Wow, I did not expect the score to clock at 1 billion. In the Genesis versions, it clocked at 1 million or 10 million I think. I'll do some Game Genie tonight and check.
final boss, etc Seriously, I'm not much for complaining, but I have no idea how you're supposed to get that achievement that requires you to complete the final stage without getting HIT ONCE. That's impossible, not a stretch, just plain impossible. There are so many things that get in the way of earning it, and ironically none of it has to do with UNCURLING. Like many other people have said, all the bosses are not predictable (except for the first one). You can't tell where Eggman is going to go when he goes ape shit in the second one, you can't tell what's going to pop up from the ground for the third one (you're basically dead if you're wrong anyway), and the fourth one can just go to hell. In a blue moon I was able to not get hit once during the fourth one, but I always jinx it somehow during the REAL final fight. And I know someone's going to say "well the final boss is exactly like the one from Sonic 2, and you didn't have any rings during that one!" - yeah, big deal, too bad Sonic 2 didn't have 4 bosses and a final boss that took 9528696925696396 hits to defeat with a finishing move that requires at least one trial-and-error to pull off. And of course, even if they changed the achievement (hahaha) to make it a bit more possible, like - clear the final stage without dying once, you still have problem #2 - the physics of the rings. My god, what makes the fourth boss during the final stage really hard is the fact that if you get hit once - just once, the rings fly in the air and they cannot be grabbed. Even so, if the rings happen to all pile on the floor, for some reason Sonic can still miss half of them! And to top it all of, the time rings last when Sonic spills them is actually SHORTER in Sonic 4 than in any other game. Thank god that the amount of rings Sonic can spill max is 32 for some reason (nice mistake there, heh). Usually this problem also occurs during the final boss when you accidentally get hit while in midair at a high velocity (like homing attacking something at the wrong angle). After beating the final boss the first time, I had to try and beat it again in time attack mode to get another achievement (I'm no achievement whore, but I like the feeling of completing a game I bought $15 for 100%). The second time around is even worse, and I'm sure some of you know why. If you don't, imagine trying to do all of those bosses without Check Points after every single one. It'll drive you absolutely insane. Oh! But don't forget, you don't have to worry about lives in time attack because one death sends you all the way back to the beginning of the whole stage! Can't forget the music either (I didn't want to be a hater on the soundtrack because I actually do like the pieces, but having to hear the same 15 second loops for 5 minutes straight - good song or not - made me want to seriously turn the volume down). After I gave up doing the whole final boss thing a final time (I must have tried to beat the stupid fuckface 30 times but I always get nailed somewhere down the line), I came up with about 11 things Sega should patch to make the final boss more bearable, and no - none of them have to do with fixing every single physics change. But I doubt you'd care, and I doubt Sega cares at this point to make small changes since they already have my money. tl;dr isehuiohgpihpsuhgpeui /rage But for the game as a whole, besides the whole final boss crap, the uncurling really wasn't a problem for me as many other people made it seem. Sonic does feel stiff at first, but from playing all the zones - it's not the worst thing ever. Nothing can be worse than Sonic 2006 to me, so having a decent 2D Sonic game is like having a GREAT Sonic game at this point in time. Sure there are "WTF" moments that have been discussed already 305825982 times in this thread and many other threads, like special stage 4/7 or whatever, it was all around decent. Not worth $15 for, though. :P
Huh. That unlockable Sonic Suit reminds me of this fellow's IRL Sonic suit at NYCC. I've got six of the Chaos Emeralds. Still trying at the seventh. I think having a sudden difficulty spike for the Seventh Emerald is endemic to the Dimps-designed 2D Sonic games. I remember hating the seventh Special Stage in every single one of their games. From Pocket Adventure, through Advance and the two Rush games. EDIT: Whoops let's try posting an imageshack link instead... EDIT 2: Aaaaaand Chaos Emerald get.
(shines his gold trophy in Sonic 4) I went through hell to earn this, but by god... Also, I can confirm that all rings in ESZ plus all rings in credits results in Super Sonic ending.
Woohoo, I'm rank 55 on E.g.g. Station zone! :specialed: ... With everyone complaining 'bout the last boss, I figured "Eh... Why not?" and tried to see if I could get on the top 10 due to no one wanting to play through the last boss again. I could probably get a slightly better time, but I sure as hell ain't gonna try again or go for the best time... 4'44"40? Holy crap... And why do I have the feeling that someone could do it in 3 minutes?
That trophy is balls. If the Mad Gear boss doesn't cheapshot you, the Egg Titan will. Why is it that Eggman just SUDDENLY starts using his most annoying attacks ALL THE TIME when I decide to go for the Untouchable trophy? I almost got it once. I somehow managed to get hit while attempting to deliver the killing blow to the last boss. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't ragequit then and there.
Well, I emulated the Wii version when it came out, and I have to say that I did have fun playing it (completed it, too). Once I got the hang of how stiff it was, I was just fine, although the fact that spinning really never helps kinda threw me off. I really didn't have any further issues. It was overall easy if you ask me... aside from that last freakin' emerald =V My favorite level is Lost Labyrinth Act 3 for unknown reasons.
