Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
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 We're glad that Sonic Mania exists..
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Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I is a 2.5D side-scrolling game released on October 7, 2010 and was made for iOS, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Android and BlackBerry Tablet OS. It's the first installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 series and serves as the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. It is the first platform Sonic game of the 2010s era for the Sonic franchise.
Development
Development began in May 2009 and lasted a year and a half. The game was conceived as a smartphone-exclusive spin-off before becoming a multiplatform, mainline Sonic installment. As a continuation of the Genesis Sonic games, Episode I features a simple control scheme, no voice acting, level design emphasizing platforming and momentum-based gameplay, and no player characters besides Sonic; however, it incorporates Sonic's design and abilities from later games like Sonic Adventure (1998). It was designed to appeal to both older Sonic fans who played the Genesis games and newer ones who played more recent ones like Sonic Unleashed (2008). Producer Takashi Iizuka and composer Jun Senoue were the only Sonic 4 developers who contributed to the Genesis games.
Episode I was released in October 2010 as a downloadable game for iOS, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. Versions for Windows Phone, Windows, Android, and BlackBerry Tablet OS followed throughout 2011 and 2012. The game received moderately positive reviews and sold more than one million copies within a year. Critics described Episode I as a satisfying return to classic Sonic gameplay and praised the sense of nostalgia. Criticism was directed at its physics engine, considered inferior to that of the Genesis games, and its short length. Episode I was planned as the first episode in a trilogy; Episode II was released in May 2012, while Episode III was never made.
Plot
The story of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 takes place after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. Consumed by rage after the destruction of his Death Egg, Dr. Eggman seeks to get revenge on Sonic for having foiled his previous plans. To do this, he reuses and improves some of his past inventions to defeat the hedgehog for good.
Bad Qualities
- The game's title is misleading, despite being called Sonic the Hedgehog 4, all of the levels are remakes of old levels from old Sonic games, thus making Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I more-or-less a remake of Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn, it even has less levels then the previous games, staying at 4 stages.
- The physics are absolutely atrocious, as Sonic can get stuck on walls like Spider-Man, will completely lose momentum after spin dashing if you don't hold a direction, and you don't gain momentum when rolling down hills. It doesn't help that it was created with the same engine as Sonic Rush, which is incompatible with non-boost gameplay, and it show.
- Not only, are the bosses rehashed from the Genesis Sonic games, they also suffer from issues, two examples being:
- One of the bosses has Sonic run in a Sonic Advance 2-style boss fight vs. Dr. Eggman on a flying vehicle. The problem with this stage is the background, which consists of orange panels with thin silver pillars, which can be hard to look at and would also cause seizures due to it constantly moving with Sonic and the camera. Later in the boss fight the pillars start moving up to reveal a silver cage background.
- There's a horrible 24-hit slog of a final boss, which is just the Death Egg Robot, again, but even worse.
- Due to the physics being off, the controls are stiff, and also are unresponsive, and as said before, the momentum here is terrible and this is what cause the problem of this game in the first place.
- There is no sense of Sonic's iconic speed in this game, as he is INCREDIBLY SLUGGISH, taking more than 7 seconds to pick up speed, and the Spin Dash is incredibly underpowered, which is RIDICULOUS, as this was supposed to capture the spirit of the classics, but fails, as Sonic was much faster in the Genesis games than in this game.
- Out of all the zones they had to reuse, they picked Labyrinth Zone and Metropolis Zone, the two most hated zones in the first two Classic Sonic games.
- There is no voice acting at all. All the characters are silent, despite this being a modern-era Sonic game, which is unacceptable for 2010 standards.
- The Wii version, while fixing the issue of Cel-Shading in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 ports of the game, lacks things the HD versions had, for example, the music is MIDI based, which makes the music worse than it needs to, Sonic Doesn't move his mouth at all, and even worse, the game's resolution doesn't change when played on a Widescreen tv.
- Plastic like and fake-looking graphics that look like something out of a poorly-made mobile phone game, (ironically, this game was originally designed for and released on mobile phones). Sonic, Eggman and his Badniks look like something out of a McDonald's Happy Meal and the scenery looks low-poly.
- Forgettable and overly simple level design. Worst of all is the game sometimes plays itself with lots of speed boosters and springs everywhere, even something as basic as going to the right.
- While the soundtrack is amazing, it's ruined by the terrible Genesis-wannabe soundfont, and it's not Jun Senoue's fault, making it bland at best or ear bleeding at worst.
- The percussion sounds like gunshots or exploding balloons, which sounds dreadful for the most part.
- Super Sonic's theme sounds like a mediocre fan-made remix of Super Sonic's theme from Sonic 2.
- The final boss' main theme is an infinite loop, though the problem is that it lasts for 15 seconds. Even Final Zone from Sonic 1 sounded longer than this.
- Lost Labyrinth Zone 2 is the absolute worst level of the entire game, as there is no illuminations to see properly the level, and with this, you must do trial and errors puzzles and they are incredibly annoying and overall hard to do due to being too dark and also the level is very long.
- The Special stages are recycled from Sonic 1 and are rather lackluster.
- There are barely any hidden areas or secrets, as the level design only consists of sections where a spammy amount of boost pads send you forward, linear straightforward pathways, and dull platforming with constant use of homing attack chains, similarly to Sonic Forces.
Good Qualities
- The game does look decent for 2010 mobile game standards.
- Owning this game and Sonic The Hedgehog: Episode II unlocks an extra episode called Episode Metal, where you get to play as Metal Sonic (albeit he is just a reskinned Sonic) through harder versions of the levels from Episode I.
- While Lackluster and Despite being Recycled, The Special stages are somewhat easier than those in Sonic 1, As now you can control the screen instead of Sonic while the level is moved automatically.
- The soundtrack is amazing, but it's sadly ruined by the terrible Genesis-wannabe soundfont.
- Some of them sound alright even with the Genesis soundfront, such as Lost Labyrinth Zone 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II is a great improvement over this game, with better physics, better graphics and a spetacular soundtrack.
Reception
The game at first received mixed to positive reviews by critics and fans who praised it as a great return to the 2D Sonic games genre, it received a score of 81 for the Wii version, 74 for the PS3 version, 72 for the Xbox 360 version and a score of 70 for the IOS version.
Howewer, at the time went on, when Sonic Mania was released, the game started to get mixed to negative reviews by gamers and especially fans of the Sonic franchise, with it being considered to be one of the worst 2D Sonic game.
It was criticized for It's rehash of classic zones, for the graphics, soundtrack and especially the physics that are considered to be the worst point of the game.
Trivia
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was initially created for mobile as Sonic the Portable, but then was renamed and ported to console for reasons unknown. At the end of any Casino Street zone, you can see this name (albeit blurry) on a sign in the background.
- The Wii version uses MIDI tracks and compressed graphics; this is because it was released as a WiiWare title, with such titles having a set size limit. Episode II was planned for the Wii as well, but was cancelled due to limitations.
- The mobile versions have different versions of Casino Street Zone Act 2 and Lost Labyrinth Zone Act 2, with the former being merely a score challenge. These were planned to be on the console versions as well, but the game was leaked 2 weeks before release, with a negative response from fans. The Acts and their corresponding music were redesigned to better suit the traditional Sonic the Hedgehog atmosphere.