September 2026 ~ Rocket Knight Adventures
This month was Lamp's pick: INSERT LAMP'S TAKE HERE
Platform: Sega Genesis
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: 1993
Genre(s): Action, Platformer, Shoot 'em up
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Lamp's Thoughts
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Quang's Thoughts
Growing up, I almost exclusively played Nintendo games. Mainly because I had an SNES growing up while also reading Nintendo Power. It wasn't until I got a Sega Dreamcast that I gave a fair shake to anything else. So this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Rocket Knight Adventures is the first Sega Genesis game that I spent more than 30 minutes of morbid curiosity on. After "beating" (more on this later) it, it's certainly given me more of an appreciation for what Nintendo's competition was like during the early 90s.
What I Liked
- The spritework. I think Sega Genesis games got a bad wrap because of its limited colour palette compared to SNES games but man, once again, limitations breed creativity and Konami did wonderful things with it. Something I appreciated in this game were just how large the sprites were too. It gave them so much room for be really expressive.
- The...speed? I think this is more just an appreciation of Sega Genesis games as a whole, but I noticed it especially after playing last month's game. Rocket Knight Adventures felt so fast. Very arcade-y which makes sense given Sega's heritage.
- The music. Once again, another aspect where Sega Genesis was "weaker" than the SNES, but at my age now, I've come around on the FM synthy sounds of it and Rocket Knight Adventures soundtrack is a banger.
What I Didn't Like
- The difficulty. While I technically beat this game, it was on the "Child" difficulty, which in Japan was actually "Easy" mode. And "Normal" mode in North America was actually "Hard" mode in Japan. So most people back then, who didn't know any better were getting their ass kicked. To make matters worse, in North America, beating it on "Child" mode like I did, doesn't net you the true ending. Was I disappointed? Yes, but not enough to try it again on "Easy" mode. Like I said before, I really suck at games. I'm surprised I was able to make it through this one without giving up.
- The bosses. Not counting their sprites and animations, I found most of the bosses patterns a little unforgiving. I think I beat most bosses on 75% luck and 25% spamming Sparkster's rocket boost attack that gave him a brief second of invulnerability (and extra damage). I beat this game with save states (another *), so I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to have to restart once again because of how erratic some of the bosses' patterns were. I will admit that the speed of the game which I praised did take some getting used to so that was definitely a factor.
Was It Good?
It was good. Recommended. On North America "Normal" mode? No. Be kind to yourself. Play on "Easy" mode. (8.5/10)
JF's Thoughts
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