Why Sonic 4 overall IS a good game

As someone who can remember the release-day of Sonic & Knuckles on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive about 16 years ago, I initially wanted to title this blog-post "Sonic 4 – why I could have waited longer". And even though I eventually realised that Sonic 4 is indeed a whole lot of fun, the first 10 minutes have been quite a shock.

Control and Physics

Not only does Sonic look totally different, but his moves have changed too. To make it even worse, the physics has changed. Once pushing right on my PS3-controller, I instantly noticed the delay – Sonic now needs much longer before he gets going. Additionally there is kind of a little notch that you have to overcome initially, which makes coordinate jumping hard when you’re starting from the standing position. Next thing is the new double-jump: Buzz-saw attack instead of Air Dash. If you press jump twice, then Sonic will jump upwards, followed by a boost to the right – a bit like the flame shield in Sonic 3. The main difference is that the second jump can be used to kill targets which are now highlighted by kind of a target-symbol. A target-symbol that you will see all the time… The most annoying thing surely is the issue with the down-button. Back in the days, simply pressing down was the best thing to do in 90% of the game’s situations, as it always caused you to go as fast as possible when moving. In Sonic 4, there are a lot of situations, in which pressing down causes you to slow down instead. Enormously annoying.

Levels

Now lets look at the zones: Splash-Hill is a bit like Emerald-Hill from Sonic 2; Casino Street looks & feels a lot like Casino Night from Sonic 2; Lost Labyrinth which reminds a bit of the pyramid zones in Sonic & Knuckles; Mad Gear, which is totally like Metropolis zone from Sonic 2. And then there is the secret E.G.G. Station zone…

Characters

Ahem… well, there’s Sonic. No Tails, no Knuckles, just Sonic. And Dr. Eggman of course. Enjoyable is, that they’ve included some of the original enemies from Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 (in the look-alike-zones).

Why it is a good game

The first thing, that really made me realise, I am playing a Sonic game was the music at the end of act 1. However, after another 20 minutes or so I started to really enjoy playing this game. It isn’t like the classic Sonic-titles, and it feels a lot like an early beta and not a finished game, but granted these points, it is a lot of fun. And clearly, A LOT of work has gone into the level-design. Probably some of this work should have gone into the physics, though… Anyway, it is a lot of fun.

Particularly because of fan-pleasers like including zones which looks like the old ones + including elements everybody remembers, like the spike on top of the hill, when the wall follows you from the right, or the up-and-down moving containers that squash you to death if you try to pass them in the wrong moments.  You’ll have a lot of these retro moments bringing back some long-forgotten memories…

So far

This is my FIRST OPPINION, after about 2 hours of playing Sonic 4 Episode I. Now I’ll continue playing to see what else I’ll discover…

Recommended Reads

How Sonic 4 should have looked like
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-sonic-video-weve-been-waiting-16-years-to-see/a-20100825103041757096 

Sonic 4: Episode I – updated hands-on
http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-i/preview/sonic-4-episode-i-updated-hands-on/a-20100810131746116054/g-20090909115153197035/p-2

Sonic 4 Games Radar
http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-i/review/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-episode-1-review/a-20101008112650143032/g-20090909115153197035/p-3

Advertisement