Originally, this game was supposed to be a platformer for mobile, BUT Sega decided that they should market this shitty 4 zone platformer as the successor to one of the greatest platformers ever made. Thus, increasing people's hype and expectations. Lo and behold, this game ended up being shit. Sonic is a weird floating orb in generic zones that are simply lifted from Sonic 1, and it's just not fun. It tries so hard to be a Genesis game but fails on every mark. My only praise for this game is that it's playable.

Esse jogo inicialmente era para se chamar Sonic the Portable, um novo jogo de Sonic exclusivo para celulares com a proposta de trazer o gameplay 2D de volta. Por exigência da Sega, acabou virando a bizarrice que foi lançada. É um jogo bem medíocre em termos de gameplay, gráfico e trilha sonora, e sem originalidade, já que todas as fases são reciclagens dos conceitos da trilogia original de Mega Drive. Apesar da crítica, ele é um jogo... funcional. Não provoca dor de cabeça, náusea ou uma vontade incontrolável de arremessar seu computador ou videogame pela janela, o que já é melhor do que muita coisa por aí, inclusive outros jogos de Sonic. Vale a pena ser jogado pela curiosidade mórbida ou para quem é fã de Sonic. Apesar de a física ser terrível e o Sonic parecer que está usando calças jeans molhadas e andar igual ao Simon Belmont do Super Castlevania IV, é relativamente ok. Eu tenho um apego especial a esse jogo, pois joguei numa época em que estava me reconectando com a franquia e com jogos em geral.

This is a classic case of trying to please two different audiences and ending up pleasing absolutely no one. I'm always shocked when I remember what SEGA did with this game. Sonic 4 was supposed to be a mobile exclusive, something made for bored kids to play on the school bus... how the fuck did SEGA think it was a good idea to release this on console? Why bring a game made for one specific audience to a completely different one? Any company barely in touch with its fans could see miles away that this was not a good idea.

It's not completely unplayable; it's just a bad joke. They were actually aiming to bring the feel of Sonic Unleashed day stages to the iconic 2D Sonic style... we can tell how well this plan went. This game was already dated when it was released; everything about this game is cheap, from the amateur, horrible graphics to the soundtrack filled with 14-year-old me using FL Studio 12 type beats and stupid level design that ruined any chances of the few interesting stages being fun.

Imagine the audacity to call this game a sequel to the best Sonic game ever made. If it were just a spin-off mobile Sonic game like it was supposed to be, I would understand way more how poorly made this game is, but what SEGA did was too much. I dread the fateful day I play the second episode of this garbage.

Эта игра была ошибкой.

Полная рецензия: «СИКВЕЛ, КОТОРЫЙ ФАНАТЫ ЖДАЛИ 16 ЛЕТ НАКОНЕЦ-ТО ЗДЕСЬ». Таким синопсисом на релизе встречала нас новоявленная игра Сеги и Соник Тим, которая являлась прямым продолжение оригинальной трилогии 2д игр и продолжала историю противостояния Соника и Доктора Роботника.

Говорить о каком-то там сюжете нет смысла, потому что разрабы чхать хотели, что у нас уже на тот момент был 2009 год, и многие 2д игры адаптировались к новым видам повествования и приемам нарратива. Здесь Соник Тим решили оставить всё, как было раньше: молчаливых персонажей, скудные кастсцены в переходах между игровыми зонами, а также классический сюжетный базис в виде «Злой доктор похитил зверушек, Соник побежал спасать». Иными словами, вместо какой-то полноценной 4 части мы просто видим ремейк оригинала. Да такой ремейк, что здесь тупо наложили 3д текстуры поверх знакомых локаций.

И говоря про локации, здесь просто ублюдский лвл-дизайн и скотское отношение к оригиналу. Мало того, что здесь всего 5 зон, взятых из 1 и 2 части Соника, так и выполнены они здесь со всем похуизмом и проблемами, которые я описывал в обзорах прошлых частей: душный платформинг, пространственная фрустрация и отсутствие драйва. Все ключевые ошибки серии в одном экземпляре - получите и распишитесь. Про графику я лучше промолчу, потому что даже фанаты на Ютубе в своих ремейках справлялись и то лучше. Самое смешное, что весь похуизм разрабов и студии виднеется ещё с главного меню, где мы просто видим голову Соника на фоне первой локации и полупрозрачный серый квадрат, внутри которого присутствуют иконки выбора. Ну ахуеть теперь, и эту залупу продавали за 30-40$ на релизе.

Управление Соником здесь тоже сделано максимально по-уебански из-за местного движка и физона. Синий ведёт себя как корова на льду, которая большую часть времени не может набрать скорость, но если наберёт, то, скорее всего, улетит в первую же пропасть из-за невозможности остановиться. К классической 2д формуле они тут прикрутили хоуминг-атаку и сделали они это в большей степени для сглаживания углов внутри управления ёжиком, потому что без неё игра бы стала моментами просто непроходимой. Правда и сам хоуминг иногда очень плохо лочится и банально не работает местами.

