A look at Upthorn’s Rocket Knight Adventures speedrun and its soundtrack
So Jayson Napolitano recently finished a stream of consciousness-like audio journal of Metroid Prime 3. As a non-gamer, I thought it would be a cool idea to work a similar idea but letting someone else do the work of gameplay for me. I was in luck, as last month speedrunner Jody “Upthorn” Northup (Happy 23rd birthday!) released a much-improved speedrun of Konami’s Rocket Knight Adventures for the Sega Genesis. The music team had a heavy hitter in Michiru Yamane, and the game always looked exotic back in the day. With Jody unleashing this new run, I figured why not take 27 minutes and 18.13 seconds to check it out.
The lead character’s name was Sparkster?! Yeesh. No wonder this didn’t take off as a franchise. But since this isn’t an editorial on the naming of Sparkster…
(Thanks to Project2612 for the VGMs, which are used for song title references.)
00:13 ~ The stage 1-1/1-3 theme had some pretty anthemic-sounding moments (including the Stage Clear jingle heard at the end of each level), before trailing off into some forgettable stuff. As least in my experience, you want Stage 1 music to stick in someone’s head no matter what the game. Even if the rest of the soundtrack were forgettable, Stage 1 is supposed to come through. Didn’t feel like it here, unfortunately.
01:13 ~ Stage 1-2’s airbound theme was definitely a high point of the game and a very underrated piece of writing that would lend itself well to orchestration. A very fitting composition for the level.
02:47 ~ The boss theme, with some good intensity, was encountered for the second time fighting some giant enemy…mechbug. The more industrial sounding aspects of the track fit in well with the techno-medieval theme of the game. (Yeesh, two sentences, two made-up words.)
03:31 ~ Fairly catchy stuff with Stage 2-1 with an almost faux-surfing vibe that matched well with the stage, for the first few seconds anyway before the terrain changed.
04:26 ~ Stage 2-2 had good tension for the precarious scenario of riding on a cart through an extended track with scores of bomb-throwing swine (think Donkey Kong Country but much faster), before transitioning into an almost irreverent comical routine and subsequently looping.
07:10 ~ Though it seems like he’s flirting with disaster above (complete with great facial expression on Sparkster), Upthorn made the fluctuating lava and water levels of Stage 3 look like a cakewalk. The great thing about auto-scrolling levels is watching the speedrunner entertaining himself and the viewer by toying with the potential of death. Meanwhile, the stage theme had some good music for the first 30 seconds before the other 30 felt a bit scattershot in terms of fitting well with the militant vibe the opening gave off. I’m a bastard that’s always looking for a hook, so sue me.
09:46 ~ Stage 4 sounded like a WWKD (What Would Konami Do?) of Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s Casino Night Zone, but what do I know. An airship level? Nah, not the mental imagery I got. Don’t miss the boss music again at 11:02 as Jody smack’s down the largest pig-inspired vibrator in God’s creation.
I also feel like it’s important to note that this was the last point in the speedrun where this game looked beatable by a human being. The sheer insanity of the game afterward leads me to believe that no one’s ever actually gotten much farther than Area 5 without the wonders of emulation. Why?
This…
12:02 ~ Look at Sparkster scandalously rubbing his pixels all over that rocket, a scathing insult to Konami’s sense of collision detection. Jody shamelessly navigated the maze of rockets, bullets and swines in this level to the point of absurdity. It might look reasonable at first, but I think you’ll end up agreeing with me pretty quickly if you keep your eyes fixed. Stage 5-1 here had a really upbeat, adventurous theme that I’d love to see someone at OC ReMix arrange.
13:39 ~ Stage 5-2 featured teleportation antics that really spiced up the gameplay, alongside the jazzy overtones of the stage music (offered in two variations), which sounded like one of Shnabubula’s compositions, only turning the dial down on Sam from 11 down to 4. Due to Upthorn quickness and the teleportations stopping the music, this ended up being one of the tracks you didn’t get to catch for an extended period of time.
17:08 ~ After the intro, the Stage 6 theme definitely coughed up some good spacesynth style composition (17:26) mixed in with the occasional warbly SFX breakdown. Just slow the tempo down, and you’d have some perfect material. Someone bug Mark Vera about it. In any case, a good fit for the fast-paced outer space level setting, but unfortunately not one you get to hear much of as well in-game.
21:37 ~ Yes, there are so goofy sounds mingled into the composition, but overall I was feeling the creepy vibe from the Stage 7 music, along with a criminally understated bassline. Felt to me like more of a run-and-jump platform level than what the area turned out to be, but whatchagonnado?
23:42 ~ The Final Boss music for the first leg of the ultimate showdown felt like a letdown in terms of being sinister and nerve-wracking. Too much to expect? I dunno, the final boss did look like the swine step-cousin of something out of Contra III.
28:29 ~ The cloud effect with Sparkster flying during the Credits was pretty cool stuff for back in the day, even if it is monotonous. But hey, if you wanted triumphant themed music, and you’ve actually beat this game, you earned it as it’s pulled off nicely for the game’s conclusion.
While feeling the soundtrack was a hit-and-miss affair, props to the Rocket Knight Adventures sound team for, in my opinion, getting the some of absolute best out of the Mega Drive’s YM synths. Clearly classics like Golden Axe and Altered Beast had their own memorable tunes, but Rocket Knight Adventures pushed the YM2612 near its creative limits.
The major majority of tool-assisted speedrun fans don’t look to videos like Upthorn’s to scope out the music, but I’m just that kind of guy. Perhaps we’ll do this again sometime. Happy 23rd to Jody and thanks for this nice run!
October 12th, 2007 at 11:19 am
This game revives some old memories. Namely how damn hard it was! I remember the boss music being better than it actually was, but I’d still love to see a remix of it. Nice review, Larry.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Just to throw my two cents in, I’d like to remark that stage 2-2 was my absolute least favorite music on the soundtrack, 7 was my most favorite, and I was actually first exposed to the music of stage 6 via “Happy Softcore” by “The Laziest men on Mars” (yes, the people responsible for the “all your base” song)