Sparklite is a very colorful action adventure game with a few rogue elements, a nice story and some amazing pixel art. Explore the 5 different areas in a changing world together with your pet Wingnut.

In Sparklite you play as Ada and you have a flying robot who accompanies you at all time hir name is Wingnut. You live on a planet named Geodia which is held together by Sparklite. Sparklite is a fluid substance that has a lot of power, It can be harnessed and the inhabitants of the planet have mastered it powering all their machines, weapons, It is such a wonderfluid that it is being used as a currency. Sparklite can also be consumed, Which releases an incredible amount of energy, but it will be gone forever.

The self proclaimed Baron of Geodia is planning to consume the Sparklite to take over the world and released 4 mining titans to gather every bit of Sparklite there is. This causes an inbalance with devastating results, The planet is breaking up, animals are going crazy. One of these titans is Adas first encounter with the evil and when they take your Wingnut it is personal, You get rescued by some friendly folk in a flying airship also called the Refuge. With the help from some of the people there it is up to you to save Wingnut and the world of Geodia.

The story plays out trough dialogue mostly, There are some very nice slideshows with some amazing pixel art tho, These are sadly pretty rare. I like the characters, And they are useful with the things they offer but I did not really bond with them, It is mostly just you and your robot Wingnut. I do like some of the references that the characters have, Like Monty is a pirate with a gameshow; Monty's Haul, The gameshow is exactly the Monty Hall problem. Then there are the explorers Margo and Pogo, Probably more I missed.

The game is marketed as a Roguelite, which is true, But it does not feel like a roguelite. Dying will not set you back or make you lose anything important really, You do lose your Widgets, and they can be very handy but you surely don't need them. The map will change a little but all the areas will still be in the same general place, They might shrink or grow have some extra furnaces or chests. What you encounter will be pretty random, but it all feels very familiar. I would say it feels more like an action adventure game. I also have to add that the local coop is not really fair, Player 2 will control Wingnut.

You start every run on the airship, Here you can do a lot, you can talk to some people and find some little secrets but it is not very big, You can unlock some things using Sparklite like a Widget shop where you can grab a free widget for every run, A Workshop where you can transform found blueprints into weapons for a small fee. Then there is Harmony which will try to compose a song using beats which are singing birds you have to collect. There are 55 of them and they are hidden reasonably well. But not hard to find.

On the Airship you also have the medical bay, Which is very handy, Here you can equip patches you found, and you can even fuse 2 bronze patches into a silver patch and do the same with the silver ones to get gold patches. These gold patches take up the same amount of space but are much more powerful. Upgrading your medical bay also allows you to carry more patches, You start with a square of 3 x 3 and you end up with a square of 5 x 5. Which is a lot of patches. Some patches do take up more space that 1 slot tho. Eventually you will also unlock a research center where you can weaken 1 enemy type you have defeated before, You can also see a nice overview of all the enemy types here.

You start a run by talking to a guy who will take you down to the planet, It is like your average top down adventure game, You can attack, or hold it to do a charged attack with your hammer, You can also control Wingnut He can pull things out of the ground, Light things and suck up muck. Which will enable you to progress further in the game. You also have room for your weapons, but you need to unlock some blueprints first. You get these blueprints from specific buildings you can find one in each area, They give you a weapon you have to use trough the little puzzle like level and at the end you have to give it back and you will reverse engineer it into a blueprint. Then you can unlock the weapon or tool in the workshop on the airship.

Further there are Chests to open, Small ones appear randomly, Big ones only appear on certain map tiles and they remain opened once you opened them once. Then there are Widgets which are like little abilities you can consume, some heal you, attack around you, light the room, or even revive you when you die. These widgets are the only things you lose when you die, You will keep all Sparklite, Patches, and even all progress you made. There are also little side quests like a guy who wants to race you, some twins who seem to lose eachother every time and then there are the furnaces which are like little dungeons which contain some extra enemies to kill.

