Rate top gamesSparklite is a cute distraction, but nothing groundbreaking. It’s technically a rogue-lite, but made for a better adventure game than rogue-lite. With a bit of reworking, the same gameplay could have been adapted to a really satisfying rogue-LIKE.
Sparklite begins with a crash to an unknown world where you discover mysterious artifacts. The story quickly becomes secondary, however. The gameplay and bosses are much more satisfying than the overplayed tale of a powerful artifact, evil, and destiny. If you die, you are brought up to an air-fortress to recoup and upgrade, and the world is shuffled around. There are a handful of rooms that make up the world below, but they immediately begin repeating on your second visit. Upgrades are only ever acquired upon returning to the fortress above, so you will have to die, occasionally on purpose, to progress. You can also force the world to refresh all its loot and enemies by sitting through a loading screen, trivializing any resource management the game has. You can get as many of the consumables as you want, even if some are questionably useful.
The upgrade system itself is fairly unique, but under-utilized. You Tetris your abilities (“patches”) onto a 3x3 board, fitting all that you can. It forces you to make sacrifices and think about what abilities you will use most. However, the patches are all squares/rectangles, and the board eventually gets to be so big it trivializes any decisions you could have made.
Upon finding and defeating one of the five bosses (which are actually pretty well designed), you’re teleported to the fortress to begin again. This brings me to what I WISH the game was.
Sparklite would have had my full backing if it leaned into its rogue-LIKE systems more. Allowing upgrades to be found and equipped on the fly, forcing all 5 bosses to be defeated for a successful run, more variety to rooms, more interesting upgrades, and better consumable economy (without the room-loading exploits).
I still recommend Sparklite at a discount. Its base price of $25 is too much, but the $6 I paid was well worth it. It isn’t a very good rogue-like, but it’s a fine bosser and adventure title to spend a rainy day on.
Sparklite begins with a crash to an unknown world where you discover mysterious artifacts. The story quickly becomes secondary, however. The gameplay and bosses are much more satisfying than the overplayed tale of a powerful artifact, evil, and destiny. If you die, you are brought up to an air-fortress to recoup and upgrade, and the world is shuffled around. There are a handful of rooms that make up the world below, but they immediately begin repeating on your second visit. Upgrades are only ever acquired upon returning to the fortress above, so you will have to die, occasionally on purpose, to progress. You can also force the world to refresh all its loot and enemies by sitting through a loading screen, trivializing any resource management the game has. You can get as many of the consumables as you want, even if some are questionably useful.
The upgrade system itself is fairly unique, but under-utilized. You Tetris your abilities (“patches”) onto a 3x3 board, fitting all that you can. It forces you to make sacrifices and think about what abilities you will use most. However, the patches are all squares/rectangles, and the board eventually gets to be so big it trivializes any decisions you could have made.
Upon finding and defeating one of the five bosses (which are actually pretty well designed), you’re teleported to the fortress to begin again. This brings me to what I WISH the game was.
Sparklite would have had my full backing if it leaned into its rogue-LIKE systems more. Allowing upgrades to be found and equipped on the fly, forcing all 5 bosses to be defeated for a successful run, more variety to rooms, more interesting upgrades, and better consumable economy (without the room-loading exploits).
I still recommend Sparklite at a discount. Its base price of $25 is too much, but the $6 I paid was well worth it. It isn’t a very good rogue-like, but it’s a fine bosser and adventure title to spend a rainy day on.
Other reviews2
This game is so bad it doesn't deserve that beautiful pixel artwork, it hurts. Over powered enemies and when you die you are returned to the beginning so making progress is tedious and repetitive, you don't know where the character was because is a procedural generated world, you have to explore the map every time you die. Also you need money to merge upgrades and shoot weapons? Nah