Orbital Fortress is the eighth stage of Sparkster (SNES). It is the final level on normal difficulty.
Description[]
The headquarters of the Wolf Army, an asteroid converted into a fortress orbiting Eginasem. Princess Flora is being held here by Generalissimo Lioness, who is preparing to launch a warhead at Eginasem.
Details[]
The stage begins inside the barrel of the missile cannon. Missiles are periodically fired through the tunnel, Sparkster must duck into holes in the floor to avoid being crushed. The tunnel emerges into the missile hangar, which is populated by Wolves and inactive missiles to climb over. At the end, a Wolf Mech detonates one of the missiles, blasting itself and Sparkster through a vertical tunnel. He must destroy the robot to escape the tunnel.
Next is a long corridor with Wolves riding Stampey-Dos. This corridor leads into a zig-zagging series of vertical shafts with rails to climb up and down. On these rails are cicada robots which periodically electrify the rails, they should be destroyed before hanging on to a rail. This leads to the Brain Core, which is circled by speedy discs that damage on contact. The core is further guarded by four crystals which occasionally strike the ground with lightning. The crystals must be destroyed to detonate the core.
Following the core is another series of vertical shafts and corridors. These are populated by moving mirrors, which reflect the laser beam from a cannon at the end. The mirrors can be destroyed to cut off the beam. At the end is another vertical tunnel guarded by flying wolves who fire missiles. This leads to another corridor of Stampey-Dos before a glass bridge takes Sparkster to Generalissimo Lioness' lair.
As Sparkster enters, a warhead appears in the background as a screen on the ceiling sets course for Eginasem. Lioness drops down from above to start the fight. He can breathe fire which travels across the ground, throw boomerang projectiles which gain speed as they rebound off the walls and must be ducked under, and summon columns of moving lightning. He is very slow and will occasionally jump to reach Sparkster.
After sustaining fatal damage, Lioness is revealed to be a robot and begins to break down. He inches over to Princess Flora's cage and takes her pendant, then crawls to a console in the centre of the room. If playing on normal, he will collapse early and Sparkster and Flora evacuate in an escape pod as the base self-destructs. If playing on hard or higher, Lioness places the pendant on the console and activates the warhead, which flies off toward Eginasem. Sparkster places Flora in the escape pod and flies off to intercept the missile.
Accessibility through Difficulty[]
| Easy Mode | Normal Mode | Hard Mode | Very Hard Mode | Crazy Hard Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trivia[]
- This is the only stage with two mid-bosses.
- This is the only stage where a story event changes depending on the chosen difficulty.