aight i don't think i need to brag myself for long with this game in particular because i don't know what needs to be said more than just full of hatred and curse words towards this game,it's genuinely that awful.

the fact that SEGA has the audacity to call this Sonic The Hedgehog 4 as sort of follow up and reimagine of old classic sonic games baffles me because in no way this deserves that title with how shitty it plays,how awful it looks,how utterly lazy it is with it's zones,and lastly it's just so fucking boring like you can tell this wasn't made out of passion more so it was made out of fucking greed.

Lazy, unimaginative, and filled with greed. These are the ingredients Sonic Team used to make the worst Sonic experience ever.

And there is no chemical X to save the day here. They succeeded and the game is just plain terrible. I was able to put up with the likes of Shadow the Hedgehog yet I literally quit this game 5 minutes in because of how bad it is. Sega put no effort into this game at all.

The controls feel awful and far worse than the original 1991 game. The running animation is super broken and the textures look like they were made to work on a Nokia 3210. It honestly felt like Sonic Team was trolling us by naming this Sonic 4 - there was absolutely nothing remotely close that feels like a classic Sonic experience here.

Even the music sucks ass in this game as I literally remember none of the tracks. Music was supposed to be a redeeming factor in a failed Sonic game and they completely butchered that part as well.

This game exists just for nostalgia cash. There is absolutely no reason to play it. In fact, you should hate this game for how effective it is at further tarnishing Sonic's already poor reputation.

...
...Que?
Eu não faço a mínima ideia do que tava na cabeça da SEGA fazendo esse jogo mas pqp não era algo bom.
Primeiro que o 4 no título é uma mentira, isso é só sonic 1 2 e nem isso é um título bom pra ele por que só tem 4 FASES nesse jogo (e uma delas é metropolis de sonic 2?????? Wtf???????????), fases essas que level design deixa a desejar e ost que pqpKKKKKKKKKKKK uma merda.
Jogar isso foi a definição da palavra ruim, tá óbvio que a sega não sabia que direção queria ir nesse jogo, se era uma reimaginação do 1, um jogo novo, reimaginação do 1 e 2??????? E essa falta de direção fez um jogo MERDA com músicas BOSTA com level design MERDA e NENHUMA diversão envolvida.
Eu ainda vou jogar o episódio 2, espero que com essa sequência já mude bastante coisa dessa bostinha aqui pq precisa mudar, e MUITO.
(Prefiro jogar essa duologia a sonic advance 3)

> Sonic Heroes sfx in 2010

... I didn't hate it???? It's just kinda flaccid. It's as fun as the Game Gear games, which is appropriate since it was originally designed as a smartphone exclusive. It looks and feels very cheap, I can definitely see why a lot of fans despise it. (Naming it Sonic 4 REALLY didn't help its case.)

The soundtrack is fucking awful though, the only exception being Lost Labyrinth. Also, dogshit final boss fight, what the hell was that.

But I dunno, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. I see little reason to go back to this when there are plenty of better 2D Sonic games to pick from, but if I ever did another Sonic marathon after this, I wouldn't mind playing it again. Very inoffensive, imo. (naming aside)

(written on April 28th, 2024) Ugh... I just do NOT like this game. While I think the first half is just boring and inoffensive, the 2nd half is so infuriating to me with the amount of bullshit such as the torch puzzle in Labyrinth, the bottomless pits at times and the classic Dimps level design trope of "you'll only go fast when we want you to." Combined with Sonic not being fun to control due to missing basic properties such as not being able to properly roll down slopes, no proper momentum and Sonic weirdly being able to stop on a dime at times, you have a game that's not really fun to play and one of the worst Sonic games IMO. The bland visuals and soundtrack also don't help anything. 3.5/10, don't play if you value your sanity. I felt like the only reason I was somewhat sane playing was that at the same time I was watching ATLA (ofc the good one) on another monitor.

This is the worst game in the series.

I'm not even gonna pretend like if I have some extensive prelude as to my experience with it or whatever. I've played it before, it sucked just as much then as it does now. But Sonic 4 Episode 1 for me sucks in a very special way compared to any other Sonic game, because it embodies literally every single thing that I don't want this franchise to be.

Bland visuals that are plasticky and lifeless, zero attempt to have any sort of story or deeper narrative theme via cutscenes or in-game storytelling other than "Eggman bad. Go stop him", horrendous controls that fundamentally fail at replicating the physics of the Genesis games and even on their own merits are completely trash, level design that is either automated up the ass or tediously boring, gimmicks shoved into every stage that make the whole game feel unfocused and take away from the gameplay rather than working alongside it, models without any sort of life that move like puppets on a stage (with ugly fullbright filters on top of them on the PC version, as if to add insult to injury), a horrible soundtrack in which the only good track is one from a past game and every other song is an ear bleeding mess of synths and Sonic 1/2 drums, a pandering towards nostalgia that feels shoved into your face and completely misses what made any of those things meaningful to begin with, replacing them instead with husks of themselves, and perhaps most importantly of all, a consistent, inescapable lack of care from part of the developers.

I mean, why would they care? They made this as a quick little mobile game before Sega rebranded it as the sequel to one of the greatest 2D platformers of the 90's just so that it would sell more. As long as the game ran fine and there weren't that many bugs and Sonic's stupid friends weren't anywhere to be seen, who cared if the game was a complete betrayal of what came before? Who cares if this would forever be the official sequel to that beloved legacy of classics by name and name alone? Who cares if the game is nowhere near the level of quality that it should be? As long as it's not Sonic '06, just ship it out and let 'em have it.

I wish I could be mad towards this game, I wish I had some sort of visceral hatred towards it that made me pour foam out the mouth in pure autistic rage whenever I saw it, but the truth is that when playing Sonic 4 Episode 1, I feel nothing. Genuinely nothing. During this playthrough I had to talk to myself just to not fall asleep in sheer boredom, because there was nothing to be enthralled by. It's just going through the motions because Sonic, getting the Chaos Emeralds because Sonic, and fighting some robot at the end, because Sonic. It almost feels like if it's saying: "That's all this series should be, that's all it'll ever be allowed to be for the general public, and that's all that is worth praising about it forever and ever. Now shut up and take another Green Hill rehash".

I know this game is way past the point of getting truly mad at, I mean for fucks sake it's old enough to use social media now, and obviously looking at the series now, it's clear that Sonic Team is if nothing else making an attempt to be better and to try with their projects again, but to me? This right here will forever remain as rock bottom. The ultimate testament to when Sega and Sonic Team put no effort into what they make, slap Sonic on the cover and call it a day.

Just go play Triple Trouble 16-Bit instead, and leave this in the dumpster where it's firmly set it's throne.