The critical difference with Episode II isn’t just the resolution, but what Sega’s done with it this time out. Though the artwork isn’t third-generation iPad Retina Display-ready, it still looks spectacular on each of Apple’s devices: crisper on the iPhone and iPod touch, with console-rivaling sharpness on iPads. Signposts generally signal what you’re supposed to be doing, eliminating “I’m trapped” frustrations that have been found in earlier Sonic titles, and the collaboration works better here than in prior Sega games such as Knuckles Chaotix, where there was at least a little too much push and pull as a result of teamwork, rather than continued forward progress. As a one-player game, the player primarily controls Sonic, occasionally tapping a team-up button to make Tails use a special power: helicopter tail flight to lift Sonic over obstacles, speedier swimming, or collaborative power rolling, each unlocked during play and activated based on the situation you’re in when you hit the team-up button.
Backtrack a little and you may find an extra life or power-up hidden behind or above the area you were just exploring fall down to low platforms and you can be assured there is a higher, more interesting route above you waiting to be discovered on a revisit of the level.Įpisode II can be played as a single-player title, or collaboratively over Bluetooth with two people in the same room, one controlling Sonic and the other handling Tails. From moment one, a fully 3-D rendered Sonic is joined by the two-tailed fox Tails, blissfully bereft of the high-pitched voice he has possessed throughout more story-laden Sonic games, and the characters take off together throughout expansive levels filled with all of the corkscrews, jumps, and robotic enemies series fans would expect, as well as hidden paths and multiple routes to most levels’ spinning signpost endings.
Thanks to some cool level and boss designs, Episode II starts out on a really high note and just keeps going throughout its 16 stages-four zones and four acts, plus third-person 3-D tunnel bonus levels.
Today, Sega has released Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II ($7), and though the iOS virtual controls still have the expected issues, the underlying game is one of the best 2.5-D Sonic titles in years - beautifully rendered, fully universal with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch support, and full of stages that have just enough new and old touches to satisfy even jaded Sonic fans. Sega tried to go back to Sonic’s roots with the late 2010 Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, which rewarmed the series’ famous Genesis/Mega Drive title Sonic 2 with updated graphics, and then successfully ported one of the franchise’s best titles in late 2011’s Sonic CD. Though it’s been suggested that Sega has spent years in a no-win situation with its Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, incapable of satisfying fans with anything it does, we’ve long believed that it just needed some truly great games to restart the troubled series.