Continuing my Spark Journey. While Spark 1 was an offbrand 2D Sonic, Spark 2 goes the 3D Sonic route.

Spark 2 does an admirable job of capturing the energy the Sonic Adventure games had. Unfortunately, I found the controls a bit too loose and slippery for my liking (3D Sonic games also have this problem sometimes). This made the more precise platforming segments later in the game pretty frustrating. Having the ability to use the shoulder buttons to nudge Fark left and right while running like in later 3D Sonics would have made a huge difference for me.

Even with all that aside, this is still a pretty impressive effort for a game where the lion's share of the design is made by a single person. Looking forward to Spark 3.

Something of the middle child of the trilogy, this lacks the polish of the first game (which as a 2D platformer benefited from developer LakeFeperd's experience making all those Sonic fangames) or the third (which benefited from his experience making, well, Spark 2) but brings enough to the table to still be worth a look.

This is a very clear send-up to the Adventure-era Sonic games, with the open, shortcut-friendly levels of Adventure 1 and the more industrial atmosphere and grittier (if tongue-in-cheek) storytelling of Adventure 2. Levels are meant to be both exciting and replayable, with resident Metal Sonic stand-in Fark's rocket-like speed and equally impressive agility lending well to speedruns. A medal system, with 2 each based on time and scoring, even encourages this, though of the two sets i really only bothered with the time medals.

Things aren't perfect; again the game lacks polish, the levels lack memorable backdrops or sequences and can start to blend into each other while the bosses are a joke (unfortunate when the first game had some excellent ones). That said, there's still a great time to be had with Spark 2, and the series only goes up from here

I've heard nothing but good things about Spark 3, but I wanted to play Spark 2 first since it's been on my radar. It's a little short, only 3-4 hours at most, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. I didn't go for 100%, but even after a full playthrough it feels like theres so much stuff I'm missing. The story is intriguing, but you'll be a little lost if you don't know anything about Spark 1, but you can still follow well enough, even if there's a lot going on, and it can be a bit "anime" at points (WHICH IS AWESOME). Can't wait to see how spark 3 expands upon the formula and continues the story

The best 3D Sonic-like game other than Spark 3! This game is so darn fun that I am genuinely curious how a Sonic game on par with this has not been made. Levels are unique and so well thought out. Combat is simple but gets the job done and doesn't get in the way. Graphics are also simple but work well with the high speed gameplay. And you do go pretty darn fast in this one, but rarely lose control or feel like you're on auto pilot.

My biggest problem with this game was the story and character designs. It takes itself too seriously and just comes off as overdramatic and unnecessary. Character designs felt weird to me as well. They lack a certain amount of cohesiveness, and all kind of feel like the creator's OC's just thrown into one game because they looked cool. Ultimately though, this is just personal preference and the game remains extremely fun and replayable.

NOTE: If you have not played Spark 2 yet, I would suggest picking up Spark 3 instead, as it also contains all of the levels from 2, as well as some gameplay improvements.

Fair warning: I played this game on Normal so if that invalidates everything I'm about to say, please let me know.

Spark 2 feels remarkably like one of those videos you'll see on Twitter where someone is showcasing this game they're working on where you just move very fast and that's about it. The levels are super fun for taking, at most, 3 minutes to complete. Unfortunately there's only like 15 or so of them. There are enemies and collectables scattered around the levels, but I was generally going way too fast to even consider stopping and grabbing most of the collectables. I think I only fought 3 enemies in the stages and that was because I was forced to in order to progress/beat the stage in the routes I went. The levels themselves are laid out more like a 2D Sonic game than a 3D Sonic game, which some people might adore. Personally, I'm more of a 3D enjoyer, but even then the levels were still fun. I just wish they were a tad longer because I'm not really the kind of person to go back and try to beat my times for the sake of it. If you are, you'll probably love this aspect.

The combat is. uh. I'm not really sure why it's here. Like I said, 99% of the enemies in the game are completely inconsequential. The majority of the combat is on boss fights which, at least on Normal, consisted of mashing the attack button and pressing shield when they were about to attack to take 0 damage and build more damage multiplier. Even though the combat existing confounded me, it still felt pretty good to actually hit things even if it was just a mash X simulator.

