Another game in the now prolific "indie games made largely or entirely buy one guy appealing to fans of a specific subgenre that manage to blow every other game in that subgenre out of the water because they get everything right that no one else seems to be able to" genre. I'm working on a better name for it.

Spark 3 is an action platformer in the "high speed momentum based 3d platformer" genre. Basically, it's inspired by 3D sonic, but it's good. Really, insanely good.

Levels are all enormous playgrounds with boosters, shuttle loops and springs, but they still have good conveyance to the end and are designed for you to find the fastest routes to the end. Spark can dash, jump and homing attack from enemy to enemy to gain speed. There's also a technique where, if you homing attack and boost right at the same time, you gain absurd speed and can sail over entire level sections. It's so fun. This game was designed for you to break it apart and find big skips.

The sense of speed and momentum in this game is so incredible and yet, you never feel out of control. Spark isn't slippery or floaty or any of that nonsense, he does just what you tell him to, it's remarkable.

Throw in some abilities like an extra boost, a float ability that extends your jump, and a few others and you can beat some levels in under a minute.

Shoutout to the combat, too. There's inspiration from DMC here on display. It's very light but you can straight up chain light and heavy combos, buffer special attacks, air juggle enemies and bosses, and mix in your dashes and special abilities to further mix things up and help deal with bosses. It's remarkable how fun the combat is, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much, coming into a Sonic inspired platformer.

The dev knows it too, considering he added a Bloody Palace style mode where you fight all the enemies and bosses. It rules.

This game rules. Play it.

I don't give a dead moose's last shit about Helena Taylor or whether the ending betrayed your fanfiction about Bayo and Jeanne. This game took 5 years from announcement to release and it is a smelly mess.

The combat has been even further dumbed down from bayo 2, giving you Demon Summons to use in battle. Basically, you hit a button and a giant comes in and does some big attacks in the arena. This means, to balance this, all the enemies have been transformed into lumbering giant idiot damage sponges instead of the intelligent dangerous foes they used to be. We're a long LONG ways away from Grace and Glory, here.

The main story sucks too. Half the time you're not playing the damn game, you're doing some obnoxious setpiece mini game. Oh you wanna fight dudes and practice combos? Too bad here's a part where you surf on Godzillas back down a skyscraper. It all looks terrible due to it being too much for the switch to handle, and it runs at an inconsistent framerate to boot. I felt like I was playing a bad rerelease of a 2009 PS3 game.

Thats all I can remember because I haven't played this game outside of maybe a month after release because it was so underwhelming. I still come back to bayo 1 to run through Angel slayer from time to time, I will never come back to this slop.