Quick Look: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II

Hated episode 1, but I am really enjoying episode II so far.

@Max_Cherry: Well they failed to create that sense of speed. Sonic 1 looked faster than this.

It was a platformer once, in the first game. The whole speeding through a level came into focus in Sonic 2 and that fucked the series because people thought it was cool but it was what doomed it to this idea that just being fast is what Sonic should be.

@golguin: FLEXO!

Kinda looks like Sonic gives the jack off hand motion at the 14:48 mark.

That's what I want in a Sonic game. Long ass underwater levels. Goddamn.

@Foot369said:

Patrick sounds different

There comes a time in every boy's life where they experience changes. One of these changes is their voice starts to deepen, I feel its this time now for Patrick.

@TheHBK said:

@Max_Cherry: Well they failed to create that sense of speed. Sonic 1 looked faster than this.

It was a platformer once, in the first game. The whole speeding through a level came into focus in Sonic 2 and that fucked the series because people thought it was cool but it was what doomed it to this idea that just being fast is what Sonic should be.

Agreed. Sonic 1 looks incredibly slow compared to this (and more so when compared to Sonic 4.1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntr31RHoOzw

And on a PAL console, that would run 10% slower, too.

The amount of misremembered things about this franchise is baffling. I guess it's what happens when you make bad games for over a decade and people keep glorifying their memories of the ones they played as kids.

Looks fine, why the hate? Oh yeah, because its a Sonic game and that's what we do

You're probably right about Aero the Acrobat, as I didn't play it in context... but I love it. Well the second one at least... This game looks really bad, but I feel like @BenderUnit22 is right. There has to be a way to make sonic work and be awesome, but they never seem to design the levels around the good qualities of sonic. The challenge should be how fast can you go for how long, instead of a few fast parts interspersed with weird platforming sections.

I think it's a pretty alright game, and that's a-okay! Hooray for being some kind of weirdo, I guess.

@NoelVeiga: I never liked, or will like Sonic, but there's this moment of utter lunacy in Sonic one, when you reach your top speed and loose control, I think that's the one great thing about Sonic. I don't see that happening here. That's my point of view.

Sonic and Knuckles 4 LYF

Couldn't Tails do the same carry Sonic move in Sonic and Knuckles?

Why didn't they just keep what they did with Generations?

I think my favorite moments in Sonic1-3 were when you were going so fast that you'd almost outrun the screen itself. Non of that here, just looks so much slower paced. A geriatric Sonic if you will.

Also the fact that Patrick never holds down while going fast irks me. That's why you keep getting hit, shocking I know!

Sonic used to be brown? Does that mean that Sonic ran so fast he blue himself up? GG.

You know what the best part of the original Sonic games were? No it wasn't going so fast that you lose control and outrun the screen. It was tight controls (the same thing that made Mario Bros. great) and great level design that you could explore, finding multiple paths and fun boss fights. Anyone that just plays Sonic as a "hold right and go fast" game is missing the point and the fun of the series.

The new ones aren't bad because you don't outrun the screen, they're bad because the sluggish controls (along with animation that seems completely unrelated to what you're doing).

HOP IN THE RING. HOP IN THE RING!!!!

Game looks, visually, a lot better than the first episode, other than that it seems like the same standard 2D Sonic stuff that they've been making for years. I don't care for it, if I want me some old school Sonic I'll pop in Sonic Advance 2.

god this looks boring.

Good lord, half of these comments are THIS LOOKS TOO SLOW and half are THIS IS TOO FAST

Sonic Generations was better than this, Patrick

Okay guys we get it, you don't understand Sonic games and were never good at the platforming that has always been there. You mistake your ability to hold right to win in the first few levels to be what you can do throughout the game. Now could you stop talking in idiot platitudes about how you don't understand what Sonic is trying to be? Because I think it's pretty obvious - it's trying to be a platformer that's about super speeding and never stopping for nothing, but failing to realize that what made Classic Sonic good is that the speed is a reward for playing well, not the be all and end all of the gameplay. But hey, when you guys can't comprehend that, I guess I can't expect Sega to.

@RockmanBionics said:

Game looks, visually, a lot better than the first episode, other than that it seems like the same standard 2D Sonic stuff that they've been making for years. I don't care for it, if I want me some old school Sonic I'll pop in Sonic Advance 2.

You want to play old school Sonic so you're going to play Sonic Advance 2, the game that's basically Sonic Rush Zero and is the textbook definition of "hold right to win." I don't mean to be a dick or anything (well, not that much of one) but where's the logic in that?

@RudeCubes said:

Good lord, half of these comments are THIS LOOKS TOO SLOW and half are THIS IS TOO FAST

Mine is : This is terrible... What is this... Who would play this ?

Just put this audio over any Sonic game from the past 10 years. "What is Sonic? Who are these Sonic Team folks? Who is buying this game?"

Gaming content websites, having the same Sonic conversation since 9-9-1999!

Gameplay engine and physics seem bad, just like in episode 1. Granted, I haven't actually played neither of the episodes.

Old Sonic games were great because they combined some good platforming with fun speedy gameplay. Super Mario Bros had a run button but it was mostly useful only for bigger jumps and going faster when you were almost out of time. Sonic games instead took the running mechanic and gave us actual levels and gameplay that were designed around fast moving gameplay.

