Spark the Electric Jester 2
- May 16, 2019
- Feperd Games
- 2h median play time
Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
Get on Steam"Spark the Electric Jester 2" is a fast-paced 2D platformer game featuring a robot named Spark. Equipped with electric abilities, Spark must save the world from an evil force. The game offers challenging levels, various upgrades, and intense boss battles that test your skills and reflexes. With its vibrant graphics and electrifying gameplay, Spark the Electric Jester 2 promises an exciting experience for fans of the platformer genre.
PC
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox
Reviews
- The game features tight and responsive controls, allowing for fluid movement and high-speed platforming.
- The level design is expansive and encourages exploration, with multiple routes and hidden collectibles.
- The soundtrack is fantastic, with catchy tunes that enhance the gameplay experience.
- The combat system feels shallow and repetitive, often leading to button-mashing without much strategy.
- The story is weak and lacks depth, with characters that feel underdeveloped and dialogue that can be cringeworthy.
- The game is relatively short, taking only a couple of hours to complete, which may not justify the full price for some players.
- story170 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 78 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The story of "Spark the Electric Jester 2" has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it weak, nonsensical, and lacking depth compared to its predecessor. While some appreciate its attempt to build on character lore and set up for future installments, others criticize its serious tone and poorly written dialogue, leading to a lack of emotional investment in the characters. Overall, the narrative is often seen as a secondary aspect to the gameplay, which remains the primary draw of the game.
“Fantastic soundtrack, amazing level design/art direction, and a well-written story. For the love of God, play this game.”
“The creative world design, frenetic gameplay, and interesting story make Spark the Electric Jester 2 a worthwhile experience.”
“The story ends up being equal parts quest of self-discovery, retreading of the first game’s plot, and setup for the conclusion of the trilogy.”
“The story is either absent or consists entirely of SA2 references in a way that's just painful.”
“The story in Spark 2 is one of the biggest amalgamations of bad dialogue, nonsensical lore, and mismanaged characters I have ever seen.”
“The problems lie within the story that takes itself way too seriously, and comes off as laughably bad instead of the edgy tone it's trying to deliver.”
- gameplay157 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Spark the Electric Jester 2" is generally praised for its fast-paced, fluid mechanics that successfully translate the essence of classic Sonic Adventure gameplay into a 3D environment. While the core platforming and movement are enjoyable, some players find the combat simplistic and repetitive, often devolving into button-mashing, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite some control issues and a lack of depth in boss battles, the game is recognized for its engaging level design and the fun of mastering its mechanics, making it a worthwhile experience for fans of the genre.
“The different power-ups and the parry mechanic make this game so fast and fun to play with quite a bit of variety.”
“The gameplay is really easy to learn, even for someone like me who has not picked up a platformer in like 6 years.”
“The gameplay is stellar.”
“The gameplay overall feels similar to the Sonic Adventure games mixed with some simple combat mechanics which aren't great to use, as most of the levels I just avoided combat altogether until the bosses.”
“The game takes a shot at replicating the gameplay of the Sonic Adventure games of old, and barring a few hiccups, succeeds at doing so admirably.”
“While I can definitely recommend Spark 2 to anyone looking for a fast-paced 3D platformer or 3D Sonic fan due to its seamless blending of combat and fast-paced running sections, a lot of the mechanics feel as if they are still in their early stages of development, such as the strange, erratic turning when running at high speeds.”
- music144 mentions
- 56 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim, with many reviewers praising its fantastic soundtrack that blends well with the fast-paced gameplay and level design. While some tracks are noted for being reminiscent of the Sonic franchise, there are mixed feelings about the reuse of songs from the previous game, with some players finding it less memorable. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a highlight, enhancing the gaming experience with its energetic and engaging compositions.
“The music is fantastic, as to be expected, visuals were pretty nice for the most part, with the exception of some cutscene animations looking a little jank which I was willing to forgive, and the final boss was pretty cool.”
“The music is great all around, especially the final boss's song.”
“The soundtrack is phenomenal, but I think I liked the first game's a bit more.”
“The soundtrack features less variety than the first game, instead doubling down on high energy rock and techno.”
“The final few levels feature a number of reused music tracks from the first game.”
“First off, I was incredibly disappointed by the fact you reused music from Spark 1 for the final boss.”
- graphics42 mentions
- 52 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally well-received, characterized by vibrant colors and appealing art styles that evoke a nostalgic feel reminiscent of classic 3D platformers. While some users noted minor issues such as rough animations and graphical bugs, the overall aesthetic and level design were praised for their charm and creativity. Despite some criticisms regarding production values and performance, many players found the visuals to be a strong point that enhances the gameplay experience.
“The art style is bright and colorful with simplistic meshes and text-type dialogue.”
“Graphically the game keeps the same cool futuristic look and feeling to each stage with varied themes for each level.”
