Sonic the Hedgehog 4/YMMV

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• 8.8:
  • Wired's review.
  • GT's Episode II review gets this too, with the review full of constant comparisons to the Genesis games, and the score being lower than Episode I's.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Reasons: 2D, Sonic only for Episode I, hints of Tails and Knuckles for Episode II, direct sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles, being co-developed by Dimps and the original senior level designer for Sonic 3 and Knuckles, playable Super Sonic in all levels, and Sega actually responding to complaints about a leaked beta version by retooling the game and removing what was shaping up to be a Scrappy Mechanic.
  • The confirmation that Episode II is completely reworking the physics in response to the complaints about Episode I. Also the confirmation that Episode II will have Tails as a playable character in 2-Player mode.
  • New screenshots have been released!
  • Online Co-op for Episode II confirmed!
  • "Lock-On" between Episode I and Episode II confirmed. Connecting the Episodes together unlocks a bonus Episode called "Episode Metal", allowing you to play as Metal Sonic in 4 exclusive levels - Specifically, the Episode I levels, with updated level designs!
• Awesome Music: As a Sonic the Hedgehog game, this is pretty much a requirement. Although some may consider Episode Is instruments to be full of dying cats, Episode IIs don't have such sounds.
• Best Boss Ever: Remember the old Stardust Speedway race? Metal Sonic races you again in Death Egg mk.II Zone Act 1!
• Breather Level:
  • Episode I:
    • Casino Street Zone Act 2. The console version, Road of Cards, features large groups of cards that hand out items as they're flipped, meaning you can take about a dozen lives every time you play it. The mobile version of Act 2 is instead an effortless mini pinball table you have to collect points in.
  • Episode II:
    • White Park Zone Act 2 is an easy rollercoaster to run around, in contrast to the platfoming featured in the other acts.
    • Death Egg mk.II Zone Act 1 has two boss fights, but also features surprisingly simple level design you can run freely through.
• Broken BaseConsummately Obliterated Base: This game has probably gotten the biggest amount of praise and backlash at the same time with just three seconds of footage shown with a tons of people analyzing and nitpicking every aspect they can get their hands on judging from the trailer alone.
  • Later, the game gets delayed for tweaking, fine-tuning and an iPhone release. Many of the fans find it a time for rejoicing, as they have hopes that SEGA is actually paying attention to the complaints. Other fans are upset with SEGA for hyping the fanbase up over a delay, and they felt the game would've been fine coming out as it was.
  • On a smaller scale, some people think that the music was a bit stifled and wasn't mastered well.
  • No Wii release for Episode II prompted this, as Wii owners questioned what made it impossible to do on the Wii when the first episode worked fine: it's largely down to the new graphics engine and better quality music files making the game too large for the Wii Shop. This has conversely opened up a camp of people blaming the Wii for the poor graphics and music quality of Episode I. Another subset of the Wii owners are complaining that because Episode II isn't seeing a release on the Wii, they won't be able to access Episode Metal without repurchasing Episode I.
• Contested Sequel: Both fan and critic reactions vary when they're asked to compare it to the previous three installments.
• Critical Dissonance: Many critics gave Episode I good to average reviews, while most fans view it as an inferior game. Meanwhile, most critics ripped into Episode II, yet most fans consider the game to be a marked improvement over the original.
• Difficulty Spike: First one during Lost Labyrinth Zone. Second one during the final boss.
• Ear Worm: This game has some too.
• Even Better Sequel: Episode II is heading there.
• Fan Utter Stupidity: Rampant on all sides of the matter concerning this game.
  • A special case of Fan Dumb was spread by user infinity on Sonic Retro, full playthroughs of every single stage in the game have been leaked. This happened months before the game was meant to be released. It got to the point that Microsoft temporarily shut down its PartnerNET service because of them.
  • Another noteworthy example are fans threatening to boycott the game... by purchasing Sonic 1. That's right, they're punishing Sega by throwing money at them.
