YMMV / Spark the Electric Jester 3

• Awesome Bosses:
  • Linework Spark, despite being the penultimate boss, has an amazing soundtrack, and coupled with controlling Fark to knock sense into the corrupted Spark, with references to Fark's story from the original game? Awesome.
  • Freom Mk.0 has been met with much applause due to it being akin to Lingering Will in terms of being a powerful Superboss with challenging attacks, awesome music and memorable setpieces and who also brings in new lore after being defeated.
• Awesome Levels:
  • If a single level could encapsulate everything Spark the Electric Jester 3 stands for as a game, it would be Protest City. As a game that draws heavily from the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, Protest City seamlessly takes the best aspects of Sonic Adventure (Exploration and being able to fly over entire levels with creative tricks), Sonic Adventure 2 (Seamless transitions between platforming and hitting the pavement again to just never stop moving), and especially Sonic Unleashed (Pure, unadulterated focus on going fast and enjoying a thrill ride) and throws them into a blender to produce an exciting rush through a massive, sprawling city, allowing the player to keep to the street-level gridlock, platform through the sewers, or just up and blast over the rooftops at their leisure on their way to a surprisingly fun and creative vehicle segment before reaching the goal. Expect most discussions of the Protest City levels to favorably compare the stage to such Sonic goliaths as Speed Highway, Radical Highway, and Skyscraper Scamper.
  • Historia Hysteria, a Nostalgia Level where the main gimmick is illusions. Fake paths, extremely convincing TV screens and even a Call-Back in the form of fighting Double, E.J. and the mech from Spark 1 as the areas boss makes for an interesting enough level on its own, but the unique setting of a city at night makes it even more compelling.
  • Pacific Abyss, a massive military base/civilian installation buried hundreds of miles into the earth, sitting at the bottom of an unbelievably huge hole. The level sees Spark descend downwards into the city, with the tone and visuals dynamically changing as he progresses. The sheer scale of the level will probably invoke a sense of awe at least once. The level is challenging but fair, and set to some truly incredible music.
  • Utopia Shelter completely shatters the status quo. It's the only stage in the series to contain limited lives, and it's extremely long, taking 30 minutes for an average player. Yet the challenges are completely fair, and they test all of Spark's movement options.
• Awesome Music: Hoo boy, where do we even begin with this game? There's the stage themes such as both themes for Utopia Shelter or battle themes for Linework Spark and Claritas Centralis. And then there's Floating Point Error, the secret boss theme for Freom MK: 0.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The game cuts straight from the Bittersweet Ending where Fark plans to find survivors and rebuild their ruined world with the help of Spark, who is now permanently trapped inside Clarity's simulation as an AI... To a credits sequence where Spark and Fark face each other in a Friday Night Funkin' match.^note According to the artist who animated said sequence, it was an unofficial mod he made for FNF that was adopted as the credits due to time constraints.
• Breather Boss: Coming off the heels of the two Guardian fights you're allowed to lose and coming before the gauntlet of bosses that make up Throwback, Sheriff Beartrap from 'On the Run' is a pretty simple guy. He comes with flunkies and has some degree of area control with his blue goop, but otherwise takes a lot more time with his attacks than the Guardian does, making him easier to parry, and only half of his fight is a typical boss fight, unlike the drawn-out slugfest with the trio of bosses from Spark 2 fought during Throwback. This may be intentional, since you're forced to use and learn Float's gameplay for this fight the first time you do it.
• Even Better Sequel: It takes the already great gameplay of Spark 2 and polishes it to a mirror sheen, taking what was a solid foundation and making it truly excellent. The number of fun set pieces, awesome levels, and fantastic bosses makes it easily the best game in the series, and something that has been received very positively by the fans. Some fans even recommend skipping Spark 2 entirely due to all of its non-boss levels being added to 3 (albeit with the requirement of having beaten the base game first).
