Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1
WiiWare
(*gasp* The guy with the Sonic avatar is reviewing a Sonic game! Whatashock!)
It's been a long and difficult road for Sonic 4 Episode 1. Hailed by Sega as being Sonic's return to glory and official sequel to the 16-bit classics. That's a lot of weight to put on your shoulders, and many people were doubtful that this game could do it. And I admit, I had my doubts. Despite the last several console Sonic titles crashing and burning, the series has been doing quite well staying in 2D on the handhelds. While that alone convinced me that Sonic 4 would at least be a fun little game, I wasn't expecting it to live up to the name. It seemed to just be recycling a bunch of classic levels and putting them in HD. Mixed opinions coming from previewers weren't helping, either. Well, the wait is finally over. Does Sonic 4 live up to its name, or should they have instead called it Sonic 1.5?
It can keep the 4.
Yep, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. This is a good old Genesis-style Sonic the Hedgehog title, and saying that brings me great joy. You run along, hop on platforms, jump on badnicks, collect rings...it's all here. The major addition this time around is the homing attack, which isn't exactly a stranger to 2D Sonic, but it's never been utilized like this. Now, the homing attack got a lot of mixed reactions, but as someone who never cared to begin with, I enjoyed using it. I feel it adds more to the game then it detracts, and breaking through waves of conveniently placed enemies is satisfying.
But that's not the only new thing added here. While Sonic 4 sticks to the series roots and makes a lot of throwbacks to the Sonic games of yesteryear, there are plenty of new idea's and level mechanics that keep things fresh. The beautiful Casino Street Zone has groups of playing cards scattered throughout its second act, and making hands can net you lives and rings. Lost Labyrinth Zone has you balancing on boulders and lighting torches to light up darkened rooms. The torch is also useful for igniting explosives and solving an occasional puzzle. (Don't worry, that's not as gimmicky as it sounds. In fact, I'd even say that's one of my favorite levels in the game) Rest assured folks, Sonic 4 Episode 1 is less of a rehash and more of a new spin on classic concepts.
Speaking of which, another Sonic element that makes a long-overdue return is the special stages. While they look like the special stages from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, they don't really feel like them. Instead of controlling Sonic through a maze of rotating blocks, you control the maze and guide Sonic into rings and bumpers while searching for a Chaos Emerald. You can also press a button to make Sonic jump, though I pretty much never used this. The default control scheme is to tilt the maze with the d-pad, but through the options menu you can turn on motion controls. This lets you tilt the Wii remote to rotate the stage, and from what I tried it seemed to function well enough. However, I ended up sticking with the d-pad since it felt a bit more precise, which is vital in some of the later stages.
The graphics in Sonic 4 are gorgeous. The game has the same visual style as its Genesis siblings, but has current technology to back it up. It's all brightly colored, well animated, and rendered in 2.5D. The best example I can think of is from Casino Street Zone, whose backdrop is a shining metropolis at night, with brightly colored neon lights and spotlights flashing in the distance. Even the more dingy levels look great, with good texturing and fantastic lighting effects.
One of the best elements of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has always been the music. Always upbeat and catchy, Sega has always done a great job of providing us with ear candy while we're storming through various zones. Sonic 4 is, for the most part, no exception. There are various tunes sprinkled throughout the game, and they tend to do a great job of portraying their respective levels. While they're not all super catchy or, in a couple cases, particularly memorable, I still found myself humming along with the tune several times.
But as fun as Sonic 4 Episode 1 is, it certainly isn't flawless. While it isn't plagued with control issues or filled to the brim with retarded, boring as hell gimmicks, there were still a couple design choices that I found to be rather odd. The most major of these is that if you were to, say, curl into a ball and roll down a hill and up a ramp, Sonic uncurls from his ball form, leaving him vulnerable to any nearby enemies waiting for a chance to impale our blue hero. While you can still use the homing attack, I just don't see why this was necessary. All it does is put the player at a somewhat unfair disadvantage, and it's not like Sonic games have always done this or anything. I've played just about every Sonic game out there, and this is the first I've seen of this.
I also ran into some bugs once or twice, and I'm not talking about those robot wasps (Though there were plenty of those, too). In Casino Street Zone, there were a couple times were I got caught between a couple vertically-placed bumpers and was being ricochet back and forth. After a couple seconds, I fell through the bottom bumper and into a bottomless pit. There was also a boss fight where I seemed to have gotten trapped inside Robotnik's contraption, unable to roll away until Robotnik moved from the spot. The game also has a couple of odd difficulty spikes. Most of the game isn't particularly hard if you're a veteran of the Genesis games, but sometimes, and out of nowhere, you'll find yourself in a mega trial-and error situation, plummeting down a bottomless pit to your death several times before finally making your way across a series of quickly-moving platforms. Other times it's just more annoying then anything else, like when I needed to use some pinball flippers to launch me up a narrow shaft, only to keep hitting a devilishly-placed spring at the top that kept knocking me back down. I'm no pinball expert, and avoiding that thing seemed to be more luck then anything else. And don't even get me started on the final boss. It's like Robotnik just threw up his hands and said ?Screw it, I'm done fucking around with this stupid hedgehog? and outfitted his machine with a bunch of doomsday devices. I'm not going to spoil anything, but that's essentially what it felt like after trying to beat this guy for well over half-an-hour.
When all is said and done however, Sonic 4 is truly a lot of fun. If you're one of the many Sonic fans dying for a return to basics, then you would do well to pick this up. The game costs $15 on consoles, which I admit sounded a bit expensive at first for just four zones. After all, I bought the game this morning and have already beaten the game twice and gotten all of the Chaos Emeralds. However, a lot of the appeal in 2D Sonic games lay in the replay value. Finding different routes, beating your scores and times, or just replaying the game for fun. If that isn't enough, Sonic 4 also adds online leaderboards so you can try to beat other people's ridiculous speed-runs. In the end, I think Sonic 4 Episode 1 does actually have enough content to justify the price tag.
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Edit: Something has just been brought to my attention that I think needs addressing. If you're wondering what version to get, keep in mind the quality of the music in the WiiWare version has been severely downgraded to fit the format. Click on the links to compare the Casino Street Act 2 music on the PS3 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzxiOu1LJfA&feature=player_embedded#!] and Wii [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UttMub_vN4] versions. While this seems to be the only major difference between versions, this is something you should keep in mind.
) I too am a huge Sonic fan, growing with the MegaDrive as my first console, and I can't wait to get this nostalgia-fest. Great review, will you be doing the other episodes?
