There is actually a game where the protagonist is an opossum. Seems bottom of the barrel, except Konami made this game...and we know Konami makes good games.
Also, this blog series was made way back in 2013, but I forgot to account for it in my big list of written content and it has never seen the light of day until now.
The Devotindos Empire is under attack by the evil forces of Emperor Devligus Devotindos! Rocket Knight Sparkster, an opossum knight with a jetpack, hunting down another corrupt Rocket Knight, is the only one who can set things straight.
There are four difficulties for the game: Children, Easy, Normal and Hard. Each one gives you a different amount of lives and continues. The harder the difficulty, the less you get.
In Europe, the four difficulties are called Easy, Normal, Hard and Crazy Hard. In Japan, they're called Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Crazy Hard. Unlike the American version, where all four difficulties can be accessed from the start, the two harder difficulties have to be unlocked in the European and Japanese versions.
Stage 1
The controls and gameplay seem simple enough. You have eight hearts that serve as your health...but there are quite a few enemies that will do far more than one heart's worth of damage, so play it safe when you can! There are things in the game that can do as much as five to seven hearts worth of damage!
Assuming you're using the default controls, B lets you jump and both A and C let you attack. Holding the attack button down will let you charge up the gauge above your health meter, which allows you to fly with your jetpack with your sword held in front of you. It doesn't last very long, but it does let you go over tall walls and can be guided with the Control Pad. If you just let go of the button and don't use it, Sparkster will perform a spin attack, which can still be useful.
When you attack, you'll also shoot a projectile that travels a short distance forward. You can use this to your advantage and hit enemies before they can reach you.
Enemies that take multiple hits have a brief invulnerability period, during which you can walk into them without taking damage and wail on them. More often than not, the foot soldiers take one hit and run away, but you can hit them again as they run away and get rid of them for good if you want. Get used to seeing the pigs, as they are the most common enemy of the game.
The mechanical walkers can only be hit at the top. Just like the other enemies here, they pose no real difficulty or threat.
By leaping into tree branches, Sparkster will hang onto them by the tail, being an opossum and all. You can move left or right to move across branches. Strangely, this is the only time in the game where he doesn't smile and instead looks more like he's haunted from taking some Devontido soldier's life.
Bananas, apples and other fruits will refill your health. The 1-Up symbols (which are the word "1up") will give you an extra life.
The mini-boss are four pigs in red armor. Use your charge attack to finish all four of them off at once.
The boss is a pig tank. Use your rocket pack to fly over him and land behind the tank. From there, just wail away at the top of the tank where the pig is and you'll be able to avoid the metal balls and the flamethrower.
You'll then be going down the waterfall. Finish the pig tank off with regular attacks. Hitting him will make the tank change direction, so be ready to get out of the way.
When you beat the pig tank for real, you'll land at a platform. Pick up the red fuel can and you'll start the horizontal shooter section of this stage. Keep attacking to take out all the enemies, The green guys with parachutes will shoot a three-way shot behind them if they get close enough to the left side of the screen.
To take out the sea dragon, stay close to its head and wail away on the head with the attack button. You'll be able to destroy it in no time. After this, you'll finally run smack into the castle.
When you get into the castle, you'll find out it's under attack. Avoid the fire as you walk to the right and beat up all the pig soldiers. When you rocket up to the second floor, a huge wall of fire will chase after you from the right. You won't just be outrunning it, you'll also have to avoid the fire when it shoots Quick Man-like beams right at you. This section will take some practice, but once you have this part memorized, it doesn't take much effort to jump and duck to avoid the fire beams.
After rocketing upwards to get some gems, you'll take on some more Devotindos troops. You'll even find a present which just contains another one of those guys.
You'll then meet the real first boss: a mechanical centipede. Its weak point is its head, and as you try to knock it down a peg, it will try to attack you with mechanical spiders. Avoid the spiders, and attack the red bug that shows up after all the spiders are on the screen to get rid of them all. At this point, the mechanical centipede will also use its tail to attack. Just stay at the other side of the screen, then come out swinging when the centipede exposes its face again. If you can time it right, you can hit the head while it's still slightly poking its head out of one of the holes in the roof.
Sparkster then catches up with Axel Gear, another opossum and the corrupt Rocket Knight that he has been pursuing for quite some time. He kidnaps Princess Sherry and takes off in a Devontidos battle cruiser.
Stage 2
You'll take on a mini-boss at the start of the stage. To beat it, jump up and hit the big red nose on its face. Watch out for the robot's arms, though. They'll swing around in a circle and would love to knock you out of the air.