The music is great. I don't really have the vocabulary to tell you why it's so great, but it felt like it captured a lot of different things that people love about Sonic music.

Game only took me 1.5 hours to beat and I got it for Christmas so I'd say it was worth it for me.

Weirdly, going back to Spark 2 after finishing 3 made me enjoy and respect both games a bit more. 2's level design definitely takes its time to find its footing and the non-space level themes are pretty weak, but there is some fun stuff in there, despite the fact that a lot of the time you can just simply opt to not play the game. I generally think they nailed 3's physics, but I will say one thing I would have carried over from here is how much more momentum you maintain when running up and along walls by default. 3's jester dash momentum was also sorely missed.
In particular, I wanted to point out that I think the bosses are much better and more memorable here, and because the parry behaves a differently it gives the combat a much more interesting flavor suited to janky yet unique high speed battles (compared to 3, which feels like it wants to be more of a straight character action game at times). I definitely had a newfound appreciation for that.
Maybe I should go back to Spark 1 now... One day. lol

Minhas altas expectativas não foram atendidas. Spark 2 faz o salto pro 3D mas com isso deixa pra trás quase tudo que tinha de Kirby e faz o combate "esquipável" e esquecível, até nos chefes que duram no máximo 1 minuto. A história não engrena até o final e é mal contada por cenas que não funcionam muito e que só prestei atenção por causa do jogo anterior, e o pior, a gameplay não é precisa e desafiadora como no 1, e sim bagunçada e imprecisa (EU ODEIO LOOPS SEM PARAPEITO).
Infelizmente não tive a vontade quase urgente de rejogar como foi no anterior, o que me deixou triste, ainda mais por ter zerado numa tacada só. Esse jogo não deixa muita marca, mas continua sendo competente e entregando vários momentos divertidos pros fãs de Sonic Adventure e continua valendo a pena. Só o que eu joguei da demo do 3 eu gostei muuuuito mais!

Slightly better than the first 1 because the game is faster and more well paced and we definitely needed more Sonic Advenutre Clone in these days and age.

The game perfectly recapture all the right sensation from these games with tons of room to maneuver around at high speed with tons of branching paths and verticality as well as cool short cut, the game might be fun to speedrun and the game indeed does reward you for completing stage as fast as possible.

Sadly it reproduces SA a bit too well in all of its glory and all of its horror, the jank is everywhere especially in the wall climbing and looping segment which can get truly irritating as you have barely control over them and fucking up once means a certain death which gets slightly annoying during the more spectacle oriented segment when they don't work properly

That tower level can suck my nuts, the combat system still feels like an after thought that I just didn't bother with outside of boss battles which outside of having a great music sadly are all absolutely goddawful to actually fight and clearly the weakest part of the game

Overall, it's alright, tons of room for improvement and I heard Spark 3 finally hits the series strike.

You ever have a diamond in your hands that plunges in beauty due to tons of small cuts? That's spark 2. The basic go-fast gameplay is pretty fun, with alot of options for mobility, shortcuts etc. But the lack of visual clarity harms the game a ton. Whether its getting lost in levels, getting hit because of hard to see/know about hitboxes (EG a laser still hurting you as the particles dissipate, the flame hitbox extending upwards past where it visually is), or the bosses demolishing you since you have barely any time to know/react to their attacks, leading to most fights being a spamfest where you mash the parry and dash button. Soundtracks pretty good at least.

Unlike the first game in the series this one is a clone of 3D Sonic, and it does gets a lot of things right. The platforming stages have a good sense of speed and variety, especially the later half of the 14 stages. Playing through these stages is a lot of fun and it’s impressive how they nailed this totally different gameplay style.
The Kirby style power absorption is back but relegated to the background which was disappointing to me. That ties into the biggest issue with the game which is the combat, the bosses are all essentially the same mindless combat loop. None of the power ups change the combat in any meaningful way, and the bosses don’t change enough to force you to make up and strategy beyond punch and block.
Fun game if you are into 3D Sonic, just don’t expect anything groundbreaking (I couldn’t even tell you what happened in the story).

A breezy 2 hours. An easy recommendation. A giant, impressive feat for a one man team to have accomplished. It doesn't really get all the way there on the physics—the range on the homing dash is just a tad too short to feel right—but the fact that it gets this close as a one man team is nothing short of impressive.

