Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2

n/a

Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Genre: Action

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1994-09-23	¥8,8008,800	T-95103
US	1994-09^[3]		T-95166
EU	1994-11^[1]		T-95166-50
DE	199x	DM 109,95109,95^[4]
AU	1994
KR	199x		GM94016JT

VRC

ELSPA

OFLC

ESRA

Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (スパークスターロケットナイトアドベンチャーズ2) is a 1994 platform game developed and published by Konami for the Sega Mega Drive. It is a sequel to Rocket Knight Adventures. Even though the intro screen refers to it as Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, it was only referred to as Sparkster on the US and EU packaging.

The game stars an opossum named Sparkster who carries a sword and jetpack on a mission to stop King Gedol from taking over the Kingdom of Zephyrus and kidnapping Princess Cherry.

Story

After being rescued by Sparkster in the first game, the Kingdom of Zephyrus comes under attack once again. This time from the Gedol Empire which is led by King Gedol. In addition to this, Sparkster must also confront his rival, Axel Gear, who was sent by King Gedol to kidnap Princess Cherry, the cousin to Princess Sherry.

Gameplay

The game plays similar to its predecessor. The player can jump , attack with a sword , and use a rocket pack to fly short distances . The button layout can be configured. The projectile emitted from the sword has be removed. When running into walls when using a jetpack the player will rebound if there is enough momentum left. Unlike the first game, the jet pack meter charges quicker and automatically, leading to more opportunities to use the jetpack.

Collecting six secret swords will transform Sparkster into Gold Sparkster, a superpowered form Sparkster. Gold Sparksters attacks are stronger and the rocket pack charges faster. Transforming into Gold Sparkster is necessary to view the true ending.

Sparkster is not optimised for 50Hz PAL regions.

Moves

	As a Rocket Knight, Sparkster gets to utilize some very cool equipment. The rocket pack on his back automatically charges up when it is not in use; it has two different "levels," enabling different moves with each. Players can see the amount of power the rocket pack has charged up at the top of the screen. It charges whenever you are not using it, and as I When your rocket pack is charged to its fullest, the rocket gauge will start blinking orange. Press and any directional button to utilize the rocket blast for either level of charge. After using the rocket, it'll have to recharge to be able to be used again. Sparkster can go off in one of the eight directions, and cannot be controlled while rocketing. He can also rebound off walls, floors and some objects if there is enough momentum left.
	Similarly controlled by the use of the rocket gauge, by not pressing any directional button with , Sparkster will perform a buzzsaw cut with his sword, harming any enemy it touches and breaking certain objects. The attack itself has poor range compared to the normal sword, but does hit twice. It also grants invincibility from almost all enemy attacks, with noteable exceptions such as the instant kill laser in stage 5
	If the player finds a small circle with a flame in it, they can grab the power-up and use it to enable the flame sword. This version of the sword deals twice the damage as Sparkster's regular sword, but is lost when Sparkster takes any damage.

Items

When Sparkster has collected 10 Blue Gems or a Red Gem (which count as 10 Blue Gems), the Item Roulette starts to play; at the top right-hand corner, players can see how many Gems they have collected and watch the Item Roulette spin. Then, once an item has been selected (entirely at random), the item is dropped from the sky, and Sparkster can pick it up like normal. Items received from the roulette disappear after a short time.

Blue Gem: Used for collecting towards the Item Roulette

Red Gem: 1x Red Gem = 10x Blue Gem. An instant Item Roulette play.

Flame Orb: Puts Sparkster's sword aflame. All attacks are stronger.

Rocket Pack:Touching these will automatically engage the rocket pack.

Bomb:Causes damage. Each takes off one half of a Heart.

Apple:Restores one Heart.

Roast:Restores all Hearts.

Sparkster Head: 1-Up.

Life Canister: Restores two and a half Hearts of giant mech's health (The Gedol Empire only)

Levels

	Level 1 - Kingdom of Zebulos

	Level 2 - The Golden Desert

	Level 3 - The Flying Airship

	Level 4 - The Gedol Empire

	Level 5 - King Gedol's Realm

	Level 6 - Castle Gedol

History

Legacy

A game known only as Sparkster was also released on the Super Nintendo but is a different game, designed by a different staff, starring the same Sparkster character. Later a sequel just called Rocket Knight was released for the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and PC.

Sonic the Comic included "Sparkster" comics strips, indeed based off Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, with the hero going against King Gedol's plans. The single story arc was called "Last of the Rocket Knights!" (issue #53 to issue #58). It's one of the few comic strips in Sonic the Comic that is based off 3rd party game.

