Limited Run Games has announced another couple of classic collections, but unlike the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection, these are actually good. Coming up is Felix the Cat and Rocket Knight Adventures: Resparked.
I’m just learning this now, but Felix the Cat is turning 105 this year. The character got his start in the golden age of animation back in 1919, starring in some silent shorts. Like most popular characters from the time period, he kept coming back repeatedly for new TV series and movies, even if he wasn’t as high profile as Looney Tunes (Merry Melodies) and Mickey Mouse. Limited Run Games’ collection contains the 1992 NES title by Hudson Soft, and the 1993 Game Boy port.
The NES title is actually somewhat based on the godawful 1989 movie, which, in turn, is based on the godawful 1958 cartoon series. The game itself is pretty decent, though. The main draw of it is that you continually pile on power-ups until you’re driving a tank, and some of the levels have you flying. They’re not scrolling shoot-’em-up sections, though. You’re just allowed to fly around for some reason. I absolutely loved the game when I was a kid. My cousins owned it, and I always wanted to play it whenever I visited.
Rocket Knight Adventures should hopefully require no introduction. The original title, developed and published in 1993 by Konami, is unequivocally my favorite Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game. It’s just such a joyfully creative platformer that is evocative of early Treasure games.
The Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked collection compiles that with the Genesis sequel, 1994’s Sparkster, with the SNES sequel, also a 1994 game called Sparkster. Both Sparksters are entirely different games. Like, even mechanically, they’re dissimilar. They’re also not as good as the original. They both give off this feeling like the marketing team got involved and started making suggestions on how to make the character more appealing to the masses.
Both Felix the Cat and Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked are coming to the PS4, PS5, and Switch. Probably PC, as well, but that’s not mentioned in the press release. The physical edition of Felix the Cat will be available for preorder on February 9, until March 10. Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked is sooner, from January 19 until February 18. There’s an “Ultimate Edition” of RKA going up as well, and that Sparkster Statuette is pretty tempting. The digital versions don’t have a release date yet.
Limited Run Games is also that more Konami titles are on the horizon. It’s about damned time, since the company is sitting on a massive trove of classic titles that have never been re-released. Maybe we’ll get a Ganbare Goemon collection now.