“The graphics help a bit, with the bold colors and simple shapes making it remarkably easy to see where you can and should go.”
“As for the graphics, these are passable.”
“This results in Spark 2 being a game with baffling low production values: subpar graphics, basic animation, some recycled songs from the first game, underdeveloped game mechanics, spotty art style, short length, and abysmal sound design.”
“Needs some performance patches as a game of this graphical fidelity should not be having performance problems.”
- replayability17 mentions
- 53 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability despite its short length, with players enjoying speedrunning, unlockable modes, and challenge levels that encourage multiple playthroughs. While some feel it lacks content compared to its predecessor, many agree that the engaging mechanics and collectibles enhance its replay value, making it a worthwhile experience for those who appreciate replayable gameplay. Overall, it is considered highly replayable, especially for its low price point.
“This game has a surprising amount of replay value considering the amount of content in it.”
“It's not that long but there's lots of replayability, for example speedrunning the stages and bosses.”
“Beating the game unlocks some unreasonable challenge modes, so in terms of replayability you’ll want to focus on collectibles and scoring medal times on stages.”
“It should also be noted that all of this game's stages are playable in Spark 3, meaning the only merits this game alone has are the story and the bosses.”
“Spark 1 definitely offered more than Spark 2 in content, but is Spark 2 still replayable?”
“There are also a lot fewer of them, which reduces the potential for replay value.”
- character development12 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
Character development in the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising the aesthetics and unique character designs, while others criticize the inconsistency and lack of depth in character portrayal. Players noted that while the main character feels fast and fluid, the overall character mechanics and story development seem underdeveloped, leading to a disjointed experience. The absence of voice acting and a weak narrative further detracts from the potential for meaningful character growth.
“The characters are also fun and interesting, and the character design is incredible.”
“Great speed, music, fun levels, cool bosses and mini bosses, cool art style and character design, and good control is what makes this game fun.”
“-great aesthetics and character designs”
“The character design is all over the place.”
“The lack of voice acting is jarring, and a ton of the character designs are hideous.”
“Also kind of related to the story, the character designs are... not very good.”
- optimization8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while many players report smooth performance and fixed frame rates, some experience freezing issues during boss fights and require lower settings for older hardware. There are calls for performance patches to address these inconsistencies, especially given the game's graphical fidelity.
“The game runs smoothly so far, fixed 60 fps with vsync on.”
“The performance issues that plagued the first game are not here too.”
“As for performance, I have an old Radeon HD6670 and had to turn the resolution down to 1024x576 and some settings down to get a mostly consistent 50-60 fps (aside from some parts near the end).”
“Great game, but with kind of bad optimization.”
“Needs some performance patches, as a game of this graphical fidelity should not be having performance problems.”
“As for performance, I have an old Radeon HD 6670 and had to turn the resolution down to 1024x576 and some settings down to get a mostly consistent 50-60 fps (aside from some parts near the end).”
- humor8 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag; while some characters, like the protagonist Spark, deliver genuinely funny moments and the final boss fight elicits laughter, the overall tone can be overly serious at times. Players feel that the story could benefit from a greater emphasis on humor, particularly by focusing more on the funnier characters. Despite its shortcomings, there are standout moments that provide comic relief.
“Spark was a great protagonist to watch, because his attitude was genuinely funny, and Fark was pretty fun, too.”
“The final boss fight actually had me laughing out loud at how ridiculous it was.”
“It was funny to see that Spark's goal was just to get his job back, and having the result be that he saved the world.”
- emotional3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviewers express disappointment in the emotional impact of the sequel compared to the first game, noting a lack of heartwarming moments and unclear character motivations. Key emotional scenes fail to resonate, leaving players feeling disconnected from the narrative and its intensity.
“But it didn't give that same special emotional, heartwarming, amazing feeling that Spark 1 gave me.”
“Maybe because it's been so long or because I never finished the first game, but I didn't really understand why anything was happening or what the characters' motivations were supposed to be. Moments that I think should have been emotional or intense did nothing for me.”
“And with this speech he had earlier, I really expected Fark to fight something bigger than Freom, like, I don't know, some sort of physical embodiment of that clarifying thing, something that would have made me feel the same epicness as Spark 1.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is notably improved compared to its predecessor, with players reporting very few bugs and glitches during gameplay, thanks to the developer's use of a more reliable engine.
“Spark 1 was quite buggy due to the engine and game maker he was using.”
“Having created this game in Unity (with his own 3D Sonic fan game engine base), it's proven to work for him, seeing as I had encountered very few bugs and glitches during my playthrough.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find grinding in recent Sonic titles, particularly in "Frontiers," to be tedious and time-consuming, leading to a preference for minimized combat encounters to enhance gameplay flow.
“Stopping to fight is a tedious waste of time, which is why I can see that Sonic Team minimized this in their past decade of titles (aside from Frontiers).”