Trivia

In a video from Sega Video Magazine in Japan, the beta form of the game is shown. The differences are that the title screen has a completely different tune, Sparkster's face icon is different, the forest (stage 1-3) theme plays in the beginning of the level, and some other sprites such as the diamonds are different.
In each stage, the game sacrifces half a palette for for the the diamonds and Sparkster's icon, despite these also being covered by Sparksters palette. Perhaps this was done to avoid these change to gold after becoming Gold Sparkster. However, Gold Sparkster only makes a very brief appearance.
This is perhaps the only game where a secret item is hidden in a skippable opening scene

Production credits

Planning: Lucky Jet
Direct and Design: Tat
Character Design: Y.T
Design: Shiori S., Noboru Shirasu
Special Thanks to: Furukawa, Keita Nose
Main Programmer: Lord Unreal
Super Programmer: Masanaka Takahashi
Ultra Programmer: Hanaten Returns, Yasuo Tsurugai
Sound Programmer: O.Kasai, Akiropito
Sound Design: Chiruchiru Yamane, A.Yamaoka
Package Design: M.Yoshihashi, Y.Nozawa
Supervisor: Yutaka Haruki
Producer: Tomikazu Kirita
Special Thanks: All Konami Staff

Magazine articles

Main article: Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in GamesMaster (UK) #23: "November 1994" (1994-10-20)
also published in:

Ultimate Future Games (UK) #1: "December 1994" (1994-11-01)^[5]
Computer & Video Games (UK) #157: "December 1994" (1994-11-15)^[6]
Ultimate Future Games (UK) #2: "January 1995" (1994-12-01)^[7]

Print advert in Joypad (FR) #36: "Novembre 1994" (1994-1x-xx)

Print advert in MAN!AC (DE) #1995-02: "02/95" (1995-01-11)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)

40

^[9]

Beep! MegaDrive (JP)

NTSC-J

65

^[10]

Consoles + (FR)

88

^[11]

Computer & Video Games (UK)

78

^[2]

Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US)

NTSC-U

75

^[12]

Electronic Gaming Monthly (US)

NTSC-U

72

^[13]

Famitsu (JP)

NTSC-J

78

^[14]

Game Players (US)

NTSC-U

94

^[15]

GamePro (US)

NTSC-U

83

^[16]

GamePro (DE)

PAL

60

^[17]

Games World: The Magazine (UK)

PAL

87

^[18]

Joypad (FR)

PAL

91

^[19]

MAN!AC (DE)

PAL

76

^[20]

Mega Force (FR)

PAL

85

^[21]

Mega Fun (DE)

PAL

77

^[22]

Micro Kid's Multimédia (FR)

75

^[23]

Mean Machines Sega (UK)

PAL

91

^[8]

Player One (FR)

85

^[24]

Play Time (DE)

PAL

78

^[25]

Secret Service (PL)

80

^[26]

Sega Magazin (DE)

78

^[27]

Sega Power (UK)

PAL

80

^[28]

Sega Pro (UK)

PAL

88

^[29]

Sega Saturn Magazine (JP)

NTSC-J

56

^[30]

Supersonic (FR)

90

^[31]

Todo Sega (ES)

83

^[32]

Tricks 16 bit (RU)

83

^[33]

Video Games (DE)

PAL

77

^[34]

VideoGames (US)

80

^[35]

	78
Based on 29 reviews

Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, KR
Cover
Cart

References

↑ File:SegaMagazine UK 11.pdf, page 80
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 File:CVG UK 156.pdf, page 78 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CVG UK 156.pdf_p78" defined multiple times with different content
↑ File:GamePlayers US 0710.pdf, page 10
↑ File:MAN!AC DE 1995-02.pdf, page 100
↑ Ultimate Future Games, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-01), page 132
↑ Computer & Video Games, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-15), page 148
↑ Ultimate Future Games, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-01), page 106
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 File:MeanMachinesSega25UK.pdf, page 78 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega25UK.pdf_p78" defined multiple times with different content
↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 195
↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 19
↑ Consoles +, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 124
↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 88
↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 42
↑ Famitsu, "1994-09-23" (JP; 1994-09-09), page 38
↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 11 November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 136
↑ GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 100
↑ GamePro, "Oktober 1994" (DE; 1994-09-30), page 46
↑ Games World: The Magazine, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-10-28), page 15
↑ Joypad, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 92
↑ MAN!AC, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-12), page 71
↑ Mega Force, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 96
↑ Mega Fun, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-19), page 75
↑ Micro Kid's Multimédia, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 72
↑ Player One, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 114
↑ Play Time, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-09), page 109
↑ Secret Service, "Listopad 1996" (PL; 1996-11-01), page 69
↑ Sega Magazin, "Dezember 1994" (DE; 1994-11-17), page 26
↑ Sega Power, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-29), page 48
↑ Sega Pro, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-06), page 64
↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
↑ Supersonic, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 48
↑ Todo Sega, "Enero 1995" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 50
↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 25
↑ Video Games, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-26), page 92
↑ VideoGames, "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 90

