Do you think people are too hard on Sonic 4 Episode 2?

[KHCast]

I don't think we are the stupid ones. You should play a game based on its on merits, who cares what it's called? People loved the Rush games which are repetitive and easy, with a boost to hide the zero momentum. I look at Episode 1 as classic themed DLC for Sonic Rush, kinda fun but a bit boring. 6/10. I look at Episode 2 as a fun Sonic game with some elements of momentum, nostalgic and new stages, 8/10. And what did people give Sonic Rush? 9/10. :/

I think we all know what would have happened if 06 had re-named itself to youknowhat3. Joking aside the point being, A name can for sure change someones opinion or view on a game. If S4 had not been called S4 and perhaps something else, the hate wouldn't have been so high because standards wouldn't be so high.

[AsYouTrulyImaginedIt]

Yes it is.

The way that stage controls at times makes it feel like you are not in control of the character but are in fact in control of the background. Not only does this make the level feel uncomfortable to play on, it makes the overal experience a step down from what we got near 18 years ago with Sonic 2.

At times it feels like those Special Stages in episode 1 where you were not in control of Sonic, it's not a good way to play a stage at all, especially one which you're supposed to feel like you're flying high above the clouds going at several hundred miles per hour wit enemies zooming past you at even faster speeds. You lose all sense of that to the point where it feels more like you're playing a submarine game as everything flows by at a slow pace instead of a frantic flying combat stage.

1: Well maybe you should look at it how it's supposed to be looked at? That being a complete episode of a game? Maybe then you'll see why they're bad games?

2: I had a sunday lunch for breakfast.

Funny how you removed part of the quote about the clouds. It's more intuitive to move faster than the camera's scope, because there is mainly clouds and not many objects to pass by. Just like in Sonic 2.

[Andrew Albacia]

Nobody was too hard on it. It's a mediocre game and got some mediocre press. Everything has pretty much been covered. If you enjoy something then that's awesome but the weight of public opinion is not on your side and that is a serious handicap. Remember that if someone disagrees with you, it isn't a personal attack and not everyone has to enjoy every game.

[Blacklightning]

Honestly, I had a hard time caring about the levels of Ep2 because, well, coming out of Dimps it was pretty much exactly what I expected - largely bland, un-involving and unmemorable. To me the big elephant in the room still has to be the astonishingly slow pace they somehow managed to achieve with all the boss fights. Say what you will about Ep1's bosses but they at least didn't take longer than they really had to... well, excepting Lost Labyrinth, of course.

Being unable to play as Tails alone sucks, too.

[sonfan1984]

So when is Sega going to announce Episode 3?

[AsYouTrulyImaginedIt]

Honestly, I had a hard time caring about the levels of Ep2 because, well, coming out of Dimps it was pretty much exactly what I expected - largely bland, un-involving and unmemorable. To me the big elephant in the room still has to be the astonishingly slow pace they somehow managed to achieve with all the boss fights. Say what you will about Ep1's bosses but they at least didn't take longer than they really had to... well, excepting Lost Labyrinth, of course.

Being unable to play as Tails alone sucks, too.

The bosses are another thing, I beat them all quickly on my first shot. I beat the Oil Desert boss in the same amount of time it takes people to beat the Carnival Night Act 1 boss or the Flying Battery Act 2 boss.

(Excluding using Insta-Shield).

Edited October 21, 2012 by AsYouTrulyImaginedIt

[Blue Blood]

The bosses are another thing, I beat them all quickly on my first shot. I beat the Oil Desert boss in the same amount of time it takes people to beat the Carnival Night Act 1 boss or the Flying Battery Act 2 boss.

(Excluding using Insta-Shield).

That's not even possible because of how long that boss forces you to take.

[Blacklightning]

The bosses are another thing, I beat them all quickly on my first shot. I beat the Oil Desert boss in the same amount of time it takes people to beat the Carnival Night Act 1 boss or the Flying Battery Act 2 boss.

(Excluding using Insta-Shield).

