Sonic 4: Episode 1 Review

It's finally here. There was a long delay, a boat load of fan hate, and a lot of skepticism. We now have Sonic 4, Sega's attempt to return to the roots of the Sonic universe. Will Sega win us over? Or will this game be the flop everyone who never played it thought it would be? Check out my impressions after the jump.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 

Platform(s): Xbox 360 [Reviewed], Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, iPhone

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: Sega

Released: October 11/12/13, 2010

Sonic 4: Episode 1 has 4 zones that consist of 4 stages (3 platformer areas, and one boss battle as a 4th stage). It also has a 5th zone called "special stages" that you will unlock as you meet certain requirements in stages (getting a set amount of rings and jumping through a giant ring at the end of the stage). The 4 main zones all consist of remade areas from old Sonic games: Splash Hill, Casino Street, Lost Labyrinth and Mad Gear Zone.

Once you manage to beat the three stages in each zone, you'll get to the 4th stage which will also be a reworked boss battle with Sonic's old foe Dr. Eggman. For the small amount of money the episode costs, you will definitely get your money's worth if you've been waiting for a decent Sonic game in the last 15 years.

One of the big problems I noticed right off the get go with Sonic 4 was the physics. For example, in the Sonic games of old as you rolled down a hill you would continue to build momentum. However in Sonic 4 if you let go of the forward button, your momentum immediately stops, which sometimes left me somewhat baffled. This can also work in your benefit at times though. You can stop on a dime in the air by releasing the forward button which can really come in handy when trying to make precise jumps.

Although a lot of people will probably disagree with me, I loved the music. It's not Michael Jackson quality Sonic music, but I don't think anything ever will be. This, for me, was a damn close second though. They made me feel nostalgic from beginning to end with fantastic scores that reminded me of my childhood.

Some of the new stages are just brilliant, like World of Darkness. The stage gives you a torch, and you can only see a little bit around Sonic. The rest is darkness. As you go, you light torches that will let you see a bigger area temporarily. It just reminded me so much of games from my childhood where something so simple could make something so fun.

The mine cart parts everyone was so worried about were nowhere near as bad as they were made out to be. They were short, but comparable to the mine cart stages in Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. I've played through the stage multiple times now, and even when I tried I couldn't get it to look any where near as bad as the way it was depicted.

The Casino stage took what I loved so much from the first one, and added to it. As you go through the stages you will collect cards. These cards will give you free men, rings, and sometimes nothing at all. They also had one stage where you would take a deck of cards and run across vast areas of the stage on them until the deck ran out of cards. It looks really neat.

The Mad Gear Zone is just like Sonic 2's Metropolis Zone. Very beautiful in how it's laid out, but very frustrating at certain points. The stages in this zone felt a little long, and even drawn out at times. I still had fun though. I really enjoyed the "Escape the cog trap" stage. This stage really reminded me of the frustrating parts of Metropolis Zone from when I was a kid, I got upset once or twice, but it was so much fun I didn't care.

The last stage frustrated the hell out of me, but in a good way. It was a non-stop gauntlet of previous boss fights, followed by a difficult final encounter that I won't speak of here, as to not ruin it for readers who haven't played. Needless to say, it took me a while to conquer this one. Once I got it down, though, it was cake walk to do over again.

Sonic 4 definitely has some flaws, and there are a lot of people out there just trying to find reasons to hate this game, but if you give it a chance, it is actually a lot of fun. I think Sega has something here and if they can fix the physics by episode 2, they will have something magical on their hands. If you can look past the fact that you need to keep holding forward to keep going, I guarantee you'll have fun with this return to what Sonic should be.

8/10