I understand that many of you, the players, are worried and or concerned about what Episode II may or may not be. I noticed a few misunderstandingsto the point of boycotting the game prior to release, eventherefore I would like to put some of these worries at rest. This is the first and only time I'll make a post in the Sonic 4: Episode II topic, prior to the actual release of the game.
I believe a little background will help illuminating my point. Speaking honestly, Episode I was the most displeasing Sonic game I've ever touched to date. But that was only because I've set high expectations for it; because it gone by the alias Sonic the Hedgehog 4, it definitely didn't meet my standards. As it was, it simply didn't meet the design choices of what I envisioned an actual Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to be like. I've voiced many, many times before: had it being called anything else but Sonic the Hedgehog 4, I wouldn't have minded it existence, just as much as I am indifferent to Sonic Labyrinth's existence. Not only I did not buy Episode I, but I also cursed the very prospect of developing yet another installment of this to-be short series. When I first heard it was an actual tangible project, I cringed. But I was quite at ease on the possibility of an Episode III not seeing the light of the day at all.
Fast forward to the present time. I actually hope for an Episode III. It would be wise to listen to representatives such as Ken Balough about Episode II. Even more wiser to actually trust him, since he knows what he is talking about. Episode II, indeed, uses a new graphics engine and boasts a new, different physics engine. The physics are indeed different to the point that the game doesn't even feel like Episode I. Now, my main concern with Episode I was it's physics (or lack thereof). The basics principles of physics in Episode II had a major overhaul, but, of course, they are nowhere near 1:1 with the Genesis Sonic game's physics. In Episode II, Sonic doesn't uncurl when rolling off of a ledge. Sonic doesn't stick to walls and or ceiling; he falls when his speed reach a slow threshold instead. Rolling is less efficient than running alone, but it behaves as expected: rolling accelerates when going down and decelerates when going up. Of course, the game still has a few design choices that I personally don't quite appreciate, like the walk-in springs, but at the end of the day, these design decisions were deliberated. But this, summed with the overall improvements made to the game, makes Episode II a Sonic game to stand on it's own. That being said, I will actually purchase both versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode II!
I've been in pretty good terms with SEGA lately, and I believed that this subject deserved a little clarification. For the most perfectionists, I believe that Mr. Balough's statements, in an attempt to ease some of the aforementioned players' worries, have been misunderstood by the community, simply because of the bad stigma that Episode I's development set. He has been passing as much feedback as possible during the development. When he says that he knows they were trying to get those physics aspects fixed and that he knew they were being looked at, I'm fairly positive that he meant that those aspect have been given feedback since far back in the past, since the begin of the development cycle of Episode II, and not a last-minute feedback as many people somehow interpreted, and the fact that he doesn't have much involvement in the actual software programming and development process made him re-check if the mentioned aspects were even an issue anymore, which is completely understandable in a quality assuring standpoint.
I wish these words to be of confort to the most concerned players.