Sonic the Hedgehog 4 [XBLA/PSN/Wii]

[EOJ]

I hear this has been released on the PSN, and will come out on XBLA and Wii in the next day or two.
Anyone play it yet? I'm a sucker for old-school Sonic, particularly Sonic 2 and Sonic CD (which is my fave).
This looks pretty nice from the vids, I'm sure I'll spring for the XBLA version just to sate my curiosity.

[njiska]

It's on the Wii today, PSN tomorrow, XBLA Wed. As for whether or not it's good is a bit harder to decide. I played the first two zones tonight and here are my thoughts.

- Music is nothing to write home about
- Stages look gorgeous espcially the Casio night stage, but Sonic looks weird and the Spinball animation is just weird. It sort of appears on top of Sonic and then the 3d model morphs into it.
- Stage Design is sort of a cross between Sonic 2 and Sonic Rush. In other words they look like Sonic 2 stages but still have a lot of pits and spikes
- Sonic is very slow. His initial start up speed for running is even slower than Sonic CD and that's pretty slow to begin with. Running full tilt he feels about half the speed of Sonic 2. Maybe not quite that slow but it definitely feels like their should be more acceleration that there is.
- You are forced to use the homing attack. Ramps will launch you towards enemies and even if you rolled into them you'll usually become normal standing Sonic once you go airborne and forcing a homing attack. It's also required for crossing pits.
- Homing Attack makes defeating Robotnik/Eggman really, really easy. Curiously the boss fights appear to be slight modification of classic boss battles.

It's not bad as far as modern Sonic games go, but for the ridiculous price of $15 you really need to play the trial before you buy it.

[EOJ]

Thanks for the impressions. Too bad about the speed not being too fast. I would have liked to see some really massive speed bursts. That type of thing really made the original Sonic 1-3 an adrenaline rush.

[njiska]

It may get better in the later stages, but the way things are going with the stages it looks like you'll have less and less room to open up.

[antares]

I posted this already in the Sonic 4 thread on the shmups board but here are my impressions:

I played through it on my iPod and it's half the length of Sonic 2 or 3.
Also I'm a bit dissapointed, maybe I expected to much. All the stage themes, enemies, bosses, are recycled from Sonic 1 and 2. The gameplay itself feels like playing a Sonic Advance game (which isn't surprising now that I found out it's been developed by the same studio).
Still a nice game but it certainly doesn't deserve the name Sonic 4.


I don't know if you guys have already heard but a new Sonic Anniversary game is rumoured for 2011 that will feature the best stages from all Sonic games beginning with Sonic 1 through Sonic Adventure 2 remastered with HD graphics. I wonder how this one will turn out.
Also I heard that Sonic Colors on the Wii is allegedly the best 3D Sonic game since the original Sonic Adventure.

[njiska]

Well shit. This rarely happens but i'm going to retract many of my prior comments. Played another few hours of it today and instead of trying to play it like a classic Sonic game I decided to embrace the homing attack. What a difference it made. After getting into the natural flow of jumping and twitch attacking it was like I was playing a totally different game. Sonic moves much faster now, still not quite as fast as Sonic 2, but at least as quick as Sonic CD. Levels not longer feel like an endless sea of pits. I'm actually having fun.

Made it to the Lost Labyrinth stage this time and I must say it's not as good as the others. I mean the first stage is alright with a couple of cool boulder related scenes, but the timed puzzles in the second stage are really frustrating.

Also got a chance to take a look at the game in HD on the PS3. Sonic looks much, much better. The morph into the spinball looks far more fluid and less like a texture popped on top of a 3D model.

EOJ, for what it's worth you really should grab the trial on XBLA or PSN and give it a look. It's only the first stage of the first zone but it'll give you an idea of what your in for. Just be sure to play through it a few times if it isn't clicking with you to see if anything changes.

[EOJ]

Cool beans. I'll download this tomorrow.

[Kewing]

Given that I once was a heavy fan of Sonic games, and still I am of the more classic ones, it's no surprise I'll grab this on release (which if I'm not wrong it's today on XBLA).
I still think the price is a bit steep for an episode, but I can't resist it...
Hoping it will be at least half good of what I'd like it to be.

[EOJ]

I slapped down my 1200MS points for this, and it's OK. I was having fun until I hit a stage in the casino world where I had to jump over these stupid playing cards, and if the timing is off just a bit, you fall and die. So fucking annoying, only because of the crappy jumping controls. It feels pretty unnatural.

Other than that, the game is fun. It runs really fast, and the homing thing is a nice addition to keep things at a fast pace (most of the time).

[njiska]

That's the long run on the cards over the pit right? The key is to homing attack as you jump onto the top layer. This gives you a slight speed boost and allows you to make it across. And if you think that's fun wait till you get to the second Lost Labyrinth stage. Bleeding nightmare light puzzle.

Interesting comparison of the Physics in Sonic 4 to Sonic 2. The jumping changes are really extreme.

http://youtu.be/f6-1cGzPn3E?a

[antares]

I bought this now on PSN too in the hope that the "big" version will play much better than the iPod game. Sadly it's the other way around. All the shortcomings of Sonic 4 are much sharper on the big screen. Sonic feels like he has glue under his shoes.

Maybe if you haven't played any of the original Mega Drive games for a longer time you won't notice the differences in gameplay that much. I play the original games quite often as my 6 year old loves all of them and the differences are huge imo.
Really disappointed now