The game has a very nice and calm Soundtrack that really fits the area you are in, And Harmony surely knows how to put on a show together with the beats. The game also has beautiful graphics and each area manages to capture a unique atmosphere each with its own enemies and obstacles. I am not sure how they could have done better.

The game runs perfectly, No stutters, crashes or anything of the sort. It ran at a very stable 120 fps the whole time. The devs are very down to earth people and willing to fix any bug you can throw at them. It should even run fine on a potato.

For a Roguelite it scores pretty low on replayability. Finishing the game will unlock Champion mode, But you won't be able to revisit bosses after you have beat them. With the final boss as the exception. Completing the game will leave a save just before the final boss, You won't even be able to open the bigger chests after you did this once already. There is a new game plus mode, the Champion mode, it will make enemies and especially bosses tougher and it will remove temples from the game. It will take all items you have except for your blueprints, And the rest of the game will be mostly the same. The map is not linear, Which is nice, But this also makes it easy to go anywhere within a minute.

The game is extremely polished, But for the price I would say it is lacking a bit in content, The store description is a bit off since it is not a roguelite, maybe I expected more because of this but it certainly is a wonderful game that offers a short casual experience with amazing pixel art suitable for all ages.

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[h1]200 character summary[/h1] Sparklite is a very colorful action adventure game with a few rogue elements, a nice story and some amazing pixel art. Explore the 5 different areas in a changing world together with your pet Wingnut. [h1]Story & Characters [b]8/10[/b][/h1] In Sparklite you play as Ada and you have a flying robot who accompanies you at all time hir name is Wingnut. You live on a planet named Geodia which is held together by Sparklite. Sparklite is a fluid substance that has a lot of power, It can be harnessed and the inhabitants of the planet have mastered it powering all their machines, weapons, It is such a wonderfluid that it is being used as a currency. Sparklite can also be consumed, Which releases an incredible amount of energy, but it will be gone forever. The self proclaimed Baron of Geodia is planning to consume the Sparklite to take over the world and released 4 mining titans to gather every bit of Sparklite there is. This causes an inbalance with devastating results, The planet is breaking up, animals are going crazy. One of these titans is Adas first encounter with the evil and when they take your Wingnut it is personal, You get rescued by some friendly folk in a flying airship also called the Refuge. With the help from some of the people there it is up to you to save Wingnut and the world of Geodia. The story plays out trough dialogue mostly, There are some very nice slideshows with some amazing pixel art tho, These are sadly pretty rare. I like the characters, And they are useful with the things they offer but I did not really bond with them, It is mostly just you and your robot Wingnut. I do like some of the references that the characters have, Like Monty is a pirate with a gameshow; Monty's Haul, The gameshow is exactly the Monty Hall problem. Then there are the explorers Margo and Pogo, Probably more I missed. [h1]Gamemodes & Gameplay [b]8/10[/b][/h1] The game is marketed as a Roguelite, which is true, But it does not feel like a roguelite. Dying will not set you back or make you lose anything important really, You do lose your Widgets, and they can be very handy but you surely don't need them. The map will change a little but all the areas will still be in the same general place, They might shrink or grow have some extra furnaces or chests. What you encounter will be pretty random, but it all feels very familiar. I would say it feels more like an action adventure game. I also have to add that the local coop is not really fair, Player 2 will control Wingnut. You start every run on the airship, Here you can do a lot, you can talk to some people and find some little secrets but it is not very big, You can unlock some things using Sparklite like a Widget shop where you can grab a free widget for every run, A Workshop where you can transform found blueprints into weapons for a small fee. Then there is Harmony which will try to compose a song using beats which are singing birds you have to collect. There are 55 of them and they are hidden reasonably well. But not hard to find. On the Airship you also have the medical bay, Which is very handy, Here you can equip patches you found, and you can even fuse 2 bronze patches into a silver patch and do the same with the silver ones to get gold patches. These gold patches take up the same amount of space but are much more powerful. Upgrading your medical bay also allows you to