The game plays similarly to the classic titles, with the objective to run through each stage collecting rings, and reaching the finish while avoiding/defeating enemies and navigating the various loops, springs and spike traps spread over the level. Now, my biggest complaint when I first booted the game was the physics of Sonic himself – he felt slower, clunkier, and less fluid than the classic titles. I must admit this was a turnoff at first, but I actually found that I got used to it the more I played, and got the hang of a few tricks as well – in all honesty, while I feel that Sonic isn’t as fast as he used to be, it’s because the game has more of a focus on maintaining speed and learning how to navigate the level without losing it. One of the biggest controversies to the latest 2D Sonic venture is the inclusion of a homing attack – by pressing jump in mid-air, Sonic will home into a targeted enemy or object. People believed this would eradicate all traces of skill in the game, with no need for any kind of precision. However, it’s actually more of a platforming mechanic – allowing Sonic to chain homing attacks to enemies to cross them to reach new side routes, while also allowing him to break into a run more quickly. It’s not all easy sailing either – if you mis-time the attack you’ll just find yourself flailing in mid-air in a more vulnerable state, so it really doesn’t give you that idea of being able to “mash the jump button and win”. I’m not saying the game is perfect – there are some occasions where platforming is awkward (such as one section where you are supposed to time jumps across a number of flipping platforms or fall to your death), but with a little practice these parts get much easier anyway.

That said, the game does feel as though it’s aimed at experienced Sonic players, rather than for first-time players. Personally I enjoyed the fact that the game wasn’t a walk in the park – considering the originals are easily accessible and still worth playing even by today’s standards, but it might put a few people off. Regardless of a few tough bits, the game really is full of nostalgia, with plenty of loops, springs, and familiar Sonic enemies that really made me smile.

That brings me to the stages. The game consists of four zones, each with three acts and a boss. However, unlike traditional Sonic titles, you may select the order you wish to attempt the stages, as the game incorporates a world-map style level select. This is great for replay value, as it makes stages very accessible, and besides – if you want to play in a more traditional way, you can always start at Splash Hill Zone Act 1, and simply press a button at the end of the stage to automatically progress to the next act without returning to the map screen. Each of the stages feels like an homage to a classic Sonic title – Splash Hill is a traditional, luscious Green Hill Zone type stage, Casino Street hearkens back to the days of Casino Night Zone, Lost Labyrinth is pretty much a remake of Labyrinth Zone, and Mad Gear feels like a new Scrap Brain Zone. Fans may either love or hate this – since the levels are very good, yet maybe a little too familiar if you’re looking for something new. That said, one thing I really loved about them was that each Act within every zone had its own unique elements – such as a sunset stage on Splash Hill Act 3, and Casino Street looking more like some kind of Caesar’s Palace as the acts progress. It was nice to see more than palette swaps, showing some real uniqueness between the acts – although to be honest I found this was a little less apparent on the Mad Gear stages. The zones all have appropriately matched music, that while fitting, were neither disappointing nor particularly memorable.

The bosses of the game are similar – they are all variations on older bosses. Most of them essentially take an older boss (such as the classic Wrecking Ball Robotnik/Eggman from Green Hill Zone) and once you’ve hit him a few times, the music changes and his attack pattern changes – in the case of the first boss, he suddenly starts swinging the ball in a 360 degree slam attack. While some players may feel that the game should have created new bosses, rather than re-making old ones, I personally enjoyed the nostalgia, with the variations enough to mix it up and keep it fresh. The bosses range from easy to hard, and while some people may at first find some frustrating (such as one that uses instant-kill crushing attacks akin to the final boss of Sonic 1), I found that with a little concentration and practice, they mostly offer average challenge. The bosses have now also been separated as stages of their own (rather than at the end of Act 3), which you may either like or dislike depending on your personal preference – I’m undecided, as it makes them easier to access, but it feels a little less like a traditional Sonic title, and offers a little less pressure for failure.

One thing I will mention, is that it seems Sonic Team have attempted to include a variety of new ideas to mix up the levels – particularly in Lost Labyrinth Zone, which introduces a few new gameplay elements. Firstly, there’s a stage where Sonic carries a torch, which restricts your field of vision, and also doubles as a lighting device for torch-switches and explosive fuses scattered around the level. Secondly, there are mine-cart sections where you have to jump at the right time to clear gaps, and lastly there are a few sections that require you to “tilt” the stage in order to move water to push a plug from the wall, whilst stopping Sonic from sinking into some spikes – this bit was pretty badly executed, and one of the worst elements of the game, but it’s easy once you know how, and only lasts a few seconds. The other elements I personally enjoyed, mixing up the stages – the mine cart sections reminding me of the classic Master System games – but some people might not enjoy them since they do break up the traditional speed-run feel of the stages.

