Sparklite is a top-down Zelda-style Action-Adventure game with Procedurally Generated Levels. It was developed by Red Blue Games, published by Merge Games, and released on November 14th, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and on PC through Steam, with an Xbox One release the following day.
It is set in a world called Geodia, where an evil Baron is seeking to Take Over the World through exerting control over the mysterious glowing mineral with immense powers called sparklite. Luckily, a hero named Ada arises, and discovers that sparklite is linked to the world's Founding Stone, whose five seals are now unbalanced, and restoring the Seals will place the world back in order, and stave off the threat from the Baron.
Sparklite contains examples of the following tropes:
- Big Bad: The Baron, who is looking to get the Foundation Stone just so that he can reshape the entire world and literally set his power in stone.
- Blob Monster:
- Small brown slimes called Muck are some of the earliest enemies Ada faces.
- The third Titan, Scubert, spawns dozens of blue blobs.
- Boss Subtitles: All the bosses (besides the final one) are described as the variation of "Adjective" Titan. Boris is the Tunnelling Titan, Timbert a Lumbering Titan, Scubert an Ironclad one and Scorch is a Sandshifting Titan.
- Charged Attack: Ada is able to do a charged swing of her wrench, which instantly defeats even the heavier enemies with upgrades.
- The Chosen One: It is eventually revealed that Ada is the descendant of The Philosopher, the most prominent of the Founders.
- Concussion Frags: Some of the enemies are grenadiers, but their explosives are tiny, and their blast range is equally pitiful.
- The Corruption: The greed of the Baron, as expressed through his powers, literally corrupts the creatures into serving him.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Get a classical defeat animation with a series of explosions all over them.
- Flash of Pain: Damage that doesn't outright kill enemies is marked by them flashing white.
- Flunky Boss:
- Scubert spawns in dozens of blue slimes, though they'll thankfully disappear in a few seconds. However, he is also able to summon a mook with a jetpack, who'll be much more persistent.
- The second form of the Final Boss is almost entirely reliant on flunkies.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Ada doesn’t simply keep the new Gadgets she finds in Vaults. She reverse-engineers them, draws up schematics for them, puts them back, and then builds her own versions of them in the workshop.
- Geometric Magic: The Founders' Seals, five of which must be activated by Ada to prevent the world from being unmade, appear as complex shapes drawn in bright blue on the floor.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Ada is drawn with the goggles always somewhere in the middle of her hairline.
- Green Rocks: Sparklite is the glowing blue ore that fulfills this role here.
- Ground Pound: The Ogre enemies can jump and slam hard into Ada's last location.
- Homing Projectile: Scorch spawns two slow-travelling missiles.
- Ominous Cube: A large azure rhomboid is floating in the chasm at the intersection of the five Architect's Seals. Subverted in that it is the Foundation Stone, needed to start a new world. In the game's final battle, you fight it.
- One-Winged Angel: After you defeat the first form of Baron, he shouts "ENOUGH!" and chooses to show Ada "the true power of Sparklite!", and then absorbs the Founding Stone, taking up the entirety of the space where it used to float. Re-activating all five Seals restores the Stone and melts the Baron from inside from energy overload, however.
- Puzzle Boss: The second form of Baron takes up the entire space where the Founding Stone used to be, as he had absorbed it. Instead of fighting it directly, you reactivate the five seals again, while it casts down lightning and summons mooks in an attempt to stop you.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Timbert, the pilot of the second Titan, has bright red eyes, and the same goes for the following one, Scubert. Then again, they may just be wearing goggles of that color.
- Retraux: The game is pixelated like an SNES game.
- Robot Buddy: Ada is accompanied by a tiny, talking drone with a decent sense of humour.
- Shock and Awe: The Baron's powers are mainly about casting red lightning in various patterns.
- Shockwave Stomp:
- While Boris prefers to just slam itself into walls in the hope of crushing Ada, it can also slam itself into the floor to get a small shockwave if she is nearby.
- Timbert will likewise slam down the five legs of its mech one by one, or have one of them fly off after Ada and try to stomp her on its own.
- The Baron can teleport himself in mid-air, and then do a Three-Point Landing that causes lightning to radiate all around him.
- Sucking-In Lines: The first boss, Boris, gathers dust from all over the screen when it attempts to vacuum Ada in as well.
- Sword Lines: Ada's wrench is swung in an arc marked by a blue afterglow.
- Teleport Spam: The Baron regularly teleports during his battle.
- This Is a Drill: Scorch is a Titan with a scorpion-like mech, and it is represented by a drill.
- World-Healing Wave: Once The Baron is defeated and the Foundation Stone is re-sealed, the Muck is gone, the corrupted forest creatures are back to their normal state, and the fractures in the land are brought back together.
- Wrench Whack: Ada fights with a wrench, much like Robin of Iconoclasts, except in Top-Down View.