You'll be swimming around in this part of the stage, and you'll also see pigs on water skis. The bullets from the three-way shots can be nullified with the sword, so you can take them out and continue forward at the same time.
Jump straight up and rocket upwards at the left side of the first waterfall for an extra life.
After climbing across some vines (and using the rocket pack), you'll be able to go in and out of the background with the flying platforms that move around in circles. If you stand on them as they enter the waterfall, you'll be standing in the background. This lets you avoid some of the vine walls as well as the spikes, but there are still vines to climb across and other spikes in the background (which are all black here as opposed to being yellow in the foreground) to avoid. The static platforms, when jumped on, will take you from one plane to the other, depending on whether they are behind the waterfall or not.
The next mini-boss is a robot worm that flies around. Use the platforms to avoid having the worm fly into you, and attack the red ball on its tail to damage it. The worm will go between both the foreground and background planes pretty quickly, so you'll want to pay attention to its movements and now when to switch planes to get out of its way.
You'll then enter a cave, where you start swimming around and avoiding spiked balls that move back and forth. Sparkster has a tendency to float to the surface pretty quickly, so you'll have to keep him level while waiting for the spiked balls to get out of your way. Near the end of the first cave section, hug the left wall so you don't take any damage.
You'll then be dealing with spikes on chains both above and below you. Just stay in a safe spot devoid of spikes as you head to the right. More often than not, it's going to be at the very bottom where there are no spikes present (until they rise up again, at least).
Next up is a very fast mine cart ride. Duck down to avoid the low ceilings, and hit the enemies on mine carts as they come along so their bombs don't give you a hard time. If some bombs do fly upwards, just jump to avoid the explosions.
The "!" signs tell you of incoming hazards such as the low ceilings. When you see the "X" signs, be ready to jump to either the roof of a house or to another mine cart. At least it slows down so you can get off more easily.
The section with the top and bottom mine cart tracks are easy. Stay just left of center, then face left and keep jumping, attacking when you're just flush with the top track. You'll be able to take out all the enemies before they can do anything.
After going through a chicken coop (where one straggles along around you before flying(?) away), you'll take on the next boss. This is a locomotive that fires bullets at you. Get close to the cannon at the front and keep attacking it. If you can't destroy the bullets, just jump over them and continue attacking.
The train will come back when you see a top and bottom track set again, and it will move its arms around in a circular motion. Stay away from the hands as you hit them. When the hands stop moving, move all the way to the right and charge up your spin attack to attack the hands when they come right at you. The second hand will always be the one that hits you, so hit that one. Easier than it looks, boys and girls.
The third form has you attacking the back of the train. Stay close to the orb on the back and avoid the balls. Don't let it run into you, as it will take off at least three hearts if it does. Finally, it's over.
Stage 3
You're now in a volcano. Use your rocket pack to launch yourself through long corridors in less time, and use the reflection from the lava that rises and falls to jump on some hidden platforms. If you fall into the lava, you'll die instantly and lose a life.
Now you're in water that rises and falls. Attack the fish, and avoid running into the spiked walls and ceilings. You'll have to time your movements with the water and make some rather wicked jumps over spiked floors close to where the water stops rising, but this part is indeed doable.
The next mini-boss is a crab robot. Use your rocket attack to hit the claws, You can take out the right claw and then go for the left if you want, but if you can line yourself up properly, you can keep moving up and down to confuse the claw that's still working into missing you and you can attack the pig soldier at the controls with the projectile from your sword slash. This lets you avoid the second phase, where the robot shoots a ring straight up and you'll be forced to divebomb him with the rocket attack.
In the next section, jump onto the walker and you'll be able to cross the lava. It moves around in a bit of a jerky motion, so if there's ground you can walk on, stay on it until you have to cross lava again. There are spiked ceilings here, after all.
You'll then fight a mechanical fish, which is the real boss for Stage 3. Keep going to the left as the fish eats the platforms. When they stop moving, they're about to fall. When that happens, you'll want to rocket to the right side so you don't get dropped into the lava.
When the fish comes out at this point, avoid the fireballs. Grab the bananas for health if you need it. Attack the guy that jumps out of the fish and keep attacking him until he falls back down into it. The cycle then repeats, but from the right side. This time, stay on the upper path and keep walking right, then get back to the platforms on the right side when the platforms fall again. The guy at the helm doesn't take a lot of abuse before he finally dies.
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