Currently very broken on PC, between the pause button crashing the game to utterly terrible framerates and regular slowdown. I feel like it wasn't that bad when I started playing the game, but that was like a year ago, which itself speaks to how the game itself didn't really grab me. The level design feels sprawling, but never particularly rewarding or engaging to explore, as you're usually rewarded with only a few mediocre health pickups, or a power-up that you probably already have a copy of from earlier in the level.

I'm actually quite shocked that Spark the electric Jester isn't as popular as I think it should be.

To be straight up, this is literally a sonic game with kirby elements. It's shameless, but it does it really well. If you're a fan of 2D Sonic this is a must play.

The sprites and backgrounds are beautiful, the gameplay is tight and fun, the music is amazing. This such a well made game I really did not expect this for a dev that didn't much of a track record.

The story and writing are bit strange, but honestly for a 2D platformer you can just skip the cutscenes and enjoy the gameplay.

I highly recommend this if you are fan of 2D platformers in general.

bought all three of the spark games after seeing some gameplay of 3. i wasn't expecting much out of this first game bur it really surprised me and i ended up loving it. the games feels like a mix between kirby and 2d sonic games and the 2 styles blend together really well. pretty much all of sparks power ups feel pretty fun to use and i was constantly swapping them out and giving them all a fair shake. the levels are also pretty well designed and feel fun to speed through. while short it was a really solid time and i was really happy to have played it

Spark is cool and I do have a lot of respect towards the creator for being capable of a game this magnitude mixing Sonic and Megaman X. Whatever I say after this, it doesn't take away the fact that this is really dope.

But it struggles a lot with its level design.

The stages have a lot of space to accommodate for the different mobility options of each Spark power, but that makes it way less cohesive and it just doesn't take advantage of any power in particular. As a result, there's a severe lack of individual moments, memorable spots, or defining characteristics to most stages. You add in the fact that each stage can be incredibly long and reiterates the same design beats over and over again... and you get a game that becomes stale very quickly despite having so much rad stuff in its mechanics, style and soundtrack.

I see the ingredients for something excellent but it's half-baked in what makes everything come together. Still, I'm glad I played it. Let's see how the (sudden) jump to 3D goes.

An okay Sonic inspired platformer. The levels were too damn long (some levels take more than 10 minutes + boss fights), and I don't like the momentum in this game; I hate how you need to dash if you are going up or sometimes you loose speed out of nowhere. The difficulty is weird, with the right combo of powers you can basically breeze through the game, but the Fark campaign was really hard and I had to drop it. The music was ok and the backgrounds were too much imo. If it were a bit shorter, I would recommend it to Classic Sonic fans.

some mad lad woke up one day and asked ''what if sonic but good ?''

spark has some amazing level design that focus more on obstacle courses than pits of death and precise platforming, a game that understands the strenghts and weakness of the style its trying to emulate, but it does it so well that it also create its own identity and flies away, its unashamed to pull its inspirations out for the world to see and embrace the cheesy fun of anime\game.
i could only wish 2D sonic was this competent.

it has plenty of gamemodes and unfortunally they don't seem very balanced, fark levels straight up tested my patience but also game a very fun way to do bosses.

I’ve been meaning to play through the Spark the Electric Jester games at some point, and of course it’s reasonable to start out with the first game. I’m not too knowledgeable about the series, but I know that this is the only game in the series that’s a 2D platformer, so it’s rather unique in comparison to the other games. That being said, I had an absolute blast playing this game for the first time. It had a couple rough moments, but overall this game was great.

First and obviously, I love this game’s speed. It’s a simple thing to compliment, but I really think this game’s speed feels so good. Some sections in levels were definitely difficult due to how Spark moves, but most of the game felt amazing. When you’re just moving at high speeds, blasting through the level and doing loops, it just feels amazing. There’s something really satisfying about it that I wish I could better describe.

I also really adore how Spark plays as well. Of course, Spark is ridiculously fast, but there’s more to his moveset that I really like. To add to his speed is a dash, which just feels really nice. As well, depending on what power up you have, you’ll be able to double jump, or air dash, which of course just adds so much more. And there’s so much in the realm of combat as well. This as well can change depending on what power ups you have. You have basic combos, directional attacks, and charge attacks as well. I found that the charge attacks can also impact movement, sometimes boosting you further in the air. Spark’s moveset is really fun.