The only real problem with Spark 2 is that, well, Spark 3 is just the far better game. The full realization of the design. Every element polished to a mirror sheen. The game that actually matches its AAA studio competition.

So is Spark 2 worth playing? Absolutely if you want to track the developer's growth. It was really satisfying to play through the entire series and see this artist grow as a game designer from piece to piece. Seeing the design fully realized in 3 is only boosted by having played a similar game design in 2.

On its own, without that interest? Maybe skip ahead to 3, which contains all of these levels as a post-game bonus. Again, no knock against 2, but... when you have the option of playing these in a better game engine...

A game!! For a followup to Spark 1 I never understood a full-on 3D platformer. And ngl I kinda wish they stuck with their old formula? When I wasn't struggling with the controls I was shredding bosses in 40 seconds... A weird one for sure

^Snippet review from my Twitter thread

I remember never being fond of this game when I first saw it a few years back. It was only until now that I decided to finally give this game a fair shot.

Has my opinion changed? Not really.

There's one thing for sure: the game's super fun to control. It feels nice blasting through stages and carrying all the momentum you can build up. What doesn't feel nice is struggling to keep my balance on these winding and convoluted highways that the game loves putting me on at max speed.There were more than a few times where I flew off, and, because I was upside-down, just fell to my doom (which sometimes took 30 seconds to actually die???).

Aside from the platforming, the combat was honestly lackluster. None of the abilties feel any different from each other when approaching an enemy; you just mash X and go to town, sometimes hitting LB to parry whatever counterattack your enemy throws at you (if they don't die in one hit, that is). With this, I was able to simply destroy every boss in less than 70 seconds each, getting every gold and almost every platinum time medal for the boss stages exclusively. Not even the final boss put up that much of a fight.

Speaking of the final boss, good god the story... I feel like this game takes itself a little too seriously at times. I often just laughed at all the things happening with characters I hardly even had time to get to know. Did I mention this game is only, like, 2 hours long? I could'a sworn Spark 1 was longer...

All in all, this game is mediocre. I highly recommend the first one over this.

also lol the game takes a lot from adventure 2 like holy shit

I played the first Spark game last year, and found it incredibly average. The sequel on the other hand has greater highs... and lower lows. Where the first game is a 2D platformer cross between Mega Man X and Sonic, this game is much more inspired by Sonic Adventure, although with some elements of later Sonic games; I was reminded of Sonic and the Black Knight at times. The biggest problem is the translation of the mechanics to the new dimension. The first game had a good mix of Sonic-like platforming with more melee combat. Attacking enemies meshed well with the movement. This game has the same sensibilities except you're in 3D space, which raises a huge problem. Any time you're faced with an enemy you can just... jump over them. This game is incredibly floaty and the enemies have too much health and are too numerous to really be interesting to fight, so I think pretty much every player is going to simply run past everything after the first few levels. This is the big flaw in this game; so much time was spent on enemy combat which is more fun to just skip. The platforming itself is decent, although it can be a bit difficult to control at times, and some aspects (any loops for example) will often lead to your death. Finally, there's the plot. This plot is incomprehensible. Spark the Electric Jester isn't even in it, you play as a sort of Metal Sonic/Shadow clone who just bumps into various Sonic series stereotypes that all hate you for some unexplained reason. I really can't put into words how terrible the plot is; the first game's plot was confusing, but this could've been in Greek for how much sense it made.

This is both better and worse then Spark 1. You are put into hallways where you can dodge enemies. In the original game you would want to battle enemies cause they can sometimes drop health drops. In the sequel the enemies can just be walked past and you will have all of your health bars which is more then in the original. The Story is bad, the music is sometimes reused. the bosses are easier, the shield mechanic is broken. At least it's fun to blitz through the stages and the Edgy power up keeps your momentum with the triple air dash.

Speedrunning was always one of my favorite ways to return to my favorite platformers. Replaying levels to build a perfect route and then executing through it always had a zen-like flow. Spark the Electric Jester 2 is one of those games that perfectly embodies that feeling.

The movement really is the highlight here. You have the speed and momentum of Sonic Adventure with the movement options of Mario 64. Because you're so agile, speeding through platforms and finding hidden routes feels intuitive.

