So far I've shown a lot of love for Nintendo in my choices this week, which isn't surprising seeing as I had a lot of love for Nintendo growing up. There were plenty of other great platforming games on other consoles, however, including Konami's Rocket Knight Adventures which introduced the world to the "mightiest mammal ever to rocket to stardom," Sparkster.
I didn't have a Sega Genesis as a kid, so I didn't know about a lot of the console exclusives outside of Sonic games. In fact, I actually came across Rocket Knight Adventures by chance. In high school, when I was really starting to get into retro games, a friend offered for me to check out some of his Genesis collection he was trying to get rid of since he knew I had very few games for the console. After buying some more well-known titles off of him such as Sonic 2 and Sonic Spinball, he suggested I try "Rocket Knight Adventures." At the time, I hadn't heard of the game at all, so I had nothing to go off of. I can't remember exactly what he told me, but I learned that the main character had a sword and a jet pack, which must have been enough for me to give it a chance. I'm glad I did, as it turned out to be what could be my favorite game for the Sega Genesis.
Soundtrack
I'm going to keep it short and simply say, it's got some damned good tunes. From the triumphant theme of the first stage sending you off on your journey to the fast-paced exciting tunes as you're flying through space, the soundtrack keeps up with the quality of the rest of the game.
Difficulty
This is actually the first of the platformers I've mentioned thus far that has multiple difficulties. The game has 4 difficulty settings: Children, Easy, Normal, and Hard. The game's preset difficulty, strangely enough, is NOT Normal, but is instead Easy. That seems fitting, however, as "Easy" isn't necessarily easy. In fact, Normal only has one life and one continue. Assuming you play well, you'll earn more lives along the way, but that isn't all that forgiving.
Because it's difficult to thoroughly examine each difficulty, I'll give quick summaries. "Children" is fairly easy until towards the end. "Easy" offers a challenge and is probably the way to play, seeing as it is the game's default difficulty. It also is the first difficulty to allow you to play the game fully to the end, as the "Children" difficulty doesn't let you play the final level. "Normal" is the difficulty I enjoy. It's tough and doesn't allow much room for errors, but thanks to extra lives and a continue, there's room for a couple mistakes. "Hard" is a hell of an understatement. It should be called "ludicrious, "insane," or maybe "suicidal." Apparently, Japan and Europe agree with me, as in those regions, the game's "Hard" mode is called, "crazy hard." The "Hard" mode in Rocket Knight only gives you one, single life with no continues. That's pretty ridiculous, but it's actually worse than that. In "Hard" mode, taking a single hit results in death. So until you find extra lives, a single hit ends the game. That puts even the notorious Battletoads to shame in terms of high difficulty. I'm not messing with that.
As one final note about the difficulties, it should be noted that the American version is the most insulting to include the "Children" difficulty. Hell, if Wikipedia's to be believed, in Japan, that same difficulty is referred to as "Normal." The "Normal" we got is "Very Hard" in Japan and Europe.
Control
The game controls very well. I actually prefer this game's jet pack control scheme over the system that was used in the Genesis sequel, "Sparkster," and eventually in the recent release of "Rocket Knight" that came out just this year. In the latter 2 titles, the jet pack charges on its own and has a designated button used only for rocketing. RKA's jet pack was used by holding the attack button. Both schemes work well, but RKA's is simpler and more comfortable for me, personally.
Overall Fun Factor
You're an opossum with armor, goggles, a sword, and a jet pack. Hell yes. As if that weren't enough, the game offers a lot of variety in level design including riding a mine cart, going in the foreground and background in front of and behind a waterfall, and having to make jumps through an upside-down reflected image. That STILL isn't all the variety this game has to offer, though, as there are a few sections of the game that play out like a horizontal shoot-em-up, such as Gradius or R-type. All of this variety adds up to an extremely fun game that has a lot to offer.
With all the games that have been re-released over the years, it baffles me that Rocket Knight Adventures hasn't seen the re-release love it ought to. It certainly should be on the Wii's virtual console at least. It would be a shame to have a gem like this one go unnoticed and be under-appreciated.
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