Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (known simply as Sparkster in North America and Europe), is a 1994 side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Konami for the Sega Genesis. A sequel to Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster involves the character of the same name attempting to save Princess Cherry and to stop the evil plans of King Gedol, who plans to take over the kingdom of Zephyrus. The game largely follows the same format as its precursor, with changes to the game's mechanics. Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is the second game in the Rocket Knight Adventures series. Another game under the same title, Sparkster, but without the Rocket Knight Adventures subtitle and not continuing the plot of the first game, was released on the SNES in the same year. A direct sequel, Rocket Knight, was released in 2010. Gameplay The gameplay of Sparkster is very similar to its precursor. Sparkster plays as a side-scrolling platformer, with a few areas in the game featuring auto-scrolling levels. Like its predecessor, the player can jump and attack using Sparkster's sword. Unlike the first game, the sword can no longer emit projectiles and can only perform melee attacks. Sparkster's maximum health has been reduced from eight hearts (16 hit points) to five hearts (10 hit points) compared to the first game. The use of the rocket pack is changed in Sparkster. Instead of charging up a rocket attack manually, the rocket pack charges automatically. A rocket attack is now performed by pressing its separate Rocket button. The rocket pack charges up to two levels. If the energy gauge is filled red, the player can perform a rocket attack. If the secondary white gauge is filled, Sparkster can perform a "Screw Attack" which lets him travel a greater distance and can interact with certain level elements. Similar to its precursor, pressing the Rocket button will make Sparkster perform a rocket/screw attack where he blasts into one of eight directions where the player has inputted on the directional pad (if no direction is pressed, Sparkster will perform a stationary spinning attack). Exclusive to this game is a feature known as the slot machine, which is displayed on the top right of the screen. When 10 blue gems are collected (or when one red gem is collected), the slot machine will activate and will give items that help Sparkster, or bombs that hurt Sparkster. In harder difficulties,