What doesn't mesh as well with the platforming is the combat and exploration. The game is designed in a way where you either blitz it to the end or fight to earn a score while exploring at a slower pace, If you take too long, all your points are forfeited. Although making a route to execute a score run can still be fun, it feels at odds with your progression.

Fighting regular enemies and bosses generally locks you into a one-on-one fight that usually boils down to mashing your attack buttons and timing parries, making most encounters feel repetitive.

Maybe I thought the combat heavily detracted from the rest of the game, but when the credits rolled around I felt like I had to play through it again, twice. Even if there was no sequel, I'd be fine with Spark 2 being its own thing with the flaws it has. It's not faultless, but it could absolutely be worth your time.

I actually preferred this over the first game, albeit it's still nothing that really blew me away.

To sort of recap, I feel like the first game had solid movement and a costume/ability system I really liked, but the level design did start feeling a bit too same-y for my liking pretty quickly in which did leave me feeling somewhat burned out.

But while this game is actually shorter in the first (my first playthrough clocking in at just over 2 hours lol), I feel like I got more out of those two hours than I did with the first game. The gameplay is now in 3D compared to the first being in 2D, and I feel like that alone gives it more of it's own identity so to speak.

The easiest comparison I can make here is something along the 'Sonic' playstyles in the Sonic Adventure games, and in a lot of ways this game does feel like a modern take on that - having a good amount of fluidity and flow to the controls on top of level design that just has more variety to it than it's predecessor.

That being said, in it's efforts to sort of replicate the Adventure style it does kind of bring over a lot of the jankiness of those games, perhaps moreso. There were quite a few moments in the game where I felt like I was fighting against the physics to keep Fark (in case you're wondering, yes you actually play as Fark in this game, not Spark) from falling off the twisting paths, and there were even a couple times where I basically fell through the level geometry.

Weirdly enough, the game recommends you to enable 'Smooth Turning', but at the same time I felt like the controls just felt... better without it. With the feature turned on, turning just outright felt pretty sluggish and it doesn't really feel like the levels were designed well around it. Once I turned it off I'd actually say I had an easier time getting used to and understanding the controls. Otherwise the movement does feel pretty good and, again, does have a good amount of flow and fluidity.

The combat also returns from Spark 1 and... truth be told it feels just as shallow. Pretty much all the enemies and bosses just kinda felt like a cycle of waiting for a chance to parry in order to rack up extra damage power then just proceeding to mash buttons after memorizing a few attack patterns. The boss against Freom Mk 3 was a bit more challenging in this regard, but even then it still just took me a few tries to take him down (plus the actual final boss that comes after is somehow significantly easier lol).

The ability/costume feature also returns but it feels like more of an afterthought here to the point where I didn't even understand how it worked until half way into the game and even then it didn't really feel like it changed much, which is a bit of a shame considering it was something I did like from the first game.

One good thing this game does bring to the table though is that it does have a medal/reward system similar to what's in most 3D Sonic games from Adventure 2 onwards, so despite being pretty short there is a bit of incentive to replay the levels in that regard.

That's really all I gotta say though. It's a good game if you enjoy the 3D Sonic titles, especially the Adventure games and Heroes, and I would even say I liked it more than the first, though the short campaign does sort of lead me to suggest getting it on sale at least if you are interested.

The first Spark game was very amateurish, but still had a decent amount of polish to trick you into thinking more thought had been put into it. This game however is a bit of a clunky mess.

The level design is completely unmemorable and uninteresting, which long stretches of levels dedicated to running in what is essentially a straight line. The developer's only way to introduce difficulty to the levels is to add more bottomless pits and spam enemies and obstacles everywhere. There are a few interesting ideas here and there, but for the most part the game is just boring.

There's ostensibly a combat system, but it doesn't matter for normal levels because you can easily just run passed everything. It's a good thing you don't have to engage in combat too much either, because when you do for boss fights you realize how bad it is. Use shield when the enemy attacks and just spam the attack button to win. It's about as brainless as you can possibly get, and every boss is basically fought exactly the same because of it.

Unlike the first game, it's very short. I finished it in under 2 hours, which I'm actually okay with because the first game dragged like crazy.

At least the music is good. Well mostly. How the hell did this guy get a vocalist for the boss songs in this game? Who would agree to this?