Like the first, the game plays much like a Sonic game would with its fast pace and slope physics, but the combat mechanics draw inspiration from beat 'em ups such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
A September 2020 trailer revealed an Xbox One release for the game, as well as a follow-up, Spark the Electric Jester 3.
A demo with three stages is available here
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This game provides examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Float's battle takes place in an arena warped by nanomachines, with a glowing gold floor surrounded by a starry night sky and a moon with a sinister smile. Freom Mk. 3's battle is a fiery void, with each phase making the fire darker and move faster.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The second stage is set in one of those.
- Adaptation Expansion: The game is a remake of Fark's story from the original with new places, new characters, and a more elaborate plot.
- Another Side, Another Story: Works as this to the first game, as it completely restructures Fark's story from the first title into a new storyline that puts Spark Out of Focus, but still happens simultaneously to Spark's nonetheless.
- Artifact Title: The game was renamed from Fark The Electric Jester to Spark The Electric Jester 2, despite Spark being out of focus and the plot revolving around Fark's quest to move out of his shadow.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Subverted; the inclusion of strong profanity in the game’s dialogue (courtesy of E.J. and Double, at least in earlier versions) could be seen as an attempt at doing this, as the game contains little objectionable content otherwise. However, LakeFeperd announced that these instances would be toned down for the final release (albeit to his chagrin). The final game contains no such profanity.
- Big Bad: Just like in the first game, Freom, the guardian of Megaraph Tower and leader of the robot uprising.
- Bishōnen Line: Freom has crossed it as he did in the first game, using his taller, distinctly humanoid form. Later on, he puts Fark in such a dire state that Fark's Super Mode puts him past the line, getting larger and more distinctly humanoid.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Earn all of the speed and score medals in the stages, and Super Fark becomes available to use in all stages, much like Super Spark from the first game. He possesses the same moveset from the final battle.
- Brick Joke: One of the city levels from the first game had signposts pointing to locations from Lake's Sonic fangames, such as Titanic Tower. This game actually features a level called that.
- Call-Back: Freom Mk. Ultimate attempts to destroy Super Fark with a large beam, similar to how Super Spark destroyed Freom Mk. 2. However, Super Fark is unaffected and is able to power through it.
- Clone Angst:
- Fark is upset at being a robotic duplicate of Spark, failing his purpose and having an insult ("Fake Spark") for a name. It is also revealed that he is actually designed as an upgraded variant of Freom as a way to carry his data.
- This later turns out to be the case for E.J. as well, although the time between him realizing he's one of many mass-produced copies of Fark's bodytype and his death is mere seconds.
- Continuity Snarl: Spark 2 reworks several plot elements from the first game into something different here. Some of them are a Retcon, while others work as a Revision. But certain things, such as the entire final encounter with Freom and things like the Apocalypse Thrusters that never existed prior, effectively cannot co-exist with the original game in the continuity. Spark 3 doesn't attempt to really consolidate or understand this by mostly focusing on the aftermath of 2's story instead.
- Counter-Attack: Fark can still block attacks to gain super meter, a bit of invincibility and a power multiplier. The timing is as forgiving as ever, perhaps even more so this time, and boss fights pretty much consist of standing still next to the enemy while spamming attacks and tapping the parry button when appropriate.
- Darker and Edgier: Has a more serious and darker plot compared to the first game, with many characters killed off for good, mentions of bloodshed and death, and mass genocides.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Infinite lives and plenty of checkpoints.
- Decomposite Character: In the first game's early development, Fark and Freom's roles were both filled by a robot known only as The Prototype, with plans to make it playable at some point. The Prototype's concept art is used to form the basis of Freom's true form, and its role as Spark's rival being passed onto Fark is taken more literally, with Fark being designed as a successor to Freom.
- Degraded Boss: The first phase of the final boss in Spark 1, Friken, returns as the first boss, revamped as the Ryno Dyno.
- Demoted to Extra: After saving the world, Spark went on vacation and is only mentioned by name throughout the story. After one cameo in the game's intro, he doesn't ever appear again.
- Distressed Dude: Dr. Armstrong is kidnapped by E.J. before he can reveal what Fark's real name is.
- The Dragon:
- E.J. fancies himself one for Freom, but apparently the villain sees him as a mere pawn.
- Freom himself is this to Clarity, although he's perfectly willing to betray her.
- Dual Boss: Downplayed with Astra and Romalo's boss fight. Both characters can attack the player, but only Astra can be damaged. They fuse during the second phase, leaving only Astra to fight.
- Enemy Roll Call: Before the staff credits every enemy and major character is seen standing on a stage.