[:File:SegaMagazine_UK_11.pdf_p80-1] File:SegaMagazine UK 11.pdf, page 80

[:File:CVG_UK_156.pdf_p78-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 File:CVG UK 156.pdf, page 78 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CVG UK 156.pdf_p78" defined multiple times with different content

[:File:GamePlayers_US_0710.pdf_p10-3] File:GamePlayers US 0710.pdf, page 10

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1995-02.pdf_p100-4] File:MAN!AC DE 1995-02.pdf, page 100

[:File:UltimateFutureGames_UK_01.pdf_p132-5] Ultimate Future Games, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-01), page 132

[:File:CVG_UK_157.pdf_p148-6] Computer & Video Games, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-11-15), page 148

[:File:UltimateFutureGames_UK_02.pdf_p106-7] Ultimate Future Games, "January 1995" (UK; 1994-12-01), page 106

[:File:MeanMachinesSega25UK.pdf_p78-8] 8.0 ^8.1 File:MeanMachinesSega25UK.pdf, page 78 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega25UK.pdf_p78" defined multiple times with different content

[9] 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 195

[:File:BeepMD_JP_1994-10.pdf_p19-10] Beep! MegaDrive, "October 1994" (JP; 1994-09-08), page 19

[:File:ConsolesPlus_FR_036.pdf_p124-11] Consoles +, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 124

[:File:ElectronicGames2_US_25.pdf_p88-12] Electronic Games (1992-1995), "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 88

[:File:EGM_US_063.pdf_p42-13] Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 42

[14] Famitsu, "1994-09-23" (JP; 1994-09-09), page 38

[:File:GamePlayers_US_0711.pdf_p136-15] Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 11 November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 136

[:File:GamePro_US_064.pdf_p100-16] GamePro, "November 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 100

[:File:GamePro_DE_1994-10.pdf_p46-17] GamePro, "Oktober 1994" (DE; 1994-09-30), page 46

[:File:Games_World_The_Magazine_UK_06.pdf_p15-18] Games World: The Magazine, "December 1994" (UK; 1994-10-28), page 15

[:File:Joypad_FR_035.pdf_p92-19] Joypad, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 92

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1994-11.pdf_p71-20] MAN!AC, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-12), page 71

[:File:MegaForce_FR_32.pdf_p96-21] Mega Force, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 96

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1994-11.pdf_p75-22] Mega Fun, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-19), page 75

[:File:MicroKidsMultimedia_FR_01.pdf_p72-23] Micro Kid's Multimédia, "Décembre 1994" (FR; 1994-1x-xx), page 72

[:File:PlayerOne_FR_046.pdf_p114-24] Player One, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 114

[:File:PlayTime_DE_1994-12.pdf_p109-25] Play Time, "12/94" (DE; 1994-11-09), page 109

[:File:SecretService_40_PL.pdf_p69-26] Secret Service, "Listopad 1996" (PL; 1996-11-01), page 69

[:File:SegaMagazin_DE_13.pdf_p26-27] Sega Magazin, "Dezember 1994" (DE; 1994-11-17), page 26

[:File:SegaPower_UK_60.pdf_p48-28] Sega Power, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-09-29), page 48

[:File:SegaPro_UK_38.pdf_p64-29] Sega Pro, "November 1994" (UK; 1994-10-06), page 64

[:File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf_p87-30] Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87

[:File:Supersonic_FR_25.pdf_p48-31] Supersonic, "Octobre 1994" (FR; 1994-xx-xx), page 48

[:File:TodoSega_ES_22.pdf_p50-32] Todo Sega, "Enero 1995" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 50

[33] Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 25

[:File:VideoGames_DE_1994-11.pdf_p92-34] Video Games, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-26), page 92

[:File:VideoGames_US_70.pdf_p90-35] VideoGames, "November 1994" (US; 1994-1x-xx), page 90

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Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2

From Sega Retro

Contents

Story

Gameplay

Moves

Items

Levels

History

Legacy

Trivia

Production credits

Magazine articles

Promotional material

Physical scans

References