izigame.me

An underwhelming sequel to a disappointing follow up of the Mega Drive trilogy

Sonic 4 Episode 1 was a game I thought wasn't very good, made even worse thanks to the existence of Sonic Mania and Superstars. Episode 2 may have made some gameplay and graphical improvements over its predecessor, but it's still not good enough to be worth playing in the current year.

The physics are "sort of" improved over Ep 1. Now you can no longer walk up vertical surfaces like gravity doesn't exist, you'll slow down and fall much like you'd expect. You run faster down and slower up slopes. But it still has its share of issues, such as the lack of a high bounce when hitting an item box from a large height, or how rolling and running down slopes doesn't feel natural like the old games did.

Controls are improved, but not by much. You no longer come to a complete stop when you let go of the direction which makes landing precise jumps a little easier, but they still don't feel quite right to handle mainly due to the lack of proper momentum. Generations wasn't perfect in that regard either, but that game handled it far better than this did.

I thought the graphics were quite good, overall. Nothing amazing, but it's nice to look at. This game uses 3D backgrounds and environments on a 2D play field and it's what I expect a modern side-scrolling game to look like. I wouldn't mind future 2D Sonic games with graphics like this in the future, to be honest. There is one major issue with the visuals that hold it back for me, and that's how they lack visual flair or charm, especially given how most zones feel like rehashed ones from previous games like Oil Desert being Oil Ocean, or how Sky Fortress is too similar to Wing Fortress.

The music, on the other hand, is awful. Easily the worst soundtrack I have ever heard in a Sonic game. Most of it is either forgettable or painful to listen to during gameplay. Why they re-used the Boss Phase 2 theme, the worst track from Ep 1, for both Eggman fights is beyond me. There were several instances where I would turn the music off in the options, and I'm glad the option to do so is there. The only 2 tracks I liked in this game were Sky Fortress Act 1 and White Park Act 2, the latter having a neat callback to Twinkle Park from Sonic Adventure.

Tails is now playable in this game, returning from Sonic 2 with his signature flight ability. It's not nearly as useful here, however. It feels a lot closer to how Sonic Advance 3's tag team system worked, but if Sonic and Tails were the only playable characters. It's not nearly as free flowing as that game was, given that every time you activate a tag action, the game pauses for a few seconds where it did not in Advance 3.

You can also play with a friend via local co-op, and unlike Sonic Superstars, this game has online co-op as well, allowing players to work together even from far away. I wasn't able to try this myself, since nobody's playing this online anymore so I couldn't find any lobbies, but the servers are still up and it remains an option. That said, I haven't heard many good things about the co-op in this game, and there's still no head-to-head race mode like there was in previous and future 2D Sonic games.

Returning from Colours and Generations, for the first time in a 2D Sonic game, are red rings scattered across every level which I like the concept of, just not the execution. Unlike those games, there's only 1 in each act and most of these were really easy to find. Sadly, getting them all is just as pointless as the silver medals from Sonic 2006 in that they only unlock an achievement and nothing else, serving absolutely no value at all for players that don't care about them, whereas Generations granted unlocks with each red ring collected.

Another reason why I find it hard to appreciate the improvements in this game is the awful level design. Sylvania Castle, the first zone, has mostly well designed levels, but everything else is either full of springs and dash pads that only serve to give you the illusion of speed instead of earning it from mastering the game, or sequences of homing attack chains where all you do is press A when the cursor appears.

White Park Act 2 deserves a special mention for being mostly a "hold right to win" level where all you do is let the game play itself. Most levels even have signs displaying exactly which ability players are supposed to use in a given situation, holding their hand along the way instead of letting them experiment and find their own solutions. I know the target audience is younger kids, but I'm sure they're much smarter than this.

The lock-on technology was an awesome feature of Sonic & Knuckles, allowing players to combine Sonic 3 for the originally intended experience that combines both games into one, or Sonic 2 to let players play the entirety of that game as Knuckles. The "lock-on system" is nothing like that. All you get is a short 4 act long prologue where you play as Metal Sonic remixing level design from Ep 1.

You're not missing out on anything for not having Ep 1. There's no second set of emeralds and no hyper transformation. You cannot play as Tails in the Ep 1 levels and none of your progress from Ep 1 carries over to Ep 2. They didn't even replace the Sonic the Portable lights in the background for Casino Street Zone.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3292304026

The special stages were a huge let down, which is sad as they were one of the few redeeming qualities Ep 1 had IMO. They're just the Sonic 2 half pipe gain where you have to collect enough rings at each gate to nab the emerald at the end. These are among some of the easiest special stages in the entire franchise and I didn't come close to failing any of them aside from the last 2.

Even the bosses are a disappointment. The Metal Sonic fights were fun and the highlights of the game for me, but the Eggman fights drag on for far too long with many instances of inactivity waiting for the boss to attack of which you get very little opportunities for. They're not even that hard, just mostly dull and not that interesting.

The story is, once again, nothing special. Eggman revives Metal Sonic, traps Little Planet inside the Death Egg Mk. II and Sonic has to free Little Planet once again. It just comes across as Sonic CD nostalgia pandering without doing anything clever or interesting with the concept, likely done due to the Sonic CD 2011 mobile remaster releasing shortly before this game did. They also ruin it with its cliffhanger ending where Sonic and Tails escape after destroying Eggman's final weapon, but the Death Egg is still there and Little Planet is still trapped, which will remain that way forever as there was no Episode 3 to finish the story.

What makes both episodes all the more disappointing is that it was developed by Dimps, the same studio that made some rather excellent Sonic games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, including the best version of Sonic Colours. Those games not only faithfully recreated the magic of the old games, but also brought their own unique spin on the formula such as Advance 3's tag team mechanics, Rush's boost and Rush Adventure's island hopping. How this game pales in comparison to their previous efforts is beyond me.

If you want a good throwback Sonic game that clearly knows what made the old games so good and does it really well, I'll just link the store page for Sonic Mania instead:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/584400/Sonic_Mania/
Much like with Episode 1, the developers clearly knew what fans wanted out of a 2D Sonic game, but not why they worked so well or what made them as beloved as they were. It's hard to say if this was an overall better game than Ep 1 or not as despite the improvements, it's also worse in many other areas. Regardless, these games have nothing to offer in the current year and are not worth your time or money.