Sonic the Hedgehog 4 [PSN, XBL, WWare]

[abigsmurf]

I think ultimately, everyone's being nit picky because we were promised a return to the series roots and we're getting Sonic Rush HD. Megaman 9 & 10 got returning a series to its roots down to an art (although I think they overdid the difficulty in those).

I will say though, if they cut back on the bottomless pits and the grind rails I'll probably enjoy this. I think a lot of the stuff in the leaked videos contains buggy elements still being tweaked and some aspects of the physics won't be final.

[randombs]

I'm probably going to buy it regardless. I did the same thing with SSF2THD, getting worried in the run-up to release because the sprites looked iffy in screenshots and it looked like a Flash game. Then I played it at a Neo Empire thing and it was fine. When it was released I bought it if only to help with the sales, and love it.

My main gripe with Sonic Rush was the dual-screeniness, really, and of course that's not present here. As for episodic content, again I'll wait until it's released to see just how much I'll be getting. I can barely bring myself to play anything for more than an hour nowadays, so I may end up actually preferring it like this, even if it may not necessarily represent good value.

[Supergoal]

This may sound silly, but one of my problems is due to the sideways movement on screen of the game, these stupid LCD / Plasma flat screens just can't refresh quick enough and it makes an awful blurring image which drives me crazy.

Back in the day we all used to play on CRT sets which obviously didn't have it anything as bad as current TVs do.
I'll probably be buying it but when I try to focus on something that blurs quite a lot I get sick..

[SmokeMeAKipper]

Didn't really know where to post this but it made me chuckle...

http://uk.video.ign.com/dor/articles/932213/collegehumor-videogames-/videos/collegehgames_prt_sonicand_33110.html

Particularly

->Open Spoiler<-

Crash Bandicoot's appearance at the end!

[Neon Ignition]

Don't know if this is common knowledge or not but Sonic 4 Episode 1 will be 5 Zones long, each split into 3 acts with the final boss at the end. Which depending on price seems a reasonable length for 1 episode.

[Flabio]

Not really feeling this one at the moment I have to say...

http://kotaku.com/5534610/more-sonic-4-video-spills-onto-internet-threatens-wildlife

[saturn-gamer]

Music is typical catchy Sonic fare.

I have to say it looks better than I expected, I remember Rush as being less about true platform gameplay and was about certain Sonic 4 would be a Rush for consoles.

However, this won't touch Sonic 3+K let alone Sonic CD, thats probably a given.

[jamesy]

They should have done really clean 16-bit style music. Pretty sure the music is why i could never get in to the sonic rush games.

[Baseley09]

That video was annoying to watch, hope it's not representative of actually playing it!

It's like a new Spandau Ballet album, love you guys but new album? No ta.

[Ouenben]

Looks an improvement on Sonic rush level design by any means but still isn't there. Wish they'd gone completely 2D Tbh

On a plus side I'm glad Super sonic is finally back playable in all levels not just the last zone.

[Neon Ignition]

To be honest, I recon that looks pretty good. Maybe not Sonic 2/3 level good and that level looks too platformey rather than speedy but still a worthy sequel. Fixed run animation finally too.

[randombs]

I'm suddenly very excited about this.

That video was annoying to watch, hope it's not representative of actually playing it!

I usually can't stand watching people play games for that very reason. Shouting JUMP! JUMP YOU C**T at a Youtube video is not good for blood pressure

[abigsmurf]

http://www.sonicstadium.org/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-4-announced-for-late-2010-iphone-confirmed

Coming to the iphone and it's been delayed a few months. Presumably they've noticed the pretty bad reactions to some of the videos that were leaked (most notably the awful looking mine cart level).

Precision platforming and touchscreen/tilt controls really don't mix.

[toythatkills]

Sonic's never been about precision, has it?

As for bad reactions leading to fixes, has that ever happened before? I mean, Scribblenauts is the obvious example of bad early reactions leading nowhere...

[abigsmurf]

Silent Hill Origins. Purple monsters, a control scheme that ripped off RE4 and a barricade system. It looked absolutely awful and it was mocked heavily when revealed. Devs were sacked and replaced and the game retooled.