What it was
Eginasem is a kingdom of opossums, and an army of yellow dogs and wolves under Generalissimo Lioness has invaded it and taken Princess Flora. Sparkster, the Rocket Knight, sets out to stop them. His rival, Axel Gear, another Rocket Knight, is fighting for the other side. At the end, Lioness waits on a battleship with a warhead aimed at the planet.
Sparkster carries a sword that fires bolts of energy and a rocket pack that throws him across short gaps. This version adds a short rolling dash. Every level ends with a boss. One stage puts him on a robot ostrich in a level that scrolls by itself, and a later one turns into a top-down shooter.
Where it sits in history
Konami developed and published it, and Hideo Ueda directed. It came out in Japan on 15 September 1994 and in North America in October. It follows Rocket Knight Adventures on the Sega Genesis, and it is a different game from the Genesis sequel released with almost the same name, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2. It is the only Rocket Knight game on a Nintendo console.
Critics liked it. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it 8.2 out of ten and said Konami was back to form, with huge levels, huge bosses and excellent music, and it later named it best sound effects of 1994. GamePro liked the graphics and the moody music but wanted more change from the Genesis game. IGN put it 87th on its list of the best SNES games, and Total! called it a gorgeous platform blaster and a huge challenge.
How it plays today
It feels like Konami in 1994: bright, heavy sprites, bosses the size of the screen, and a stage idea every few minutes. The rocket pack is the joy of it. It is not flight, it is a launch, and learning where it takes you is most of the game.
Know one thing before you start. The difficulty decides how long the game is. Easy ends with Axel Gear. Normal carries on to the wolf leader. Only Hard runs to the true final stage. So the short game you finished on Easy is not the whole thing, and that is a good reason to go again.
Compared with
Why it matters
Sparkster hides its ending behind its hardest setting. A player who picks Easy beats Axel Gear, sees the end, and may never learn the war went on. The game rewards the person who chose the harder road with more of the story.
Vygotsky wrote that in play a child acts a head taller than they are. Sparkster builds that into its menus. Choosing Hard is choosing to be a little taller than you were, and the reward is not a bigger score but the rest of the world.
Read: The zone: why good games make time disappear →
- Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.
What you're levelling up
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
Timing and rhythm
In the game. The rocket pack isn't flight, it's a launch, and learning where it takes you is most of the game.
Do it on purpose. Pick one tricky gap and launch at it ten times, adjusting by a beat each time until it's clean.
Off the couch. Small adjustments to timing help in sport, in a good handshake, in knowing when to wrap up a chat.
Bouncing back
In the game. Only Hard runs to the true final stage, and Hard means getting flattened by bosses you thought you knew. The short game you finished on Easy isn't the whole thing.
Do it on purpose. Beat it on Normal, then go Hard. Note the bit that kills you most and practise just that stage.
Off the couch. Getting to the easy finish line isn't the same as doing the whole job. Going back for the hard version is what earns respect.
Pattern recognition
In the game. Every level ends with a boss the size of the screen, and each has a pattern. Learn it and the fight turns into a dance.
Do it on purpose. Spend one boss attempt just watching. Name each move in order before you try to win.
Off the couch. Spotting how someone reacts to stress, so you can back off or step in, makes you a better mate.
Verdict · 8/10
Sparkster is Konami showing off, and the rocket pack earns it. Play it on Hard, because the game you get on Easy stops before the end.
