Okay, after I learned Konami's making a new Rocket Knight Adventures game for Xbox Live Arcade I nearly shat myself with extreme joy. The game's in 2.5D though, so no good ol' spriting action which of course is a shame, especially considering how great the other games looked.
After downloading and beating the 3 old games (I own them all, but im up at college without my Genesis and SNES :< ) I decided I HAD to sprite Sparkster as he appears in the new game, and I think it came out decently.
I used the SNES "Sparkster" game sprite as a reference and for the palette, though I added a grey since it's used a lot more in this design. The pose was also supposed to be close to that sprite, but it ended up closer to MegaMan X.. hm... well whatever :B | 
Yay, Sparkster!
This is darn cool, Z. I like the face the best - amazingly expressive in so small an area.
I too feel disappointed that the new game won't be fully sprited, but things like this help heal the pain!
Cheers,
JD