Any in the VGMaps community that may need to know, I have come across a rather neat 2D game that has some Kirby, Mega Man X, and Sonic influences, but stands well on its own as an indie game.
It's "
Spark the Electric Jester".
It shows the main hero, Spark, setting out to reclaim his job as a rather entertaining jester after being "let go", inadvisably, and stop a robot rampage threatening the world, led by a rather unknown individual, and must plow through swathes of robots to get answers, including a rather obvious look-a-like robot copy of himself(Fake Spark, I call it), and save the world, with some allies Spark may meet on the way.
Its been made by one whole person, who some of you may be familiar with some Sonic the Hedgehog fangames, preferably "
Before the Sequel" and "
After the Sequel".
I'm talking about LakeFeperd. He made those previous fangames with Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, until he upgraded to Fusion 2.5, paired with a framework, "Sonic Worlds", which was also used by Galaxytrail(not Feperd, mind you) to make Freedom Planet.
It got funded through Kickstarter to help out finish the game, despite no stretch goals being funded, unfortunately. The music was done by composers Feperd picked while he kept working on the game.
I found a few YT videos about it, including playthroughs, and watched some.
Here's one to watch -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbz95ypPX0I'm fond of the game, because of its familiar speeds to Sonic, and it harbors plenty of content, including an unlockable, tougher campaign as Fake Spark himself. The game holds a total of 16 Stages, each having at least a mid-boss in most, and a main boss at the end of them.
I've seen how long each stage can be, and later stages can go for more than 5 minutes, especially the later stages that have more than one map. And, speaking of maps, they are LARGE. I mean, QUITE LARGE, as in within, or above, the size range of 20,000s, mostly horizontal. There's even a few stages that go vertically taller, or deeper. I mean WAY tall or deep.
Comparably, their maps' sizes are much more larger than Freedom Planet's, but the map amounts in stages are lesser than the latter.
The few things that kinda bother me in that game are the minor, numerical grammar problems in the dialogue. I mean, just mainly lacking of commas, periods where question marks should've been, etc..(I've been paying attention while watching)
The story did get an overhaul in a patch update(unusually in a game, but, understandable), because its former plot didn't felt consistent and in-line with specific elements in its story.
The more bothersome thing of it all, for me, is that it didn't get a port to a Nintendo console first, before Feperd went to work on its sequels.
In my perspective, any console port after launching a game in PC, if such a choice was made first, should've been a priority before doing another or a sequel. Even more, Feperd went to port sequels to consoles WITHOUT doing the first game. It could've been given a better priority, at least. I could've enjoyed playing it on a Nintendo console.
If anything, Feperd could contact any console porting team to do the work on porting the first game.
Though, should that be made, I would mind a few updates and cosmetic changes to improve the adventure, like additional sound ambiance in stages, grammar corrections, maybe a speed boost, refined and streamlined defeat sequences to bosses, the timer stopping for doing conversations and resuming after finishing them, resolved inconsistencies with the bosses' health bars' appearances(that should've been lesser for mid-bosses and perhaps more for main bosses), and, OH! I almost forgot...
In a prior Kickstarter demo, the game's second stage, F.M.(Flower Mountain) Canyon, HAD a mid-boss to fight, plainly called Tank SECR-01. A later demo removed it, and I felt disappointed it got removed. It should be reinstated to make it less dragging and more fun.
Here's an image link showcasing that mid-boss itself, as proof, from the game's artbook album -
https://i.imgur.com/eAnzSua.pngTo add more on it, here's the mid-boss' whole body sprite -
https://tcrf.net/images/e/e5/STEJ_tank.pngAnd, in accordance to its artbook launched for free later, the 10th stage, Luna Base, HAD a boss planned, but for some reason, it got scrapped, leaving that stage to be the only one WITHOUT bosses, even a mid-boss that should've been fought midway.
Luna Bay's Scrapped Boss Pattern Design Doc. -
https://i.imgur.com/a9N0OjD.pngLuna Bay's Scrapped Boss 3D model -
https://i.imgur.com/mmCEe0K.pngI should say this, Luna Bay
needs all-new bosses, or at least, at least have a new mid-boss or two in it, THEN have a new main boss in the end that's more fun to fight and would suit well to use the magma against Spark.
I happen to come across YT vids from SparkleGem that's working on a mod to the first game that may give a few updates and changes, called "Spark the Electric Jester: Recharged".
Now THAT'S sounding like a good name for an updated edition to the game! One that's
worthy of a Nintendo console port!
I leave these video links for you to see what I mean.
Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged Mod Trailer -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3vLbxv5k8Spark The Electric Jester: Recharged, Shopalo's Goods Video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTUK-RKjRNMWell, overall, aside from it not being mapped yet, Spark the Electric Jester is a fun game to play. If you've not played it, give it a go. You'll enjoy some of the hi-speed action and adventure!
And, of course, if you want, give Feperd a good talk on his Twitter Account, here -
https://twitter.com/LakeFeperd
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