Slow-mo the Hedgehog
The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 project was an attempt to return to form. After years of 3D games of declining quality and handheld 2D games which garnered mixed reception, Sega was determined to release a new installment which called to mind the franchise's glory days in order to get back on the fanbase's good side.
Sonic 4 would not be the project that succeeded.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (henceforth, Sonic 4 E1) is a sloppy attempt at appealing to nostalgia while bringing in nothing new but headaches.
Let's start with the most obvious factor: what is it that people think of when they think of Sonic, outside of horrifying fan content? Speed. And unfortunately speed is in short supply in this incarnation. Oh, you can still go fast, much faster than The Plumber in most cases, but it's so far and few in between plodding hop-and-bop sections that it's almost as if this were just a poorly put-together fangame from someone who played the games on Genesis as a kid and never again since, somehow mistaking the series' hallmarks with those of another series. Further muddling this is that Sonic's walk speed - which is something you'll unfortunately encounter a lot here - is among the slowest I've encountered in a platformer.
Outside of the speed, the gameplay's biggest downfall is the implementation of traps/obstacles/puzzles. They're thrown in without any thought, breaking up the fun stuff with tedium. There's nothing as abysmal as Sonic 3's "up/down barrel", but they do run more on trial and error than genuine logic. The game doesn't even give you a trial of the puzzles to get used to them - many platformers such as Super Mario Bros., are really good at giving you a taste of an obstacle before giving it to you for real, and the Sonic series has done it a few times but here, you have no such mercy.
The music is pretty forgettable, in addition, and none of it sounds like genuine Sonic music. It's almost like bootleg Sonic music and while not offensive, it still does nothing but further cement how much of an unenjoyable experience this is. The game could have also very much used some voice acting to flesh things out a bit, particularly during boss fights.
The final major point of contention I have with Sonic 4 E1, is the graphics. It just all feels so bland and uninteresting. There's no soul to anything and it's something I've never seen replicated even within the series before or after; even the games far more detestable than this still feel like Sonic games in terms of visual stimulus.
I do have a minor gripe to follow up with, though; the game is very much up its own butt with nostalgia, to the point where it doesn't allow for too much creatively new content. But then again, since what new things it does offer is undesirable, maybe this is for the best.
As a side note, the version I've chosen to review (OUYA) has some of the most generic-ass mobile game looking menus I've ever seen on a console. No doubt this is due to it being ported from the Android phone/tablet version, but you'd think a major company like Sega could afford to spruce up their flagship series' menus a bit. The only other version of the game I've played (Xbox 360) did not have this problem.
So Sega's first attempt at winning back the crowd was nothing short of forgettable. While subsequent attempts arguably still failed to miss the mark, almost everyone agrees that they finally accomplished this with 2017's Sonic Mania. Unless you have nothing capable of playing that game, I highly suggest you don't even try Sonic 4 E1.