Sonic 4 represents everything that any fan of the franchise could ever wish for: a marvelous level design and a gameplay that proves, once again, to be one of the finest examples of intense platforming.
Altogether I feel like it's a great throwback to old Sonic games, but at the same time I wish it was a little more refined and had removed some of the annoyances I had with the previous 2D Sonic games.
With a toe-tapping soundtrack, glitzy presentation and obvious accessibility, Sonic 4 Episode 1 has much to be proud of. Gamers who recall the early nineties and yearn for a simpler time when true 3d was restricted to bad sci-fi movies should lap this title up, but there's definitely a sense that it could, or indeed should have been more.
The new title feels like it was made by someone who has only ever seen Youtube videos of the 2D Sonic games and taken a very poorly educated guess on how it should control.