While it's sadly in black and white, has some gutter loss in the otherwise nice two-page spreads, and features typos here and there (y'know, just to get all of it's CRIPPLING FLAWS out of the way), I really enjoyed it. I mean, I read all 230 pages or so in about three days, which, with my easily divided attention and increasing lack of free time, is saying something. The analysis of each underappreciated game is generally pretty insightful and engagingly-written.
More than that though, it accomplished something that I've wanted to see done for a long time. Whenever I read a gaming magazine with a nice feature, I almost always want to see it go on longer and deeper in depth. I understand why they don't - magazines just don't have the pages to devote to one feature. An article on underappreciated games in, say, GamePro would get maybe 12 pages max, but here there's 230 straight pages of coverage. It's essentially a feature that has all the room it needs, and when I was done I felt that the concept and each of the games had been well and fully explored. So that's great.
Also... it inspired me. Reading about the love for all of these overlooked games reminds me of one of my favorites, a game so mind-bogglingly great its ridiculous that it doesn't have a higher position of respect among players. Want to know what it is? I know you do! Read on!
What could it be?
Rocket Knight Adventures
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
U.S. Release: June 16, 1993
Format: Genesis
Lately we've been seeing a resurgence in the side-scrolling platformer. From big-budget commercial releases like New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns to downloadable titles such as Mega Man 9 & 10 and Sonic the Hedgehog 4, we've been getting the sequels to the classics the way there were meant to be played, dammit. The industry is maturing; designers and publishers are coming to terms with the notion that older play and art styles are a worthwhile stylistic choice instead of a product of outdated technological limitations. Those same designers are also more and more often nostalgic for a childhood obsessed with Nintendo and Sega's 16-bit offerings, as are we all. It's great, yeah?
Exceppppptttt... It's not quite the same, is it? Play DKC Returns or Sonic 4 or any of the others, and you'll likely have lotsa fun, but... something seems off. Is it the physics? A sense of viscerality? Does the parabola of the jump seem stilted to you? They're different. You can feel it. Maybe it's because they have to be designed to appeal to the "old" and "new" gamer alike. Maybe the designers are focusing so much on nostalgia they feel more like remakes than sequels. Hell, maybe we're just misremembering the originals. Probably all, and more. Who knows?
Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying today's new side-scrollers are worse than the ones most of us played as children. The gaming industry today produces experiences of the highest quality, convenience, and value of any time in history; anybody who tries to tell you that the good old days were objectively better is an idiot. What I'm saying is that the side-scrollers of our youth had a unique weight to them, and they're relegated to a time that's gone forever.
I say this all because, if you're looking for one of those excellent never-to-be-replicated honest-to-god "old school" platformers, dig a fiver out from under your couch and pick up a copy of Rocket Knight Adventures. You probably haven't played it, and that's a shame, because, at least in my opinion, it's the best platformer ever made. Better than Mario, better than Yoshi, better than DK, better than Sonic. It belongs with a handful of others in that upper echelon characterized by godly physics, gameplay, music, and art design. It's that good, people.
It's not that hard to see why people may have ignored RKA when it first arrived. It's hero, Sparkster, is a blue marsupial on a console more-or-less defined by a certain other blue marsupial and several dozen mediocre clones thereof, and the game's advertising campaign and box art didn't do much to distinguish him from all the wannabes with attitude. Ignore the marketing department; Sparkster doesn't even try to be cool. That's not who he is. When you go too long without pressing a button he doesn't stare you down to do something because he's got places to be you idiot. Instead, he gives you a big thumbs up and Genesis-chirps "Let's go!" We're on an adventure, man! Let's go see what's next! Not to say he doesn't take his job seriously; he has what Tomm Hulett described as "an earnestness in the fun cute protagonist that takes heroism dead seriously." He's easy to love.
Don't worry; Sparkster is Japanese happy, not American angry!