Знаете, самое смешное это то, что они решили вернуть тот самый спешл стейдж из первой части. Ту самую хуйню, которую многие считают одной из главных проблем оригинала. Да, они попытались тут как-то с ней поработать и что-то исправить, но ситуацию явно кардинально не изменили. Бонус уровень как был рандомной вырвиглазной залупой, так ей и остался, только теперь под соусом 3д.

В заключении могу сказать, что Sonic: the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 - одна из самых позорных вещей в индустрии, которую я видел. Атрофированная попытка нажиться на ностальгии с кривым лвл-дизайном, отсутствием какой-либо оригинальности, устаревшим нарративом, плохоуправляемым главным героем и плохим визуалом. Чтобы вы понимали, ЗДЕСЬ СОСЕТ ДАЖЕ МУЗЫКА, а музыка в Сонике всегда была ахуенна.

I was originally going to do Sonic 4 as a single game, but after playing through Episode 1 and Episode 2, it’s evident that they’re completely different games so I’ve decided to give them separate slots. The “Episode” part of this is a complete lie, it seems.

Also a complete lie is the “Sonic the Hedgehog 4” name it has been given. It’s nothing like a sequel to the original games in any way. The best way I can justify the name is that it’s a new take on the Game Gear “Sonic the Hedgehog 4”, aka Sonic Blast, which seems apt due to the more maze-like levels and the “Donkey Kong Country” style graphics, where Sonic’s sprite is based on a 3D model. It kind of looks similar to the Sonic Blast one, too.

The other parts of the game take on different styles. The levels look like they’re 2D textures with some shading added in photoshop to make it “look” 3D. The backgrounds are sometimes layers of 2D, but other times are fully 3D. Dr Robotnic has a cel shaded style and stands out. There’s no consistency to the graphical style at all.

Also like Sonic Blast is how slow it takes Sonic to get moving. Moving from a standstill is so slow it’s agonising. Especially when you’re trying to move Sonic away from an obstacle. There’s something off about the way he moves and jumps as well. It’s not nice to play. Sonic Blast 2 (the name I’ve given this game) also features the homing attack from the 3D games, but unlike some of those, it also kills Sonic’s momentum, so you have to start moving from a standstill again. Even when you have the Power Sneakers, Sonic still feels slow.

The levels are a rehash of previous levels: Green Hill, Casino Night, Labyrinth and Scrap Brain. They have different names in Sonic Blast 2, but they don’t feel different (although Scrap Brain has elements from a Sonic 2 level). There’s three acts for each zone and two of these are all incredibly dull, just retreading old ground. The second act of each stage does try something new.

The second act of Casino Night introduces a cannon mechanic, where you have to aim and fire Sonic. Aiming is very slow and it’s not smooth or fun at all. Labyrinth zone act 2 is dark and Sonic has a torch, lighting other torches (sometimes activating switches) and setting off TNT. With a better level design and physics, this level could actually be really good.

The bosses are mostly the same as the original bosses, with a brief second stage. Even the final boss is just the final boss from Sonic 2, and you have to fight all the previous bosses again to reach it.

Sonic Blast 2 is a poor rehash of Sonic 1 & 2, with bad graphics and wonky physics. It’s a very poor Sonic game.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 feels bad, looks bad, sounds bad too (uh-huh, that's right).

About the only positive thing Episode 1 did was trigger a mass discussion about Sonic's physicality in the Genesis games, and this deeper analysis of what made them feel so good to play is (I believe) part of what made Sonic Mania so marketable years later. It also resulted in the phrase "momentum based gameplay" getting played out to the point of derision. I've seen people make the argument in the years since Episode 1's release that a 2D Sonic game doesn't need to replicate the physics of the Genesis era, and they're not wrong even if I think it should be part and parcel with a game billing itself as the fourth entry in that specific series. However, Sonic 4's physics are so bad that the lack of momentum directly interferes with the level design and platforming. Muscle memory makes me release my thumb from the d-pad, but Sonic drops like a rock into a pit of spikes. That feels bad no matter what the game is called.

Like, yes, the expectation is there and Sonic 4 is certainly worse for it, but even if you called it by another name, it just isn't good. The reuse of old level themes, badniks, and bosses felt cheap at the time, clearly playing to an audience Sonic Team didn't really know how to cater to beyond surface-level nods. The in-game explanation for Bubbles and other badniks being around is essentially "Dr. Robotnik ran out of fuckin' money," an almost perfect allegory for Sonic Team and Dimps hitting their creative bottom, destitute of ideas.

This desperate pandering went on to define the series for such a long time after, best exemplified by the incessant trotting out of Green Hill game after game. Though I hate to evoke Mania again, it is the game to get this right, and that was the result of bringing in outside blood that actually knew what pieces Sonic Team was missing. Perhaps the comparison is a cheap way to further denigrate a game and developer that has been thoroughly run through the mud, but it's also taken them 13 years to stop reusing old Zones, so I don't really care.

And you all know that already, because Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 is nearly as infamous as Sonic 2006 and Sonic Boom. It's a well-covered laughing stock, wrung so dry of content that it is as brittle as the bones I'm now sucking marrow from. Sonic standing perfectly parallel to the ground with his feet glued to a wall is an image that will outlive me.