Super Sonic or Sub Sonic? A Review
Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Episode 1, is a game that has been much anticipated, berated, and raved about in the last year, but has been the long awaited sequel to the last in the series, Sonic & Knuckles (although most gamers will cite Sonic 3 & Knuckles due to the lock on nature of the cartridge format).
First Impressions:
On loading up the game, it was pleasing to note the swoosh as Sonic ran back and forth across the Sega logo, with the now legendary “Seeeee-gaahhhhhh” blaring out of the speakers. The next icon is Sonic Team (a debatable addition as the major programmers of this game are in fact, a third party named Dimps – the programmers of the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS Sonic games).
The title screen is bright, and the overall style pleasing to the eye. The animation of Sonic jumping out of the crest is, however, very jagged when viewed on an HD screen, and one suspects that this late addition could have done with some extra frames to make it all a lot smoother. Nevertheless, the idea is there, and a decent one, although the question remains as to why this feature was not there from the beginning.
Loading up the game gives three possible profiles, and this seems to be a significant step down from the numerous save files of the previous (lock-on) title in the series, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Overall three saves is sufficient, however, for the length of the game. One hopes Episode 2, as was the case with Sonic 3 when locked onto Sonic & Knuckles, will allow a few more save files.
The options menu has a curious one – controls. There's no way of changing the button layout (Sonic 4 only uses the D-Pad on the wii remote, and a button, and for that matter it is the same for the other consoles), so it begs the question, why this is this function available?
Overall, the music for the title screen was pleasing, having something of the Genesis quality to it. The first impressions were good.
The Zones:
Splash Hill Zone Splash Hill Zone is the first of the four zones, although after playing just one act of Splash Hill Zone, you gain access to all of the four zones, and the ability to play whatever level you like in whatever order. Only by beating all of the zones and their acts once through, will you gain access to the final level, E.G.G. Station Zone.
There is an option for continuing past each Zone by pressing the A button on the Wiimote, and to be honest, this feels rather redundant insomuch that even the option of doing so removes the entire point of the platform game. But more on that later.
Splash Hill Zone is cleverly designed as a tribute of sorts to all of the major Sonic games “...hill zones” (with the possible exception being Hill Top Zone from Sonic 2). The graphics are crisp and clear, the colours bright and vibrant, and Sonic stands out very well on an HD screen against the level.
Overall, the level design is good, there are plenty of platforms, loops and spirals throughout, and like most of the “...Hill” zones in Sonic games, there are tons of springs throughout. The one criticism here might be that there are still too many of these springs, and that the abundance of them – each one giving a homing attack lock on – can sometimes distract from the sense of platforming of the level. The real surprise is the amount of speed boosts throughout the level, which seemed to crop up every time Sonic needed to get through a loop or a spiral.
Only Zones 2 and 3 could boast any level of gimmicks, the former introducing swinging vines, used to gain height, and the former bringing to the table a zip line (last seen in a Master System Sonic game), both of which utilize the homing attack as a means of latching onto, and powering, the gimmick. Zone 1 was much more basic in comparison, but as an opening zone to the game, it's to be expected. None of the first zones to the previous four genesis titles was particularly hard either, so this zone serves well as an introduction to the game's key mechanics, with the possible exception being the tame, reused Sonic 1 Boss, which finished off the act.
Lost Labyrinth Zone I chose to play through Lost Labyrinth Zone next as it was the zone which appealed most to me. Remembering the slow paced, but definitive platforming nature of the zone it's theme is derived from – similarly titled Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1 – I was expecting a level big on platforming. That's not quite what happened. All three acts suffer from an overuse of springs, something which seems to define Sonic 4 overall.
There's too much emphasis on gaining height through the use of said springs, as opposed to jumping from moving platforms and similar, of which there are a few instances, but woefully under represented in comparison to the over use of the spring.
In each act, there's a gimmick of sorts, as with all the zones in the game – the first being the rolling balls, which can crush Sonic, or be used by Sonic to get across very real bottomless pits! The second, the use of a torch to light the way (and blow up dynamite), and the now infamous mine cart to cross sections of the level at high speed. These gimmicks are welcome, and well used, but the whole zone suffers from a lack of actual jumping. That's not to say that there isn't platforming, only that it becomes few and far between, with Sonic rebounding from springs constantly, and being directed where to go by the design of the level, as opposed true exploration of a level where the player points Sonic in a direction and goes exploring.
