I used to think Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Episode 1 in particular, anyway) was irredeemably awful with nothing to say positive about it. But going into it after a few years with an open mind, it's better than I remembered it being. I'll elaborate. And I'll start with the positives, imo ofc, because most of the reviews are super negative.

I think the best way to describe Sonic 4 is as "Sonic's New Super Mario Bros." I've seen some say this before, and it's pretty accurate. It's a 2.5D revival of the blue blur which implements aspects of Sonic's 3D moveset into a 2D setting, such as the air dash and the homing attack. Similarly, the NSMB games took Mario's wall, double, triple jumps, etc., and put them in a 2D setting. I enjoy Sonic 4 doing this, as it feels like an organic divergence from the direction all newer 2D Sonic games have taken, with their complete disregard for any "modern Sonic" mechanics merely for the sake of puritanistic adherence to classic Sonic tropes. The air dash is a fun way of building up speed in more open segments of the levels, and the homing attack, when used properly, can create fresh new ways to design 2D levels with different branching paths and the like. Especially in Episode 2, but Episode 1 doesn't necessarily do this poorly. Splash Hill is a standout in this regard. In general, the level design does a good job of letting players familiar with their layouts maintain speed, at least in my experience, and there's some pretty cool setpieces like in act 2 of the casino level where Sonic will occasionally along a deck of cards and pop out of the foreground while doing so, smoothly transitioning back into solid ground to continue running.

I also greatly appreciate the ability to retry stages a lá the modern games, as half of the fun of any remotely decent Sonic game is the replayability of stages. And in Sonic 4, it comes at zero cost to your lives count, no less! Proper classic Sonic games (1, CD, 2, 3&K) & nu-classic Sonic games (Mania, Superstars) forgo this feature, the former games because they came before the 3D games which implemented/normalized it and the latter games because a retry button isn't "classic" enough... ig? Kinda dumb reason to exclude a legitimately great quality of life feature that makes revisiting levels you wanna get better at much easier and much less inconvenient. This also connects to how, in those nu-classic games I mentioned before, even though you're able to select stages you want to go to in them, you're also forced to continue playing into the next one unless you actively choose to exit them through the pause menu. I know this is how all the older classic games do it, but that doesn't mean it's how the newer ones need to do it or that it's the better way of doing things. I vastly prefer Sonic 4's setup, as I'm able to just go in and play the levels I like, retry them as much as I like, and get out. If Mania had such a setup which allowed me to just play its new, unique zones individually, that would immediately make me reinstall that game, as it would be such a cool QoL feature to see put in. Alas, it never would've been and never will because, oh gods forbid, it's Sonic 4's setup... Oh well.

When it comes to Sonic 4's presentation, it's more of a mixed bag than it is outright horrible like some make it out. I'll cover the negatives of it right below, but, to speak some positives of the game's graphics, I really love the background of Splash Hill in this game. The level of detail on the clouds is pleasant, and the fact they actively scroll is a treat to the senses. The sunflowers all sway in the breeze as Sonic runs past which is an easy detail to miss if you're just sprinting through everything, which is likely to be the case in a Sonic game, obviously. The music's also part of the presentation, and while I have more negative to say about it than positive, the foundational melodies are at least some neat little earworms as you play the game.

And the biggest positive is the pricing. Half the price of Sonic Mania, a sixth the price of Sonic Superstars, you can do much worse for 10 bones (USD). It's also arguably longer than Sonic Forces and a fourth the price ffs. Price ain't an issue here, in my honest opinion.

Now... onto stuff most people will probably agree on.


First off, let me make this clear: this is still a Dimps Sonic game. Sometimes there's extremely annoying spike placement and bottomless pits, and while Episode 2 includes warning signs for when you're approaching a bottomless pit and that you'll need to be a bit more deliberate and precise in your platforming escapades, Episode 1 does not give you this courtesy even though it would've been an extremely simple matter to retroactively add such a minor thing to the game back when Sonic 4 and its episodes were somewhat relevant. One could say this makes these levels more satisfying to master, but that's just the Sonic Rush stan within me speaking. For most players, such obstacle placements will be off-putting.

And let's address the elephant in the room: Sonic 4's physics aren't one-to-one with the classic games proper. There are certainly some shared elements between the two such as loop jumps speeding the player up, jumping off of slopes providing much more height than usual, and maybe a couple other things that don't immediately come to mind, but by and large, it's different enough that people leaning moreso towards having a classic purist bent will be left unsatisfied, which is understandable. Personally, it satiates enough of the same desires as the classic games to do its job well, but I'm more than well aware that puts me in the minority. But for what it's worth, I think it's still better at emulating those classic games than, say, Classic Sonic in Generations. And that's a hill I'll die on. Like I said though, I'm the minority here. So keep it noted if you're going to buy the game.

And once again, i gotta talk about the music. Yeahhhh it's pretty whatever, honestly. Like I said before, I like the melodies, but they're wasted on such nothing instruments which try to copy the Genesis' lovable twang, but it just doesn't hit the same, it comes across as quite cheap. And speaking of cheap, I'm not the biggest fan of the plastic-y sheen that lathers pretty much every surface in the foreground, including Sonic himself. It doesn't look as bad as Heroes at least, but that's not a particularly high bar. So glad that Episode 2 improves upon this, and immensely at that.

And lastly, yeah, the game's gonna be too short for most people. That'll happen when you decide to release it episodically instead of like any normal damn game. I'm personally fine with it because I have ADHD and I'm more likely to complete a game if it's not so long it'll lose my attention, but again, that's prob not gonna be the case for most people. Sega, Sonic isn't Half-Life, quit smoking dope on the job.


Sonic 4 Episode 1 is fine, frankly. It can be fun a good, like, 70% of the time, to my experience. But it shouldn't have been called Sonic 4. That set it up for failure from the start. Calling itself that creates some extremely lofty expectations that, even for all the positives I've mentioned, it just can't meet. If it had instead been called something closer to like how New Super Mario Bros was, like, idk, Sonic the Hedgehog: Revival or Sonic Throwback, maybe its reception would've been a little less lukewarm on release and much less aggressively torn apart in retrospect. I'd say if you have a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket, don't wanna shell out full price for something frustrating and bland like Superstars but still want to satisfy your 2D Sonic fix, at least consider giving Sonic 4 Episode 1 a shot. And if nothing else, Episode 2 is right there as well.

This game is COMPLETE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to play, from the weird physics they went with, the rendering that looks like the saturation is turned up to %1000 or the fact that most of the levels are either stupidly easy or stupidly hard. If you're looking for a fun time with a Sonic game, look elswhere.

I dunno whats worse, finding out you stepped in dog crap or setting your gaze upon this game.
I'm angry either way, and it's totally dog's anus!