiplier wears off. I found myself trying to keep the meter from emptying even when I was simply trying to beat the stage, so it’s got some level of engagement to it that many other high-score features have failed to evoke in me.
Now, IGN and several other sites have questioned if the game is worth the 15$ price tag. I have never played a Rocket Knight game before this one, and went into the demo fully prepared to not see what its long-time fans loved about it. The moment I completed the demo, I bought the full game. The day after I completed normal difficulty, I moved on to hard. The day after I completed hard, I went straight into the final difficulty, and have been attempting that in between some time-attacking. I can safely say that this has been some of the most pure fun I’ve had in a game in a long time. Sure, the graphics and music could be better, and some of the bosses aren’t that great, but the meat of the game, where you’re pin-balling off of walls and straight into an enemy’s face, then to jump away from his pal who was just about to fire a shot at you, then to traverse some moving platforms that both encourage and require you fly around every-which way, that’s when the game is at its greatest, and those are the moments that are commonplace. I walked away from the game feeling bad for never having played this series back in the day.
So great work Konami and Climax Studios. Thanks for giving me a new series to be a fan of, and reminding me why I’m such a video game addict!
This past year has been a great one for retro game fans, considering all the classic revivals we saw. New Super Mario Bros Wii, Konami’s rebirth series, Excite Bike and Blaster Master remakes/sequel, and even before then, games such as Punch-out! Have helped to restore classic gameplay (as well as games) for their fans. Last week I got a hold of one such new-old-school game, Rocket Knight for the PS3, Xbox360, and PC.
Rocket Knight is a side-scrolling platformer starring a possum named Sparkster who lives in the forest kingdom of Zephyrus. Sparkster is naturally our game’s titular “rocket knight”, as he’s a knight…who’s got a freaking JEPACK and gets to fly around and he can use his jetpack to power up his sword and shoot LAZAHS! While Mario’s using launch stars to get around the galaxy, Sparkster’s busy flying right up to Bowser and blowing him away in the face. Sparkster has his work cut out for him this time as a tribe of wolves have invaded Zephyrus and it’s gotten to the point where his old enemies, the
And so our hero finds himself in an adventure as he has to make his way through 14 spread across 4 worlds. Most levels are your classic “get to the end” type of levels, with various enemies and stage hazards to defeat or navigate. You can’t kill enemies by jumping on them; instead, you get to slice them with your sword, shoot LAZAHS at them (this is actually the weakest attack you have lol), and use a variety of Boost Moves which take advantage of your jetpack. The most important one is the Burst Dash, which has Sparkster jet forwards in any direction you wish, including downwards in the air. This can damage enemies, and perhaps more importantly, aid Sparkster in platforming challenges by giving him more height/distance than his regular jump and allowing him to ricochet off of walls to go even further!
The level designs themselves are all good fun and make great use of Sparkster’s abilities. As early as level 1 I found myself flowing from boosting through an enemy, attacking the next one in mid-air as I fell to a safe platform, boosting across a gap and having enough distance to hit the enemy on that platform, then with another boos bouncing off the platform so my angle strikes ANOTHER enemy…good stuff. Later levels still allow for this but require more skill to do it unscathed. There’s very little vanilla platforming in this game; you’re almost always tasked with using your jetpack to maneuver through differing types of obstacles, and the game does a good job of keeping things fresh throughout its entirety.
The other level type is a simple gradius-style shooter. These are enjoyable enough, and you can even charge up your sword in these levels to fire EVEN BIGGER LAZAHS! However, I’d much rather play the platformer levels. The final level “type” would be the boss fights. In short, the bosses of the first 2 worlds are “meh” for me, while worlds 3 and 4 have pretty good fights that I like to replay. This game also has that same phenomenon I’m noticing with games today where the first world has the most bosses in the game; thankfully the mid-point boss of world 1 is actually a worthwhile fight.
Difficulty-wise, I found the game strikes a pretty good balance. Starting on normal difficulty, the game starts out easy enough then picks things up as you go along; I eventually had to use a continue on the final boss (speaking of continues, the game’s main “arcade mode” is traditional lives-continues system, so don’t run around thinking nothing happens if you keep killing yourself). Hard difficulty gets much more difficult, with the very first level taking away one of my lives, and this time I was on my very last life when I finally emerged victorious. One thing I really liked is how this game does a great job of teaching players the mechanics. There’s a “how to play” section of the main/pause menu which tell you how all of Sparkster’s moves function, and the first level has signposts in the background to tell you new controls/mechanics as you go along. The brilliant part is how these never get in the way of, you know, actually playing the game. Sorry XboxFPS #308880823, locking my movement and forcing me to tilt the right stick to look at glowing circles won’t cut it anymore. Indeed, in subsequent romps through level 1, I just ignored the signs and started kicking butt however I felt like it.
Now, let’s talk aesthetics. The graphics are a mixed bag. I like the artwork of some the character designs, but the in-game graphics feel like diet cel-shaded, if that makes any sense. Granted, this isn’t a realistic series in the first place so cartoony graphics are to be expected, but I feel like sprites would have looked much nicer than the 3d models they have now. On the bright side the animations are pretty nice and in some cases have a lot of character to them. The music…is also a mixed bag. Rocket Knight has joined the countless other games that need to sound “epic” and often it comes off as forgettable. I mean, the premise of a possum-knight with a jetpack is pretty epic, but we don’t need to have it forced down our throats! Thank God the final boss doesn’t have a choir in the background. There are a few tracks which I enjoyed though, so it’s not all bad.
The game is pretty short if you’re a “beat and forget” kind of person. Neither difficulty took me over 2 hours to beat. However, beating hard unlocks an even harder mode that I have yet to get past world 1 on. The only other unlockable I’ve come across is a skin that changes your appearance to Axel Gear, Sparkster’s arch-rival. He doesn’t control any differently, but getting to play as the villain is fun, and it actually shows him instead of Sparkster in the cut-scenes, so bonus points for that. There’s also a free-play mode where you can play any level as much you like, and there are leader-boards for score and time. There’s one of those “kill lots of enemies in a period of time to increase your multiplier!” deals, but it applies to both enemies and any collectables you find, so it can be pretty hectic when you’re trying to ricochet off the wall, through a gem, then landing and trying to take out the nearby enemy before the multiplier wears off. I found myself trying to keep the meter from emptying even when I was simply trying to beat the stage, so it’s got some level of engagement to it that many other high-score features have failed to evoke in me.
Now, IGN and several other sites have questioned if the game is worth the 15$ price tag. I have never played a Rocket Knight game before this one, and went into the demo fully prepared to not see what its long-time fans loved about it. The moment I completed the demo, I bought the full game. The day after I completed normal difficulty, I moved on to hard. The day after I completed hard, I went straight into the final difficulty, and have been attempting that in between some time-attacking. I can safely say that this has been some of the most pure fun I’ve had in a game in a long time. Sure, the graphics and music could be better, and some of the bosses aren’t that great, but the meat of the game, where you’re pin-balling off of walls and straight into an enemy’s face, then to jump away from his pal who was just about to fire a shot at you, then to traverse some moving platforms that both encourage and require you fly around every-which way, that’s when the game is at its greatest, and those are the moments that are commonplace. I walked away from the game feeling bad for never having played this series back in the day.
So great work Konami and Climax Studios. Thanks for giving me a new series to be a fan of, and reminding me why I’m such a video game addict!