I just did a quick Youtube search and couldn't find a single speedrun under three minutes. Most of the regular runs were closer to five. Was that just a really generous estimate or are you making shit up as you go? Edited October 21, 2012 by The Chivalrous Cheese

[KHCast]

A comment Asyoutrulyimaginedit made in the status:

No, it's because you people find too much fault in games. Episode 2 is a fun game with good level design, It's not the best game ever but it isn't utter shit like you people make it out to be.

Fun is a subjective term. What one person might find fun another might find utter crap. I mean look at 06. Some people love it, while many hate it. S4E2 might be fun to you, but perhaps the reason some of us might not find enjoyment out of it is because of the issues it suffers from.

[Diogenes]

You should play a game based on its on merits,

Sonic 4 doesn't have merits.

I look at Episode 1 as classic themed DLC for Sonic Rush,

Worst DLC ever.

[neezTHEhuman]

One thing I will say in its favor is that it finally had a new and innovative use for the homing attack. I think its in Sylvania Castle act 3 where you need to attack some platforms to make them horizontal so that you can use them to progress. That's all I got unfortunately...

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Fun is a subjective term. What one person might find fun another might find utter crap. I mean look at 06. Some people love it, while many hate it. S4E2 might be fun to you, but perhaps the reason some of us might not find enjoyment out of it is because of the issues it suffers from.

Kinda like how I think the Werehog was better than Classic Sonic, even though the popular opinion is the reverse of this. Of course as long as no one shoves that popular opinion down my throat, I'm good.

[Gregzilla]

I don't think people are too hard on it. If anything I think it deserves more criticism than Episode 1, even though it may be slightly better.

What I mean by that is that E1 kinda sucked, but the fans and critics let them know what was wrong with it, and it seemed like the developers were listening. In that case, E2 should have fixed E1's problems. It barely fixed anything, and I think it deserves a lot of its hate.

[Blue Blood]

I don't think people are too hard on it. If anything I think it deserves more criticism than Episode 1, even though it may be slightly better.

What I mean by that is that E1 kinda sucked, but the fans and critics let them know what was wrong with it, and it seemed like the developers were listening. In that case, E2 should have fixed E1's problems. It barely fixed anything, and I think it deserves a lot of its hate.

Too add further insult to this, it happened twice. First they delayed E1 to do next to nothing, and then they released E2 which also did next to nothing.

[Xenos]

Too add further insult to this, it happened twice. First they delayed E1 to do next to nothing, and then they released E2 which also did next to nothing.

[AsYouTrulyImaginedIt]

I just did a quick Youtube search and couldn't find a single speedrun under three minutes. Most of the regular runs were closer to five. Was that just a really generous estimate or are you making shit up as you go?

[Blacklightning]

This is amazing. In the context of a series where pacing can be defined in a matter of seconds, there actually exist people who will insist that several extra minutes of pointless padding is somehow no big deal. How on earth do you people manage to say that with a straight face?

Also, it's completely missing the point. I can handle a long boss fight as long has it has plenty of ways to keep me engaged in the process. The pre-Doomsday fight in S3&K is fucking awesome because it has three wildly different phases, and at not a single point in the fight are you ever short of both an attack opportunity or the need to dodge at the same time - S4Ep2's bosses are all shit because they all do everything humanly possible to ensure they're only the barest bit engaging, usually consist of ridiculously long waiting times between attack opportunities with the most minimal amount of stimulation possible, take a whole eight hits that you're only ever able to deal one at a time, take nearly a full minute just to start fighting, and just to top it all off most of them fight to the tune of the single most annoying twenty second loop from S4Ep1, except they somehow found a synth for it that sounds even worse.

It really begs the question - at what point did Dimps really think it would even be worth that kind of trouble? You could trim nearly all of those delays out entirely and not a single ounce of difficulty or creative process would have been lost, so it really puzzles me why anyone would act so insecure about the length of the bosses - fans and Dimps alike.

Edited October 22, 2012 by The Chivalrous Cheese

[ArtFenix]

Too harsh? No. The only thing I love about E2 is how the bosses look. Best boss design since Egg dragoon and S06 bosses. They look so intimidating and dangerous and just awesome. Well, I also like how Sylvania Castle looks....and classic red Tornado. OK. Metal Sonic also. Other than that in terms of gameplay, level design and physics, this is indeed worth mentioning and critisizing.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Sonic 4 Episode 2 is a good (slightly bland) game in it's own right. A short and cheap digital download title.