And man, the powerups are really fun. As said prior, they can change Spark’s movement, or what attacks he has, and this is all really fun. This isn’t to mention that you can hold two power ups and alternate between them, which allows for so many options, especially as some powerups have unique movement options. I think my favorite ones plaything throughout the game were Wind, Cool, Hammer, and Magical especially. I also noticed some really interesting interactions between some power ups and the levels themselves. Primarily I noticed that cool makes it so that you skate on top of the water, it was a nice touch that I really liked.

I didn’t realize how combat centric this game was. Particularly, nearly every level in the game had a boss fight, and many had 2, maybe even 3 bosses. And honestly, most of the bosses aren’t too difficult, though it does ramp up about halfway through the game. When the boss fights get hard, they were really fun. The speed of both Spark and the boss fights really makes the boss fights really tense in a good way. There were times specifically where the bosses didn’t have health bars of any kind, and I think those were some of my favorites due to the lack of knowing how close I was. I think because of that, the penultimate boss fight was my favorite in the entire game.

There’s a lot I really like with this game, and it’s a reminder to me that I need to play more 2D platformers. I wouldn’t say this game is perfect, but its absolutely fun. I would like to replay this game sometime in the future, there’s more modes that I didn’t play around with. I really would like to try the harder version of the main campaign especially. I can’t wait to play through the other Spark games, but this was an absolute great starting point.

A charming though uneven experience that captures a lot of the feel of the original Sonic titles and creates some genuinely exciting snapshots of gameplay. It's a little too faithful to the old style for my taste, however, particularly in its level design and use of screen real estate.

I did have some preconceptions about the game going in, but much to my suprise the opening monologue from our titular hero managed an impressive feat for the indie mascot platformer and it actually made me interested in the character and setting. Not in some deep or emotional way, but in a, "Ah, okay, this was made by someone real who cares about this and is having a lot of fun."

And by extension, it made we want to dig right in even if I'm frankly not the biggest fan of 2D Sonic games and picked it up out of a sense of curiosity after one friend's journey with the series.

The art style was also a bit of an unexpected hit. I'm not one to be nostalgic for the 8/16-bit era platformers that aren't called "Super Mario World" so it didn't hit immediately, but quite a few of the zones, backdrops, and sprites are quite well done and look great in motion. I'm also particularly fond of the animated cutscenes. While Pizza Tower is the newer release, I can't help but compare because the animation style is very clearly of a "cheap digital paint tool" style, but they also feel like the person making them has used that tool for a while.

It's a bit unfortunate to me, then, that this was not the title to convince that I'll ever be a big fan of how Sonic-style Platformers play. There were a few levels in the mid to late part of the game where I felt like I was starting to get it and it made a decent enough flow. Otherwise, some of my lingering issues with the genre were present here—and they certainly weren't helped by a handful of sections that used some naturally frustrating platforming tropes without the finesse to make it work.

For one, I'll never understand how a game designed around speed and flow does everything it can to make a player trip and stumble on their first playthrough. There's a physical limit to what a human can react to, and for visuals it's around 0.2 seconds.

To put it another way: if an unexpected object crosses the screen in 1 second, it will be 1/5th of the way across the screen before your brain registers its existence. The brain then has to decide the correct response. Now throw in a small multiple sources of surprise and potential conflicting response options, and the time needed to actually engage with the controls, and a half to full second to respond becomes likely.

Of course, people who play a lot of 2D platformers can short circuit most of the decision making with their reflexes and heuristics, but even then: if your player sprite is 1/6-1/5th from their edge of the screen, and the object is moving faster than than 1-screen-width-per-second, then that decision making time starts to evaporate quickly. And so playing the game well becomes impossible without trial and error.

Which you won't do, because the punishment for blunders is not severe enough to make you run it again and try to be better. You will just keep blundering along.

I should reiterate that this is a problem I have with a lot of retro sidescrollers. So don't take that as a slight against Spark alone. If you enjoy 2D sonic, you will have little issue here. I just think these games would be objectively better if they zoomed the visible space out a bit, ran at a minimum of 90fps, and had a bit more responsive camera look-ahead (it's never cool when your sprite sits at the bottom of the screen when you have to fall).

Sparks only sin here is emulating its heroes too closely.

Oh, and the time-gated platform sections. I will never like those.

