Most reviews of the game are positive, but I really find the game to be really mediocre.
I was expecting just this really small game that would play like the Advances, and just be kinda meh, but I was wrong. In both good and bad ways about its aspects.
The good things about Sonic 4:
Really good Special Stages, really fun and challenging. I thought that they would be boring rip-offs of Sonic 1's Special Stages, but goddamn, they made some really fun labyrinths there and explored a potential in some elements of Sonic 1's Special Stages that neither the original Sonic 1 had explored and not even the lots of fan-hacks of Sonic 1 that explored and improved the Special Stages a lot.
Graphics are really really good. I love how the levels look, and the World Map is just so gorgeous. One of the most good-looking Sonic games ever to be made. Although there are a few things that doesn't look too good, like the Splash Hill grass looking too plastic-ish and artificial and some other stuff that doesn't look too good, maybe because they're mostly pre-rendered graphics. Also, I noticed that the Sonic model and most of its animations are all directly from Sonic Rush. The falling animation, the walking and running (before he goes full-speed), etc etc etc.
Also, there are some fun original gimmicks here and there, like the cards on Cassino Street Act 2, and the level design is okay at most of the times, but I'll get more into the level design later.
Anyway, the bad parts of Sonic 4:
The physics.
Oh my god they're so fucking bad.
Sonic walks on the walls. For instance, Casino Street Act 1 has a U shaped ramp sort of structure, so you figure: Okay, I'll just run from one side and then keep going back and forth, gaining more speed and reaching new heights, you know, just like in Collision Chaos in Sonic CD. But that doesn't work. Sonic will not speed up by doing that and won't go higher. What you have to do is to just, literally, walk on the wall. Run on the ramp, and then, when Sonic reaches 90 degrees, in which, in physics, you would either fall, or if you're going fast, the gravity would pull you down more and more until you can't run and fall, but not in this game, no. If you feel like you're not going fast and you're going to fall, don't worry. Just keep holding right and he'll walk on the walls without losing speed.
In fact, on the E3 build of Sonic 4, you could actually walk on the walls and stand on them without falling, because this was based on the Sonic Rush engine. So some people complained about it, and instead of working on the physics, they just put something so that Sonic would slip if he goes higher than 45 degrees without running. But you can walk on walls and even be standing up still on a wall if you jump on a wall that has a ramp on it.
You know how Sonic 1 was all about running, dodging obstacles and specially, pressing down when you're on a slope to gain speed? Sonic 4 doesn't have that. Rolling on a ball will always slow you down. I tested it, if you run through a downwards slope it's faster than if you run and then roll through a downwards slope.
Because they don't have good physics, some of the gimmicks that are present on the game and uses physics doesn't work very well. There are seesaws on Mad Gear Zone in which you roll on them and you have to control the seesaws' inclination to make Sonic roll on the right side, but because of the screwed up physics, Sonic can actually roll upwards the seesaw and fall on the opposite side you're inclining.
Sonic controls really weird too. His jumps are really bad to control, he feels weighty and slow as fuck, which is one thing that I have a huge problem with. Sonic running by himself is not fast enough to go though some parts that require speed (like that road of cards at the very end of Casino Street Act 2) and thus, you're obligated to speed up by either doing jump-dashes or by Spin-Dashing, which is INCREDIBLY broken. One little tap and you boost faster than your running top-speed.
The level design is okay at most parts, but I spotted some parts of really bad design here and there. Plus, there are not so many alternate routes as your usual classic Sonic game would have. There might be three split paths in the Splash Hill acts, but I only counted two max. when I played the levels. Yes, maximum, because I noticed that in a lot of parts in some levels there aren't any split paths at all. Sure, there are some little shortcut parts, but they're very small and just throws you back to the main (and most of the times, only) route of the level. This is not the level design that Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles would have. There are always at least two main courses for each act, yes, at least. Most of the times there are three, not counting all the little routes, shortcuts and hidden rooms. Plus, the levels most of the times don't let you do much exploration. Most of the times, you feel like you have to do what exactly the designer wants you to do, instead of the designer giving you a level that you can do whatever you want with it.
