Mamba_Tabac

Never been a big fan of Halo to be honest - to me it's one of those franchises that everyone seems to love but I can't for the life of me understand why. However - even I must admit that this one is pretty good. Yes the campaign story is bloated and up it's own *** as usual - but there is absolutely no faulting the multiplayer - which is great fun I must say.

It seems they spent so much time trying to make a funny game that they forgot about the game bit. I wouldn't even mind - but it's not even that funny...

I found Sonic 4 to be a bit of a mixed bag - there were things I really liked about it, and other things that definitely need improvement. Positives? Well I have to say it's visually stunning - the stages look wonderful, especially the Labyrinth levels. I also like how they carried over cues from Sonic 3 by having each act of a stage having slight variations on music/visuals that keeps things fresh as you progress through the game. The game also has wonderful level design, with huge chunky stages with multiple paths to be explored, which is great for replay and time attack junkies. Problems? Well it does seem a bit on the short side - but then if you compare it to Sonic 1 it does have fewer stages, but the levels are much bigger so overall it's about the same size. Also, the difficulty progression is way off. 90% of the game is far too easy - by the final stage you should easily have 30+ lives, and then the final stage presents a huge difficulty spike that comes out of nowhere, leaving the game feeling somewhat unbalanced. The physics. Boy - the physics. A lot of people have said the physics are game breaking and terrible, and granted they need improvement but they are not that bad. There seems to be some issues with the spin dash practically stopping if you go off an edge, jumps halting in mid-air if you let go of the direction, and being able to to stand and spin-dash on near vertical surfaces. However none of these are game breaking really, and only arise on occasion or if you are looking for such things. Other things? Special stages are fun if a bit frustrating, Sonic's animations are good for the most part but his running seems wrong (initially he moves faster than his animation makes it appear and his full speed animation frankly looks obnoxious, but hey...). Homing attack is a welcome addition in my opinion - it gives the exploration a bit more scope when you notice a 'lock on' to something out of reach. Music is ok - really liked the Labyrinth tunes, but the Dr Eggman theme 1 is frankly rubbish. Overall I think the game is worth playing, so long as you're willing to accept it's not going to live up to the Sonic 4 that's in your head. I feel it's definately a step in the right direction, but there are certainly a few more steps to go before this series is back on track. Hopefully Episode 2 will be closer.