Surprised by the consensus on this game, I quite liked it.

Let's get the bad out of the way first - it's kind of ugly, they didn't have to make everyone this ugly but I guess it comes with the territory when you have a western studio handling a Japanese mascot character.
It's also less willing to push the envelope like the prior games did, like yeah, RKA starts out in a grassy field and medieval castle but that game ends on a spaceship with you fighting some kind of AI super computer - this one doesn't really have anything like that and you don't even fight Axel in a 1-on-1 giant mech battle, did these guys even play the other games past the first few levels?!

Well alright, now that that's done I wanna say that Sparkster controls absolutely wonderfully in this game, I love how the developers took all the weird control schemes he had in the prior games and mashed them together into something more cohesive and responsive.
Basically everything is accounted for here except for the dash move from the SNES game, movement's a little slower than usual but that ends up working to the game's benefit since there's a lot more emphasis on the collectathon element this time around (and by a lot more I just mean they keep a tally of what you collect in each level, it's not actually that significant)

The levels themselves are much meatier than prior games, which is to be expected from a sequel coming out 15 years later, there's less overall stages though which can end up making the game feel a tad short despite it taking almost double the amount of time to complete, but there's enough fun combat and platforming challenges here to keep you engaged, and nothing feels as haphazard as some of the gimmicks in the other sequels.

Do I think this game surpasses the original or even matches it? Well no, RKA has a lot of fun original ideas which this game kind of lacks and the faster pace of the gameplay and more focused level design gives it an energy that's kind of missing here too, but as someone who really did not click with the sequels to that game I think Rocket Knight 2010's attempt at creating an experience that still tries to encompass them is to be commended and it ends up making a game that I'd say is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Yup, that's an Xbox Live Arcade game, alright.

Nothing horrible, but nothing that great if you're not nostalgic for or charmed by that Xbox Live Arcade smell.

The presentation, for the most part, does what it sets out to do. The stage design reminds me of the Donkey Kong Country Returns revival duology in the sense that floating platforms in the sky are eschewed in favor of every platform showing why it's placed or moving the way it is. The visuals themselves sometimes felt striking to me, though occasionally I noticed where concessions were made in regards to this game's status as a digital-only title from 2010. The story wasn't anything huge, but for platformers - especially mascot platformers - I don't expect a groundbreaking story.

Everything Sparkster is known for doing - hanging onto poles, the jetpack, the sword, the shooting, the dedicated shooting stages - is still here and accounted for, and he still felt satisfying to play as, even when the levels didn't. The bosses did remain challenging throughout - the final boss reached the point of frustration because of his random movements - but that's about it. My advice to anyone wanting to feel something when playing this game: Play on Hard Mode. Normal is too easy.

I'm happy I got the chance to try a Rocket Knight game out, and I daresay I'm growing to like this series, but this particular entry isn't really anything special.