I was blown away by Spark the Electric Jester. I went into this game with essentially non-existent expectations, and it had my jaw on the floor within ten minutes. Truthfully, I had never even heard of the game before a few months ago. I found a relatively small, dedicated fanbase comprised mostly of Sonic the Hedgehog devotees, as well as some strong Steam user reviews, and that's essentially the extent I could find of anyone talking about this game. In a just world, Spark would be a massive franchise by now; though to be fair, it has received a couple of sequels.
Felipe Daneluz, the creator of Spark the Electric Jester, had been working on a series of 2D Sonic fangames in the early 2010s and honing his craft for creating games in this style. One of these Sonic titles, Sonic After the Sequel, laid the groundwork for Spark the Electric Jester. Specifically, it was one of the power-ups (one that put Sonic into a jester costume) in After the Sequel that led to Daneluz's creation of Spark as an individual character. This Kirby-like concept of power-ups with themed costumes is something that Daneluz brought forward into Spark the Electric Jester. He combined this mechanic with his expertise of making 2D Sonic titles, and an almost Mega Man X feel for combat and platforming and mixed all of that together to create Spark the Electric Jester's incredibly unique style.
I've always had some problems with the actual gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog games. I appreciate and share the thrill that everyone gets when you really start moving fast and flying across a stage, but then your wings are always inevitably clipped as your high speed traversal gets suddenly halted by some frustrating platforming sequence or an annoying, often underwhelming bout of combat. By adding these awesome power-ups and a more robust combat system, Spark the Electric Jester addressed these pain points and elevated the typical Sonic gameplay experience into something so much more satisfying.
There are several distinct power-ups that you can find across the course of the game. Spark is totally effective in his base form, and you could beat the game like that if you choose, but where's the fun in that? As I mentioned above, the power-ups have a Kirby-esque quality to them where Spark also dons a costume themed around the power-up. My son and I got a big kick out of trying out every power-up to see what they looked like and what they could do.
There are some cool powers themed around various elements, like fire, ice and wind. The fire power-up ended up being one of the best in the game, from my experience. With that ability, Spark would turn red, and could attack in these awesome, agile combos that could just melt most anything in your way. There are also a few different power-ups themed around different weapons: like a swift, knife-wielding ninja form (named the "Edgy" power-up in game), or a form that turns Spark into a deadly swordsman, which was my son's favorite. He would beg me to dump whatever power-up we currently had to grab the sword if we came across one. My favorite of the weapon-based power-ups was the hammer, in which Spark carries around a giant maul, not unlike Amy Rose. There were also some fun magic-themed powers where Spark could float and blast bolts of arcane energy at foes. While I had a few favorite power-ups, the vast majority of them were extremely fun to play around with and could be incredibly helpful in some of the game's surprisingly challenging boss battles.
Spark the Electric Jester was often a breezy, fun experience, but there were some legitimately difficult fights. I found that essentially nine out of ten boss battles could be cleared through just following the boss' straightforward attack pattern and spamming your attacks. Then I'd suddenly come across some stage or boss that would make me want to pull my hair out. Right near the end of the game, there was a segment that had you zipping through a series of massive spaceships, while constant enemies and bombs were going off around me and getting through that was seriously one of the hardest things I've ever accomplished in a video game. While the game could be challenging, it was never to the point where I just couldn't surmount the difficulty. With enough patience and determination, I managed to get through anything the game threw at me.
There was a great deal of additional content that you can unlock after completing the main story, the most notable of which is an additional campaign starring Spark's robotic doppelganger, Fark. My son and I played probably half of Fark's campaign and we really didn't care for it. Fark doesn't get power-ups like Spark does, and he also has less health than Spark. The novelty of controlling Fark quickly wore off, but if you want some additional challenge, the Fark campaign has you sorted.
Spark the Electric Jester was a genuine surprise and a delight. If you enjoy Sonic, Kirby or retro-styled action platformers, I think you should absolutely check this game out. Spark took the best aspects from its inspirations and created a wholly new, wonderful game that I wholeheartedly recommend.
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PC
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