Speaking of which, because of that, there are tons of bullshit moments that happens because of bad design, specially on that fucking final boss and its last attack (you dodge it and then hit it, tried 3 times, but they were either too soon and Sonic took damage, even though the aim was on the boss and all, or too late and I just went through the giant robot even though the floor wasn't falling yet) The game is mostly really easy, but there are some really bullshit parts here and there that makes me wanna throw the controller at the screen. Like when you explode the rocks with the detonators, the rock explodes, and pieces of it falls really fast, so you think, "oh that's just some little detail, right?" nope it's not, they actually hurt you, and it's bullshit because it's impossible to predict where exactly they'll fall and dodge. Plus the puzzle of the four torches, and that gimmick of the room filled with water and you have to tilt it so that you push the block out? But OH THERE ARE SPIKES HERE AND IF YOU ACTUALLY DO THAT YOU'LL HIT THE SPIKES so you have to tilt it in this weird way that you can't figure out? Seriously, what the fuck. Oh, and also those pistons from Metropolis Zone are really unsyncronized on an act of Mad Gear Zone, so I had to exploit the "stay on the very edge of the platform" trick that happens on most platforming games to actually get through.
Also the music is dull as hell. There is not a single track of the whole soundtrack that I really like. Really SEGA? You have a fuckton of great composers and you choose Jun Senoue to do the WHOLE soundtrack? Because he did such a great job when he composed Shadow the Hedgehog's soundtrack all by himself, didn't he? Because you don't have any other composer that worked on a classic Sonic game that had really good music, don't you? *cough cough cough Mariko Nanba cough cough*
So yeah, this is basically Sonic 4. Short as fuck game that really doesn't live up to either its title or the hype behind it. Instead of making the game work just like the classics, they went out of their way to make the game remind you of the classics instead. :I Even though I found the Special Stages to be fun, it's just too worksome to re-do a stage over and over again to gain access to it, so I didn't get them all, and I don't think I will.
I can actually understand why people can like it, even with all of my complaints, it is a solid game, and you can easily not notice or overlook some of the things I said here if you're not too much of a Sonic enthusiast or if you're doing exactly what the designer wants you to do. But, for myself, Sonic 4 is an even bigger letdown than I thought it was going to be.
I was expecting just this really small game that would play like the Advances, and just be kinda meh, but I was wrong. In both good and bad ways about its aspects.
The good things about Sonic 4:
Really good Special Stages, really fun and challenging. I thought that they would be boring rip-offs of Sonic 1's Special Stages, but goddamn, they made some really fun labyrinths there and explored a potential in some elements of Sonic 1's Special Stages that neither the original Sonic 1 had explored and not even the lots of fan-hacks of Sonic 1 that explored and improved the Special Stages a lot.
Graphics are really really good. I love how the levels look, and the World Map is just so gorgeous. One of the most good-looking Sonic games ever to be made. Although there are a few things that doesn't look too good, like the Splash Hill grass looking too plastic-ish and artificial and some other stuff that doesn't look too good, maybe because they're mostly pre-rendered graphics. Also, I noticed that the Sonic model and most of its animations are all directly from Sonic Rush. The falling animation, the walking and running (before he goes full-speed), etc etc etc.
Also, there are some fun original gimmicks here and there, like the cards on Cassino Street Act 2, and the level design is okay at most of the times, but I'll get more into the level design later.
Anyway, the bad parts of Sonic 4:
The physics.
Oh my god they're so fucking bad.
Sonic walks on the walls. For instance, Casino Street Act 1 has a U shaped ramp sort of structure, so you figure: Okay, I'll just run from one side and then keep going back and forth, gaining more speed and reaching new heights, you know, just like in Collision Chaos in Sonic CD. But that doesn't work. Sonic will not speed up by doing that and won't go higher. What you have to do is to just, literally, walk on the wall. Run on the ramp, and then, when Sonic reaches 90 degrees, in which, in physics, you would either fall, or if you're going fast, the gravity would pull you down more and more until you can't run and fall, but not in this game, no. If you feel like you're not going fast and you're going to fall, don't worry. Just keep holding right and he'll walk on the walls without losing speed.