- Evil Knockoff: Freom clearly designed E.J. after Fark, making him an Evil Knockoff of an (Not-So) Evil Knockoff.
- Exact Words: People with poor hardware who try the second demo will likely try the "Should Work" graphic settings, but it seems what it does is fail to load all models during gameplay. Can't say it isn't kind of working, though.
- Expy: Double and his allies seem loosely based on the Desperado Enforcement quartet from Metal Gear Rising. This gets quite on-the-nose when you fight Double, the leader of the group who wields two swords and has a penchant for violence, on a helipad and later face Flint's Iaijutsu skills. Float is a cyborg who has no reason to fight, much like Mistral questioning her reasons, and is the first one out of the group to be fought for real (if one disregards Jetstream Sam's tutorial fight.)
- Last Lousy Point: The criteria for earning the medals and the medals themselves. It's easy to barely miss the score threshold, or be a few seconds too slow. At the least the bosses are rather simple to gain their diamond medals on.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Freom reveals he is Fark's actual creator and that Fark is a clone of himself meant to carry his will.
- Killed Off for Real: Flint is the only newly introduced character who's shown to still be alive by the end of the game.
- The Man Behind the Man: Clarity, an AI gone rouge that plans to kill everything, both lifeforms and robots alike.
- Mecha-Mooks: All of the enemies and most of the bosses are robots.
- Nostalgia Level:
- The first stage is set in FM City again with the same theme song, but does not reuse any level design from the original.
- Hyperath Fleet, the penultimate level, is this to Megaraph Fleet (the penultimate level of the first game), down to sharing the same music, enemies, and even a countdown near the end.
- Quirky Mini Boss Squad: Fark must face a trio of robot rebels named Double, Flint, and Float.
- Retcon:
- The entire game overwrites Fark's story mode from the original. It presents an alternate continuity where Fark does not immediately become friends with Spark and meets a cast of new antagonists on his way to fight Freom, leading to many different events and twists. Around the release time of Spark 2, the original game not only got an warning declaring that its story for Fark was still a "completely valid" series of events but also had its script rewritten, making things a bit confusing to those following the series from the beginning.
- When Spark fought Freom in the first game, the villain morphed into a stronger form on-screen. This game changes it so Freom's real body is tied to a chair and the other versions of him are separate clones. Fark is the one who turns out to be able to transform at will.
- The Reveal: Fark's real name is "Unit-2", as he is intended to be Freom's direct successor. Furthermore, the A.I. of Megaraph Fortress that Freom was sworn to guard was corrupt and intends to eradicate both formies and robots.
- Sequel Hook: Fark destroys Freom's original body and intends to fight against Clarity in his own way, but his whereabouts are unknown.
- Shout-Out:
- Continuing the developer's chain of references to Metal Gear Rising, the Start Screen looks very similar to the one on that game.
- The first boss, the Ryno Dyno, is a blade-wielding black-and-red custom model of the Friken from the first Spark, much like how Metal Gear RAY was a penultimate boss in Metal Gear Solid 2, but was made into the first boss of Revengeance.
- Apocalypse Thruster's theme sounds suspiciously similar to Final Fortress' from Sonic Heroes. The fact both stages are preceded by a battleship fleet stage cements the reference.
- As a send-up to the game's inspirations, the results screen after each level visually resembles the title screen of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: E.J. swears several flipping times every time he shows up in earlier builds of the game, but this was toned down in the final version."Oh well, I hope I never get to see your fucking dumbass face again".
- Stealth Pun: Fark's birth name is simply "Unit-2" (with Freom being Unit-1), meaning he is Spark The Electric Jester 2 after all.
- Thanking the Viewer: The character cast roll call ends with Fark bowing before the player.
- The Unfought: Clarity is never fought, or even seen for that matter, with Freom taking the handle of Final Boss instead. It would be until the sequel when she would finally be fought.
- Variable Mix: Much like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, each boss theme has two versions, an instrumental version for the first phase, and a lyrical one for the second phase.
- Video Game 3D Leap: Unlike the first installment, this game is in 3D.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Float's boss fight introduces multiple hazards that the player must dodge/parry at the same time, namely the red circle during her second phase. Her aggressive pattern also in the second phase is tricky to dodge and parry as well. Most boss fights going forward keep the multiple hazards, such as E.J's lightning bolts across the arena and Double's screen-wide blast.
- We Can Rule Together: Freom believes a Colony Drop is the only way to get rid of Clarity and invites Fark to his world conquest, but the jester refuses to defeat this out-of-the-blue threat at the cost of the world's entire population.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Fark's mysterious scepter and golden super form from the first game are not only ignored but also replaced with a human-like super form.