The only boss I find hard is the one where it crushes you to death. But it's only hard if you're trying to be fast or it catches you off guard. The other ones are completely predictable.
FUCK YEAH I GOT THE FASTEST TIME ON LOST LABYRINTH ACT 3! 1:53 baby! By a full 7 seconds too! And the guy in second place has it by a full 23 seconds, holy crap! My proudest gaming achievement with this game. ...the second one will be the E.G.G. Station no-hit one. Grr...
My ultimate opinion on Sonic 4 so far is in my sig. Sega has the potential for something great here if they pick themselves up for Episode 2 and/or retroactively fix the physics in Episode 1.
Not changing them will be ignoring their fanbase. Even in reviews, I'm seeing people all over the place complaining about the same bits and pieces. If they're going to advertise that they are listening to fan feedback, they better stay with their word.
The first two bosses are piss-easy. The third is challenging in the sense that it's a crusher boss that requires platforming talent to hit. The fourth has a pinch mode that's essentially a harder Mushroom Hill Act 2 boss. The boss rush is slightly more challenging on nearly all four bosses. The final boss is slightly easier to beat than Sonic 2's due to having rings, but is a pain in the ass to beat without taking damage. The "Untouchable" achievement is a nightmare due to both the Mad Gear and final bosses having certain attacks that are a bitch to dodge.
I noticed this. Some act specific gimmicks can be nice, but everything is too separated in this game. MGZ3 does stand out like you said.
Beat him before he goes apeshit. It's not hard, it's only four hits. + - There are a very small number of very telegraphed pillar patterns for each of Eggman's three possible positions. - The two involving Eggman being in the top-left corner have safety pockets that you can hide in and then, with a well-timed jump and Homing Attack, nail Eggman with one hit. - The one where Eggman is in the top-right only has one safety pocket: the one where Eggman is. This, however, is an opportunity to score a second hit, as the pillars remain closed just barely long enough that Sonic can hit Eggman a second time as they open. - There are three that involve Eggman being in the middle. One is extremely easy to avoid and brings you straight up to Eggman. The one where four pillars come out in a cross formation is best avoided unless you're confident, as the speed of it can catch you by surprise if you attempt to actually attack Eggman. The third closes in all space except that directly beneath Eggman—easy to avoid, but if you're quick, you can jump up at Eggman using the pillars closest to him and get back into the "safety zone" before you get crushed or subject to touch damage from Eggman. Note that sometimes Eggman will hover in the middle and then move to the side while the pillars are still opening. At first this seems unpredictable, but none of the pillar patterns for the ones where he sits on one side even vaguely match the ones where he hovers in the middle, so it's actually easy to avoid when you know what you're doing. + - Dodging the huge balloon is a pain in the ass, but it's actually doable... just really, really hard. The blue balloons can catch you off balance, but have the same jumping distance as the normal ones, so if you're always positioned at a certain distance from the balloons Eggman throws, you should be able to avoid them. The only really painfully cheap thing is the rare occasion where Eggman will throw a spiked ball at the floor while you're still busy dodging some variety of balloon, in which case you likely have no room to maneuver. This part IS a bitch, but after practicing at it, I find myself able to beat the boss more often than not. Note: rapid-firing the jump-dash at a height of about half an inch off the ground closes distance fast. Don't forget to be ready for anything Eggman might throw at you, though. Most of the boss is fairly easy to dodge, however, in my runs, Eggman has a nasty habit of doing that attack where he runs across the screen AND firing laser blasts at me at the same time. If there's a trick to dodging this, I haven't figured it out yet. I should mention that he never actually did that until I consciously attempted the Untouchable trophy. My own shitty luck, I suppose.
I'm a bit late to the party and there's not much to add at this point, but I'm going to do so anyway. I've gone through a few playing sessions of Sonic 4, and my main conclusion can be summarised thus: I hate this game. The physics are a nightmare for me. I can't get used to them. Frankly I don't want to get used to them because they're so counter-intuitive to both nature, and Sonic 1 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Platforming was a nightmare, that cannon sequence in CSZ was one of the most frustrating pieces of platforming I in recent memory, and I wasn't too big a fan of those vines in SHZ either, although some of that was also how the vines themselves worked. There was a minor problem in I felt I had to use the homing attack way too much. I understand making sequences to utilise a new technique, but I felt it was ridiculous how often you'd have to chainlink bubbles. One final note is that I still hate bottomless pits, and I am very angry that they still exist. Given that they're in there sparingly compared to Rush, I found myself unprepared whenever I fell from a path, and not knowing what to expect. I'd sometimes tense up and expect death, only to drop down to a lower path. Other times I'd be relaxed and calm, only to die unexpectedly. Even with those pits and the homing attack spamming, I felt that overall the game would have been extremely fun for me if the physics weren't so different. I had to play Sonic 3 and Knuckles just to "cleanse my pallet" was it were, and it was just way more natural feeling form me.
I've done it. Ergo, not impossible. I know some others who have too. No mistake. It was 32 in the classic games.
