Diablohead said:
You know, thinking about it sega never really needed to delay sonic 4 to start with, they added in a map and changed two levels around but otherwise not much else was being done, shitty physics still stand which is 90% part of a sonic game.
The physics are improved, but as I said before at some point when they first announced this, they can't really change the entire physics system without redoing huge chunks of the game. They should've done it right the first time, but there's only so much they can fix, I'm sure Sega was pretty pissed the game was delayed in the first place.
That said, they have added a lot of touched to improve the game. The more animated title screen, the new map screen, more seamless loading of zones (using the title cards instead of a dedicated loading screen), there's more animated detail to Splash Hill and some other graphical changes in other zones, they changed how the game handles the end of zones, and some other things I'm sure we're unaware of.
They have changed the physics, not for the best, but for better. The air dash is not nearly as effective for building up speed, they've tweaked the running, and Sonic doesn't seem as prone to standing contrary to gravity. The only thing I can't understand them not fixing is the spinning off the ramps thing leaving you vulnerable. I actually like the animation, it reminds me of Sonic CD's cinemas a bit, I just wish Sonic would still function like he was attacking during it.
And they seemed to get pretty creative with the two new zones. One has a lot of card-based gimmicks, and the other has a special mechanic with a torch that wasn't present at all in the original game. That does take work and time, and I'm glad we got it over a zone designed with the iPhone in mind, and a really lame pinball table filler.
If taken to their word, which I hesitate on, they're treating Episode 2 as a semi-sequel rather than an actual episode, so there should ideally be more improvements to the physics there. They've heard the message, they've heard it from everybody, they know they screwed up, but there's only so much they can do to a game that was effectively done. Getting the game delayed and improved was probably a monumental task for the team... hell, you're a Sonic fan, you know these have a tendency to be rushed to market broken and abandoned rather than delayed and improved.
Clearly they haven't done enough for you, so skip this one and wait to see what they do with Episode 2. It's not like you're going to need to worry about the plot or anything, you're just missing on playing a couple of zones in an engine you don't like. Others think it's going to be good enough to be enjoyable, even if it's not perfect, so we're going to buy it. Arguing any further about what Sega should or shouldn't do with it is pretty moot at this point.