A moderator at Nintendo Age is friends with a former Konami artist, one responsible for much of its classic box art.
He just shared original concept art that became Sparkster, the Rocket Knight. His original concept name was Blaster.
I thought you all would find this interesting. Blaster appears much more armored and "sci-fi" than Sparkster became.
Original threat at Nintendo Age: http://beta.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=148290
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06-10-2015, 11:09 PM #1Master of Shinobi
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Initial concept drawing of Sparkster (Rocket Knight) [from Nintendo Age]
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06-10-2015, 11:17 PM #2Raging in the Streets
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That is pretty interesting looking, I kind of like the version they went with personally. Less grimdark looking.
Originally Posted by StarMist
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06-11-2015, 01:27 AM #3Toejam is a wiener. Master of Shinobi
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I'm happy they didn't go with that. That is menacing looking. The whole tone of the game would have suffered.
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06-11-2015, 06:17 AM #4Bite my shiny, metal ***! Hero of Algol
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NOT a concept art for the character, just for the US cover.
The Mega Drive was far inferior to the NES in terms of diffusion rate and sales in the Japanese market, though there were ardent Sega users. But in the US and Europe, we knew Sega could challenge Nintendo. We aimed at dominating those markets, hiring experienced staff for our overseas department in Japan, and revitalising Sega of America and the ailing Virgin group in Europe.
Then we set about developing killer games.
- Hayao Nakayama, Mega Drive Collected Works (p. 17)
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06-11-2015, 09:37 AM #5Super Robot Raging in the Streets
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No offense to the obviously talented artist but man that would have entered my top-10 bad box arts for sure.
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06-11-2015, 10:38 AM #6Raging in the Streets
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That`s a pretty nifty art piece. But in my opinion the concept drawing of Rocket Knight looks more like a villain than a hero or protagonist. If I did not know any better, I would have thought it was a concept drawing for Biker Mice from Mars.
I like the less menacing of the final character design. IMHO Rocket Knight is such a likeable character.
"There's nothing to fear, except fear itself"
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06-11-2015, 01:30 PM #7Hero of Algol
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Sparkster in the original RKA has a timeless look, like a disney character. I would change nothing about the design.
Sparkster v2.0 looks a bit too "must cash-in on Sonic".
That Sparkster is just silly.
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