She packed my bags last night pre-flight

[Ristar]

Okay, so I got home from uni last night and downloaded the Rocket Knight demo. I don't do reviews often, but it's always worth a practice.

Poor Climax studios, they always get landed with a franchise and manage to produce an almost perfect game but always seem to be let down by a couple of massive flaws.

Obviously, I can't judge the whole game based just on a demo, but these things are supposed to persuade us into buying the full thing.

I'll start with the good points.

The gameplay is beautifully solid, a really good combination of the best gameplay elements from Rocket Knight Adventures 1 and 2. Sparkster bounces off walls as he should and the ability to control your landing after a rocket burst is a welcome addition to gameplay. The flying elements have also been changed about, with a combo meter and the ability to charge attacks.

I was worried about the soundtrack being orchestral but it's not too shabby at all. Upon starting the first level I got all warm and fuzzy inside thanks to the orchestral arrangement of the music from the first level of Rocket Knight Adventures... though they could have done a bit more with it, the level is very long and you do notice the track looping over and over again.

The fact that this level was long, however, wasn't a bad thing at all. It wasn't too repetitive either, with some different areas making the world seem much more vast.

So, on to the less great areas of the game.

Straight off the bat, I really don't like Sparkster's new design. He looks daft. Yeah, he might look more like a possum, but I miss his 90's spiky hair and GNARLY feel. His rocket looks absolutely ridiculous too. I always liked that his rocket pack in the first two games looked like part of his armour - but now it just looks like he's duct taped a rocket to his back. Plus his sword is attached to his rocket, presumably supplying it with fuel so it can ignite and bake those enemies. It just feels silly and unnecessary.

The whole setting of the game feels different too. The kingdom from the first two games was really steampunk... rockets + knights... it all makes sense; but this one feels like something right out of Crash Bandicoot. One minute you're in a jungle-like area, next you're in a toxic dump. It doesn't add up.

Speaking of things not adding up, aren't rocket-propelled things supposed to go fast? If that's the case why does it feel like Sparkster is just taking a cruise through the air during the flying bits. The background doesn't feel far away enough to move so slowly, making the "whoosh white lines" flying across the foreground feel really unconvincing.

The graphics themselves don't even feel next-gen. It looks like the graphics from Klonoa 2 on PS2 with the addition of some depth of field effects. There's also a little thing that has always irritated me with explosion effects too - special effects moving at a different framerate to the game. It just looks funny.

Overall, it's a good game. If you'd given this to a 7 year-old me, I would have loved it. But I'm 20 and have very fond memories of Rocket Knight Adventures 1 and 2 and I just don't feel like this new game does them justice. As I said before, Climax always come close to making a brilliant game but just seem to miss the point of it a bit too much.

tl;dr

It's good, but not good enough.

Anyone else played it then?

[VJLunar]

Haven't played the demo, but will probably download the PSN version anyway. Thanks for the impressions, Rye~

[Cyber Rat]

I want to buy this game via Steam (or at least try the demo), but it's not available in the EU for the PC (god knows why, all the consoles have it...). I fucking hate Konami for this.

[LarkSS]

You could just send them the cost of the game in a hate envelope and proceed to torrent the game semi-legally.

[Serephim]

they can't knock you for that.

[shadowgoten]

I beat the game on day 1, pretty awesome, can sometimes get a little frustrating. I don't mind the new design, and the controls get a bit of getting used to. Overall i'll probably replay it a few times to jump up on leaderboards.

[DimensionWarped]

And I'm going to be hiii-iiiiigh-iiiiigh- As a kite by then.