Sparklite

Genre: Top-Down Roguelike Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Merge Games Pixel Bundle, along with Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX, Monster Harvest, and RIOT – Civil Unrest)

Sparklite is a Top-Down Action-RPG Roguelike where you explore the land gathering resources to build up your home base to unlock new abilities to make for even better exploration. The game is set in a world being shifted around by Earthquakes (thus explaining the ever-changing landscape), where you’re uncovering lost technologies and reverse-engineering them to make them yourself.

At first, Sparklite struck me as a punishing grind. It didn’t take much for enemies to be able to pick me off, and the only path to progress appeared to be collecting “sparklite” (little glowy cyan rocks) to buy health and combat upgrades so I could stand a chance. I was about ready to write this one off and move on, but I decided to stick with it a bit longer, and I’m glad I did.

Thankfully, this frustrating early portion of the game didn’t last long. After a few upgrades, and an understanding that I needed to be careful and watch enemy patterns, and I was able to be more effective in my time in-between deaths, learning that the most effective way to gather resources wasn’t going around the overworld fighting enemies, but discovering chests and enemy lairs where these resources could be found in greater quantities.

At that point, this game started to be pretty fun, actually. The gameplay has a nice Zelda-y feel to it, and there are plenty of options for progression to give players all sorts of different paths to take for progress. They can work on collecting and combining “patches” that improve your character’s stats and latent abilities, discovering buried technology and reverse-engineering it to get extra secondary weapons and tools (necessary for exploring more of the world), or they can put their resources into expanding their home base.

These options for progression make for some fun gameplay, and give you goals to aim for and a reason to keep exploring the shifting landscape. It also makes for a joyous occasion when you uncover a new enemy lair or artifact temple to raid, all but guaranteeing you more ways to build your character.

Graphically, this game is pretty good, with a colorful, endearing pixellated art style reminiscent of 16-bit games of old. There’s nothing impressive here, but it’s nice and it works well for the game.

As for complaints, my main one is of course that opening part of the game, which can be frustrating to get through until you get the hang of things. Also, combat in the game can feel a bit repetitive. And, once you learn enemy patterns, it’s a bit simple too – often involving getting a few wacks in before dodging out of the way of the enemy attack. Oh, also, don’t read too deeply into the “Co-Op” label on this game – the second player only controls an assist robot who doesn’t have much to do, and isn’t even available at the start of the game. Boo.

Still, while it’s not without its flaws, Sparklite is a delightful Roguelike that’s rewarding once you get into it. There’s a good variety of options provided to the player, and rewarding exploration. Fans of the genre will find a lot to like here.

tl;dr – Sparklite is a Top-Down Action-RPG Roguelike where players explore a shifting landscape, discovering landmarks and gradually building up their abilities. It’s a solid entry in the genre, although the start of the game is a bit frustrating. Once you move past that though, this game is a delight.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best RPG / Action-RPG

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