  • There are also people who complain that this game is pandering to the modern fans. Yeah.
• Faux Symbolism: The final boss of the Death Egg mk.II Zone is a heart. A realistic, beating, human heart.
• Freud Was Right: Sonic and Tails' double spin dash has already been called "the 69 attack" in a few forums.
• Game Breaker:
  • In Episode I, you can press Retry before time runs out in special stages, providing infinite attempts at each Chaos Emerald as long as you don't touch the exits.
  • The Rolling Combo in Episode II. Immune to almost every hazard? Check. A constantly moving Spin Attack that can take down even Snowy in one hit? Check. Makes the Stardust Speedway remake race incredibly easy? Check.
  • Super Sonic. This time around, it's taken even further since he can no longer drown (meaning the only things that can kill him are Bottomless Pits and being crushed) and he automatically lights up Lost Labyrinth Act 2. In Episode II, he's playable in boss battles, and he does DOUBLE DAMAGE to all bosses.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • All of Casino Street Zone has Batbots everywhere.
  • Mad Gear Zone has the Slicers that'll ruin your day. Asterons, also in Mad Gear Zone, are surprisingly less annoying. Shellcrackers are less threatening too compared to Metropolis Zone.
  • Steelion and Scarabesque in Episode II.
• Internet Backdraft:
  • Episode I was criticized due to its gameplay.
  • It's recently been revealed that Episode II will not be coming to Wii Ware. The hatemail has already begun.
  • Taken even further after the first gameplay trailer of Episode II was released and the confirmation that Tails won't be playable in Single Player mode.
  • The "Episode Metal" announcement (see And the Fandom Rejoiced above) has induced this even more with Tails fans. The fact that you need to own both Episode I and Episode 2 in order to unlock "Episode Metal" hasn't sat well with some either, especially Wii owners.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks:
  • What part of the fanbase thinks of the first episode. The stages, for example, have been accused of being carbon copies of the Genesis/Mega Drive stages instead of original stages like they actually wanted.
  • The general reason why Episode II received poorer reviews than Episode I. Despite the numerous improvements, most critics found the core gameplay to be not as enjoyable. Even those who hate the project overall agree that Episode II is the better of the two episodes.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • A common photoshop deduced the shaded picture for the first teaser to be Pikachu (wearing a sombrero) ^{[dead link]}.
  • "This is truly Sonic 4 as you imagined it!" -Ken Balough.
  • Many people refer to Sonic 4: Episode I (and sometimes Episode II as well) music as having "dying cats", due to the odd synth instruments being used.
  • Castlevania Zone.
  • WHITE CASTLE! SYLVANIA PARK!
  • The intro of Oil Desert Zone Act 2 has been jokingly referred to as "dying ducks".
• Misaimed Marketing: According to Takashi Iizuka, he intended to give the game a "different" feel than in the original 16-bit games. Results were predictable.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: The primary reason why Dimps became a Scapegoat Creator, as while Sonic Team and Dimps co-developed the episodes, Dimps took all of the blame for the game not being up to par with the Genesis games.
• Ruined FOREVER: As far back since the title was confirmed. Some complaints are of Sonic being 3D, retaining his post-Sonic Adventure appearance, the list goes on.
• Scapegoat Creator: Dimps became this after this game, after a successful run on the Sonic Advance series and the Sonic Rush series. With every Sonic game they have made since then (most notoriously the 3DS version of Sonic Generations), the games's shortcomings have been blamed on them, even though it was Sonic Team's current leader who admitted that he wanted the game to have a different feel than the Genesis games.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The camera is just a little too close to Sonic for some people, causing people to barrel along without having enough of a view for what's headed for them.
  • The Homing Attack from Sonic Adventure onwards bolted onto this decidedly old school game also qualifies, though most people aren't really upset about lock-on dashing as they are the horizontal leap you can take when you're not even locked onto anything.