Like Splash Hill Zone, there's several ways to get through a level, and in that sense, the level designers have succeeded in bringing back a bit of the Genesis Genius to the fore, but overall the level feels and plays automatically. There's only a real sense of speed when Sonic hits a slope trying to avoid a boulder. The puzzles with the torch in the second act, however, are fantastic bit pieces and really liven up the platform aspect of the game.
Casino Street Zone This is the zone that would make or break simply on the game's engine. Therefore it was a severe disappointment to find that because of Sonic's own movements, this level became unnecessarily more difficult in places, or “cheap” than it needed to be.
One of the problems I'll address in more detail later on is the lack of momentum that Sonic has – in a pinball type level, with bumpers, flippers and similar, you expect the object you throw around to have some momentum. This is what the original games were all about, in many ways – a throwback to the pinball era, on a games console. Sonic was a round object for a good reason – to replicate the physics of a ball being thrown about. In previous titles, Sonic would “arc” through the air, replicating the way in which a ball is thrown across a room. It would have a circular trajectory, and momentum which carried it.
Sonic in this game has no momentum, and that is a big problem. In order to keep moving Sonic, the D-pad must be held down at all times. If it is released, Sonic drops, straight down. That sounds innocuous enough, when described, but to play and see it in action is incredibly frustrating. When Sonic is in a ball form, you expect him to move and react like a ball.
This simply doesn't happen. Being thrown from a flipper in Casino Street Zone – anywhere, throughout the three acts – shows this to be true. If the D-pad is not being held when the flipper lifts, Sonic will go up, and straight back down again in a straight line. Compare this to the way in which Sonic moves in the original titles, and the emphasis placed on the performance of this game's engine when the original leaks came out, suddenly become abundantly clear.
In theory, the game is still playable, but you would have to be holding a direction every time you throw Sonic, in ball form, from a flipper. There's more – the part in which Sonic has to jump from card to card, in the second act, across a bottomless pit – when his lack of momentum makes precise jumping nigh on impossible for a casual gamer – is turned from a simple task of platforming into frustration.
The level was a clear mash of several past levels – Spring Yard Zone, Casino Night Zone, Carnival Night Zone – and looked extremely beautiful to behold. The whole level had a real casino and pinball feel throughout, and the re-designed second act with the emphasis on matching up cards to get bonuses, was a work of genius. But the way in which Sonic moves ruins the effect, and the pinball like nature of the puzzles is lost to the game's engine. A clear waste of superb level design.
The boss pretty much sums up this point extremely well. There's no room for error, as the flippers combined with Sonic's lack of momentum, create a very real problem for the player. Having to hold the D-pad constantly – and not be able to switch between directions without Sonic falling straight down – makes the whole pinball design totally irrelevant and irreverent.
Mad Gear Zone I had been looking forward to Mad Gear Zone for some time, and the overall artwork and style of the zone didn't disappoint. It takes its cues primarily from Metropolis Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but there were several key components which were re-used from Scrap Brain Zone of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. The badniks were all from Metropolis Zone, and the badnik placement felt, at times, extremely cheap – the best example of which is coming out of one of the transport tubes, straight into a Slicer (Mantis).
The artwork of the level was extremely industrial, with some pleasing steam effects and uses of cogs and gears to get around the acts. Act 3 would have been very much easier, if Sonic kept his momentum – as it was, I died at least three times through uncurling on a slope, flying upwards into a wall, and being crushed by the wall behind as it chased me!
There was less of an emphasis on homing attack fodder, the springs, or the bubbles badnik here, and it paid dividends by using steam pipes, treadmills and the like to great effect. Overall this zone felt most like a classic Sonic level, but again was marred by the frustrating way in which Sonic loses – or perhaps, never had – any momentum.
The boss was a re-use of the Metropolis Zone boss, introducing a pinch mode whereby Robotnik/Eggman would speed away from Sonic, dropping the little eggs and producing the bouncing Eggman balloons once more, only this time in super small, and “golden large” formats! A tricky boss, and probably the hardest due to the way in Sonic moves.
Special Stages
Cameltry. Look it up. I have the special stages to be the best part of the whole game. They are addictive, and fun, and it's something I'd like to see more of, if I am honest. Their cue comes from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game, in their 2D side scrolling view, and the way in which Sonic has to negotiate a maze in order to find and then collect a Chaos Emerald – but it's more that that, it's much closer to the original Cameltry game than it was previously, the maze being rotated by the D-pad, or in the wii's case, by tilting the controller.
