Sparklite is a randomly-generated Zelda-like game and it’s exactly as fun as it sounds

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The first thing you’ll notice about Sparklite is the vibrant, colorful, neoclassical pixel art graphics. That much is obvious just by watching a trailer. The rest, you’ll want to experience for yourself.

I try not to make previews, hands-on articles a definitive review, but there are several experiences I had at this PAX West that just left me feeling like, “Yes, this is enough information to say that this game is for sure a GOOD GAME.” My time with Sparklite was one of those.

In Sparklite you start by crashing your ship in a mysterious storm. From there, you need to explore an ever-changing world to gather resources, defeat the local, nefarious forces, and put the pieces back together. There 5 bosses to get through, 6 permanent gadgets, and tons of consumables.

Here’s a better look at Sparklite to give you a sense of what I’m talking about here

My problem here is that I can feel that the game is good, but it’s hard to put that into a single digestible hook. The screen shake is just intense enough. The dash feels just right. It never feels unfair when I take damage. The consumables feel just powerful enough to make them worth using, but not so powerful that you want to hoard them forever. I spent about 20 minutes with this one and I could easily see myself sitting down with Sparklite for a whole day, only taking breaks to order pizza.

If you like fighting things in games like Link to the Past, Hyper Light Drifter, and Secret of Mana, I know for certain you’re going to like Sparklite.

I’m just glad it’s coming out in Fall 2019 on virtually every platform – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, and Mac – because I can’t wait to get my hands on the full game. Preorders for the game are now available.

Have any thoughts on this? What do you think about Sparklite? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Jake Vander Ende

Jake is a writer and game designer in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He loves action, exploration, building, filling bars, and turning numbers into bigger numbers. Someday he'll release a video game.