Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1

The Blue Blur is Back

               Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is an interesting new addition to the Sonic the Hedgehog series. This marks Sega's first attempt at bringing back Sonic the Hedgehog back to his former glory days on the Sega Genesis, and the company's first attempt at episodic gameplay along with Sonic's first downloadable only title. While the main idea of a traditional Sonic game is apparent, the game seems to be lacking in replay value and suffers from Sonic's strange movements. 

        Sonic the Hedgehog 4 starts where Sonic and Knuckles ended. After Dr. Robotnik Eggman is defeated on his giant space station, the Death Egg, Sonic parts ways with Tails and Knuckles and goes to explore new places. But what Sonic doesn't know is that Dr. Eggman survived his defeat and is bringing in all of his best creations to destroy Sonic for good. 
        The gameplay is the same as before, your goal is to fly through a level as fast as possible while collecting rings in order to reach special zones. It's the Sonic that we all know and love and I'm glad that the series went back to what made the games so great. The one problem with the gameplay is Sonic's traditional momentum based movement is gone, and he basically strolls for the longest time before actually doing what he does best. This problem, however, is balanced out by the useful homing attack which has been around since Sonic Adventure, but doesn't cause Sonic to accidentally fly off a ledge to his death. 
        The music and sound effects go back to the good old days as well. The iconic sound effects from the the Genesis games can be heard along with the old school upbeat synth music from way back when. Along with the great sound comes the fantastic looking visuals that are shown in high definition.
        As far as replay value goes, this isn't the place to look for in terms of seemingly limitless new content. The levels are all fun, and there is the extra challenge of collecting the Chaos Emeralds and becoming Super Sonic, but that has been done. There needs to be more post-story content other than Super Sonic and the real ending. This problem may be fixed in the future when the next episode(s) release.
        Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is a welcomed release that will please fans, but won't cater to their every desire. In terms of quality within the series, this game is far above of Shadow the Hedgehog, but nowhere near Sonic 3/Knuckles. To be precise, it probably fits well next to Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Hopefully in the next episode, the problems will be addressed and more content will be added.



Final Verdict: 8.5