carry more patches, You start with a square of 3 x 3 and you end up with a square of 5 x 5. Which is a lot of patches. Some patches do take up more space that 1 slot tho. Eventually you will also unlock a research center where you can weaken 1 enemy type you have defeated before, You can also see a nice overview of all the enemy types here. You start a run by talking to a guy who will take you down to the planet, It is like your average top down adventure game, You can attack, or hold it to do a charged attack with your hammer, You can also control Wingnut He can pull things out of the ground, Light things and suck up muck. Which will enable you to progress further in the game. You also have room for your weapons, but you need to unlock some blueprints first. You get these blueprints from specific buildings you can find one in each area, They give you a weapon you have to use trough the little puzzle like level and at the end you have to give it back and you will reverse engineer it into a blueprint. Then you can unlock the weapon or tool in the workshop on the airship. Further there are Chests to open, Small ones appear randomly, Big ones only appear on certain map tiles and they remain opened once you opened them once. Then there are Widgets which are like little abilities you can consume, some heal you, attack around you, light the room, or even revive you when you die. These widgets are the only things you lose when you die, You will keep all Sparklite, Patches, and even all progress you made. There are also little side quests like a guy who wants to race you, some twins who seem to lose eachother every time and then there are the furnaces which are like little dungeons which contain some extra enemies to kill. [h1]Graphics & Soundtrack [b]10/10[/b][/h1] The game has a very nice and calm Soundtrack that really fits the area you are in, And Harmony surely knows how to put on a show together with the beats. The game also has beautiful graphics and each area manages to capture a unique atmosphere each with its own enemies and obstacles. I am not sure how they could have done better. [h1]Performance & Support [b]9/10[/b][/h1] The game runs perfectly, No stutters, crashes or anything of the sort. It ran at a very stable 120 fps the whole time. The devs are very down to earth people and willing to fix any bug you can throw at them. It should even run fine on a potato. [h1]Endgame & Replayability [b]7/10[/b][/h1] For a Roguelite it scores pretty low on replayability. Finishing the game will unlock Champion mode, But you won't be able to revisit bosses after you have beat them. With the final boss as the exception. Completing the game will leave a save just before the final boss, You won't even be able to open the bigger chests after you did this once already. There is a new game plus mode, the Champion mode, it will make enemies and especially bosses tougher and it will remove temples from the game. It will take all items you have except for your blueprints, And the rest of the game will be mostly the same. The map is not linear, Which is nice, But this also makes it easy to go anywhere within a minute. [h1]Conclusion [b]8/10[/b][/h1] The game is extremely polished, But for the price I would say it is lacking a bit in content, The store description is a bit off since it is not a roguelite, maybe I expected more because of this but it certainly is a wonderful game that offers a short casual experience with amazing pixel art suitable for all ages. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35216846/][h1]Follow my Curator Page for more Reviews like these[/h1][/url][/quote] [h1]Game Info[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]# of players[/td] [td]Single player with semi coop[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Steam Cloud Save[/td] [td]Working fine[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Controller Support[/td] [td]Yes, Xbox One Bluetooth Working[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Achievements[/td] [td]Very easy[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]FPS on Ultra 1080P[/td] [td]Locked to framerate[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ram Usage[/td] [td]1.1GB[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Installed Size[/td] [td]1159MB[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Launch Command[/td] [td]gamemoderun %command%[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Issues[/td] [td]None[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Operating System & Hardware[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]OS[/td] [td]Arch Linux[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Kernel[/td] [td]5.6.13[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]DE[/td] [td]Gnome 3.36.2[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]CPU[/td] [td]Intel I7-6800K Hexa Core @ 4.2 Ghz[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU[/td] [td]Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 (Nvidia 440.82 Drivers)[/td] [/tr] [/table]