Let’s get something out of the way first and foremost – I was never the biggest Sonic fan in the world as a kid. Yeah the games were a lot of fun but I was a Mario fan. Mario games allow more experimentation and exploration to find new levels and secrets than in a Sonic game. As exhilarating as the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog was I found the whole experience to be over too quickly. Oddly though I would find I kept coming back for more, like listening to a good record playing sonic fires off all the right signals in my brain when I need to have a quick fix of therapeutic gaming fun. With classic Sonic games you don’t feel like you need to invest a lot of time into finding every secret exit or collect every costume, it’s one of those games you can just pick up, have a blast messing around with and them come back to later, whenever you feel like it. You can kind of switch off a bit while playing as Sonic games do most of work for you as you hold the right button of your control pad and speed through large portions of levels ingeniously designed so that there is enough space for you to still have plenty more level to traverse and with enough obstacles and changes of direction that you are under the illusion that you are controlling a good portion of the action. In this respect Sonic the Hedgehog is quite a fantastic achievement.
Over the years however, technology has progressed and while Nintendo’s mascot has effortlessly embraced 3D technology with fantastic titles such as Super Mario Galaxy, Sonic games have by definition failed to capture the imagination of the fans. Sonic the Hedgehog games were very simple in concept and that is why they worked so well on the 16 Bit platforms. With 3D graphics however the games became overly fussy and more concerned with gimmicks and ridiculous amounts of filler in the form of different characters, abilities and power ups. The end result is that almost every 3D Sonic game to date has be preoccupied with throwing so much superfluous content into the pot with the thinking that perhaps something good can be found in there eventually. Unfortunately and with few exceptions the results have been pretty abysmal. It was heartening then, to see that SEGA had appeared to listen to the fans with a teaser for a game called ‘Project Needlemouse’ – fans of the Sonic The Hedgehog will be aware that Sonic was originally going to be named Mr Needlemouse. Needlemouse was then revealed to be Sonic the Hedgehog 4 : Episode I of what we assume to be a trio of episodes and a return to the glory days of side scrolling Sonic the Hedgehog action. Sonic fans had been crying for a return to the classic formula of sidescrolling platforming, ditching all of Sonic’s ‘friends’ and get back to running to the right as fast as possible and rescuing animals from Dr Eggman and his robot army. Fans have been let down by SEGA in the past so skepticism has been running high as to if this could actually be a good Sonic game. Well I am pleased to report that yes, it is a very good Sonic game indeed.
The version I am playing is the iPhone version which is the first version to hit online stores and it is everything you would expect from a Sonic game but with a few exceptions. I want to end this review on a positive note so I’ll start with what is bad or disappointing about this version of the game and move on. Firstly this feels like a real step back to the first Sonic game rather than a continuation of the themes of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, the levels are about as long but what I loved about Sonic 3 was that there were a number of pretty cool scripted moments that made the game more exciting such as fighting a midway boss before the Angel Island zone caught fire changing the look of the level or when there was an avalanche after a skiing section, that kind of thing. Each level in Sonic 3 had a beginning a middle and an end as well as being littered with bonus stages for collecting a certain amount of rings. This made for a more complete experience and lent some good pacing to the game, however in Sonic 4 it is back to the kind of gameplay in Sonic 1, you simply have to get to the end of the zone and if you have a enough rings you can hop through a giant ring to the special stage. I would like to have seen Sonic 4 take more notes from Sonic 3 than from the original title. Secondly the framerate on the iPhone isn’t great – it gets better as you go up a generation and is still very playable, but it’s not going to be anywhere near the 60fps you’re going to be getting on the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 versions and certainly not in 1080p. Graphical effects have also been toned down for the mobile platforms. Some may also be disappointed that the zones and bosses are essentially remixes of levels from older Sonic games but although the stages may be the same in style they are in fact completely different and the graphics are a lot better. Finally the touch controls take a lot of getting used to, there have been times when I’ve missed a pixel perfect jump across a bottomless pit because I’ve let my thumb slip off the virtual thumbpad – the virtual thumbpad is still something that puts a lot of people off playing action games on the Apple mobile devices, including myself, and is something I feel needs to be greatly refined if Apple want to draw more customers to their App store for games.
So those are the problems with the game – so are there any good points? Well it is for all intents and purposes a very, very good Sonic game – I would say better than the original and very close to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the Gameboy Advance Sonic Rush games in terms of gameplay. Signature moves are here such as the spin jump, spin charging and springboard jumping. They have also added the homing attack from the 3D games which actually comes in quite useful, especially for those not used to the iPhone touch pad and is also suited to those who like to build chain reactions when bumping off enemies in score attack modes. There are four zones and a special zone for collecting the fabled Chaos Emeralds, each of these split into three stages and a boss encounter stage which when you put it all together is actually a lot of game, especially on a portable platform and when you think that there’s the possibility of another two episodes to come then Sonic 4 could shape up to be a pretty large game when seen as a whole. For now though, this amount of levels seem just about right for a Sonic game. It isn’t going to be the hardest title to complete in the world (with the exception of the final boss!) but again Sonic games are about speed, time attack and score attacks – it’s such an addictve style of gameplay you will keep coming back for more. Special stages and a minecart (yes Sonic rides a minecart!) stage are controlled via tilting the screen and tapping the screen to jump, this is done very well and doesn’t feel unnecessary in the circumstances described although some may find the addition of a minecart section cliche and perhaps feel Sonic Team are robbing them of some classic Sonic gameplay.
The graphics as mentioned before are great, the sprites are rendered in 3D and the backdrops are compressed 3D renders (think Donkey Kong Country) but as mentioned before the framerate is a bit choppy although that is something you get used to, particularly on a mobile platform – the game runs pretty well considering its limitations. Audio is oldschool 16 bit tunes, you’ll be transported back to the 90′s with these catchy songs which really sound like authentic Mega Drive chip tunes and the old Sonic sound effects are still there.
Sonic 4: Episode I is a great return to form for the little blue hedgehog and lends itself really well to the iPhone and certainly one of the best gaming apps I have played in a while from a major developer, I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone wishing to pick up a new game on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, however because of framerate issues and reduced graphics quality of the mobile app and because of the tricky touch pad controls if you have any of the other major consoles I would recommend waiting a few more days for the fully 60fps 1080p versions. Finally this IS the Sonic game fans have been waiting for, anyone who thinks otherwise should probably give up entirely with the franchise because you are unlikely to get better than this!
*note, some of the screenshots have been taken from other versions of the game
We Like
Verdict
Score
- Great sense of speed - Lovely graphics - Old school gameplay - £5.99 is good value
A fine return to form for the little blue hedgehog, Sonic 4 is well worth a blast if you find yourself in need of a new platformer to while away the hours on your daily commute. If you have a bit more time to spare, however, the improved graphics, controls and frame rate of the fully-fledged console versions will give you a better ride.
75
We Don't Like
- Tricky controls - Variable frame rate - A little short
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