Spark 2 immediately lets you know it understands what good movement feels like. Its momentum mechanics are nuanced and exploitable, with key moves allowing you to quickly adjust your speed and direction to keep from flying out of control.

The game’s centerpiece is the dash. Short and quick to recover, dashing gets you up  to speed quickly on the ground, and extends your airtime to cross gaps and easily reposition. Crucially, it has a low top speed, so spamming it will prevent you  from gaining real momentum, encouraging you to find a proper line through the stage, and acting as a soft air brake at higher levels of play. 

Supplementing the standard dash is the Jester Dash, which pulls double duty as an emergency brake and momentum starter. Charging the Jester Dash builds up a huge speed boost, halting your momentum and gravity until released. It can work in a pinch as an impromptu second air dash, but is more effective when used to build momentum on the ground.

Down Dash gives you a way to reposition vertically, fast falling to cut a jump arc short and refresh your air actions. Crucially, you don't lose momentum, so you can bound between platforms without breaking your flow. 

The combination of dashes can initially feel overwhelming or even redundant, especially since there aren't any proper tutorials to explain their nuances. None are mandatory, thankfully, so you can get through most of the game with well timed air dashes and double jumps. These secondary moves instead give you more control over your speed and air movement, giving you faster paths through the stages on a replay. 

Putting these moves together can let you reach near uncontrollable speeds, but with so many options to control your speed and acceleration, a misjudged jump or turn is easy to recover from. Stages offer alternative paths when you do slip,with spiraling metropolitan centers bursting into multi-tiered roads that cross each other and rise into extended loops. 

If there's a weakness to the stage design it's that it doesn't give you much incentive to explore it. Spark 2's levels often give you small sandboxes to play around in, but detours often lead to dead ends or inconsequential collectibles, forcing you to walk back through empty spaces on your return. It works best when blazing through the stages, leaving other roads for the replay. 

That breakneck momentum is unfortunately muddied a bit by the return of the parry, which forms a major pillar of the action this time. With good timing, not only can you negate enemy attacks and build a damage multiplier, you can even parry stage hazards and barrel right through them. As cool as it is to parry through a grid of lasers or  a train, it  makes it too easy to bypass huge chunks of a stage, and avoid using the whole moveset given to you. 

Combat is hit particularly badly, often devolving into using the homing attack to close in and mashing a combo, only pausing to parry any retaliation. Despite having several forms with alternative movesets and combos, the core combat loop never changes, so most movement and attack options end up redundant. Outside of bosses, there isn't any reason to engage in combat either--if they're not stepping stones for your homing attack you're better off avoiding enemies entirely. 

Regular enemies never have enough health to require you to keep up the damage multiplier combos rack up, but boss fights can take major swings and both directions because of it. The system is essentially balanced around never taking a hit, so good parry timing ends bosses almost prematurely, and missing the timing makes them drag on. Even with a decent variety of combos and alternative forms, there's no incentive to use them. 

Forms in general are severely underutilized in Spark 2. Spark 1's forms had definite tiers of utility, but most were fun enough that I'd happily swap to them to explore different movesets. In Spark 2 I rarely used anything but the jet form, since it gave me an extended air dash, and had a strong attack that hit in a wide radius around me. 

That said, when freed from the combat arenas and given the space to run, Spark 2's basic movement alone can carry the entire game. On my first playthrough I spent tons of time within stages simply following alternative paths, or attempting to make a jump to a distant platform, just to see if I could. The sheer scale of environments needed to give variety to a platformer this fast means that when you slow down there's an incredible amount of work to appreciate. 

Given you'll only have a few seconds with each area,the amount of detail put into the stages is astonishing. Even moreso when you consider it's largely the work of one person, and a few long time collaborators. With so many unsuccessful attempts at recreating that 3D Sonic magic--even by Sonic Team themselves--nailing the vibe and movement on the first try is a triumph in itself. In the context of its original release, Spark 2 was an almost singular experience that delivered style and vibes I'd only caught glimpses of in other, incomplete, projects. 

When you get into the first level proper, it’s immediately obvious how satisfying the movement is. Physics are tweaked for more fine control, with an option mode to limit the max speed and add assists for those who want a less technical experience. Familiar Sonic staples like the homing attack, air dash, double jump, wall run and lightspeed dash are all here, with moves like the Down Dash and Jester Dash performing the functions of the stomp and spin dash, but refined so they can chain together without interrupting momentum. Each is separated out to prevent control overlap, and avoid unintentional inputs. 

Even elements of modern Boost era Sonic manage to work their way in, without ever taking control or letting you go on autopilot. An unlockable Energy Dash launches you to an absurd speed and distance, allowing you to quickly cross otherwise impossible gaps and hitting max speeds within seconds. But it’s as likely to send you careening to your death if used incorrectly, and comes at the cost of a decent chunk of the new energy meter. 

Energy is now more than a combo multiplier--which is separated into its own function--and powers many secondary abilities like the Energy Dash, float, teleport and special attacks. The energy system gives you an immediate reason to engage with exploration and combat, with energy pickups powering new traversal methods and the brief interruptions of combat mixing up the rhythm for a moment only to empower a quick return to high speeds. 

These energy mechanics loop back into the new rail grinding systems, which were clearly designed to alleviate the common frustrations of finicky Sonic rail grind sections. Nearby rails can be targeted for a homing attack, instantly transferring you at high speeds without the fear of misjudging a jump and plummeting to your death. Crouching on a downward slope builds massive speed, and later abilities allow you to store and release energy by braking and rail boosting. The boost mechanics give that cathartic, near out of control feeling of the Boost Sonic games, but keep you engaged with the level by asking you to find the best time to deploy them, pushing and pulling the throttle with more precision as you familiarize yourself with the layouts, and leaving peak acceleration for when you’re literally on rails. 