• Fandom Rivalry: It and Spark 2 are sometimes brought up in Sonic discourse as examples of games that "do 3D Sonic gameplay better than Sonic himself." This has made them unpopular among some Sonic fans, though this behaviour is just as much criticised by other Spark and Sonic fans who want both series evaluated based on their own merits.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • A lot of players recommend newcomers just jump to this game instead of Spark 2, mostly for the better gameplay experience and levels overall, and especially now that all of 2's stages are post-game bonus content, sans plot. This also puts you directly into Spark's shoes as you go from the first game to here, as he completely lacks the context of everything that happened in 2 and assumes Fark is just as evil as Freom now. This becomes something of an Intended Audience Reaction, as those who skip have no idea what Clarity is or why Float seemingly Back from the Dead would be a big deal; the player is about as oblivious to The Reveal as Spark would be and just assume they're on a new awesome adventure, exactly what Clarity was hoping for.
  • Why does the game occasionally give out an Exposition Dump that straight up is Leaning on the Fourth Wall by showcasing TVs that give backstory, or Spark outlying the plot and cause? The former is likely Fark trying to gradually slip important information to Spark in his simulation trap, while the latter is either Clarity reinforcing Spark's goals in his head yet again to make sure he keeps the loops on-course, or Spark so stuck in his own head that recounting his mission is the only thing that helps keep him on track with each new loop.
  • Of all the possible candidates for her agent, why would Clarity choose Float? Because she likely knows that the Guardian is Flint. Had it been anyone else, Flint would have killed the agent immediately upon recognizing it, but Clarity may have banked on the fact that Flint would be hesitant to harm her agent if she had the form of his only friend. Indeed, it seems to have worked. Flint's dialogue upon seeing Float hints that he knows, or at the very least suspects, that it's not the real Float, but her voice and behavior is so realistic to him that he can't bring himself to harm her.
  • After seeing just how badly The Reveal of his actions causing the destruction of the world affects Spark's self esteem, it's no wonder why his simulations only allow him to use the Reaper Jester Power, let alone why Linework Spark turns into a beast and a reaper. He's always had a subconscious feeling something went horribly wrong that he couldn't quite place because he always had his memories wiped and the scenario reset just as he was realizing it. Clarity's possession is drawing on his darkest emotions and expressions of himself; A monster that can only break things, and a bringer of death.
  • If the final level revealed that the game itself is a deconstruction of the typical player experience of playing a game and replaying it over and over to enjoy it and experience everything it has to offer, then Endless Dive is what happens when you boil Spark 3 itself down to just it's combat system. It's also implied that by doing this, the simulation can barely keep itself together due to the amount of strain it would take for it to conjure a scenario where you fight endless waves of enemies, complete with a boss on Floor 100 whose name is basically telling you "you're not in control".
• Friendly Fandoms: Spark 2 and 3 are popular among Sonic fans as fellow high-speed physics-based platformers, especially Sonic Adventure fans.
• Good Bad Bugs: It's possible to flip Spark's car upside down in the prologue stage before the restart option in the pause menu even becomes available.
• Heartwarming Moments: After seemingly being saved by a sacrifice on Spark's part, Fark refuses to let things lie. He sees right through the despair-laden suicide attempt and gives Spark the mother of all Dope Slaps and not only breaks Spark out of his funk, but comes to terms with his own habit of pushing people away in the process.
  Fark: Remember what that little genocidal pipsqueak said was my biggest mistake? Well she was WRONG! DEAD WRONG! My biggest mistake... was NOT REACHING OUT TO YOUUUUUUUU!
  • The credits sequence. It's a Friday Night Funkin inspired duet between Spark and Fark, where they ride atop an F.M. City train car and enjoy the sights as friends rather than simply rivals before Fark heads back to the real world and begins his search for survivors.
• Moe: Clarity may have been the force capable of causing the near-extinction of the Formies, and kept their consciousnesses in a simulation for thousands of years... but you have to admit, her small girl form is extremely adorable. Her Claritas Centralis form, though...
• Narm:
  • While it may've been intended to be funny, you do have to admit that Fark wearing a suit does look rather silly. Even the formie shaking Fark's hand seems baffled by the sight. This is during a plot important cutscene right before the final boss by the way.