There is nothing wrong with Sonic games becoming more about speed because it was part of core Sonic-gameplay from the beginning. It's purely natural that the next step for evolution of series gameplay was to become more speed based. They added alot of great gameplay elements to support this in Sonic Unleashed and it made the gameplay very fun and exciting.

And hey, how many companies are actually even making mascot platformers at this point, Sonic games are one the few left in the genre and Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations were actually pretty decent and fun games.

Well, I won't be getting this. Sega already fooled me into buying Episode I.

Kinda sad the best sonic game of the last ten years was an rpg.

I thought Episode 1 was flaming garbage.  This game is significantly better than the first episode. I enjoyed playing through it. I'm not exactly sure how good they can make these games, since the formula seems destined for failure, but this one was good, and I commend Sega for blowing my expectations out of the water.

Seems like an okay Sonic game.

If all your Sonic game QLs end up with you guys asking whether or not Sonic was ever actually fun in the first place, you guys should stop quicklooking Sonic games.

Which places have cash registers that make that ring sound? I haven't encountered it where I have been.

This was pretty damn entertaining to watch. Won't be paying $15 (!!!) for this, but damn was this funny.

I'm done with Sonic, I got Generations last year and it was great but I don't want to touch a new Sonic game for a very long time.

I feel what this community (or staff) needs to do is just playthrough Sonic in the order that it was being created. By then you can easily see that by Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles the designers kept trying to just add more platforming gimmicks but it wasn't making the game better. In other words, the developers were running out of ideas and they've been operating under this weird "we have to make Sonic but what else can you do?" mentality since. Now that it's been long enough they can loop back around but nostalgia and other factors make that a folly as well.

I find it astounding that people never consider the whole of Sonic 1 or 2 to understand why those games are still considered great. It's not just the platforming, or speed, or anything. It's the complete package of design, art style, music, and speed. Sadly this is a formula that ages very poorly since it relies on being the specific combination of elements derived from the Genesis and 16-bit development in general. Without any of those elements, "Sonic" is a shadow of his former glory and we see that echoed since the early 1990s.

@iAmJohn: I'm not sure what your definition of old school Sonic is, maybe it's Sonic 1 where it was supposedly a platformer or whatever, with "old school" I was simply refering to the 2D games, and a lot of the 2D games where like this. In short, my logic is that this looks pretty much like every other one of those so I might as well play one I already own and that I liked.

For the record, I liked Sonic Advance 2 for the following reasons:

• It had bosses on running stages that made good use of it. You didn't have to put up with Sonic's slow-as-hell acceleration when trying to avoid attacks and could focus on just controlling the acceleration when timing your dodges and counterattacks.
• It had those hidden rings in a level which encouraged me to explore them and, aside from the bad mini-game you had to complete, had some nifty rewards for collection with multiple characters.
• I enjoyed going through a level several times to "map out" where these hidden rings were and what path I should take to get them all in the same runthrough.
• It had an air "trick" thing which made it possible to stop or change direction on a dime when launched from various things.
• Once I learned the levels, which I had an incentive to do now because of the various unlocks, the slower sections and various roadblocks such as enemies could be easily sped through.
• It had really nice spritework for the different characters, and a lot of it.

Not sure if the video you posted has any merit, especially since you yourself made the argument that holding right to win in the first few levels of a Sonic game isn't a big deal, also I didn't watch the whole video but did he get all the secret rings going through that way as well?

I'm not a big fan of Sonic but this seems at least as good as the Mega Drive games.

Great Sonic The Hedgehog Moments with Ryan Davis!

"OH HOLY SHIT HE DID A FUCKING LOOP, CLASSIC SONIC!"

While, yes, it looks better than Episode 1, I'm so done with anything Sonic-related pretty much regardless.

There was a huge line for this at PAX East. It made me kind of sad.

@madnesshero88 said:

Kinda sad the best sonic game of the last ten years was an rpg.

Huh? Sonic Advance 3 was not an RPG.

@patbaer: Yeah, I hate it when people wanna play things they like too. :( Honestly, the nerve!

i'll keep this game in mind the next time i'm in the mood for the opposite of fun

How can games like this even compete with the newer platformers like Super Meat Boy? This doesn't look good at all...

I recently decided to play the XBLA arcade sonic games, I bought them at release changed xbox's and never transferred my licences. So yeah, decided to play and I agree with the comments in the video. Sonic games are just no fun when they slow down, when there's the methodical jump here, breath underwater here, push this switch, it becomes horribly tedious. However, flying through the levels, smashing up shit as you go is great. Wonder if i'd prefer any of the 3D ones. Never played much sonic adventure or anything.

I'm pretty disappointed with this quicklook. I'm not a big sonic fan, but I heard there is some kind of connectivity with this game and episode 1 (ala sonic and knuckles). I was curious to see what this connectivity mode entails.

I'm not a Sonic fan, but this game looks pretty good.

only reason I played Sonic 1 back in the day is because I had a girl at school who would come round after school to play it :D So I like Sonic because he got me some teenage hormone's time but as for the game(s) not so much.

I think it looks fine, don't know why you people are so bummed out. Maybe it's because I haven't played a Sonic game since the GBA. Regardless, I'll pick it up when it's cheaper.