To my knowledge (and a testament to my laziness to actually search my own site), I have yet to write a video game related article. Considering that it is one of my favourite past times and gaming politics and business is one of my favourite things to follow mainly due to how terrible and illogical it is. The other day I got “Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II” for my iPhone. It made me do a dangerous thing: think. So here are my thoughts on how Sega needs to get it’s act together and stop fucking up a franchise that I love(d) so dearly.
“Sonic 4” is a mess. It is not a good game at all. It only functions as a piece of nostalgia and considering that every platform it exists on has the ability to get the original Sonic games (minus Sonic 3 in some cases) there is no reason to buy it. It’s no surprise it’s bad considering Sega’s track records with Sonic games. For being the 14th game in the series you’d think they would have a grasp about what to do right, but of course they misunderstand what the audience wants and keeps on creating games that alienate the original fans and are so meh that new players will not appreciate them. You know what they say, the 14th in the series is always the best.
The only 14th installment I can think of is this: the Bond movie where a 200-year old Roger Moore battles a nefarious Christopher Walken as he throws things from a blimp and rigs horse races. What a bad movie… I mean the opening sequence was pretty solid, but at the same time “The Spy Who Loved Me” did something similar in a much stronger way. The theme song wasn’t bad, but I keep thinking of when it played as Bond rescued a screaming Tanya Roberts from a burning building which leads to the awful scene where you get to see what it is like for an ancient specimen of a human being flung around on the back of a ladder in what is a poor excuse for an action sequence. I overall like Roger Moore as James Bond but that dude needed to retire after “For Your Eyes Only”. Right, “Sonic the Hedgehog”…
Because Sega only has nostalgia to work with, I am going to look at what I love about the Sonic games. Sonic the Hedgehog works well for me for being a colourful, inviting, smooth, charming and rewarding gaming experience. The art design for the original games always felt inspiring and in combination with a fantastic music score it made repeating difficult segments not feel like a chore. The gameplay was slick and varied. Each level in the early series felt unique and despite how similar the first three games were in style they all had a special feel to them that made them worth playing. The games were so good and unique that it made me want to own a video game console just to play them. This led to several disappointing birthdays and Christmases in which I never received a Sega Genesis. Yeah, I was that kind of a materialistic kid when I was younger. I think I have a better grasp on the true meaning of Christmas now.
The Grinch was evil because he kept dying in shitty Sonic games, forcing him to watch terrible cutscenes with terrible characters doing boring things over and over
In my mind, the good Sonic games are “Sonic 1-3”, “Sonic CD” “Sonic & Knuckles”, “Sonic Adventure” and “Sonic Adventure 2”. Everything else (especially that 2006 game which is one of the worst games about bestiality ever made) is an absolute waste of potential. [NOTE: I have not played Sonic Colors or Generations. I’ve heard they are good.] It’s interesting comparing it with it’s initial primary rival, Mario, and how it has failed to pump out quality games.
One main issue the series as a whole has is the focus on “speed”. Okay, Sonic is a fast character and the original games had you constantly in motion as opposed to the stiffness of early platformers. This is not why people played the game. No one played Mario for the plumbing aspects and that series is still doing well. Puzzles were not the main concern as well and it seems like more and more the series wants you to be confined to solving obstacles as opposed to just jumping over them. In Sonic Adventure there was some shooting elements. Logically they decided that the one black character, Shadow, needed a spin off where he used his gun to commit crimes and spew profanity.
“Because guns are fun kids and every game should have them!”
The series had obviously spun out of control but”Sonic 4″ promised to bring the series back to it’s roots.
lol jk.
“Sonic 4” realized that Eggman was not a good enough villain so it decided to make it’s level design the true antagonist. Whereas other games kept you intriguing with fresh environments, “Sonic 4” takes you to the same dull, rehashed areas over and over as you struggle to avoid being crushed by something so out of place that it disrupts the entire flow of the game. The experience is dampened by music that sounds like the composer only thought one key existed in music theory. It’s nothing like the Michael Jackson produced music of “Sonic 3”. Yes, that’s right. Michael Jackson did the music to “Sonic 3” and yes, it was awesome.
Sonic was intended for children after all.
If you want a great classic platforming experience, just get one of the original “Sonic” games. This is an example of a series overdoing itself. “Sonic 4” may look good, but it plays like I do in soccer: slow, clumsy and prone to running into things. I give “Sonic 4” a 5/10, a fraction that is similar to how many good games actually exist in the series.
That being said, Sonic is an awesome character in “Super Smash Bros Brawl”.
It looks like he just played “Sonic the Hedgehog 2006”
Bear Pursuit 