  • Another case that might have been intentional but also plays itself completely straight, is the Fusion Dance of Spark and Fark, dramatic in all of its powered-up glory.. and being named Sfarx, of all things. Seems Spark's Giver of Lame Names habit never dies.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Most people enjoy the story; it ties up the plot lines Flint nonwithstanding from Spark The Electric Jester and Spark The Electric Jester 2 and has a rather shocking twist. The main issue is that the majority of the story is tacked on following the final level and just before the final two bosses. A majority of the game is spent with Spark just going around and making a mess of things for the Fark Force with no real story or nuance to it, even when Float arrives. That's fine, though; reviews of the game have universally praised it for having the best gameplay of the series so far, with many declarations of it being A Modern Playstation 2 Classic and The Worthy Sequel to Sonic Adventure 2.
  • In a darkly humorous twist, the very idea behind the trope is a plot element. Clarity is keeping Spark prisoner by having him relive the most exciting, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, memorable aspects of his journey from the highway leading into Terminal Village to the bottom of the earth in Utopia Shelter, hoping that even if Spark learns he's in a simulation, the adrenaline and euphoria from the rush of adventure will keep him pacified. The story only picks up when Fark abuses a glitch in the system. This means the focus from even a narrative standpoint is how amazing it is to jump between satellites, run at ludicrous speeds down to the center of the earth, and grind down rails through an expansive canyon.
  • Some players have criticised the story for being disproportionately dark and complicated (unfavourably compared to End of Evangelion) in relative to the previous two games. The connections to what was established in previous games can be difficult to grasp (especially since worldbuilding that Spark 3 touches upon has only ever been established in Spark 1's artbook).
• Shocking Moments: The final part of the game drops a whole LOAD of these, all one after the other. To list them all in order:
  • Utopia Shelter begins with a warning screen stating that the level will be long, and, for the first time in the series, containing a lives system.
  • Fark's new Freom-esque form... and not fighting Spark, instead giving exposition that throws the perception of the entire game out the window:
    • Clarity's entire plan being an assimilation plot... and the "revived" Float entering the Utopia Shelter at all basically destroyed the Fark Force, the only piece of resistance against Clarity... As the revived Float was actually an Agent of Clarity. Which leads to...
    • Clarity now has control over the entire world... or has had for some time. Every single character in the series has been assimilated into Clarity at this point, which is thousands of years after the fact.
  • Spark getting possessed by Clarity, leaving Fark to face off Spark in an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
  • Spark and Fark fusing to become Sfarx, and leaving to face off the central Clarity module.
  • And finally, Fark becoming a Formie and taking care of finding survivors in the real world, while Spark, now as an AI replacing Clarity, is using his powers to locate survivors as well.
  • In the post game, not only is the original Freom revealed to still be alive, but after seeing how he is regretful for the actions his clones and what Clarity has done, Spark lets Freom Mk.0 live and encourages him to go out and see the world for himself.
• Tear Jerker: Once Spark learns the Awful Truth, the cutscenes surrounding this go to great lengths to demonstrate how much of a sheer mental shutdown he's gradually undergoing, before eventually hitting a Rage Breaking Point that undergoes an immense Art Shift. It's only Fark fighting through Clarity's control that he even brings back Spark in any reasonable state, and he's still immensely shook up by it enough to try to end the simulation and himself with it.
• That One Attack: Unblockable AOE for example The Guardian's explosion attack can come out very quick with little warning and have a very strict timing before they go off.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The endgame, where Clarity and Spark are given a number of interesting visual moments that jump the gamut of neat effects, solid animation, and even hand-drawn portions during Spark's Freak Out. For a game that isn't exactly high on budget and tried to skate around its limitations elsewhere in the story, Lake went all out with these scenes, creating a unique and memorable presentation that sticks out in the whole series.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The game drops a heavy bombshell during the final level, with the Big Bad's plan having succeeded with millions of confirmed casualties and an Apocalypse How scenario being the end result. While it doesn't stick, it's easily the darkest moment in the entire series.