In fact, on the E3 build of Sonic 4, you could actually walk on the walls and stand on them without falling, because this was based on the Sonic Rush engine. So some people complained about it, and instead of working on the physics, they just put something so that Sonic would slip if he goes higher than 45 degrees without running. But you can walk on walls and even be standing up still on a wall if you jump on a wall that has a ramp on it.
You know how Sonic 1 was all about running, dodging obstacles and specially, pressing down when you're on a slope to gain speed? Sonic 4 doesn't have that. Rolling on a ball will always slow you down. I tested it, if you run through a downwards slope it's faster than if you run and then roll through a downwards slope.
Because they don't have good physics, some of the gimmicks that are present on the game and uses physics doesn't work very well. There are seesaws on Mad Gear Zone in which you roll on them and you have to control the seesaws' inclination to make Sonic roll on the right side, but because of the screwed up physics, Sonic can actually roll upwards the seesaw and fall on the opposite side you're inclining.
Sonic controls really weird too. His jumps are really bad to control, he feels weighty and slow as fuck, which is one thing that I have a huge problem with. Sonic running by himself is not fast enough to go though some parts that require speed (like that road of cards at the very end of Casino Street Act 2) and thus, you're obligated to speed up by either doing jump-dashes or by Spin-Dashing, which is INCREDIBLY broken. One little tap and you boost faster than your running top-speed.
The level design is okay at most parts, but I spotted some parts of really bad design here and there. Plus, there are not so many alternate routes as your usual classic Sonic game would have. There might be three split paths in the Splash Hill acts, but I only counted two max. when I played the levels. Yes, maximum, because I noticed that in a lot of parts in some levels there aren't any split paths at all. Sure, there are some little shortcut parts, but they're very small and just throws you back to the main (and most of the times, only) route of the level. This is not the level design that Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles would have. There are always at least two main courses for each act, yes, at least. Most of the times there are three, not counting all the little routes, shortcuts and hidden rooms. Plus, the levels most of the times don't let you do much exploration. Most of the times, you feel like you have to do what exactly the designer wants you to do, instead of the designer giving you a level that you can do whatever you want with it.
Speaking of which, because of that, there are tons of bullshit moments that happens because of bad design, specially on that fucking final boss and its last attack (you dodge it and then hit it, tried 3 times, but they were either too soon and Sonic took damage, even though the aim was on the boss and all, or too late and I just went through the giant robot even though the floor wasn't falling yet) The game is mostly really easy, but there are some really bullshit parts here and there that makes me wanna throw the controller at the screen. Like when you explode the rocks with the detonators, the rock explodes, and pieces of it falls really fast, so you think, "oh that's just some little detail, right?" nope it's not, they actually hurt you, and it's bullshit because it's impossible to predict where exactly they'll fall and dodge. Plus the puzzle of the four torches, and that gimmick of the room filled with water and you have to tilt it so that you push the block out? But OH THERE ARE SPIKES HERE AND IF YOU ACTUALLY DO THAT YOU'LL HIT THE SPIKES so you have to tilt it in this weird way that you can't figure out? Seriously, what the fuck. Oh, and also those pistons from Metropolis Zone are really unsyncronized on an act of Mad Gear Zone, so I had to exploit the "stay on the very edge of the platform" trick that happens on most platforming games to actually get through.
Also the music is dull as hell. There is not a single track of the whole soundtrack that I really like. Really SEGA? You have a fuckton of great composers and you choose Jun Senoue to do the WHOLE soundtrack? Because he did such a great job when he composed Shadow the Hedgehog's soundtrack all by himself, didn't he? Because you don't have any other composer that worked on a classic Sonic game that had really good music, don't you? *cough cough cough Mariko Nanba cough cough*
So yeah, this is basically Sonic 4. Short as fuck game that really doesn't live up to either its title or the hype behind it. Instead of making the game work just like the classics, they went out of their way to make the game remind you of the classics instead. :I Even though I found the Special Stages to be fun, it's just too worksome to re-do a stage over and over again to gain access to it, so I didn't get them all, and I don't think I will.
I can actually understand why people can like it, even with all of my complaints, it is a solid game, and you can easily not notice or overlook some of the things I said here if you're not too much of a Sonic enthusiast or if you're doing exactly what the designer wants you to do. But, for myself, Sonic 4 is an even bigger letdown than I thought it was going to be.
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