The last thing I think I feel compelled to mention is the swappable, kirby-esque powers. I thought a lot of them were pretty fun, but unfortunately some of them were too fun and holding onto those ones when you're stumbling around is difficult. There was a sword that came with an acceleration buff and a wind hat that gave a passive double jump and float and had an ability that let you rocket yourself in any of the four cardinal directions.

Those two combined made the levels fluid and fun to the point where the game felt sluggish as soon as they were gone (after a good 6 stages with them).

In any case, the game is good, but it sits comfortably in its niche and isn't looking to move out aside from dipping its toes into its next door neighbor's pool. If you find the original Sonic games fun, this will be too. It's not my favorite cup of tea, but I hear the third game of the series is like Sonic Adventure, so I will be returning for that.

[Reviewing SPC Chalenges. This review builds off everything]

Ten challenges are what stand in the way of the final achievement and the final reward. I will review every challenge now.

1) Kerana forest / no bosses / banned attack. This is a simple one because Wishes Mode is active, so I can choose Gravity Jester to fly around and dodge attacks

2) Smog City / banned jumping / Wind Jester Only. I liked this challenge because it teaches you how to make up for your jump using the charged attack and directing it to the ground.

3) Smog City / no damage / banned healing. Once again, Wishes Mode is active, but at least the stakes are higher. If you lose your HP, you have to start at the very beginning of the level, so I try to use Gravity and Knight Jester to give me distance and an extra hit.

4) Megarph Fleet A / no damage / Banned healing. The only Fark mission?!?! That isn't very pleasant because this is a fantastic challenge! It teaches you to switch between blazing through enemies and slowing down to pick off enemies from a distance carefully. For example, whenever knight enemies or missiles exist, I hit them with my charged-down attack. The boss is easy to deal with as long as you remember to parry often (although the parry is weak in this challenge).

5) Luna Base / Floor is Lava / Gravity Jester. This is the easiest "Floor is Lava" challenge, as you can access Gravity Jester. Still, there were times when I needed to carefully traverse the loops and the tight corridors because they counted as ground. Also, the running sections always cut off at large stretches of ground, so I also had to inch my way through that.

6) Mare Desert / Speed Bomb / Board Jester. The only Speed Bomb challenge requires you to keep moving at a consistent speed, or you will take a hit. Luckily, there were plenty of healing options, but it was tough to maintain speed in the corridor sections, with the launchers stopping you until you made a jump input. Dealing with enemies was also challenging because your attack doesn't cause much damage.

7) Caria Valley / Floor is Lava / Wind Jester. A much harder Floor is Lava challenge because a) you can't just float infinitely in the air with Wind Jester and b) there are more loops and platforming sections to deal with. Luckily, you can dodge the moments in which you take damage on the ground, but it isn't consistent so I would avoid it. This level is also much longer with a boss, so please don't die because you'll have to do it all again.

8) Sunset Heights B / Floor is Lava / Edgy Jester. The Lava challenge is the most complex floor because there are too many mandatory platforming sections. The trick is to hang on the way as long as possible and frequently jump off the ground to avoid damage. The boss is demanding, but using your charge attack (i.e., the area nuke) is a good strategy.

9 -10) Mare Desert - Sunfire Forest / Find all ten mini Ronaldos. I'm combining these challenges because they both suck. The level design is unsuitable for complex back-and-forth or more linear exploration. While it does help that Wishes Mode is active, searching for each one is a bearing chore because they are hidden in challenging corners or high in the level. Sunfire Forest has the pinball shit to deal with, but Mare Desert is the worst because of all the corridors and different directions the launchers take you. It reminds me of finding Chao in Sonic Advanced 3. In other words, it's not fun at all

But those are all the challenges! Overall, it was enjoyable, although I could do with slightly fewer Lava challenges and no Ronaldo challenges. I would much rather have a speed bomb or No-hit challenge. Also, much more Fark challenges, please, or maybe even a separate section for Fark challenges.

But that's the very end of the game! After you complete challenge mode, you unlock Super Jester as a powerup in Wishes Mode, and it's just as broker as you think it is. I will be coming back to this game later to play the complex mode difficulties, but for now, I want to move on to Wester JRPGs like Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls 3, as well as save room for other games like Devil May Cry 1 and the upcoming Persona 3 Reload. But if it's not clear enough, PLAY THIS GAME.

