Sparkster: Balanced Bosses

PURPOSE
- Easier boss fight (robot duel) at the end of stage 7
- Shorter mid-boss fight (core of the ship) in stage 8


EXPLANATIONS

The robot duel is crushingly difficult and makes the game less enjoyable.
The reasons are that the AI can be ruthless and the player is unfamiliar with the commands.
In order to compensate that, the boss and his arms' health were reduced by 1/4.
This means that if you can get to the boss with full health, mashing L or R is a decent strategy. And if not full health, you have now a chance to win.

The fight against the ship's core (the thing with rotating crystals and shields) is extremely dull.
There exists a proper strategy, which involves hitting the crystals when the shields are away, but it is very risky.
The most common way is to go to the right, then jump and safely attack from a distance, slowly chipping away the crystals AND the shields. But the process takes up to 3 minutes!
The shields' health was reduced by 5/6, and the crystals' by 1/3. Now it takes about 1 minute to win the fight, and the feedback of destroying the shields one by one is more satisfying.

Balanced Bosses

By Zimgief


* PURPOSE *
- Easier boss fight (robot duel) at the end of stage 7
- Shorter mid-boss fight (core of the ship) in stage 8


* EXPLANATIONS *
The robot duel is crushingly difficult and makes the game less enjoyable.
The reasons are that the AI can be ruthless and the player is unfamiliar with the commands.
In order to compensate that, the boss and his arms' health were reduced by 1/4.
This means that if you can get to the boss with full health, mashing L or R is a decent strategy. And if not full health, you have now a chance to win.

The fight against the ship's core (the thing with rotating crystals and shields) is extremely dull.
There exists a proper strategy, which involves hitting the crystals when the shields are away, but it is very risky.
The most common way is to go to the right, then jump and safely attack from a distance, slowly chipping away the crystals AND the shields. But the process takes up to 3 minutes!
The shields' health was reduced by 5/6, and the crystals' by 1/3. Now it takes about 1 minute to win the fight, and the feedback of destroying the shields one by one is more satisfying.

* HOW TO PLAY *
Apply the patch to a US rom (maybe works with EU and J? Didn't try, sorry!).


* ACKNOWLEDGMENT *
svambo, who provided the hex editing documentation


* VERSION HISTORY *
1.0 - First public release (05/01/2020)

Database match: Sparkster (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20180813-062835)
File/ROM SHA-1: 0AC5326401903212C6565A7A982F60A56017C1EF
File/ROM CRC32: 40D11C94