Tricky action combat, crafty gear, and some gorgeous pixel art await players in Sparklite.
The attention to detail is more than enough to get reeled into this addictive adventure. Watching others play, they were always rushing back to the fields of monsters or to tinker with their gear. There was never a dull moment.
Drawing parallels with Zelda, players will be able to explore each piece of the map and trounce their enemies. Searching every corner of the map is heavily advised because you can use the spoils you find throughout it to invent new gear. As my attempt came along, I found myself trying to map out where I wanted to go first to make good use of my time.
Sparklite is extremely good at easing you into its challenge, pitting you against basic projectile and rushing enemies. It’s a good warm-up. With great risk comes great reward (usually), though. Some areas will combine these enemies and you’ll need to be very careful with limited health. In the demo, I only had 3 hearts. Where one hit meant one heart lost, there was little room for error.
One of the cool things is how well some of the interact-able objects blend in. I find a lot of adventure games have interact-able objects stick out, as if to scream “Hit me, hit me!”. While the traditional tall grass and barrels are around, some may not be so obvious at first glance. I was swinging wildly to fend off monsters and found myself smacking an unsuspecting piece of fauna. It gave up some gems that I could use back in town. This opened the floodgates of wanting to smack every object to find secrets. It was pretty fun.
With all this combat and smacking experience under my belt, headed for the boss, soon finding out to never, ever underestimate the abilities of this game’s bosses. The boss was a large lumberjack/robot/spider thing, and its big stomps seemingly easily telegraphed danger. After waiting for the stomp to settle, I went to town – only to find myself at the business end of a saw blade 3-4 swings in. Fine. Second attempt. I knew to not get greedy and ran from the foot after a good smack and sat on the other side of the room. Wrong. Its gigantic lumbering foot shoot over and pummeled me down. Well played, Sparklite. Well played.
Despite this difficulty, I still found myself wanting another round, devising my next strategy. Speaking with the exhibitor at the booth, I was told the game might be checking in on how I was doing and where I was to have a more adaptive combat experience. I think players will welcome this challenge and game of strategy against the clever A.I when the full game releases.
Sparklite is coming soon to the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Steam, and Xbox One.
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