From the Vault — originally published June 16, 2010. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.
I played a good twenty plus minutes of Sonic 4 at the Sega area today and it just did not do it for me. I actually feel bad for the developers because the game seems exactly like what fans have asked to get in a new Sonic game. What seems to be the problem is that the game itself is something I may have had fun with in the past but do not really enjoy anymore because there are new games with advanced mechanics that are inherently more fun. Like who wants to drive a Model T car instead of a Ferarri?
Sonic 4 plays like the original few Sonic 2D side scrolling games and actually is almost too much like past side scrolling Sonic games. You find your self either moving really fast not actually controlling Sonic as he runs or spins through a loop or in the air and then it almost always ends with an abrupt stop that is no fun at all. The problem is that it may have been fun over 10 years ago but now there are other things that are more fun to play. I played the Xbox 360 version and the game looks great. The graphics are nice and they added some nice animations in to “update the game.” Sonic can target enemies and items when jumping and can launch at them in a dash attack. You can crouch and charge a spin like in Sonic 2 as well. It is Sonic. It feels like a Sonic game. The Episode 1 content includes about 20 Zones so there is no lack of content and fans should not be worried that the episode system will cheat them in terms of the expense to gameplay hours ratio.
It’s actually really faithful to the original Sonic games but I just do not think I want to play it when I can play newer and more exciting games and that’s not the developers fault if their aim was to “HD Remix” classic Sonic. Sonic needs to be reinvented in a creative and modern way like Nintendo did with Super Mario Galaxy because I was bored while playing Sonic 4 episode 1.
Stay tuned for video footage of the game in action that I recorded.
