![]() ![]() There was a place to remake old Sonic levels and it happened a few months ago. Actually no, I feel the opposite to content – enraged, that’s it. I wish they’d noticed this before Generations with its one single stage from that game, but I guess I should be content with every level from Episode II being exactly like a level from Sonic 2. Sonic Team appear to have noticed how everyone loves Sonic 2 the most. On ground or not? Pressing horizontal or vertical on the left stick? No idea. Sticking with controls, I do quite like the new move where you can call Tails in by pressing X for either a lift (negating many falling deaths) or a rolling attack, but the game often gets them confused and I’m still not sure how it distinguishes the two. “Not screwing them up entirely” is not something to be commended, rather a stern “thanks, now don’t do it again”. Sonic now actually jumps when you press the Jump button and doesn’t stop dead the instant you let the joystick go or impossibly hangs on to ceilings. Yes, the physics and controls have been sorted out – hallelujah – but I’m not going to count them as Pros since they really should be standard in every game ever made. Sadly that’s pretty much the end of the praise. Go on, try and work out what’s going on here. Finally if you’ve got both Episodes you can unlock ‘Episode Metal’, a four-act extra episode where you play as Metal Sonic in some of the hardest maps. Levels flow quite smoothly, and if there’s an annoying section it’s usually something actually difficult rather than past games’ “spikes or enemies just where the spring bounced you, P.S. Further on the Pros, bosses aside there are a lot less cheap deaths this time around. ![]() I didn’t though, since I had to play the whole game to find out. Not even Tails or Robotnik say a single line, and for that fact alone I considered giving Episode II a 10/10. I’ve mentioned a few of them above, but I’m especially glad that everything’s been kept simple – and that Sonic’s been kept silent. Now that’s out of my system let me focus on the good. More aggravatingly it can take up to a minute to just start a boss fight even after dying, with enforced ring collecting and unskippable animations padding out each one – I don’t know why this happens since literally no other Sonic game does this! The “final” boss (sans all Chaos Emeralds) is also an exercise in frustration, pulling an unavoidable insta-kill move out of its arse just when I was about to beat it. Taking the first boss (a tentacle robot) as an example, it seems utterly arbitrary when its tentacles can hit you or not. Now, I know bosses are meant to be a challenge, but I’d like to at least know when I’m going to get hit and why. I’m referring in particular to the bosses. There are several areas in the game where you just have to wonder if anyone from Sonic Team or SEGA actually picked up a pad and played them at all. There’s always something that should’ve been highlighted in playtesting, like a camera that frequently gets stuck, silly or unresponsive controls, cheap deaths, boring cutscenes, bugs, or areas that are frustrating and not fun at all.Įpisode II hits the last one there like a brick. I love Sonic The Hedgehog, and I love the original ideas that come out of the developer now and again ( NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg), but every game they develop feels like no-one’s played it before release. I don’t know what it is with Sonic Team, but they always manage to screw things up. There are no 3D levels, there’s no dialogue at all, the story’s kept very basic, there are no overly long unskippable cutscenes, the physics have been sorted out, Tails is the only extra character (and he also keeps quiet, phew), and the whole thing is a homage to the best two Sonic games – Sonic 2 and Sonic CD. Previous to that Sonic 4: Episode I certainly wasn’t bad but had a few issues – now that Episode II’s finally here, will Sonic Team sort them out and continue their winning streak?įirst impressions are certainly good, at least I got the impression that lessons are being learned after a decade of repeating mistakes. It’s only been a few months since Sonic Generations proved that SEGA were still capable of producing a decent Sonic game, something the world once thought impossible. ![]()
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