Rocket Knight (0)

First release date

2010-05-12

Platform

Xbox 360 Games Store PlayStation Network (PS3) PC

Developer

Climax Studios

Publisher

Konami

Theme

Rocket Knight Adventures

Franchise

Rocket Knight Adventures

Overview

Title Screen

Rocket Knight is a 2010 sequel to the original games, (1993) and (1994). It takes the same core gameplay and updates the graphics to a platformer: models confined to a plane of motion.

Plot

The backstory of this game is conveyed through a four page text “Story” option that retells the first two games, and fills in what occurred in the interim. During the game, extra plot is revealed through short descriptions on the loading screens, posters in the levels and short that follow each level.

Backstory (Summarized from In-Game “Story” Option)

In the first game of the series the pig empire Devotindos invaded the opossum kingdom Zephyrus (then named Zebulos) to exploit their natural resources and expand their reign. After ravaging several villages and kidnapping Princess Sherry, , a valiant Rocket Knight, fought back the pig hordes, defeated their Pig Emperor Devilgus and brought Princess Sherry home safely. Sparkster pledged to keep Zephyrus safe from it’s enemies. Following the second game, the pig empire, Devotindos, is spread so thinly due after it’s war efforts, that they offer a truce with the Kingdom of Zephyrus, offering labor and technological advancement in exchange for shelter and resources. Despite Sparkster’s pleas the King of Zephyrus agreed to forgive Devotindos for their prior transgressions. With the newfound peace, Sparkster was no longer needed, and left Zephyrus.

Sparkster blasts off to save the day!

Fifteen years have passed, and Sparkster leads a simpler life of farming with his wife and young son. One day Sparkster sees a terrible sight in the distance, warships descending on Zephyrus! Remembering his sacred vow, Sparkster once again dons his armor to defend Zephyrus once more!

Rocket Knight

Sparkster rushes to the aid of Zephyrus, to defeat the wolves that have overrun the city. He discovers that his rival is lauded as the Rocket Knight hero in his place. In the capital, he defeats the wolves’ giant robot, the Forest Shredder. While he is pinned down under the debris of his defeated foe, the Zephyrians decide to go to war against the wolf army, egged on by General Sweinhart and Axel Gear. After some struggling, Sparkster escapes, and rushes ahead of the Zephyrians to attempt to defeat the wolves himself and prevent his people from coming to harm…

Gameplay

Rocket Knight is primarily a 2D platformer, but there are levels in the game that more closely resemble shmups. In the platforming levels, Sparkster can swing his sword, shoot out short-ranged (Burst Shot), , hang from bars with his tail or perform burst moves using his . During the shmup levels he can shoot shots or charged beams from his , and has a boost that lets him go faster and burn enemies in the exhaust stream of his rocket pack. There are 4 stages separated into 3-4 levels each, and the last level of each stage is a boss fight. This totals at 14 levels, 7 platformer, 3 shmup and 4 boss battles.

Burst Moves

Shmup level: Sparkster takes on the Wolf Armada

These are the various burst techniques that Sparkster can perform. He can only do one burst before having to land, not including burst shot and burst assist, and must have enough fuel in his jet pack to do any burst techniques. The fuel in the jet pack refills automatically.

Rocket Burst

Sparkster is propelled in one of eight directions at high speed with his sword held out ahead. Using it at a diagonal causes Sparkster to ricochet, gaining a bit extra distance in the process. It is very useful for traversal, and is a good attack as well.

Burst Drill

A more powerful version of the Rocker Burst, Sparkster begins to corkscrew, using more fuel, but doing more damage. This doesn’t travel as far as the Rocket Burst, but is a great attack to use against bosses.

Burst Shot

Sparkster shoots a bolt of energy from his sword, using power from his rocket pack. It’s weaker than other attacks, but allows you to attack at a distance.

Burst Assist

After jumping, this will allow you to hover for a short while. Good for extending jumps and making steering corrections when falling.

Burst Vortex

Sparkster spins with his sword held out quickly with limited controlled movement, creating a full circle of attack. This move provides invincibility, making it an improvement over the normal slash.

Rail Spin

When hanging from a rail, performing the Burst Vortex causes Sparkster to spin around the rail vertically getting extra distance from his tail. Jumps during a rail spin are given a higher distance.

This art will begin each level

There are 3 game modes: Arcade, Free Play and Gold Sparkster Mode. Arcade lets you play through the story on either Normal or Hard difficulty. Hard difficulty has more enemies and more difficult enemies, and some timing based events are faster. To continue to the next stage on Hard, you must hit the previous Stage’s boss’ weak point. This could be an environment based attack or more difficult technique to land If you run out of continues durring Arcade mode you're progress in said mode is erased. Free Play lets you retry any level you've already unlocked regardless of how many time you're progress in Arcade Mode has been reset. . Gold Sparkster Mode is really a difficulty of Arcade mode where you have half as many hearts (four instead of eight) but your jet pack recharges approximately twice as fast. The game is set at the approximately the same difficulty as hard.

Each level has 5 collectibles: Blue Gems, Red Gems, Small Health Tokens, Large Health Tokens and . Collecting all the Blue Gems or Red Gems in a level will give you an extra life for each. The end of each level shows your tally of all items collected, time, par time, and score. Score is determined by the number of collectibles received and enemies defeated, and the game also has a multiplier combo system where performing these acts in quick succession creates a multiplier to improve your score. There are also active leaderboards for scores and times with Steam friend support, so you can see how you stack up compared to a friend on your steam list, or against the internet at large.