Well, now that I've read the Sonic 4 thread in the Engineering/Reverse Engineering section, I now know I have a Sonic suit set of avatar awards to unlock. I think I'll be spending most of tomorrow trying to get a perfect run of E.G.G Station Zone and collect all the rings in the ending sequence. Before I read the thread I didn't even know you could control Sonic during the ending. I assumed the rings were pointless.
Sonic can be controlled in the credits? I didn't know that. >_> I need to try that next time I beat it.
FROZEN NITROGEN'S NON-TROLLING REVIEW I actually enjoyed it more than I expected to. My number one complaint isn't even the physics; it's that I cleared in in under 4 hours. Short game is short. Nevertheless, the physics DO feel floaty and disjointed. One minute it refuses to give you any momentum at all (Splash Hill vines spring to mind); the next it gives with one hand and then taketh away with the other (general walking, Casino Street cannons); and other times you'll find speed from nowhere (or rather ubiquitous boost pads). Target detection is, on occasion, hilariously messed up: I was trying to home on the start of a line of Bubbles, but instead my lock-on somehow hit a spring three screens away and the homing attack wizzed me over there. WUT. Complete cut/paste rehash of Ye Olde levels still annoys, although there were some gems in amidst the general gratuitous de-ja-vu-ery. Loved the card-running in Casino Street (everything about Act 2 was sweet; easily the best act in the game). Yhe backgrounds in general were delicious, except for Splash Hill's, which was ugly and empty. And I learned to really like the final boss, with it's breakdancing lurch of doom. OVERALL: It was worth buying, though only JUST. The game is playable, and - for brief periods - enjoyable, though the physics rape provides a constant undercurrent of frustration and hatred simmering below the surface. It's not quite an '06, but neither could even the most generous apologist claim it is a worthy successor to S3K.
A friend of mine sent me an email stating that he didn't really like this game because of... well, everything that's already been mentioned, but he brought up one point that I don't think has been brought up before: Sonic 4 doesn't have a Debug Mode.
None of the Sonic Games since S3&K have debug mode. It as if Post-Genesis/MegaDrive Sonic Team Shuns cheaters in general.
I guess there is no sound check, too? Man what a party pooper! That was the best thing about most Genesis games! (Unrelated, I plan to upload the Sonic MIDIs as played on the Ultimate Genesis Soundfont tomorrow. It's missing a few files, but I don't think they're up yet.) And no hidden button sequences for ANYTHING? (Correct me if I'm mistaken.)
Ahh I thought you meant the ending where the cards flipped over as you ran across them. But really that other part I didn't have much trouble with either. Just try to take a high road so if you do fall you're fine. It's a challenge in the game and unlike some others (like the final boss) it's not unfair. Just a little tricky to get used to. That... never happened to me...? I didn't find ANYTHING scripted in that level unless you're talking about bouncing back and forth on the springs. In that case you must hate Metropolis zone. Yeah but they aren't going to get better all right away. I mean Unleashed was a step in the right direction and this is another step. It's not going to all come together in one glorious game. They're making small steps to improve the franchise and it's probably better because last time they tried to reinvent everything and take a HUGE step we got Sonic 06. That's the thing, nothing in this game feels half assed to me. They really tried. They probably have a whole new group of young programmers working on the game who know nothing about the original Sonic game. Now THAT I agree with. I certainly hope Episode 2 is either longer or less expensive.
Stupid question: Are the things like the trophys and what not all in the 360 version? I mean there is something like that for the Wii right, or no?
Yeah, the 360 version has achievements. The Wii version has nothing like that: it's just "ye olde Sonic game."
Physics aside, I would have enjoyed the game more, and rated it higher had they; Given us less lives. I mean what the hell? My younger brother was playing it for the first time and had 10 lives by the beginning of Casino Street, and he basically did a straight run through of the zone. Given us a sound test. When someone requests something that doesn't change the way the game plays, you can usually class them as picky, but who honestly hasn't spent at least an hour on the sound tests of the previous games? Whether it's looking at differences or hidden music, or just messing about with the sounds, or recognising sounds from previous games. Overall, I must have spent a good 20 hours of my life on the sound test screens of the classic games, and although that's partly due to using codes, it's still nice to have one, even if there aren't cheats, which you don't need I Sonic 4 anyway. This brings me nicely to my next point; SEGA, get rid of that ability to unlock every single basic act of every zone by beating the first level, please. What the hell does that even accomplish? People buy games to play through and progress, and it's honestly crap that the need to hone your skills and progress was utterly destroyed by you putting in a feature completely worthless, especially considering that you give the player so many lives anyway. Also, lastly, where's my actual Score Attack gone? Many of you may know of the thread I created days before Sonic 4's release- the celebratory and countdown thread- which housed mine and many other people's efforts to blast through the classic games in one sitting and total up the score. What happened? Now I can't even beat an act and keep my score, let alone a zone or the entire game. I can understand that maybe going back to the map could wipe the score out, but when you press the button to continue the game act to act, and zone to zone, I expect to be able to do something basic like keep track of my score without resorting to spending my time looking for a calculator, a pen and some paper. It's stupid. Sort it out. Also, I'm among the top three in Mad Gear's Boss on the Wii version :v:
As well as CSZ2 just haemorrhaging lives left, right and center, the game also has an imbalance in the number or rings and obstacles that can be of threat.
Or maybe they were trying to enable a pick-up-and-play type thing. You know, so you don't have to play through the whole game all at once to unlock all the levels? In any event, it doesn't actually affect the people that want to play through from start to finish in practice, including myself. All you need to do is press a button to go to the next act, which is fine for me cause I'm usually mashing a button to make the score tally faster anyway. In short, unlocking every stage in the game neither accomplishes nor detracts from the overall game. I mean...if you don't want to pick a random stage, you don't have to, right?
Well, that button thing isn't fine for me as I also tend to use the computer at the same time and can miss that prompt unlike the unleashed continue playing screen.
I clicked the button every time to advance a stage, but to me that's not the point. It's a stupid addition, and I doesn't help younger gamers. We shouldn't have to cater to people who 'pick up and play'. If they can't be arsed playing a game properly then they shouldn't purchase it, and SEGA should stop pissing about with things like this, when they could have changed and added things like I mentioned in my above post, which are actually valid and moreso acceptable. I'm betting on this perhaps even becoming a Sonic norm- being able to pick any stage you want, because you're too much of a 'casual' to do it properly. By the way, I'm not trying to piss off anyone here, if you used that feature, then good on you! It's there to be used. The thing is, it shouldn't have been there, and if it wasn't, you'd have just advanced the stages anyway, because no one ever has a problem with that.
I don't think anyone really designs games for multi-taskers, though. That aside, you still don't have to pick a random stage. Feel free to grumble about missing the prompt and then choosing the next stage. I think you're being a tad elitist here. Sega is a company, and they have to cater to as many people as possible. People like you and I are, in their eyes, incredibly difficult to please, and so a method to maximize the profits of Sonic 4 was to make it accessible to people that maybe aren't as good at games as you or I. That includes younger gamers. Being able to just skip a harder stage is a godsend for a kid. I can't tell you how pissed off Labyrinth Zone made me, especially when I knew there were cooler zones after it. Skipping zones sounds just dandy to kids and other people not very good at games that enjoy playing them. It's not a stupid decision, it's just one you don't like. Granted, I don't like it either, but I see the merit in it. If you feel "we" (speak for yourself!) shouldn't have to cater to people who are easier to please, maybe you should just buy whatever Sega puts on the shelf and not question their authoritah!