Of course, Sonic 4 wouldn’t be a Sonic game without Special Stages. Taking influence from Sonic 1, stages are accessed by jumping through a giant ring at the end of the level, which appears if you have 50 rings, and are also based on the emerald-collecting maze stages of the original. However, unlike Sonic 1 where you had to navigate Sonic through a constantly rotating maze, Sonic 4′s Special Stages have a different twist – literally – as you instead control the rotation of the stage, while Sonic constantly free-falls downward. The stages are fairly challenging but not unfair – although you need to collect time-boost bubbles on some stages which have a time-limit, unlike the classic versions. Overall, I found them to be at just about the right difficulty, with the game’s level-replay system making the Special Stages fairly easy to access, although it does mean replaying a whole level each time you want to try again. Of course, collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds unlocks Super-Sonic (and the slightly better ending), which is always worth the hassle.

With a final zone to complete, and all 7 emeralds obtainable, Sonic 4: Episode 1 feels sort of like a short, but complete, Sonic game. While this is nice, as the other episodes aren’t available yet, I’m a little worried that the other episodes won’t combine together to create one larger experience, rather four smaller ones. This is only a minor concern, but I do hope that once all of the parts are released they will merge into a complete package, rather than simply staying as four parts – with around 16 stages, the sum of all of the episodes could give us the biggest, longest 2D Sonic titles ever made – definitely not a bad thing! However, with Episode 1 priced at a hefty £10, we could be looking at the price of a full retail title for the whole thing.

While Sonic 4 doesn’t feel exactly like the older games, it’s definitely the closest we’ve seen in a long time. It took me a little getting used to, but by the end of the episode I’m definitely looking forward to the rest. Personally, the 2D Sonics are some of my favourite games, and I’ll be happy to shell out for the following episodes as long as they are equally as good, if not better. The game is a definite blast from the past, and I only hope that this is the start of a new trend for Sonic – finally remembering why he used to be so good.

-Leon

Well gamers and Sega fans of the world. I suggest you sit down because the sequel to Sonic 3 has been announced. Project Needle Mouse is non other than, SONIC 4!

The full name Sonic 4: Episode 1 will be using the same visuals as we are used to from the likes of Street Fighter IV. Meaning there will be 3D models used on a 2D playing field. So it is safe to say that out Blue spiky friend is back to his 2D form, just.

From the teaser trailer that Gamespot had showed just this morning, some of the original 2D features will be making a come back, such as the classic loop the loops from sonic 2 and the double screen loops from sonic 3.

Image From Gamespot.com

So what are we expecting from Sonic 4′s story? Well when Gamespot asked Ken Balough, the sonic 4 brand manager he said, “While the game is a brand-new adventure, it will definitely pick up after Sonic & Knuckles. However, what you are looking at is the beginning of a new story arc,” a direct follow on sixteen years after the 1994 release of Sonic And Knuckles. Well it took them long enough.

Keen then went on to say, “We’re going to deliver a Genesis-era Sonic game as if it were created today that goes to the core of what classic Sonic fans desire. This means [the fan] gets to judge us on our work each step of the way, and we plan on delivering that goal in a big way.” This all sounds pretty exciting, but wait, there is more.

It seems as though the sonic team are taking the “going back to the roots of sonic” to heart. As you can tell from the title this will be an episodic outing for Sonic. It has been stressed that Sonic 3 and Knuckes were in effect two parts of the same game. So with Sonic 4 Sega are planning to use that feature more, meaning the Lock On technology we had with Sonic and Knuckles may come back in a some what different way.

As for controlling Sonic, the classic 2D moves we have known and loved have come back, such as the spin dash and the super speed sneakers power up.  But later Sonic titles have utalisd a homing attack, and it has been announced that this homing attack will feature in Sonic 4.

This is all sounding to be a pretty sweet game. As it is an episodic title I will imagine that this game will be available for download, as opposed to a disc release. It will be available across all platforms (Wii, PlayStation 3 and X Box 360) and, for me at least, this is a welcome come back for the retro Sonic most gamers of my generation have grown up with.

Garv