The design of his game can be roughly described as "Sonic meets Contra." It's got platforming, colorful worlds, and animal characters along with fast, relentless action and midbosses all over the place. Sparkster's basic attack is a sword that shoots flames a short way. Hitting directly with the sword deals more damage, leading to a solid risk/reward mechanic that encourages you to dash forward at the optimum moment and hack the boss' face off. The distinguishing mechanic of the series is Sparkster's rocket pack. By holding down the attack button a short while you can boost in eight directions or do a mostly useless standing spin attack. Hitting walls causes Sparkster to bounce around haphazardly, so platforming requires precision boosts and boss fights involve slamming into weak points and scrambling to reposition yourself before the boss starts attacking again.
The game is very short, about seven stages amounting to an hour or so of playtime, but don't let that put you off. It's short because it cuts out the bullshit. The game is constantly throwing new things at you. With one minor exception, enemies never repeat from stage to stage. You're being thrown into fresh situations often, such as platforming by using your reflection in a lava flow, running from indestructible robots, or engaging in some really good some side-scrolling dogfighting straight out of Gradius. These new wrinkles arise, are satisfyingly explored, and dissolve to the next wrinkle, keeping things fresh and surprising throughout.
You're up top, behind the crystals. Eh? Ehhhh?
The graphics are terrific for the Genesis, with lots of foot soldiers on screen, huge bosses, and helpful Contra-style slowdown. More relevant today is the art design. Your enemy is a nation of pigs, all of whom look like they enjoy the work of being evil. Like Sparkster's light-hearted seriousness, the green-armored ham soldiers are simultaneously menacing and mischevious. They're satisfying to smack around (and come to think of it, I've never really given credit to the game's wonderful smack sound effects). The bad guys have a steampunk aesthetic to their equipment and capital city, which looks like industrial Germany with wonderful pig-faced buildings. The other environments are lush, colorful, and filled with detail that's hard to appreciate when you're moving through them so fast and frequently, ala the Sonic trilogy.
The city of Hamburg. Hey-ohhhhhhh!
One thing I love about this game is its narrative structure. First off: don't read the official storyline, because the way the story is told in the game itself is so much more enjoyable. It begins with a cutscene of Sparkster standing on top of a cliff, drawing his sword, and staring down the leering, ghostly face of Lord Ham, manifestation of all that's evil and greasy. What follows is essentially, I shit you not, God of War for kids. For the rest of the game you're chasing the pigs down for kidnapping a princess, and note that you keep chasing and slaughtering them for two stages after you rescue the princess. You just keep going and going, crushing their armies, sacking their city, and blowing up their Death Star. Soldiers and robots and giant mechs are just chucked at you, and you just kill 'em and kill 'em and kill 'em. It's awesome.
You're not told much about Sparkster in the game itself, but just from the gameplay you know two things: he shows up to selflessly fight evil, and you do not want to fuck with him. Well, there's one more thing: you also know that there are at least two rocket knights. On the enemy's team is Axl Gear, the Knuckles to Sparkster's Sonic. He shows up throughout the game to mess with you, and you know, just from your own nation-crushing power, that a battle with another rocket knight is going to make for one hell of a boss fight.
He is, however, American determined
Also, the music. I can close my eyes and recall the theme for each substage in the entire game clearly in my mind. It's a Genny soundtrack up there with Sonic 2 and Streets of Rage.
RKA got two sequels before the 16-bit generation was up, one horrible, one passable, and recently got one of those new downloadable installments in the classic side-scrolling style. It wasn't very good even on its own merits, probably the worst of the revivas in its attempts to evoke nostalgia through surface replication of the original's themes, music, and gameplay. Another example of the fact that 16-bit platformers had a certain something about them that can't easily be replicated in today's gaming environment. Rocket Knight Adventures may be the last of those "classic" platformers that you haven't played, and, if so, it should be the last one you do. Right now.
...Oh goddamit, GameSpite actually covered RKA earlier here. I find it interesting that Mr. Nomali finds the game's stylings cartoonishly nonviolent, while I took away more of a relentless onslaught of porkstruction from the experience.
