Rebirth of Rocket Possum

[Shadow Hog]

He's probably the same guy as the earlier one, actually...

[Segaholic2]

I was wondering what was up with those accounts since they'd registered a while ago. I thought their posts were kind of funny.

I deleted the accounts now.

[Blount]

WAIT A SECOND.

one of those folks that gets paid to post on message boards

People get paid for this? All this time I've been doing it for free! Sometimes at work!

[Shadow Hog]

Well, honestly, who the hell do you think RubyEclipse is? A random fan?

[Blount]

The person who kept posting non-sequiteurs? At first I thought it was a dumbass, but then I saw the other posts and thought it was a bot.

Anydangway, the game's looking better now. Not vastly improved, but better nonetheless. Axel looks weird in the artwork, by the way:



And then his in-game model looks just like Sparkster. If you're going to make something look terrible, at least be consistent!

[Isuka]

Not only does Sonic 4 look worse than this, it seems to be turning into such a bad joke that it's actually making this game look kinda cool. At least until Climax shows us their own rendition of the rotating mine cart stage, that is.

[G.Silver]

I heard it on some authority that there would be no mine carts in the new RK. Of course, there was a mine cart in the original and it had RAD SHIT like going through a hen house and then fighting a badass tank-train, so I don't know why they'd choose to leave it out. Going through a hen house is totally rad man.

Totally. :(

[Isuka]

But it wasn't a rotating one, as if it tried to be a crappy Mode 7-"enhanced" SNES Sonic knock-off wannabe.

[M.C.Dillinger]

That video you linked to appears to contain everything horrible about the 90s.

[Esrever]

This is out now! I just played through the demo. Sparkster handles great, but the level is your pretty standard sort of Rocket Knight intro stage (probably most similar to the first stage of the SNES Sparkster), followed by a short scrolling shooter stage. So it's hard to judge how creative/diverse the levels are going to be, you know? It also cuts out before the first big boss fight, and of course, Rocket Knight is all about the boss fights! I guess I'll wait and see what folks think about the rest of the game before dropping the 1200 points.

[G.Silver]

Well shoot, I was hoping you'd played more! My download is at 8%. :(

[G.Silver]

Ok, short answer? It's probably worth your while! For the long answer, I could nitpick the hell out of it but I'll leave that to someone else. I'm trying to be more tolerant these days.

It's not like the original Rocket Knight, and probably not like either Sparkster (I'm less familiar with them). The pacing is entirely different, possibly partly due to the zoomed out screen, but primarily just to a different design philosophy that relies more on solid platforming than the crazy arcade-like flash of the original game. The stages are longer and filled with more secrets, but also feel more homogenized and less special. It's still a good game but that's the trade off, and some may like it better. There's way less bosses. Like, you fight more bosses in the first two stages of RKA than you will in this entire game.

For having longer, slower levels, it does feel short. I played through on Normal and it felt like it ended abruptly, maybe suggesting that there's more to the game on Hard mode, as in the original. The omission of anything sort of giant boxing robot match (a staple of the original) makes me suspicious, because all three 16-bit titles had one and I sure as hell wouldn't have left them out if I were in charge.

[Esrever]

You should try the hard mode, Silv!

I've only played through the first world so far, but I've played through it twice... once on Normal and once on Hard. Among other things, hard mode completely floods the levels with enemies -- enemies jumping out from behind things, enemies plummeting from the sky, enemies clinging to every wall and ceiling, enemies everywhere! Normally I hate the "throw in more enemies" approach to difficulty increases, but in this case, it really feels like the hard mode is the "real" mode, while the normal mode just cut enemies out. It feels more like the games I remember, where you couldn't take more than two steps forward without having to murder something.

[G.Silver]

Hard mode is a lot more fun! It may also be more fun on a second play when the levels are a bit more familiar and you have a better idea of where you are in terms of progress. I didn't notice this at all the first time through, but you can chain hits and item pickups together for bigger points, there's a multiplier in the upper right corner of the screen. Hard is definitely where you want to be doing that, and that extra tension of going for a high multiplier does add a lot.

One thing that I've seen a lot of people comment on is that the music is really not very good. I had to turn down the sound effect volume just to hear it, and it's generally pretty wimpy orchestral stuff. It matches the game, but it doesn't add anything, the music in the 16-bit games really stood out.

[Esrever]

Yeah, outside of the reused theme from the original the music is not up to much. The orchestral sound is well suited to the game, but the melodies are just kind of forgettable.

