It is about time!
I must prepare myself...
Looks like they're keeping the same gameplay elements too (notes the rocket meter, health meter, 2.5Dness)... ooooooh this could be good.
D:
I'm conflicted. On the one hand: ZOMG NEW ROCKET KNIGHT GUYZ!!111!!
On the other: the few screens shown so far make it appear quite hideous to my eyes. What is it with developers turning everything that was good and righteous in the 16-bit era into fugly 3D abominations in the here and now? Who the @*!$ is Climax, and why isn't Treasure or WayForward in on this!? Seriously. Or at the very least, Konami's own M2 studio that recently released Contra ReBirth and soon-to-be-announced Castlevaina ReBirth (still waiting on confirmation this one's real).
Only the upcoming trailer can assuage my fears now.
On another note: Hey Zontar, according to that interview the Pigs are the good guys now. Got anything to say about that, hm? Looks like you're a big ol' softy after all.
Hmmm...this character/game looks very familiar. Can't say i've ever played it though. I just might buy this...looks/sounds very interesting. Yays for old series returning!
Graphically, the game looks okay, if not a little bland and lifeless. Of course I would have preferred a sprite-based approach. But at least there's good reason to use 3D, allowing the camera to zoom out, which allows for bigger bosses and a better sense of direction when rocketting around. At least the smoke effect from the rocket looks pretty cool.
I'm a little nervous about the cluttered backgrounds. Hopefully the characters in the foreground don't blend into the background too much. I can't wait to see this game in motion.
I'm not too worried about the game. These guys seem to know what makes Rocket Knight tick.
What is it with developers turning everything that was good and righteous in the 16-bit era into fugly 3D abominations in the here and now?
Kind of like what Hudson did with Adventure Island and Bonk? Admittedly, this game doesn't look nearly as drab as those ones.
OOOOOGLY
Got to agree with PSX on the screens looking hideous. But if the soul of the game is there and Axle Gear makes an appearance, I may be interested.
Sparkster 2 (Rocket Knight Adventures) on the Genesis was one of my alltime favorite games... from the playable intro, the mechs and the inventive bosses (especially the final one)--- I just want them to match that level of quirky creativity.
They probably wont. But *SQUEEEE* I'm happy.
**looks at screens** My Genesis weeps... I want the Sparkster sprites back... =
Which ones lol?
Gotta say, despite everything at the very least I'm cautiously optimistic. The guy heading development seems to understand what made the original Rocket Knight a great game and wants to implement them back into this new sequel. The last time we saw something like this we got Bionic Commando: ReArmed and that's the 3D-update-to-a-beloved-2D-ip that bucks the trend of bad 2D/3D remakes. Everything about that game was executed well and true to the nature of the original (not so much the next gen sequel). If this new RK can come close to that level of accomplishment, I say bring it on.
I like the style of the second game's Sparkster sprites, though I like the first's more goofy design as well. Either work. XD
In any case, this sequel couldn't possibly be worse than Sonic these days, so I'll give it at least a fair shake. 
To be honest I don't remember Rocket Knight's music so I went and found some to jog memory
The Music of Video games [301]
I don't get why people are hating the 2.5 d thing. I mean whats with this eternal love of humping sprites?
RKA-model all the way, PSX. Though it's probably the strongest nostalgia I have of my childhood blinding me of how cool the other set is.
BTW, those screenshots look like crap, concidering how great the art of the first game was. (I hated SNES Sparkster because of the drop in level design quality and I've never played Genesis Sparkster.) It looks exactly like a Little Big World hack. And that's terrible.
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26724/bigger Trailer
Yeah looking at it I hope they do something to brighten this game up. It almost looks Sepia Tone. The style reminds me of LBP and Ratchet and Clank and thats fine but the colors look so dull compared to the older games. They need to saturated more imo.
Also it looks like some of the areas don't have textures to them. But since this game is still early in development I'm letting that slide. For all I know some of this stuff could have been pre alpha.
This game looks awful in screenshots, awful in motion, and it's being developed by a group who specialize in shovelware.
This is definitely worth getting excited about!
... Yeah, I'm avoiding this. I'm glad however that this game isn't going to be retail.
I think this will make the current Sonic series superior by comparison. They'd be better off porting the original.
Ports of the original three games to XBA/PSN/VC are the only good things that could come from this.
Naught Dog, Sucker Punch, Insomniac.
All 3 I think would have been excellent choices for this project. I mean they all have experience with talking animals wearing jet packs.
In Rocket Knight Adventures...you don't even have to MOVE to dodge the Stage 4 End Boss's first attack.
That boss always scared the crap out of me as a kid. I'd try to slow things down by tapping Start over and over again. >_<
The spot I was stuck at as a kid (as in, I only passed it and beat the game by taking it out recently) was the final stage of the space boss. I could never dodge those tennis-ball-spread-shot things.
Stage 1
Hard Mode
Rail Gameplay
Flight Gameplay
Camera's still a bit zoomed out. I see they replaced the life icon in the corner there with something a little more palatable. And of course, who could not fangasm at the remixed RKA Stage 1 track? This might actually turn out to be quite playable.
That looks pretty damn cool! I think I'll give it a shot. XD
Dang it, PSX. The gameplay mechanic actually seems enough like Sparkster:RKA2 and it flows well enough that I may be interested. The level design isn't too bad, though hardly inspired.
If I see videos of later stages, I may get a better idea of what the game is worth and make my purchase decisions from there.
Time for more universe conquering.
Zontar!
You are much shorter than your robot clones.
That picture alone makes me want this.
Axel Gear, what have they done to you!? The facial tattoo, the eyeshadow, the smart-aleck look on your face - that's not the stoic badass I remember! They turned you into a punk!
Apparently this game is now out on Steam. Downloading a demo right now to try later, however I'm hearing from other sources that the game has a lot of graphical issues. Will report back.
EDIT: That was interesting. Demo impressions:
- I won't comment on the graphics since everyone here has two eyes and has already seen the screenshots. However, I will say that there was definitely graphical anomalies going on with Sparkster's rocket pack and certain background effects in the levels (the swamp section in particular was terrible, to the point where you couldn't even see some of the platforms). Fortunately, they don't linger long to impede your progress, but this should have been quashed before the game went live.
- I kept my PC volume low because it's late here so I didn't get very good impressions of the music, but I definitely recognized the (remixed) first stage track from Rocket Knight Adventures.
- Gameplay seems pretty faithful. At least, I preferred it to MD Sparkster. It was recommended to play the game on Hard, because Normal is apparently Baby Mode. Stage progression for the 1st stage is as follows: Straight platforming section, short "screen stops so you can battle with waves of grunts for about two minutes" section, fairly long schmup section followed by quick aerial boss fight with Axel. I was kinda impressed with this part, Axel had a few moves in his arsenal... including one where he charges you constantly with that Corkscrew Attack. If you manage to avoid him he'll tire out and you can get some free hits in before he recovers. Afterwards the stage boss makes an appearance, but the demo ends before you can fight it.
It wasn't bad. That 1st stage seemed a bit run-of-the-mill but I hear from those who've purchased the full game that the later levels are much more impressive. If they can fix those glitching graphics I'd consider a purchase... or I'll just wait for the PSN version, which ever comes first.
