1 month ago

Something about Sparkster...


Hello. I'm NukeOTron, I make video games, and one of my primary inspirations for a lot of games was old Konami games, before the company went south. One of those games was Sparkster for the SNES.

I've heard this rumor that an SNES version of Rocket Knight Adventures was canceled, but I have doubts because Sparkster exists. It plays like Rocket Knight Adventures. It's in the same universe. It has some of the same visual elements reformulated, including (but not limited to) a walking gun-faced mech, bad guys running away in embarrassment when defeated, bad guys pedaling in a machine, the bats in the third level, and the HUD. It's even in the same game collection as Rocket Knight Adventures.

That being said, I went onto the Wikipedia article for Rocket Knight Adventures for the Sega Genesis, and saw this:

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Their citation is "Pak Watch - CES Special". Nintendo Power. No. 46. March 1993. p. 112. However, one look on the Archive at this specific article, and we get this:

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That just says Rocket Knight [sic] would be coming to the SNES "soon". 1994 could be considered "soon" in '93. If someone was using this article as evidence that it was canceled, then their logic probably was, "Well, I don't see a Rocket Knight Adventures for the SNES. Do you?"

Yes. It's called Sparkster.

"...but that's not Rocket Knight Adventures!"

Do you ever remember Konami ever making a 1:1 port between their SNES and Genesis games? Sunset Riders on the Genesis reformulated the game, so it's not arcade-accurate like the SNES version. Turtles in Time was reformulated into The Hyperstone Heist on the Genesis. Even Tournament Fighters had different rosters between versions. I could go on.

"...but what about the name?"

Well, it wouldn't be the first time (or last) Konami changed a game's name in mid-development, or the first time two different games shared the same name and franchise. Besides, with the big boom of cartoon mascot protags in the '90s, they probably felt like rebranding the game in mid-development. (Okay, so I'm speculating here.) Also, the Sega Mega Drive box for Rocket Knight Adventures literally had a thing labeled "featuring Sparkster" on it.

"...and where did you get that crazy idea that Sparkster's the SNES version of Rocket Knight Adventures?"

First off, if you didn't read the details I laid out earlier, call it an educated guess. Secondly, once upon a time, a YouTuber named Derek (now known for Stop Skeletons From Fighting) did two videos discussing Sparkster under the Happy Video Game Nerd name. The second one brought up this theory, and it stayed in my mind since.

Then again, if you really want to find out if the SNES Sparkster is the SNES equivalent to Rocket Knight Adventures, I'm pretty sure you guys can play both games for yourselves, and make your own opinions. They're literally in the same game collection. Don't take my word for it, and don't cite me. I could be wrong.

...I still prefer SNES Sparkster. The controls got refined, and you'll need that L/R roll if you're gonna get past the music level. Also, that mech fight is awful the moment he starts arm-flailing.

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