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

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.

One of my favorite comedy games.

The levels do kinda bleed together a bit and the game is kinda jank but it's held together by one of the funniest stories I've ever seen in a video game. I normally don't play games primarily for the story but Spark 2's story toes the line between irony and sincerity so well that you genuinely can't tell which one of the two it is. Several "jaw-dropping" moments and edgy tropes are played so straight that it ends up looping around into hilarious, accentuated by the limited 3D cutscene animation. You can very much tell this was LakeFerperd's first game animating 3D cutscenes, and while the attempt was admirable it gives the cutscenes an additional level of hilarity. Play this for the laughs and an interesting take in 3D speedy platformer gameplay, it'll at least get a laugh or two out of you.