Sonic 4: Episiode 1
I’m torn.
Firstly, I only played the trial demo. I’ve literally only played Act 1 of the first zone. Part of me likes it, part of me is… hmm, what is the word I’m looking for. Repulsed is too strong. I don’t know, something doesn’t sit right put it that way.
For starters, I never liked the homing attack. NEVER. Now, call me old fashioned but when I play a platformer I like there to be some requirement for precise jumps. Whether landing on an enemies head, or leaping to a far away platform. What I don’t expect is to just be able to double tap jump and automatically zoom to, and destroy the nearest enemy. Nor do I like to automatically home in on a jump pad. Nor do I like missing a jump only to make it by hitting double jump. OK, fair enough, I could play without using it, but it’s my understanding that some of the level design has been built around the assumption that people WILL be using it which leaves me in a bind.
I understand that in the modern gaming world, everyone gets a medal for showing up, games like to strip difficulty back to get as wide an audience as possible yada yada.. but I don’t like it. My play through of Act 1 was done in about 2 minutes, I literally whizzed through the entire level with double jumps and auto lock on. I lost zero rings and encountered very little difficulty. Yes, opening act is supposed to be easy, but even so… previous 2D sonic games have ALL had a stronger opening act compared to this in my opinion.
Graphically I like it. I like HD 2D when done well and this looks very nice no doubt there. The new Sonic design looks, OK. Well that’s harsh, it does look good… when standing. Running, meh. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. Which brings me to my biggest complaint. The physics.
They don’t seem right. Sometimes Sonic is painfully slow to get moving, as though he has concrete shoes on. Other times a quick (here it is again) double jump will speed you up. In previous sonic games if you were lacking enough speed you couldn’t make it up certain slopes. In this version you can slow waltz up steep slopes that would have sent you packing in Sonic 2. It’s funny, some sections flew by as fast as I remember older Sonic games being. Then I remind myself that is largely thanks to double jump. I’m not even looking for pads, I just double jump to them and spring off again. I’m not even looking. *sigh*
I can get past the character design changes. I can get past the weakish running animation. What I can’t get past is the toned down difficulty that the homing attack feature has caused. I’m not sure I’d spend 1200 MS points on this simply because I don’t feel it will offer any challenge.
In conclusion, I think it speaks volumes that after playing through Act 1 twice.. I loaded up Sonic 2 and smiled. Not only did I have a lot more fun, but the game is cheaper on XBLA. Hell you could pick up S1/2 and still have some change for a banana Frijj!
A little disappointing overall, but could have been worse. If homing attack sounds like you won’t be bothered by it, give it a whirl. I’ll personally wait it out for Ep1 to be discounted before I try the full version. I’m still interested in Ep2 if only to see how they have progressed it.