And of course visually, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Unlike some people, I actually like the western-cartoon style they've decided to use... I just think the execution is patchy. Everything is just a little too cluttered, and the character models don't look nearly as good as they do in the artwork. But in the nicest looking spots, the environments come across with a reasonably pleasing style that falls somewhere between Lost Winds and Jak and Daxter.

The gameplay is where it really shines. It's not the same as the classics, but it's an entertaining and (in my opinion) pretty slickly polished variation. That score multiplier is another reason I feel like the hard mode is the difficulty setting the game was designed for, though. Like you said, in normal mode enemies are almost always too far apart to use it... even during those battle arena-esque segments at the ends of the stages where you fight a mob of enemies.

[Green Gibbon!]

Game is good, but the art direction is a solid package of insipid.

I'm only hearing the sound effects out of the right speaker. There doesn't seem to be any option to adjust it. And it is grating as hell because I'm using headphones. Why would they do that?

[G.Silver]

So that's it? We got five pages of anticipation here and only three people picked it up? I would at least have thought there'd be some "I'm waiting for the PS3 version" or "this sounds awful I won't buy it" posts.

One thing I really do like about the art design is the pig characters. Part of me hates any kind of change, but on the other hand, I just love the style they went for, like they all belong on motorcycles or something (hey there's a missed chance for a cool enemy). They're annoying to fight because they tend to take a couple hits and kind of fire unpredictably, but I do like watching them.

[Delphine]

this sounds awful I won't buy it

[Crowbar]

I'm waiting for the PS3 version until I can be bothered to buy a current-gen console. :[

[Locit]

So that's it? We got five pages of anticipation here and only three people picked it up? I would at least have thought there'd be some "I'm waiting for the PS3 version" or "this sounds awful I won't buy it" posts.

I'm planning to pick it up when I get to the city where my 360 is. It sounds worth it.

[Malchik]

I don't have a next gen console. I'm too old school, yo.

[Segaholic2]

I'm waiting for it to go on sale on Steam.

[Kogen]

So that's it? We got five pages of anticipation here and only three people picked it up? I would at least have thought there'd be some "I'm waiting for the PS3 version" or "this sounds awful I won't buy it" posts.

I had intended to get it already, but I have a little story about why I did not!

I had assumed the game was coming out Thursday as normal, but then I noticed that they were doing updates on Tuesday instead. So naturally I was happy I could get it Wednesday anyway and went to the store to get some credit to buy it, but then I got home and it was not there...! I checked Wikipedia and apparently it is out globally on all platforms except PSN in just North America. The reason why is that the changed schedule makes everything gets delayed and passed over to the next week from Third Parties. What the diarrhea AIDS is sht,hgh.

I'm waiting for the PS3 version.

One thing I really do like about the art design is the pig characters. Part of me hates any kind of change, but on the other hand, I just love the style they went for, like they all belong on motorcycles or something (hey there's a missed chance for a cool enemy). They're annoying to fight because they tend to take a couple hits and kind of fire unpredictably, but I do like watching them.

I really liked the pig art too. They have a great biker look to them; being all fat, dirty, and wearing German helmets. I am disappointed to know they have no bikes. The other art I thought was nice as well (much nicer than the models), but I think Axel Gear looks too ugly compared to prior games and his in-game model. I get that he is a rat thing, but he never looked ugly before, and none of the others look that bad.


And about the game. I decided that since I am waiting, I should actually play the older titles. I always hated them since I only played the two boring Sparkster games, but Rocket Knight Adventure is surprisingly really good when you understand the semi-wonky physics. I enjoyed the music and boss fights the most, as well as all the weird level design gimmicks. It is annoying that the music/art/level design in Rocket Knight is so dull in comparison. Like others said, it is not bad, but it does not compare at all. It lost all that cartoony charm from my experience in the demo. I am going to assume that the game lacks stuff like death stars and factories shaped like pig heads now.

Also just curious: is it based off the SNES version? People say it is like that more (by people I mean those here) and it uses the same wolf enemies.

[G.Silver]

I have the impression that it's primarily based off the original (they left out the cool "kicking" move Sparkster had in the SNES version) and it just got to be a bit more like the SNES one by coincidence, just like the designers take credit for adding a separate boost button because they forgot or never noticed it on the Genesis sequel.

[UCHU]

I'm a friggin idiot

I beat the first boss with the second fastest time on the leaderboards (PC version)

15 seconds

ffff