Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1

[SIZE="4"]Sonic the Hedgehog 4 episode 1[/SIZE] - XBLA



I said this once and I’ll say it many, many, many more times, The original Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy was not the best 2D Sonic games. Sure they had the magic the feel, but it’s aged. Compared to the more recent 2D titles like The Sonic Advance series and Sonic Rush series it’s no way near as fun. Straight from the beginning I was unexcited for this game, in fact Sonic Colours looks way more interesting. My excuse for buying the full version of this game was “I had the money, why not?”.

The story continues from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Dr Eggman (not Robotnik) survives being completely destroyed in space and is out for world conquest yet again, but once again our blue dude with the ‘tude is out to stop him. Yeah so the story isn’t that spectacular. You could probably guess the ending as well if you’re not brain-dead.

But as Sonic never really needed a story that doesn’t matter, the only thing that really matters in a Sonic game is it’s Gameplay. And yes, it does keep to the original roots. It’s almost captures the old gameplay perfectly in every possible way. At some points in this game I’ll admit it feels a tad slippery sometimes stopping to late and falling to your death but that’s not that gameplay’s problem. One complaint I do have is the Homing attack, most times it works but when it doesn’t severely bad consequences occur.



It’s not the gameplay which makes the game annoying, it’s the stages themselves that do. This platformer suffers from what I like to call Splosion Man Syndrome, where the gameplay is good just the playing field is terribly designed and awkward to play in. The amount of times the platforming fails due to going too fast or too slow is horrendous in this game. Also the Splosion Man Syndrome strikes again with stages not telling you when to really stop running and start platforming. The old games used to make it so you at least see the platforms and be able to stop in time, but seeming as the gameplay can be a bit slippery you’ll fly out of the stage before you even realise there was some platforming to do.

The graphics are good. However there is something wrong with visuals, it’s the same as before. I swear all the available stage look too similar to previous Sonic titles. The stages, character models are really just up to date renders and nothing else. Sure it looks nice but it’s honestly not good enough. Sure re-mastering graphics is nice just put it this way. George Lucas is going to release the whole Star Wars saga in 3D, that doesn’t mean it good he’s updating it, it means he’ effortlessly making money for doing something so simple.

You know how annoying and lackluster Sonic the Hedgehog 1’s special stages were compared to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3’s were? Wouldn’t it of been nice if Sonic the Hedgehog 4 brought back Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or 3’s special stage or made up a new original special stage? No? Too bad we’re stuck with Sonic 1’s special stages. And unfortunately they’ve made them even more annoying then the first time. Yes it controls nice but again it thanks to Splosion Man Syndrome making the actual stages tedious.



If I had to choose who really was my favourite gaming villain I would say Dr Eggman. His intention’s are always straight forward and he’s always persistent about it. Plus he’s goofiness and overall figure just gets me every time. But what makes a good gaming villain is a good boss battle and no, boss battles aren’t good in this game. The difficulty level of the 5 boss battles goes from Easy to Super Easy to Unpredictable to Hard to Apocalypse Hard. And it frustrates me so much because of that. It’s shameful to look at Dr Eggman in this game.

I suppose another thing to mention is its soundtrack. It attempts to try and re capture the old Sonic the Hedgehog techno 16bit music. It does, but it is annoying as hell. Sonic 4 doesn’t grasp a additive melody but an eardrum grinding screech. In terms of addictive-ness it the musical aspect it’s annoyingly addictive. You know, an annoying song which you hate but yet it’s so addictive that it drills right into the deepest part of you’re mind so you never forget it, like the Frosties Kids advert years ago. I suppose it was too late to ask Michael Jackson to come in and help compose some of the soundtrack again but still. I thought Sonic had mastered soundtrack already, not thrown it out of the window.

What’s truly the most annoying thing about this game is it value. I paid 1200 Microsoft points (£10.20, but as you can‘t buy 1200 Microsoft points on there own you have to buy 2000 Microsoft points which is worth £17.00) and completed it in less than hour. I felt completely ripped off. This game isn’t worth 1200 Microsoft points. It was originally 400 points (£3.40), that would have been reasonable, hell 800 point (£6.80) would of felt reasonable too. 1200 points is pushing it too far. It’s too short to be worth that much.

CONCLUSION

I have a list of my 5 least favourite Sonic games and have only got up to 4, this is where Sonic 4 comes in. It’s not terrible, it’s just not worth the purchase. What’s ironic is how in most recent Sonic games they’ve had trouble with gameplay but mastered presentation, in Sonic 4 it’s the exact opposite.

Oh here’s my list for my Top 5 Least Favourite Sonic games
1. Shadow the Hedgehog
2. Sonic Chronicles
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2006
4. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1
5. Sonic R

+ Gameplay is good
+ Visuals are pretty
- Terribly designed stages
- Awful Boss Battles
- Not worth it’s given price

[SIZE="4"]5.5[/SIZE]

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