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.

You ever have a diamond in your hands that plunges in beauty due to tons of small cuts? That's spark 2. The basic go-fast gameplay is pretty fun, with alot of options for mobility, shortcuts etc. But the lack of visual clarity harms the game a ton. Whether its getting lost in levels, getting hit because of hard to see/know about hitboxes (EG a laser still hurting you as the particles dissipate, the flame hitbox extending upwards past where it visually is), or the bosses demolishing you since you have barely any time to know/react to their attacks, leading to most fights being a spamfest where you mash the parry and dash button. Soundtracks pretty good at least.