Finding Sparky is what I believe to be a masterpiece in visual storytelling, with a dark tone that perfectly amplifies the themes of guilt, desperation, and what can happen when to someone when they lose everything they hold close to them.
The game is primarily a side-scrolling puzzle game, with a large emphasis on telling the story of a village boy named Tom whose beloved dog has been stolen from him, going to find him with help from the ghost of someone he once knew. Between each cutscene, whether it be dialogue between Tom and a villager, descriptions of Tom's memories, or even a couple of scenes mimicking a puppet show, there are puzzles involving ghosts, and later on, cats. To progress, Tom has to "mark," or petrify, Ghosts with a weapon he picks up during the prologue. He must petrify a specific number of ghosts and leave the rest in order to "slaughter" them all before progressing; when cats start appearing in the levels, he has to have a specific number of them nearby to do so. If a Ghost is being problematic, Tom can push them away with a wooden stick that he starts the game with. There are some extra mechanics at times, but this is how it is for the bulk of the game, and said extra gimmicks tie into the themes of the story.
Tom himself harbors a fear of the ghosts that surround him, or more specifically, being touched by them. The top of the screen shows a bar called the "Vision Gauge," which will drain quickly if Tom touches a ghost without either trying to mark it or without swinging the stick at them. Marked Ghosts are completely harmless, but unmarked ones will cause Tom's field of view to shrink along with the Vision Gauge, and if a Ghost is colliding with Tom while the bar is too low, he'll begin to rapidly hallucinate before you get a Game Over. Ghosts aren't the only thing that make the Vision Gauge lower, however, as Rolling, an ability you can use to quickly move past Ghosts, as well as using the stick use up a small piece of the gauge. Don't worry about using it too much, as it recovers over time and you can make it heal even faster by pressing a key to breathe deeply. The Vision Gauge being both a health bar and an active resource for the player makes it feel very impactful, reflecting Tom's mental state and one of the themes I pointed out (Which one? I'm not spoiling that!).
Certain ghosts are far more relevant to Tom's life than the ones you see in most levels, becoming giant animals that Tom needs to butcher. While the ghosts seen in every normal level can be petrified with one marking, Bosses require three marks and have set conditions that make them vulnerable to it. Each boss has unique mechanics, and they're all at least somewhat easy to beat once you figure out the right strategy. The only one I have an issue with is (and actually, the only real issue I have with the game in general) is the second boss, which has an attack that can cover the entire area. It has a short-ranged form that's avoidable, but the main issue is the long-ranged version. Even if you start the attack with a full Vision Gauge, you'll nearly be knocked out by the time it ends; if the boss then uses a certain "spawning" attack afterwards, there is a good chance that you'll miss your cue to use the stick and just die immediately. The second boss feels like it should be the fourth one, since I was able to clear the fourth boss in one go, and that one even has a way to instantly kill you. Story-wise, their placement makes sense, I just wish their difficulty reflected that.
I won't get too in-depth on how I feel about the storytelling, since it is the central focus of the game, but what I will say is that the characterization is sheer perfection. The way Tom talks reflects the tone of the game down to the wire, and the personalities of other characters such as his parents give way to how his personality during the game takes shape initially before evolving over time. I write stories myself, and Finding Sparky is an example of the quality that I strive to achieve. After you beat the game for the first time, you unlock Story Mode, which lets you go through the game without having to care about the puzzles between each cutscene, which is nice. It's not anything major, but I wish it wasn't labeled as "Tom's Diary" on the menu screen; that made me hope I could read more into Tom's personality and make more sense of the ending, but alas, it's just a mode that lets you refresh your memory on the chain of events.
While that is all I have to say on the game itself, I do have something I want to say about the game's obscurity. The fact that Finding Sparky is barely on the internet is depressing, and the possibility of it staying that way hurts even more. It's such a brilliant work of art, yet when I looked the game up, I didn't find any form of discussion outside of a few YouTube videos, with only two posts from two different people. Sure, I did find a couple of posts involving the game on Bluesky, but that was limited to a link to the Steam Store page and nothing more. Outside of those two sites, I only found unrelated stuff such as a Borderlands Steam Discussion post (wild leap in tone, huh?), pictures of actual dogs, subreddits about learning Korean, and... allegations towards a Megaman fan? It's weird that you can search up the game's title, and almost every search result is a complete 180 from what you want to see.
All that aside, Finding Sparky is a genuine masterpiece, with a tone and set of themes that are clear as day, yet unnerving to approach. The way the story was told as I played was beautiful, combined with a constant array of narrative twists that left me guessing what the game would show next. The gameplay itself was interesting, if frustrating on occasion, but it didn't bring down my experience and thoughts on what the game truly wanted to bring my attention to. However, most importantly, the story made me feel emotional. It made me curious, it made me feel depressed, and most importantly, it was the first game to make me actually cry out of genuine despair. Games have irritated me before, they have made me feel somber before. No other game has actually jerked the tears out of my eyes prior to Finding Sparky, and that is an amazing accomplishment to me.
Finding Sparky is simply brilliant, and I hope more attention gets brought to it soon.
In fact, you know what? I'll say it right now: Finding Sparky is now my favorite game of all time.
