XenonNV gifted me this so I feel a little bad saying this is mostly really terrible, like if you took the worst aspects of something like Freedom Planet and shoved them into a half-baked flash game. The boss design is palpable, the writing is atrocious and the shmup stages are as bad as it gets. Only gets that half start extra for being more functional than Xenogunner. Sorry Xenon.
This game is truly fantastic
The influence from games like Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier and other Treasure games is clearly present and admirable, but it lacks a lot of what makes those games fun and interesting from both a gameplay and thematic level. In terms of gameplay, it's just your standard run-n-gun. I heavily dislike the Heat mechanic as I don't feel it really adds anything but frustration. How is holding the button down any different than mashing it? The stamina bar makes more sense with limiting your dashes, but I don't believe they needed to be linked to multiple jumps as well. The level design ranges from decent to atrocious. The screen will be littered with enemies and projectiles with no real means of dodging any of it, and more often than not amidst bottomless pits. The bosses aren't anything to write home about, as most of them are homages to other Treasure bosses but, again, nowhere near as fun. There are sporadic vehicular segments that, may seem fun and interesting at first, but quickly dive into another annoyance once you realize they limit your movement in ways to make it harder to defend yourself by rendeding any option built upon stamina completely useless. It's hard to tell what's more frustrating though, the gameplay or the writing. Even though some of the better Genesis games opt for pure visual storytelling, Spectacular Sparky decides to switch things up by including incredibly cringeworthy dialogue that wouldn't feel out of place from the "Epic Bacon" era of the mid 2010s internet. Not only is the dialogue unfunny, not only is it heavily frequent, breaking up the flow of bosses, the game is fully voice acted, and the vocal direction isn't doing the writing any favors. Visually it's decent, the main character has a charming design as do some others, and the backgrounds are impressive. The soundtrack is also very good, and does a great job at capturing the upbeat energy of a Genesis game.
Other than that, I unfortunately don't have a lot of great things to say about Spectacular Sparky. It took me around 4 hours and if it wasn't gifted to be I definitely would have refunded it. Anything you're interested in here you can get out of a Treasure game, Metal Slug, Cuphead, etc., and I can't reccomend those games over this one enough.
Other than that, I unfortunately don't have a lot of great things to say about Spectacular Sparky. It took me around 4 hours and if it wasn't gifted to be I definitely would have refunded it. Anything you're interested in here you can get out of a Treasure game, Metal Slug, Cuphead, etc., and I can't reccomend those games over this one enough.
This review contains spoilers
I'd say I had a fun time with Spectacular Sparky. Its definitely a bite-sized game, but it did still have a good amount of content in it for what it is. Took me 3 hours to beat this one.
The gameplay is definitely mainly what you're here for with this sort of game. I thought it was good overall, though it did trip me up my first time playing since some parts of the design were things I had to get used to. Spectacular Sparky is a shoot-'em-up platformer, sort of like Mega Man or Cuphead. Add in a dash of Contra with the temporary weapons that change the way your gun works, of which you can grab two and cycle between. There's five regular stages, each with four levels (think of it like how classic Sonic games have the levels split into Acts) that always end with a boss, and three ship shooter levels that are one-and-done. Of course, its always going to be fun melting enemies, but probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay is that there's a heat meter; if you hold down the shoot button for too long, you can't use the gun again for a short recharge time, and you lose whatever new weapon you were using. I've never seen a shoot-'em-up game not just let you fire infinitely and I really don't see any reason why this game needed it, especially since the game does have ship shooting segments that let you fire infinitely (though those also don't have any temporary weapons to grab so maybe that's why). This game also has quite a few moments where it feels like there's enemies you simply can't avoid damage from, so you need to take hits to take them out...which isn't really a big deal, of course, but it can be a little annoying and maybe even result in a death if your health is too low. Aside from my gripes, though, it is a solid little shoot-'em-up. I like the Cuphead style dash that lets you bypass hazards or enemies temporarily, it got a lot of use even if it was a little tricky to get used to the timing of. I thought it was pretty cool that each of the four parts in every level has a boss to call its own; some were pretty tough, others were on the easy side, but I always died at least twice before beating them.