The amount of new toys calls for a change in the size of the sandbox. Spark’s first stage proper can take you five minutes or thirty, depending on how much time you want to speed finding alternative paths, collecting medals, or attempting sick jumps. Your only objective might be “get to the goal” but the paths you take can vary wildly.

Stages focused on side objectives like medal collection take aspects of Sonic Adventure’s Treasure Hunt stages, giving you small hubs to explore, but with a philosophy closer to something like a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Stages are designed for you to chain moves through them, finding your own routes as you learn the layouts. but I found myself wanting more of these medal collection stages, since the simple objective and soft pressure of timer gave the wide spaces motivation to learn them, but enough breathing room to try and do it in an expressive and stylish way. 

You see the same emphasis on style and expression in combat, which takes its attitude from games like Devil May Cry. An expanding move list of combo techniques is now available, only growing larger as you gain alternative Jester Forms and characters to play as--which you can of course switch to mid combo. New launcher attacks expand the fight to the air, enabling juggles and air combos that further emphasize Spark’s mobility. 

The parry that plagued Spark 2 is retuned--no longer the universal, impenetrable defense it once was, unable to parry stage hazards or certain unblockable attacks. That single change forces you to engage more with the boss patterns, and stay moving around the arena, with rhythm of push and pull closer to the rest of the game. 

Consequently, when you nail a series of parries and break the boss’ stance it feels incredible. A vulnerable boss can be juggled to absurd heights before being brought crashing down with a powerful finisher. Flexing and keeping combos varied fills the combo meter faster, rewarding you with big damage and making it faster to go between combat and platforming in the main stages. The wild swings the combo system introduced in Spark 2 are prevented by the energy meter, which keeps a steady stream of buffs and special moves building, even when you drop your combo. 

The new combat systems form a strong baseline through all the forms and characters, which each have little buffs and alterations to the moveset. Float adds a new “Mark” mechanic that boosts the damage of the party just by being there, Reaper Form can steal health, and Fark returns with expanded air movement and aspects of his moveset from the previous two games. Characters do unfortunately have a bit too much overlap to be entirely distinct--they have their own wrinkles and rhythm, but the beats are always the same. It’s easy to imagine another version of the game where these characters are relegated to short playable appearances, acting as hype moments rather than given full movesets. But their appearance in Spark 3 speaks to its philosophy of giving you more options, even if you don’t use all of them, because it’s more fun. 

Modern mainstream games are often built to provide spectacle for everyone. Punctuated with set pieces designed to draw attention to themselves, and bring out a big talking point. Spark 3 is made for the obsessive. The ones returning to master each aspect. The people making combo videos and doing speedruns. It doesn’t care if you skip half the stage because it’s intentionally designed to give you the freedom to do that. You can see it in the skill contests Lake puts on to challenge and highlight players in the community, or in the way he handles moves like the Magnet Dash. 

Magnet Dash initially began as an exploit in Spark 2 that allowed you to cancel a homing attack with a dash, slingshotting Fark to absurd speeds by extending the period of high acceleration. It was initially unintended, but Lake later formalized it into a hidden mechanic to make it more consistent to pull off. It returns in Spark 3, though it's still hidden and not given a proper tutorial, since it’s the only move that requires strict timing, and Lake wanted to prevent casual players from being alienated by it. 

All these nuances make Spark 3 a game that continues to open up as you return to it. Simply moving around and exploring the moveset is a joy, and attempting better runs had me making calculations on when to engage in combat, or how I could use enemies to reposition myself. Reaching high speeds is exhilarating, but just as fun is knowing when to pull back the throttle and slow down to hit a better route through the stage. Spark 3 lends itself to the same mindset as racing sims, where moving fast is enjoyable not because you’re in a fast machine, but because you’re learning its limits and know how to keep that speed through the next turn. Playing a stage well is the spectacle here, and a clean run is easily as impressive as any scripted moment in a larger title. 

Not that Spark the Electric Jester 3 doesn’t have its fair share of hype scripted moments. Spark’s finale builds up through an incredible series of stages and boss fights, which become more and more abstract as the world around Spark begins to unravel. It throws in new gameplay styles and unexpected transformations as the big anime plot happens and Spark fights back in pure shonen anime style--complete with vocal songs. It’s a left field escalation that had caught me off guard, which is impressive in a game that already surprised me with stages involving breaking through a prison complex, and being lifted by rioting protestors as I fought cops and firemen. It’s a wild journey on aesthetics alone, and even if it doesn’t always cohere, it had me motivated to see it through purely on the madcap energy and style it radiates. 

That combination of inconsistency and almost improvisational design are where Spark 3 begins to show its limits as a single person project. After all, this is a game mostly made by Lake himself, with a few collaborators to provide music and sound, and to assist with additional art and programming. At the same time that’s exactly what allows Spark 3 to achieve its singular vision. Each aspect is touched and refined by the same person, and there’s no conflicting philosophy on what the game should be. Lake has a strong belief for what this style of game should be, and it's hard to play Spark 3 and disagree. It even predicts changes Sonic Frontiers would make to the series, and personally, provides a more compelling vision. 

Most importantly, Spark the Electric Jester keeps me excited for where else Lake and other creators will take the genre. Spark 3 gave me basically everything I’ve wanted from a Sonic style platformer for years, while still firmly establishing its own identity. It makes me excited for all the upcoming games that not only take influence from 3D Sonic, but remix its ideas for their own goals. 

Spark the Electric Jester 3 is exciting as both a game deep enough to return to for years, and living proof that a game's fans can not only match the highs of the games they imitate, but reach beyond with their own vision.