Sparkster returns for his fans who have missed him.
But out of the blue, Sparkster returns in a great sidescrolling adventure. First, and while I know this is stupid complain about, why were Wii owners snubbed on this one. Really. The game isn't overly long and not exactly pushing any graphical boundaries. Did Konami not get the memo of the sales for Megaman 9 and NSMBWii? Anyway, moving on.
The game opens with our hero tending his yard when an invading army of wolves invade his kingdom. Sparkster,ever the valiant hero, dons his suit once more to save the day. However this time he learns that the former enemies of the possums, the pigs want to share an alliance to stop the wolf mennace. Meanwhile Sparkster encounters the Proto Man to his Mega Man, Axel Gear, another rocket knight out to steal Sparkster's glory. However long time fans can probably figure out where the story goes. And it's told with no overly long cutscenes, instead just a few short, amusing in game scenes that are a bit amusing too if not overly in depth.
Gameplay is the standard, 2D platforming long time fans will know. You attack with your sword, blast through enemies with your rocket and shoot fireballs. It's easy to pick up and play and fun to watch Sparkster ricochet off walls to reach higher areas. It's easy to just breeze through the levels but it's fun to take your time and explore to find all the hidden goodies. This also went for the old school gameplay meaning you have lives and continues and when you run out of both, you go back to the beginning. While I get why they did this, in this day and age, it's a bit outdated. Really, we should die and just go back to the start of the level. For the most part it's fun however the controls can be dodgy at times. There were times I wanted Sparkster to fly diagonally and he went straight and this can be an annoyance in later levels. But the levels are varied and provide a decent challenge.
There are also the 2D flying stages which are a blast and it's a pity there are so few of them. The game becomes like Gradius where you shoot at incoming targets. The only downfall to this is Sparkster can't turn around to shoot things behind him.
Graphics are fun and colorful but not exactly pushing any boundaries (once again making me wonder why this wasn't available on the Wii). Long time fans will recognize familar tunes throughout the well designed levels and there's so nice touches in the background like glowing monitors and enemies fighting in the background.
The biggest shortcoming is the game is a bit on the short side. 14 levels total, most of which are pretty short even if you take the time to find all the gems. It does offer a hard mode and leaderboards to compete for high scores but the main game can be beaten in only a couple hours which makes the price point a bit questionable.
But fans of Sparkster will be pleased with his return. Now, Konami, why hasn't his original games shown up on the download services yet?