Spectacular Sparky has little to no story, though there is some little sprinkling of lore exposition every now and then like how Dr. Votsit (the final boss) was Sparky's creator or that one of the bosses - Sgt. Blownaparte - is essentially a dictator ruling a totalitarian country with an iron fist. The titular Sparky is an intergalactic bounty hunter working under an ex-soldier shark-pig named Shig, who gives Sparky a new mission for every level. I think the characters will be very hit and miss for most people, since the way they're all written sort of feels like the game is trying too hard to be quirky and silly. The writing is very quippy and its sort of a running gag that any attempt at real story bits is undermined by jokes. Personally, I found it to be pretty charming, but, again, your mileage will vary on how you feel about this sort of thing. I think the best character was probably Sparky himself, who is a self-proclaimed sociopath with a huge ego that loves to wisecrack almost as much as he loves money. There's a recurring gag that he's an obsessive fanboy of Nightshade, a famous fellow bounty hunter, to the point where he's honored that she chose him as her bounty. Also, small shoutout to the voice actors in this game, especially the one for Sparky. I think they did an excellent job selling the cheesiness of this game.
Overall, I think Spectacular Sparky has some really fun characters and enjoyable gameplay, but its not exactly a hidden gem. I would agree with a few other criticisms I've seen lobbied against the game, like how its level design can be pretty repetitive.
The gameplay is definitely mainly what you're here for with this sort of game. I thought it was good overall, though it did trip me up my first time playing since some parts of the design were things I had to get used to. Spectacular Sparky is a shoot-'em-up platformer, sort of like Mega Man or Cuphead. Add in a dash of Contra with the temporary weapons that change the way your gun works, of which you can grab two and cycle between. There's five regular stages, each with four levels (think of it like how classic Sonic games have the levels split into Acts) that always end with a boss, and three ship shooter levels that are one-and-done. Of course, its always going to be fun melting enemies, but probably my biggest gripe with the gameplay is that there's a heat meter; if you hold down the shoot button for too long, you can't use the gun again for a short recharge time, and you lose whatever new weapon you were using. I've never seen a shoot-'em-up game not just let you fire infinitely and I really don't see any reason why this game needed it, especially since the game does have ship shooting segments that let you fire infinitely (though those also don't have any temporary weapons to grab so maybe that's why). This game also has quite a few moments where it feels like there's enemies you simply can't avoid damage from, so you need to take hits to take them out...which isn't really a big deal, of course, but it can be a little annoying and maybe even result in a death if your health is too low. Aside from my gripes, though, it is a solid little shoot-'em-up. I like the Cuphead style dash that lets you bypass hazards or enemies temporarily, it got a lot of use even if it was a little tricky to get used to the timing of. I thought it was pretty cool that each of the four parts in every level has a boss to call its own; some were pretty tough, others were on the easy side, but I always died at least twice before beating them.
Spectacular Sparky has little to no story, though there is some little sprinkling of lore exposition every now and then like how Dr. Votsit (the final boss) was Sparky's creator or that one of the bosses - Sgt. Blownaparte - is essentially a dictator ruling a totalitarian country with an iron fist. The titular Sparky is an intergalactic bounty hunter working under an ex-soldier shark-pig named Shig, who gives Sparky a new mission for every level. I think the characters will be very hit and miss for most people, since the way they're all written sort of feels like the game is trying too hard to be quirky and silly. The writing is very quippy and its sort of a running gag that any attempt at real story bits is undermined by jokes. Personally, I found it to be pretty charming, but, again, your mileage will vary on how you feel about this sort of thing. I think the best character was probably Sparky himself, who is a self-proclaimed sociopath with a huge ego that loves to wisecrack almost as much as he loves money. There's a recurring gag that he's an obsessive fanboy of Nightshade, a famous fellow bounty hunter, to the point where he's honored that she chose him as her bounty. Also, small shoutout to the voice actors in this game, especially the one for Sparky. I think they did an excellent job selling the cheesiness of this game.
Overall, I think Spectacular Sparky has some really fun characters and enjoyable gameplay, but its not exactly a hidden gem. I would agree with a few other criticisms I've seen lobbied against the game, like how its level design can be pretty repetitive.