Rocket Knight Adventures Redux

Rocket Knight Adventures Redux is out! This hack keeps what makes the game geat while adjusting the few things that I think held it back and adding a couple of extra features. The scripted slowdown on boss hits is gone, King Pig can’t cheap shot you post-death, and the score tally at the end of each level can be skipped. There’s also a new partial rocket boost at two-thirds charge, with no loss of control afterwards, making traversal flow a bit better in some segments. The balance tweaks are based on default/easy mode in the US version and aim to improve the game’s overly easy and/or repetitive segments. The flying sections in stages 1 and 5 have faster, less predictable enemy patterns, the stage 2 cart pigs put up a bit more of a fight, and the stage 2 crab boss’s claws can’t be destroyed before the fight starts. Some other tweaks keep the challenge and pace consistent from start to finish, and the game’s difficulty scaling is retained. A big addition is Axel Gear mode. Play the game in his armour, with a fitting palette and somewhat repainted Sparkster sprites, cutscenes, stage cards and ending art. He’s essentially a glass cannon with additional attack options: a homing rocket spread similar to what the boss uses in the late-game duel, and he can pull off a half-charge spin slash or boost. Bosses have been retuned around him, so you’ll still have to practice for those one-cycles. Finally, there's an optional RKA 2 (Sparkster MD)-style control layout, and both it and the axel gear armor can be toggled in the options menu. Note that using this makes the game a bit easier. Regarding the work process, I designed every change, caught bugs in play, chose between options in sub steps of every implementation, set exact behaviour, and did the level and graphics edits myself. The assembly code and build tools were written with Claude, which also tested changes in an emulator and were then double checked by me.