  • Sonic uncurling in mid-air after flying off a ramp or attacking an enemy. It's designed to force players to rely on the homing attack, but if they're a little too familiar with classic Sonic gameplay, they'll be shedding rings at least five times per act.
  • The physics in Episode I. It doesn't help that they were using a modified Sonic Rush engine. Iizuka's explanation on the matter did not help matters either.
  • Sonic's acceleration feels significantly slower than the classic Sonic games, or side scrolling Mario games for that matter. Good for the Scenery Porn. Bad for a character who is supposed to be fast. Compare the generally faster gameplay in the classic stages of Sonic Generations.
  • Not being able to play as Tails outside of Multiplayer mode in Episode II. Most stages can still be completed by having Sonic just stand there and using the Rolling Combo when needed, but some are still impossible to complete without controlling Sonic directly.
• So Bad It's Good: The intro to Oil Desert Zone Act 2's theme due to it sounding like "dying ducks".
• So Okay, It's Average: The general opinion on Episode I. While it's a perfectly playable game on its own, it completely fails at being a follow-up to the classic games in that its core gameplay is similar to Sonic Rush without the boost, and it tries to mask this fact by having derivative graphical designs from stages in previous Sonic games.
• Spoil At Your Own Risk: The aforementioned user in the Fan Dumb entry spoiled the game when Sega employees threatened warned that something bad might happen if he spoiled it. He ignored them and as a consequence, the entire Sonic 4 board of the aforementioned site was shut down due to the uproar. Then Sega went and fixed some things that were complained about the leak (as written in And the Fandom Rejoiced), so it appears that the net effect was that good things happened, not bad.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: In the case of people who though Episode I was mediocre at best. When they said they were improving Episode II, they weren't kidding: better graphics, better stage designs, better physics, the ability to use Tails as a power up and play him in multiplayer, more creative boss fights, Red Rings, and Episode Metal, to name a few.
  • Also better music that relies less on the Sonic 2 snare sound as well as fewer "gimmicks". There is nothing like the torch puzzle or the water puzzle in Episode II.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • Episode I's special stage music is this to the Sonic 1 version.
  • The Episode I final boss theme is also this to the Sonic 2 final boss theme... not surprising, since it's practically the exact same boss.
• That One Achievement: In the Xbox 360 version of Episode I, you're awarded an avatar for collecting all of the rings in the pre-credits area. What makes this annoying is that Sonic moves on his own, so you're done if you miss any, and if you don't get it, you have to finish the final stage all over again just for another shot at it.
• That One Boss:
  • Episode I:
    • The boss of Lost Labyrinth Zone Act 3 can be really hard for some. Make one mistake and you're squashed by the walls.
    • The Death Egg Robo from Sonic 2 returns as the final boss. And he's even harder in this game, even though you actually have rings this time when you fight him...
  • Episode 2:
    • Every Metal Sonic boss fight. If your relflexes aren't up to par, you'll find yourself dying a lot.
    • The final boss is shaping up to be this. As is Metal Sonic's Badnik Carrier.
• That One Level:
  • Episode II:
    • True to Dimps tradition, the special stages range from trivially easy to somewhat difficult until you get to the last one, which is nearly impossible.
    • Sky Fortress Act 3 can be difficult for some people, especially for badly coordinated players in 2-Player mode.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks: A lot of the complaints from the three seconds of footage alone range from Sonic having the modern design in a sequel to the old school games, Eggman not being called Robotnik, that it looks like it'll become a Sonic Rush 3 and that it has the Homing Attack. Some are even complaining about how the game is using a sleeker HUD instead of reusing the admittedly blander one found in the older games.
  • This is what reviewers seem to think of Episode II in comparison to the first episode.
• The Unexpected: The announcement of Episode Metal.
  • It helps that it was at the very end of a trailer without any warning, much like the surprise at the end of Episode I.