Spark the Electric Jester is a fast paced action platformer that builds on the successful formula of the Genesis/Megadrive era Sonic the Hedgehog games. Developed by LakeFeperd, the incredible talent behind Sonic After the Sequel, Spark the Electric Jester recalls all the right parts of 1990s SEGA games - from the pixel perfect controls, to the slick 16bit graphics and crunchy tunes.

Just check out the official trailer in glorious 60fps!

Spark the Electric Jester is currently set for a Fall release date on Steam. The developer has also promised to release the game absolutely DRM-FREE! However, so far this game has been criminally overlooked by the GOG community! Let's fix this people!

Do yourself a favor, and start by downloading the current gameplay demo here.

While you're at it, vote for Spark the Electric Jester on the Community Wishlist. If you feel so inclined, you should also contact the developer directly on Facebook to tet them know we want this game on GOG!

*bump* for those in different time zones.

Wasn't that so called 'spiritual successor' Freedom Planet?

To be honest, I thought Freedom Planet was kinda "meh," and I actually bought that game twice! The levels were too big, and the physics just felt off. Oh and then there was that story... don't get me started on the poor writing :P

That being said, I really dig the game play for Spark the Electric Jester. It's got a good mix of ideas, and I think it plays really well. I also trust the developer since they've already added in a lot of features that were promised as stretch goals during the kickstarter campaign, but never actually met the required level of funding.

Really, you just have to play the game yourself to see what I mean!

Yeah. I agree on the levels being too long.
One reason I still haven't finished it.

It.. looks like it plays.. alright? But the aesthetics are really bland and the protagonist is extremely unappealing and offputting in an Aero the Acrobat kind of way... I think I'll stick to Freedom Planet.

In that case, you should test out the demo for Spark the Electric Jester. The game does have some relatively long levels, but they're usually filled with a good range of platforming elements, minibosses, and the like to keep things from becoming too stagnant.

The levels in Spark can also be completed much faster than Freedom Planet. As I recall, some of the levels in Freedom Planet took me between 30 - 45 minutes to finish! To me, that kind of length is more typical of a Metroidvania than a true Sonic-esque game. I had the same initial impression regarding the character design since the MC looks a little lame and perhaps resembles the Beam powerup from Kirby Super Star too much. However, the game runs pretty great and I really love the background visuals and the music. I think that's where the game really shines.

Freedom Planet, on what would be a very casual speedrun, would take 75 minutes at best with Lilac (your speedrunning character) to finish the game. Since she crosses 12 levels, that isn't quite a lot. You need to get used to the mechanics and the game will get to be faster. Plus the worst time I ever had was 24 minutes.

Oh, and you can beat Freedom Planet in one sitting. I just figured that out once upon a time on Linux.

I'm not sure how the writing is sloppy though.

75 minutes is really long for one level though.
I usually want to quit before I reach the end.
I can't as I'll have to restart from the beginning of the level.

I didn't mean to say that ONE WHOLE LEVEL would take 75 minutes. I'll edit my post to make this clearer, but what I meant to say is that the game by itself on a speedrun would take 75 minutes.

While I do own Freedom Planet I have only played Dragon Valley so far, and honestly I felt like it really needed the 2D Sonic "Act" structure. Dragon Valley "Act 1" should end after the first time you fight the snake boss, and the second "Act" should start after that. I understand in story mode that the levels would end up more continuous, but it feels like less of a slog if it feels like you're actually making progress. This would be especially useful in time attack mode.

In terms of this game, the mechanics look okay but I find the aesthetic of the main character and the environments a bit bland. I might keep my eye on it and see how things progress.

Yes, check attached image. On my first run it only took me like 10 per level, and on a certain level, 20, but after I got the hang of the game, I could finish it in an hour and 30 minutes sitting.

That said, yes, one common complaint about the game is the lack of such systems as 'acts,' which would be a win-win for everyone.

It's not that the writing was sloppy per se (with grammatical errors and such), but I thought that the overall quality was just very poor. I remember the dialogue was very wooden, and the story's tone seemed inconsistent - being cutesy one moment and then spiraling into some very dark places by the end game.

I also thought the cut scenes in FP were entirely too long for this kind of game. One of my favorite aspects of the old Sonic games was how the story was told through a combination of the character's animations and the in-game scenery. As a result, the story moved along at a brief clip. However, my experience was quite different playing FP. I actually quit playing the adventure mode in order to cut back on the amount of useless chatter between the characters and speed up my time in the actual game!

From what I've seen thus far, Spark the Electric Jester has some dialogue segments, but they're nowhere near as invasive as that of Freedom Planet.

Looks interesting! 'Reminds me of Freedom Planet!

Here is the wishlist!