Episodes on a T.V. show can be in a unique position in that they might be the entry point for a franchise. You’d hope your viewers start at the beginning, but you never know thanks to word of mouth, syndication, or whatever that episodes down the line might be the entry point for new fans. You also want to keep the momentum going for existing fans, all while never knowing if it is enough to avoid a premature cancellation. In 2012, following on the heels of the first episode, Sonic had to both move fast and break things to keep the momentum going. In Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2.

Fans tuning in to the franchise will find the revamped experience familiar. You flow through the standard 3 acts of each stage plus a boss fight. Collect a certain amount of rings, and you go through a bonus stage, where you grab the rings to reach a chaos emerald. So in a familiar but different approach to Episode 1 Meaning that you can jump straight back into the action.

Episode 2 feels similar to the first one but with one key difference. Episode 2 brings in tails, taking the course of the Mega Drive games by introducing the bi-tailed fox in their second outing, Tails’s inclusion is useful in quite a few ways. Mainly by pushing the X button (or your equivalent on whatever device you have), Tails can help you out. Sometimes by flying you sky-high, sometimes by morphing into a super speedball. The game adds a couple of new obstacles to make use of these added abilities. If you have both episodes 1 & 2 on your console of choice, you get to unlock Metal Sonic from the Sonic CD game et al. to play around with. It’s a cool throwback to all the additional fun that could be had with a lock-on cart for your Mega Drive. 

Much like episode 1, the game incorporates a soundtrack that feels like a slightly evolved version of the standards that you’d expect from the Mega Drive. The stages evoke some backdrops of classic Sonics levels, too. Although that might be written off as window dressing, it is still a nice addition. The callbacks are frequent in Sonic 4, with even the intro harkening back to Sonic 3’s cool introduction. The physics and homing attacks also remain, making binge-playing both episodes a viable path.

Episode 2 is the ultimate end for Sonic 4, still in that time before the second renascence with Mania, or set the movie world afire. It’s hard playing through these two episodes without wondering what a third would be like. Seeing a revamped Collect The Spheres mini-game, or whatever inclusions Knuckles would bring. Sonic 4 remains a curious case of a bygone time when episodic gaming was en vogue and the franchise still didn’t know what it wanted to do to itself. But for those who wanted to see the franchise’s need for speed in the early 2010s, Sonic 4 remains a viable option in their queue.

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