Changing the control to tilt mode made the levels almost unplayable, the wii's tilt motion control in this game not having enough sensitivity to make speed runs for these levels easy, if possible at all. That said, in normal control mode, this part of the game feels natural, and – for possibly the only time throughout the game – Sonic feels like a ball. Given he's in his ball state for the whole time he's in the maze probably helps this view!
Gameplay:
The biggest problem with this game is how Sonic moves. Lots of reviewers, both here and elsewhere, cite “physics” and leave it at that. The problem is more than just the physics. The whole of Sonic's movements have significant and worrying problems.
In order to gauge as to why, I went back to basics and played a few much older platform games, to see if I was imaging these problems, or if they existed prior to this game. In short, I went back and played the original Genesis Sonic games, Sonic CD, James Pond, Jurassic Park, Cliffhanger, Desert Demolition, World of Illusion, Ecco the Dolphin and Aladdin, all games from the same Megadrive era that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 implies quite explicitly it is based upon. None of these very old – and mostly, inferior, titles had the problems of this game's engine, bar Aladdin which incredibly does the same, frustrating movement of falling straight back down when the D-pad is released.
The fundamental problem with this new Sonic game, is that no momentum is stored, whatsoever. If you let go of the D-pad – or change the direction you're pushing – perhaps to press “down” to spin – then Sonic immediately slows down, or if jumping, stops in mid-air and falls. That this is not a problem in any of the above titles (admittedly, in Ecco, not strictly speaking, a platformer, although even there, Ecco keeps some momentum and keeps moving when the D-pad is released, slowing to a stop gently), but is here, flabbergasts me. Have the development team not looked at the original titles, bar the themes, item placement, and badniks they have recreated here?
As stated earlier, the problem really rears its ugly head when you try to play – well – pinball! With Sonic. Being thrown from a flipper in Casino Street Zone – anywhere, throughout the three acts – shows the complete lack of momentum. If the D-pad is not being held when the flipper lifts, Sonic will go up, and straight back down again in a straight line. Compare this to the way in which Sonic moves in the original titles, and any of these other named titles, and you are left asking yourself - “what were they thinking?”
The game's engine and “physics” feel incredibly slow. Sonic actually, moves extremely slowly. I have no idea why a walking animation is needed, but it's not the animation but the speed which is the biggest problem. Sonic feels very sluggish and slow, and half of that is down to not being able to keep his momentum, nor having decent enough acceleration to his top speed that makes him feel slow. Hell, Nintendo's NSMBwii feels faster than this game at times, particularly when the player is trying to build up speed from a complete stop.
In the old games, Sonic had an animation whereby he skidded to a halt, and stared out the screen at the player with an incredulous look - “what, you want me to go the OTHER way now?!” - this doesn't happen – you change direction, and Sonic stops, and moves back. There's no skidding, because there's no momentum.
Now, in theory, being able to bounce back and forth without skidding would make platforming more precise, but because there's no force behind the jumps without the D-pad, you have to constantly lead Sonic everywhere. The D-pad has to be completely compressed the whole time, and actions in which you want to do a little pinball physics are completely negated, because you have to send Sonic in the direction he needs to go, not the flipper, which only gives a vertical movement – straight up, in other words – when pressed.
I don't know why this was thought to be acceptable, if I am honest. It's very different to the original titles in its gameplay, granted, but it throws up more problems the level design has to overcome – and the reasons for the overwhelming use of the spring and the Bubbles badnik suddenly becomes abundantly clear. They are needed to keep Sonic moving. It goes spring, spring, spring, speed boost, Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles for a reason, and that suddenly makes the “platforming” boast of this game almost laughable.
The homing attack, which I've mentioned very little, is an absolute necessity for any new player to the series, simply because it keeps Sonic moving. With no momentum, comes very little speed, and a lack of progression. Sonic's sluggish movements means a spamming of the air dash and homing attack necessary to keep going through the level. Seasoned gamers will of course get around it very easily, and be able to make the game look like it controls better than it does. It doesn't excuse the game's shortcomings by any means.
