Geodia is a quaint little planet that is having a few issues. Titans are mining the natural resources, and causing the planets inhabitants to mutate. To make matters worse, the world keeps fracturing and the geography shifts every time you fail your mission. Most people have taken to living in an elevated city to avoid the surface whenever possible. Do you have what it takes to rid the planet of evil and restore the balance to nature? Sparklite from Red Blue Games will test your skills as you traverse the planet and fight off evil.
You play as Ada, a young woman that crashes on Geodia. Along with your personal robot, Wingnut, you must repel evil and restore life to normal. Unfortunately, you get separated from Wingnut in the crash and the first order of business is to save him to increase your abilities. Armed with your wrench, you must defeat the local wild life and the Titans that rule each area.
But your wrench is not a normal tool. You can swing it for a quick attack, or charge it up into a hammer. The wrench also has a hidden ability. You are able to add upgrade patches to your wrench that will increase your health, attack, defense, and more. There is a catch, your wrench can only hold so many patches, so you will be forced to choose which abilities you want to upgrade. Luckily you are able to combine the same types of patches to increase stats while not wasting space. Along your journey you also encounter several gadgets that, if you have enough sparklite, you can create and use.
Your wrench and wingnut are not the only things you have at your disposal. Throughout the world you will also encounter widgets. These are limited use items that can restore health, add attacks, refill your energy, or even revive you in the chance of an untimely death. While these widgets are good, if you die, you lose all the ones you have collected.
To save the world, you will have to clear out 5 differently themed areas. Each area must be completed in sequence, to earn the tools needed to unlock the next area. Once you defeat a boss, they are gone, so even if you die, you are not required to go back to that area. But since you need large amounts of sparklite, you will revisit areas to grab more and increase the patches you own.
The graphics in the game are bright and well defined. Even though you are playing on current gen consoles, the style with bring back memories of older systems. The top down view works perfectly as you can survey the entire screen you are interacting with, and there is little chance of anything being hidden from view. Each area has a well executed theme that sets it apart from the others. There is a catchy soundtrack that will get stuck in your head when you play for longer periods of time.
Sparklite is a great adventure game with some RPG elements that will satisfy your retro itch. Depending on your abilities, there are at least 8 hours of game play here, if not more. This is also a great way to introduce someone to the genre, while difficult at times, you will never feel like you are going to toss your controller. The game carries a price tag of $25, and is worth every penny, as you will spend time in the game, even after completing the story trying to find all the collectables. Available now on XB1, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