The biggest problem is that it is called Sonic The Hedgehog 4. I kid you not, the biggest from with this game is it's name. The expectation for the long awaited sequel to the much loved Sonic 3&K, was always against Sonic 4. Episodic or not, the game is just too short. Where is the long term replay value?

It might be wrong to compare it to Sonic 3&K, as gameplay as gone through many changes since 1994, but then why did Sonic Team call the game Sonic 4? So it would sell.

I think that there would have been a lot less negativity towards this game, if it had been called something else, like Sonic DL.

Nailed it

There's genuinely nothing offensively bad about this game. Yes, it has shortcomings. Yes, it has some design issues. But BY GOD PEOPLE it's nowhere near the bottom for this series. There's an embarrasingly large portion of this fandom that have a pavlovian response that forces them to blurt out fecal matter comparisons every time someone mentions Sonic 4 like the game beat them up during recess and stole their lunch money.

The first time I played through Sonic 4 Episode II, my impression was honestly "Hey, that was fun. Maybe now people will stop developing tourettes syndrome in every Sonic 4 thread." But no. Even Episode II is apparently the harbinger of everything wrong with Sonic the Hedgehog.

So yes, people are too hard on this game. More to the point, they're physically incapable of appreciating it for what it is, instead obsessively picking at everything it was never intended to be. Sonic 4 Episode 1 was not designed to be Sonic 4. That was a late development decision. I completely agree that it was a bad idea that put the game next to a pedestal it couldn't possibly measure up to. But get over it. Yes, this game doesn't deserve the title Sonic 4, but big whoop, it's still a fun game on its own merits.

[hangarninetysix]

They just didnt even try. Not much else to say. No bonus stages, no multiple playable characters, no extra boss with all chaos emeralds, no expansive levels to explore for special stages. It's also absurdly easy, (they give you a life for finishing an act with 10k points...?) Even the special stages were a step down from Episode 1.

Sonic 4 just doesn't even come close to playing like the classics, and the thing is, they didnt try to make it do so either. Homing attack is evidence enough of that. I would have rather seen Sonic Rush 2 HD, to be honest. That game probably would have been alot of fun in its own right at least.

[MugiMikey]

Why do people say Episode II has improved physics? Excuse me if I'm missing something but I've played the hell out of both episodes and I haven't noticed an improvement at all. They feel the same and I don't think there's an excuse for that seeing as they technically had two years to fix it.

Edited October 22, 2012 by MugiMikey

[Stritix]

No. It was a shit game when it was released, and it's still a shit game now.

[Jack / Joker]

I DON'T THINK PEOPLE ARE HARD ENOUGH ON SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4: EPISODE II TO BE HONEST!

...well then...

This game is absolutely deserving of everything it gets and worse. The physics wouldn't bother me if the level design wasn't so terribly bland, with such monotonous looks and music to back it up. The games have nothing to call their own worth mentioning and the sheer boredom this game causes for me rivals that of Sonic '06. If I wanted to play a game that plays itself I'd watch the Sonic animated movie... sure it wasn't high-budget or top priority, but why not? This could have been so much more than it was, and it turned out Sonic 4 as a whole ended up being the worst 2D main series Sonic game in my opinion.

Edited October 22, 2012 by -The Joker-

[Semi-colon e]

Why do people say Episode II has improved physics? Excuse me if I'm missing something but I've played the hell out of both episodes and I haven't noticed an improvement at all. They feel the same and I don't think there's an excuse for that seeing as they technically had two years to fix it.

The rolling IS slightly better and we no longer have the retarded insta-stop in mid-air, but otherwise it's essentially the same. There are also very few spots where rolling works well enough to get much speed, and even then the 69 attack gets you there faster and with no physics anyway.

On topic Episode 2 gets about as much flak as it deserves for being not that great. I wouldn't say it doesn't get enough though, considering nearly everyone bashes it as it is.

[Crash]

Dimps = Shit.

I figured it out!

Edited October 22, 2012 by CrashTheHedgehog100