Further, in a U-shaped section of the old levels, when in his ball form, Sonic was able to gain momentum through spinning up one side, then down, and up the next, in order to gain height. You can't do that here, as momentum is not stored. Thereby the only way to do this – incredibly – is to keep Sonic running back and forth, as you did with the ball form, and keeping the D-pad pressed down at all times whilst doing this little maneuver.
That the whole game seems to be built around putting Sonic into a ball form through the boosters, but actually having more speed when he's running, and only when the D-pad is held firmly down the whole time, completely defeats the point of the game. It becomes, less a Sonic game, and almost a film in which you direct Sonic from location to location, the controls and his movements being so bad.
Conclusions & Final Score
I wanted to adore this game – I've been waiting for it for sixteen years. I've been patient, kept positive, and hoped against hope that I wouldn't be coloured by the very vocal and also very numerous complaints about this game that cropped up almost every day.
The fact is, those complaints were valid, and I – hand on heart – apologize to those people who've been trying to tell me, and failing to, that the game had serious problems. They were right. The game's engine is horrendous, and Sonic's overall movements have severe shortcomings, with deep ramifications for the gameplay that this is supposed to deliver.
It fails on so many levels, at being a Sonic the Hedgehog game, in terms of speed alone, and in its platforming that I feel rather shortchanged for the GBP£10 I have paid for the 1500 Wii points required.
I said previously that I'd be happy to pay that. I don't now. The game is incredibly short, even by splitting the bosses into separate acts – which seems a ludicrous decision, if I am honest. Every Sonic game prior to this one had the boss sections at the end of the level, in the final act of platforming. That was part of the point of a progressively designed platformer, you have to play through each and every level, and beat each and every boss, in order to proceed. Breaking it up in this way has actually made the core game shorter – which should have been a traditionally set up Sonic game (which I note, was accomplished to much applause in Sonic Advance AND Sonic Rush by Dimps – what on earth happened between now and then?).
The final level, which I have not spoken on, for want of keeping it as a spoiler for a little while longer, should anyone on this forum still not know, has a huge difficulty spike not in keeping with the rest of the game, particularly with THAT final boss and the number of hits required to destroy the mech.
That said – you have rings given to you throughout this final zone, whereas in similar end bosses – Final Zone and Sonic 2's Death Egg Zone spring to mind – you get none whatsoever. So in comparison to the setup of previous titles, this should in theory be easier. No doubt it would be, if the game's engine matched the expectations of its users, and the design of the character model itself!
But it doesn't, and each and every boss encounter is a fearful, frustrated mish-mash of furious and anxious holding of the D-pad, bashing of the buttons for the homing attack – which, while it throws you miles away from the various Robotnik/Eggman machines, at least gives a guaranteed hit – and finally ends with relief, not excitement, at beating said mechs and machines.
That this game was delayed to give us two new levels in place of the infamous Mine Cart and Pinball Points levels – the latter of which, would have been abysmal, with these physics, and the former laughable – only serve to illustrate the frustration – simply put, “why?”
This game could have been brilliant. It could have been a supreme return to form for the blue Hedgehog. They could have got it right first time around, through a game engine which does what it's supposed to do – deliver a platform game, emulating pinball physics. On this basis, Sonic Team/Dimps have failed. Overall, it's slow, sluggish, and incredibly frustrating to play.
That said, it's beautifully done, in terms of artwork. The vibrant and intricate nature of the level artwork, and their deliberate throwbacks to earlier Sonic titles is a very welcome thing, and that's probably the saddest thing about this game. The looks don't match the gameplay, and the ideas in the level design aren't matched by its engine. It's a mess, at the end of it. The soundtrack is a mixture of absolutely epic (Mad Gear Act 1) and rather drab and poor (the whole Casino Street Soundtrack).
There was so much potential in this game, but some very dubious programming in its engine, and in Sonic's animation particularly, combined, let the whole game down.
It's not unplayable, but it is made very difficult by a poor game engine, and it's not really Sonic.
Overall score out of ten, as seems to be the norm – 4/10. That's all it deserves, four points for each of the extremely beautiful zones – but absolutely no points for what is an extremely flawed, and frustrating, game engine, and poorly performing Sonic as a whole.
It pains me to say this, but Episode II needs a whole new game engine, and without a doubt, a new project coordinator, and fast.
Here's hoping that Sega take on board the fan's views on this game, and stop the rot NOW before the whole episodic title is tarred with the same "poor physics" brush completely.