Rocket Knight Review

Note:  As I am participating in a math contest tomorrow, I am going to be very busy studying today.  So I have dig up an old review I wrote back in 2010 for Rocket Knight.  Hope everybody enjoys.

After sixteen long years, Sparkster dons his rocket pack once again to protect the kingdom of Zephyrus from the evil wolf army.  Today I am reviewing Rocket Knight for the PC, which you can get through Steam, but it is also out for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. 

Playing Rocket Knight brought back memories of the first time I got my hands on Rocket Knight Adventures back on the Sega Genesis as they both share the same game mechanics.  The best feature of Rocket Knight is the use of the rocket pack.  By pressing the Z key on the computer, Sparkster launches himself into the direction in which he is looking.  You can do so many things with the rocket pack such as bounce off of walls at 45 degree angles, dash at enemies or combine it with other moves to launch Sparkster to some hard to reach places and power-ups.

    

Like Rocket Knight Adventures, Rocket Knight has phenomenal level design.  Each level has different unique challenges and events.  No level is alike in any way; there is always some new fun challenge that keeps things feeling new and fresh.   The game is broken up into four worlds each with three to four levels.  Each world consists of the standard platformer level, side-scrolling shooter level and a boss fight.  One of the most enjoyable levels in Rocket Knight had to be the Cyberswine Lab.  The level puts all your platforming skills to the test as you dodge energy barriers, clear certain sections before a timer runs out and much more.  Then when you think you beat the level by destroying the labs’ main generator, you have to escape the oncoming explosion.  It was a very exhilarating level. 

Even though the game has great level designs, it is over before you know it.  Rocket Knight is just too short.  You can breeze through Rocket Knight in three to four hours.  There are online leaderboards, unlockables and free play mode to extend your time with the game, but in the end you are just left wanting more. 

If you are playing Rocket Knight with a controller, you will be in heaven as the controls work perfectly.  If you are using a keyboard like me, you will have quite a bit of a learning curve and some frustration while getting use to controls.  Some of the keys are not mapped that well to the keyboard.  For example, I would accidently hit other keys on the keyboard that would either minimize the game window or perform some action that I did not intend to do when trying to play the game.

With Rocket Knight, Sparkster has truly been reborn in the 21^st century.  Konami has brought everything you loved about the previous Sparkster games and integrated it into Rocket Knight.  If you are willing to pay the 15 dollars for the game, you will not be disappointed.  As Rocket Knight is a great downloadable game for anybody who loves any kind of platformer in the vein of the 2D Mario and Sonic games.