Sparklite Review
This review was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.
Key Info
System: Switch
Developer: Red Blue Games
Publisher: Merge Games
Release Date: 14 November 2019
Price: $24.99 / £19.99
Sparklite has a wonderful world full of quirky characters.
Rogue-lites are certainly in vogue at the moment, and there’s no shortage of them on the eShop. The constantly shifting levels offer plenty of replayability, but that can often be at the expense of a coherent overall experience. Sparklite however, bakes the ever-changing nature of it’s world right into the game’s lore, and makes for a much more compelling journey as a result.
Geodia, the host planet for this charming 16-bit escapade, is under attack from a big bad known as the Baron. He’s attempting to mine the planet for the eponymous sparklite, with a view to harnessing that power for his own evil ends. It’s up to Ada, a young girl armed only with a powerful wrench, nifty dash, and a robotic sidekick to thwart his evil plans.
Dodge, Dash, Die
A brief tutorial aboard Ada’s rapidly disintegrating ship gives way to your first exploration of Geodia. The planet is split into five unique biomes, all offering a wildly different aesthetic, their own array of monsters to slay, and a formidable boss battle in the form of one of the Baron’s henchman. You can head straight to this first showdown from the get-go, though you’re likely to come up short if you do. Once your health runs out, you’re deposited back on The Refuge, an airship that plays host to a bunch of survivors. Here you can upgrade your wrench, activate new gadgets and abilities, and purchase perishable items known as Widgets. Thus begins Sparklite’s satisfying gameplay loop.
Mashing the brains of monsters on the surface of Geodia rewards you with Sparklite, which you can spend back at The Refuge to beef yourself up for the boss fights. Combat can be tough at first, especially as you’re likely to be turned into mincemeat by a well timed blow or two from an enemy. But once you get the hang of dashing out of harm’s way before unleashing your own attacks it soon becomes a fun and satisfying dance. Learning enemy attack patterns is key to staying alive, and the longer you do so, the more sparklite and goodies you can harvest.
Enemy variety is pretty good early on too. There’s hulking bi-pedal pig beasts who want to mash your brains in, armoured four-legged creatures who’ll charge you down, and goblin creatures who’ll throw explosives at you. Unfortunately there’s a few pallette-swap baddies in the latter stages of the game, and there’s little to nothing new in terms of attack patterns to learn by the time you get to the final area. But, there are enough different designs to keep things interesting, and filling out a museum of monsters back at The Refuge was fun too.
Combat is great and enemy variety is good, even if it does trail off towards the end of the game.
Widget Hunter
The goodies I mentioned earlier are found in chests all over Geodia, though they rarely give up their loot voluntarily. The smaller ones contain sparklite, and every now and then a widget or two. These have varying degrees of utility - from ones that replenish your health or give you a time-limited attack or defence boost, to ones that can replenish energy or attack enemies directly. The health pickups were the ones I found most useful, and the stat boosts came in incredibly handy in some of the tougher boss fights. There were one or two though that I barely used at all.
The explosive ones were arguably the most useful, as they allowed me to blow open rocks without expending energy (which we’ll get to in a second). Every now and then turning a boulder to dust revealed a subterranean cave that could offer up additional combat or platforming challenges with extra sparklite at the end. I found myself actively seeking these out - and rather enjoying completing them - especially on runthroughs that were dedicated to harvesting sparklite.
There are two other main ‘dungeon’ type areas though. The first offers multiple levels you have to make your way down in order to claim the prize at the end. There’s occasionally puzzles to solve, but more often than not you’ll be trapped in a room with 2 or 3 monsters that need to dispatched. These were a ton of fun to take on, especially as I got stronger later in the game. Most rewardingly though, they offered up patches that allow you to upgrade Ada back at The Refuge.
Patch Update
Following your first run on the planet, Ada gets kitted out with a patch board. This allows you to add certain permanent upgrades (as long as they’re equipped) including additional health and higher damage. There’s also the option for perks that reveal sections of the map, highlight the boss chambers and dungeons, or make it easier to collect sparklite. It offers a great way to mix up your gameplay. You might relinquish some damage in return for getting a clear view of the map for a widget hunt for example. Or, if you fancy testing yourself, you can leave all the additional hearts you’ve found at home and head out with the bare minimum health.
Experimenting with different loadouts and finding the optimum one for boss runs or exploration is a lot of fun. and I enjoyed hunting down new patches to mix up my patch board a lot.
The second dungeon type offers key items that stay with you throughout the game, and allow you to unlock the entrances to the different biomes across Geodia. These puzzle-based challenges have more than a whiff of Zelda to them, as you’ll need to use the item in question to reach the end. They’re nowhere near as fleshed out or labyrinthine as a Zelda dungeon, lasting only a couple of rooms or so each. But they offered the perfect introduction into these new abilities and meant I was able to apply them instantly as soon as I’d reconstructed them back at The Refuge.
Much like the diposable widgets, some were more useful than others, and with the exception of a lone puzzle or two, I didn’t touch some of the latter items. Still, the early ones - a radio-controlled explosive balloon and a bow and arrow for example - were incredibly useful throughout my playthrough. The radio-controlled bomb came in particularly handy in dealing some damage to more formidable opponents before I engaged with them toe-to-toe.
There’s more than a whiff of Zelda to some aspects of Sparklite. Not least in some of the dungeons and sound design.
Lore And Order
The various tools on offer made each trip down to the surface of Geodia a fun one. Although the layout is randomly generated each time, there are certain tiles that crop up each time lending an air of familiarity to the world despite it’s changing nature. I quite enjoyed this as it again contributed to the connection I felt with the world and its inhabitants. There’s numerous characters you’ll cross paths with, including a jet-pack wearing dude who challenges you to races across certain biomes and an explorer duo who will reward you with a map patch if you can locate their companion. They’re all interesting and enjoyable to interact with, adding a nice lighthearted touch at times to a game that can otherwise be quite serious.
Sparklite is by no means an expansive game, and yet somehow, between the world itself, the characters you interact with, and the story on offer, I found myself really attached to it. I was compelled to reach the end and explore every nook and cranny of every biome because I wanted to thwart the Baron, learn more about the mysterious sparklite, and uncover as much of the mystery of geodia as I could. I sincerely hope this isn’t the last we see of Ada and the inhabitants of Geodia, as there’s a real sense of world-building here that you don’t always get in games of this size.
A final mention of the music is worth making, as it’s fantastic. It complements the gorgeous spritework and the various differing locales perfectly, and is another aspect of the game that gave me Zelda vibes. One area’s theme in particular could’ve come straight out of Skyward Sword.
Verdict
Sparklite doesn’t really do too much new or exciting in terms of gameplay, but the core mechanic is a satisfying one and the combat strikes the right balance between fun and frustration. Where it sets itself apart from others in the genre though, is the way the procedural generation is baked into the lore. Doing so creates a captivating narrative that might not exactly be Shakespeare, but nevertheless furnished me with enough intrigue and sense of belonging that I ended the game wanting more from Ada and Geodia.
Pros & Cons
+ Real sense of world-building
+ Fluid and satisfying combat
+ Beautiful presentation, both visually and in the audio
- Some widgets and items are essentially useless
- Enemy variety trails off towards the end