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With Sonic 4, Sega promised to put their flagship series through the gameplay strainer, and they’ve done exactly that, consigning the cutscenes, werehog fighty bits and clingy losers such as Big the Cat to the drainpipe, leaving nothing remaining but fat, juicy lumps of fun.
The bonus stages, activated by finishing a level with over 50 rings, resemble the mazes from the very first Sonic the Hedgehog, but with a modern twist. Now, instead of reacting to the spin of the maze, the player controls it. A Chaos Emerald is still the prize, but now Sonic has to fight for his right to even be in the same room as the gem – doors blocking off access have to be removed by collecting a set number of rings.
Sonic 4 will be split into three episodes, each containing four zones of three acts (and a boss) apiece, with this first outing available in the summer. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed and could yet prove to be a contentious issue – there’s enough here to warrant possiblyeight bucks,but much more than that and it might be a harder sell. But there’s nothing else to moan about – this is old-school Sonic, done right.
We hope some of the other Zones shove the Blue One into new surroundings though; familiarity can breed contempt. Even Mario found that out once.
Mar 22, 2010
