Sonic 4: Episode 1 - YOUR questions answered

Breener_96: I, along with others ( I hope), was pissed when I saw the animation. Think they'll change it before release?
The animation is actually better than I first thought. The top-speed running looks great, idle animations are good... it's just the jumping that looks wrong to me. But no, they're not going to change it now - it's too far along.

Orange_Games: Is it a direct reboot of the Sonic 1? It certainly looks like it.
It's more a greatest hits compilation of ideas from Sonic 1, 2 and 3. But yes, there area lot of Sonic 1's sensibilities in there.

FamousRob: If it isn't the best Sonic game since SAdv will you consider retiring the hedgehog til someone good can make him work again?
Ah, you must be that Rob that I hear about all the time! Again, GamesRadar isn't making the game. But no, so long as the name sells the game, Sega will never stop making Sonic games.


Above: The waterfalls look particularly nice when you see them in motion

BTHRZeroX: In Sonic 4 the speed of Sonic himself seem rather slow. Why is this? I mean he is Sonic, the fastest hedgehog around so why is he slow?
It's actually necessary to make the game playable.In a side-scrolling game, you can only ever see a certain distance in front of you, so if he moved too fast, human reflexes couldn't react to an enemy or a spiky pit etc. You'd hit it before you even saw it. You could pull the camera back, sure, but that would make Sonic look smaller and the game would actually appear to be moving more slowly anyway. So this is a pretty good balance.

Leegolas: Is the invincible music anything like the Sonic 1 music invincible music?
I don't think Sonic became invincible in the demo. But, asI say, musical stings are all really familiar, so if it's not from Sonic 1, it'll be from Sonic something.

Ampatent: When do we find out it actually sucks like the rest of them?
Funny. No, this actually looks like it'll be pretty good. Not spectacularly good, but I'm still excited about playing it.

So there you have it- thanks to everyone who asked a question, they were all really good ones. What do you think of these interactive previews? Want to see more of them? Let us know in the comments. Cheers.

25 Mar, 2010

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.