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Sonic 4 and why the WordPress app for iPhone is a piece of crap.
It should be mentioned that I’ve always had a turbulent relationship with Sonic. When I was a child my best friend had a Mega Drive AND a Game Gear but I had neither. Aww. We’d spend hours after school and at weekends playing Sonic (I say playing but I never really got a turn- the old “you are playing, we’re a team” line)
As such, when I got older and everyone around me was full of nostalgia for the blue hedgehog and his two tailed foxy friend, I shied away from all talk of him- ashamed with my lack of practice and knowledge of the green hill zone. Instead I filled the void by partaking in several of Sonic’s* awful spin-off novels. One was about a time travelling treadmill I think and I may well have read it 10 times.
*just in case anyone was unsure, the novels were about him, not by him.
To cut a loooooong story short, I’ve subsequently bought and played most of the ‘good’ Sonic games now, and an awful 3D one on the pc, but I’ve never really fallen in love with Sonic. So when Sonic 4 was announced I thought “finally I can play through one in the same decade as everyone else”. And I was excited.
First came the agonising decision about which platform to get it for. I went for Xbox. My first clue that this perhaps wasn’t going to be the epic I imagined came when my usually creaky Internet downloaded the entire game in about 3 seconds. Hmm. But press on I did. Onwards to falling in love with Sonic in the same way that so many of my peers have. And have I? Are we in love?
No.
Having played through the previous games pretty recently I’m a little confused why 4 took so long to come out. It feels lazy. The design is lazy and I just don’t feel excited. Sonic trots along at a brisk jog rather than the ridiculous ‘I have no idea what’s happening’ speed he used to and I don’t feel the same thrill I used to get from just running fast. I didn’t use to care if I died or ran into spikes. The running was so damn fun. Now I have had several occasions where I’ve had to turn off the xbox before I have a rage induced heart attack.
The things that are wrong with Sonic 4 have been described in depth elsewhere so I won’t go on. In fact, I can’t go on. I’m just so disappointed. It’s as if Nintendo re-released Super Mario Bros World and added a load of silly gimmicks that dont really work. Oh wait…
In short, I doubt very much if I’ll be buying episode 2 and will be saving my xbla points for a game that can offer me something new, or at least give me a reason to carry on playing.
Oh yes, and WordPress? This is the third time I’ve tried to write this piece using your app but it deleted my drafts the first two times so now I’m using the browser interface. Ta. That wasn’t annoying at all.