[Reviewing Spark's Chalenge. This review builds off the first two]

This mode is just Fark's story section but played as Spark instead. Spark uses a VR headset to experience Fark's story...the story that's already non-cannon. It's an odd choice, but I don't mind as long as I get more gameplay!

There isn't much left to discuss about this because I already talked about Fark's story and Spark's gameplay, but there are two extra features as well as a review of Wishes Mode.

Spark now only has one HP, with a second hit killing him. This makes traversing through levels much more challenging. I found myself dying a lot, but it challenged me to be as fast and as careful as possible until I found another health pickup or checkpoint. But other than that, how do you avoid getting hit?

Well, this mode also adds a new mechanic to Spark: dodging! It's like Fark's parry, except 1) you can't spam it, 2) it's linked to your dash, so you can't stay in place, and 3) it doesn't add any health or combo bar; it only acts as a way to avoid damage. I would've liked more benefits to the dodge, but I still appreciate the feature, especially when you learn a boss's attack pattern and can predict when to dodge.

This challenge ACTIVELY recommends Wishes Mode, a feature you can toggle off and on before starting the game. If you hold down and dodge simultaneously, Spark spins into a ball still vulnerable to attacks. Move left or right to select whatever power-up you want in this state. Yes, you heard me, ANY POWER UP. So, as I was traversing the game, I found my favorite loadouts.

Regarding power-ups, I usually had Gravity, Sword, Bat, or Knight. Sword and Bat are both fantastic at quickly racking up the combo bar, with Sword having more long-ranged attacks and Bat having extensive reach with continued momentum. Once I racked up the combo bar, I would switch to Knight. When Knight gets a full combo bar, he gains a shield that acts as another Hit point. So clearly, with how little health I had, I stuck to this strategy of quickly acquiring combo bar, switching to Knight, and attacking from afar with my vast ass lance. Lastly, Gravity was just the best movement option for the levels as you can infinitely dash in the air and float in any direction. I don't think I need to explain why that is extremely OP.

And that was Spark's challenge. Overall, not my favorite mode (Fark still beats that), but this is still a fun challenge, even on normal difficulty. I can't imagine how hard these gameplay modes might get when I eventually play the Hard Mode levels, whenever that will happen. All I have left now is Mission mode.

[Reviewing Fark's Story. This review builds off the first one]

This story is non-cannon and merely acts as a testing of ideas, no doubt for the sequel game. Still, it is worth talking about the game.

Months after the end of Spark's journey, robots are still causing trouble. Fark decides to take care of them while figuring out what shadowy voices are talking in his head.

Fark's gameplay is fantastic for speedruns and in general! Think of Fark like Zero or Proto Man from the Mega Man Series. Fark has a three-hit combo that ends in a flurry of strikes, which is excellent for adding damage. Using this attack, you can also stall yourself in the air while moving forward or backward. Once you reach the flurry attack, Fark will strengthen his moves once. The aerial strike has a low range but a suitable frame date, but the powered-up version has more range. The downward strike blasts two explosions close to Fark's sides, which is ideal for crowd control. When powered up, the attack changes to multiple explosions that travel across the map, making it my go-to attack for bosses.

Fark has an energy bar that can be charged twice. You set it by getting off attacks and finding energy tanks. Once you reach at least one bar, Fark can only take three hits, with a 4th hit killing him, and you cannot use powerups. How does he deal damage while being so frail? Easy, the counter system. Fark has a counter that can be used on any attack. The benefits of the attack depend on your timing. A late counter (red) nullifies but costs some energy. Early counter (orange) nullifies damage and increases power. Lastly, a perfect counter (blue) negates damage and dramatically increases power.

Fark is also way faster than Spark, as he has infinite das on the ground and in the air. Moreover, if you hold the attack button near a wall, you can walk on it! This gives players a much faster and more varied playstyle. If Fark has at least one energy bar, you can press down and counter to go into a limited hyperstate, where your attacks will be at max power, your speed will double, and you will be invincible. Moreover, your health will fully heal when activated.

The last thing to note is the best feature to play as. You'll automatically enter your super form if you fill your bar twice. Your aerial and downward attacks stay the same, but not only does your general speed increase, but but your base attacks also do. The first three hits have a huge range, but the flurry hit has a stronger range an attack, being able to extend halfway across the screen. Your strategy should be to earn and preserve energy so you can transform into this state, while keeping the energy for emergency heals.

All in all, I LOVED Fark's gameplay and I plan on enjoying another playthrough on hard!