Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II Prototypes Found with Unused Ending

It's a timing thing, at the time it had one of the longest gab between releases, 4 years is a lot, some even counted from Generations cause it was advertised as a successor for that game so like 6 years, had this game released at 2013 instead of lost world you will get a very different perception and reception, people would just treat it as another mid sonic game and move on -and then treat Lost World that released in 2017 like the worst thing ever-

 

I think there's a difference between being upset that a game is a bad/mediocre version of what you want and it being good but not to your tastes. I do not like boost at all but I can see why people like generations or even colours and unleashed. I hope even most diehard "adventure kids" or "classic purists" would say the same.

I think we need to learn that criticism isn't the same as attacking something, hell I criticise the classic games sometimes. Mania made me reevaluate how I thought about the classics simply because I wanted to see if the few criticisms I had with mania were also present in them.

Anyway might as well post my thoughts on sonic 4 considering what this thread is about.

Sonic 4 is an interesting game for me, my first proper expirence with Sonic aside from allstars racing DS was on an iPhone4s (RIP the greatest 4s ever) with Sonic 1, 2 and CD I got Sonic 4 epI and II and then immediately uninstalled it. I felt let down, disappointed and lied to. I felt like that without knowing people had been asking for Sonic 4 longer than I'd been alive lmao. Ultimately, isolated from the expectations, it is just a medicore game. If it was called anything but Sonic 4 it would just be a slightly strange rehash of some Sonic 1 and 2 levels, fun to mess around with on a phone while riding a bus? maybe.... but then 1,2 and CD were also on phones lol.

I did reinstall them somepoint after I completed the other games. I did get some enjoyment out of them, but I always wondered why they weren't as good as Sonic 2. An episode III might have been cool, I guess if only to have a proper conclusion and to see Knuckles. It probably wouldn't have changed my thoughts on epI and II that much.

 

I can't speak for the other items, but the linearity aspect was explicitly stated to be a reason for Frontiers' open zones.

 

Sonic 4 was a lesson learned. There will NEVER be a Sonic Adventure 3. We dodged a bullet as StH06 almost had it as the title. Instead the title will have an honorable death by not existing.

 

Did anyone from Sonic Team ever state 06 was going to be titled Adventure 3? While there's gameplay similarities, the only titles the game had was either Sonic the Hedgehog or Sonic Next Generation from those fur test renders.

 

'06 wasn't even going to be a Sonic game in first place.

 

That's not really true. 06 and FPS (oh, I get it...) had concurrent development cycles. 06 just ended up taking the psychokinesis idea for Silver while FPS stopped development altogether. They were getting their early looks at the same events.

 

I must be the only one out there who liked Forces' writing. It was leagues better than Lost World's "sandwich is an inherently funny word, right?" style, and felt much more natural for the kinds of stories I'm familiar with the writers producing; it may not have been worth a pulitzer but it felt natural in a way that only the announcements in Colors could have been any better (and who was going to stick around in one place to listen to them?)

 

So we're dismissing wild claims with wilder claims now? Silver's gameplay was probably a holdover from Fifth Phantom Saga but there's also no hard proof that it outright became Sonic '06.

 

Are you talking about the writing itself or just the dialogue? Because the more serious(ish) dialogue and darker tone make it feel less like a Nick Jr. show than Lost World, but I’m gonna have to HARD disagree if you’re talking about the script/characters.

 

I'd say neither Forces nor Lost World were well written. Though at least Forces tried to tell an actual story, as opposed to stitching together a bunch of tone-inconsistent scenes.

Granted, Forces' story was half-assed and didn't live up to what it tried to do, but the same holds true for Lost World. Both Forces' attempts at seriousness and epicness, and Lost World's comedy and character moments, fell flat.

 

I think something that stopped SEGA from considering Episode 3 was realizing they could just commission remakes of Sonic 1 and 2 like CD and those would probably sell just as well on mobile without requiring a whole new game with new designs. So that's yet another thing those games ruined.

 

Funny you should mention those, for as much as this place worships the mobile remasters of Sonic 1 and 2, they actually got worse critic reviews than Sonic 4. The iOS versions of S4E1 and S4E2 have a metascore of 70% and 63% respectively, while Sonic 2 iOS is 60%.

 

Ah my bad, I forgot about the original emulated version.

Still, I recall even the remaster getting mediocre scores?

 

Not from what I'm seeing. Just taking a quick glance at the sites that did bother to put out a review for the 2013 version, they've all been glowing reviews in the 4 out of 5 and up range. I also don't recall any major backlash other than they were trapped on mobile. If anything, people were complaining that they couldn't play them on their platform of choice. Same applies to 1.

 

I recall fans complaining about the remasters getting lackluster reviews, and the critics at large arguing that the games were poorly suited for touchscreens. Am I crazy?

 

I don’t remember that at all. As far as I can recall they were pretty widely liked inside and outside of the fanbase, but I could certainly be wrong.

 

Guess I must be crazy then.

Though in this instance I'm happy I am