Ultimate Guide: Rocket Knight Adventures
Alan Wen makes a case for Konami’s magnificent marsupial-starring Mega Drive classic
One hedgehog paved the way for many other animal mascot platformers in the Nineties, but only one arguably ignited the same spark, while also sharing the same colour. Strap in as we journey through the wonder of Rocket Knight Adventures WORDS BY ALAN WEN
As Sonic fought on the frontlines of the 16-bit console war in the early Nineties, his rival wasn’t only Nintendo but every other game company looking to have an animal mascot of their own. There had, of course, been mascot platformers in games previously, though these were mostly using established licences such as Capcom’s Disney platformers like Ducktales and Chip ’N Dale: Rescue Rangers. Konami in particular had a celebrated number of licensed games under its belt such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons and Tiny Toons Adventures, but the company was ready to enter the fray with its own original mascot.
Released in 1993 on the Mega Drive,
Rocket Knight
Adventures can easily be compared with Sega’s iconic console mascot. Its hero Sparkster wore blue armour and was an opossum – not exactly the same family of species as a hedgehog (both are often mistaken as rodents) but still close enough, what with their pointed black noses. And he even has his own spin attack. For the North American box art he’s also drawn with a scowling expression, a rocket knight with attitude, if you will.
But when it comes to playing the game, it’s clear Konami didn’t set out to imitate Sonic. Rocket Knight Adventures was the creation of
Nobuya Nakazato, whose work included the run-and-gun Contra series, while the company already had a rich heritage in arcade shoot-’em-ups like Gradius, so it’s not surprising that much of the gameplay resembles more of a shooter. That might sound a little
strange when you consider Sparkster isn’t armed with a gun but a sword. However, rather than attacking enemies up close, you can swing your blade to release swirling energy projectiles over a short distance – not unlike Link’s sword beam in the Legend Of Zelda series, except this still works even when you’re not at full health. Meanwhile in other sections, you’ll grab a special item and take continuous flight as the game imitates a horizontal-scrolling shooter.
More unique to this game, however, is your rocket pack that you can charge up to fly in eight directions. Blasting around becomes important not just for attacking but also traversing otherwise unreachable areas, which you’re taught early on when faced with a high wall. Then, while in a tighter indoor location, you learn you can fly at walls at a 45-degree angle to bounce off them to reach further heights. Once you’re facing tougher enemies than the army of pig soldiers, rocket-charging quickly becomes par for the course, especially when you need to aim at weak spots just slightly out of reach from a tricky angle.