Sonic the Hedgehog 4

[Sane]

That does look awesome, I may try it out when I got some time to find an emulator and set it up.

[Lyris]

I'm sure you could play it on a real Sega/Mega CD as well.

I had a spin of it last night and not all the levels seem to be QUITE as good an imitation as that, but it's excellent all the same.

[abigsmurf]

I heard the stuck in a pinball bit is exclusive to the iPhone version. There are some bits which look designed for tilt control (I'm playing on the 360, er, with the analogue stick) but they are minimal. There is one stupid bit in Zone 3 Act 3 which I died continuously on not knowing what to do. Then read up that I had to hold down as well as doing the tilting left and right.

Mk.2!

[SuperBeatBoy]

Haha, i remember when i first had Sonic 3, it took me an age to work out how to get past those drums! Had a group together with my friends to work it out.

[saturn-gamer]

The temple boss with its randomness is the most useless boss ever. Incredibly annoying.

I also feel that the jump IS borked, at the casino level 2 card platform section its seemingly impossible to make a fluent string of jumps. The slow start and the fact adjusting in air ensures you go all stationary makes this feel incredibly sloppy.

About S3, I was stuck there for 6 months. Used debug to fly past it until I suddenly found out that all you had to do was press up and down. Had no manual at the time, but heard it was being explained in there?

[Super Monkey Balls]

You're all snobs. I'm a massive Sonic fan with Elton sized rose tinted specs and I enjoyed this very much.

Yes the HD graphics are tacky and soulless, yes it's too easy, and yes it's more "Sonic HD" than "Sonic 4" with its remixed zones, but the level design is superb, brimming with neat ideas and variety and at least as balanced as the old Sonics.

There are a couple of minor difficulty spikes like the casino cards but nothing that you can't overcome with common sense. As mentioned above, Sonic 3 committed far worse sins. Sonic 4 is beautifully paced.

And yeah, he controls a bit differently on a brand new console and game engine, big surprise.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I thought the temple boss was easy, all you need to do is get in the area where Robotnik is (yeah i'm not saying Eggman).

The only boss i had trouble with was the final one, but even then he was a cakewalk compared to Mecha-Robotnik from Sonic 2.

[Lyris]

And yeah, he controls a bit differently on a brand new console and game engine, big surprise.

Point-missing of the century!

[Rock]

Got the Wii version of this earlier and i'm surprised at a lot of the nitpicking. To me there's a lot more stage design and actual platforming to Sonic 4 than out and out speedy, 'hold-right-to-win' gameplay, which makes me think more of Sonic 1. Then again there's some of the timed puzzles from Sonic and Knuckles's Sandopolis, the casino area from Sonic 2,

->Open Spoiler<-

the final boss from Sonic 2, with a twist

... just so much of it makes me remember spending whole afternoons working through the old games. And in these days of werehogs and human-kissing, that's a great thing.

Sure the music's a bit samey (but even has a few high points) and there are certainly a few bottomless pits, but the developers have had more fun here than they did with any of the Sonic Advances, and it feels a lot more Sonic-y than Rush. I didn't see all that many issues with the physics either other than Sonic's gradual speedup when running and some of the ramps I had to go back and spindash up because I couldn't quite make it. Then again, I remember the latter in some of the old games too...

A theory floating round is that Episode 1 is basically the Sonic 1 of the saga. Episode 2 will be the Sonic 2, and Episode 3 will be the Sonic 3+K that maybe links them all together - though I am unsure how many episodes they're doing. I'd be happy to see Tails and Knuckles at least, or at least the old Sonic 2 running down a halfpipe bonus stage popping up again.

Sonic 4 isn't the Second Coming of Sonic, but it's certainly an incredibly solid game that shows that Sega are trying to improve Sonic's standing and forget about the failures of the past.

Also: Sonic Megamix is great! I've been following it and the video Lyris posted is from a forthcoming new version of it I'm eagerly awaiting. I wish the Sonic 4 homing attack was like Megamix's sometimes but S4's lockon system for homing attacks is interesting, too. Definitely the best fan hack out there, and worth a play. And you can burn it and play it in an original Mega CD too!

[Super Monkey Balls]

Point-missing of the century!

Do enlighten me. I've not had any issues with the controls. The timing of the homing attack takes some getting used to but other than that its smooth as butter. So what if the physics aren't identical.

[Sketcz]

So what if the physics aren't identical.

The whole point of Sonic 4 is they should be.

If this were Sonic Heroic Determination (get it?), a new instalment in the series, there would be less reason to complain.

By calling it 4, Sega were basically saying: this will have precisely the same physics as 1, 2, 3 and S&K.

[Dogg Thang]

I honestly don't know if I agree with that. Sequels don't have to be the exact same as their prequels.

It's just that they shouldn't be worse. Especially when it's something as fundamental as how the character you play for the entire game controls.

[Tig]

I know it would be easy to dismiss the guy in that video as either a) a pedant in the vein of the Simpson's Comic book nerd, or b) a complete git.
But the things he points out in the vid are actually pretty major. The jumping physics look like something from a cheapy flash game.



I've yet to have hands-on with S4, but from what I've seen there I'd say that the people who've been complaining about the physics have got a valid point of argument.




Also, I don't believe that you can dismiss complaints about the physics as pedantry when it comes to Sonic 4. In this type of platformer, the gameplay IS the physics.
The way the character handles is quite literally the game.

[importaku]

Tried the demo out last night, while it looks nice i can't get on with how it controls. Sorry won't be paying for the full unlock as i personally think it's pants. Sonics control just feels so alien, like a fanmade game that didn't quite get the mechanics right. Can totally relate to the people who find it the same way, it's sonic 4 so it should at least have the same sonic physics as the previous ones.

Sega got so close this time but screwed it up on the controls, still theres hope as im watching sonic colours & it's looking pretty awesome to be honest. Fingers crossed.

[randombs]

I got to witness the Casino zone thing yesterday at Shozuki's place and oh dear God in Heaven I'm going to buy Sonic 4 now.

The stage itself won me over pretty much instantly but then he told me he played the entire game with just the d-pad (so no need for sixaxis for the mine cart level - you can turn it off in the options and no idea what that reviewer was talking about on Videogames Daily.

SATURN PAD GO!