Back in the day, every company had an anthropomorphic platformer mascot character. Konami’s was Sparkster, an opossum dressed like a knight and equipped with a rocket pack. Sparkster starred in a few, mostly loved, 16-bit Rocket Knight Adventures games before Konami put him in the vault.
Sparkster, following in the footsteps of other forgotten mascots, is coming back in a downloadable 2.5D platformer game. Climax, the studio behind Sudeki and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, is developing a new Rocket Knight game for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam.
Rocket Knight, as revealed on 1up, sticks to the basics side scrolling with shoot ‘em stages just like the first game. Great to see Sparkster back, but he, like other mascots caught in the wave of 2.5D revivals, looks better as a sprite.
Published: Oct 5, 2009 02:03 pm