Bah, youtube... I am disappoint.

Really wonder how in the world my speed run playlist got de-sorted.  All of the videos are there, but it's like the order reverted to an old order, so all the videos I added at a certain point wound up at the bottom.  Damn this first world problem.  There are 160 videos and I assume it occurred when I told it to auto-delete some files or maybe from me logging on to youtube via xbl, idk.

Oh... so, anything worth talking about in the Sonic world?  Of course there is.  I just didn't plan on making an entry... just needed to vent.  So now that that's over...

Ep2 has been "professionally" reviewed lately.  Yeah, I haven't heard much about this guy until recently, but me personally, I'm not big on reviews.  Some people can do it, while most simply suck about being objective and going into detail though they can make good points.  In the end, I don't really base my judgement for getting games based solely on reviews.  Sure, I look at them - lots of them.  Another thing I prefer to do is watch people play the games as well as commentate them (if possible) so I can learn even more about the game.  Demos are nice, though sometimes I'm convinced that one level demo wound up being better than the full 7 level product.  (I used to think this about Unleashed after my first playthrough.)  When it comes to Episode 2, reviews are really at the bottom of my priority.  Getting my hands on the demo is really all that matters as well as hearing the opinions of a select few people who I see eye to eye mostly about Sonic 4 as a whole.

It is pretty easy to sum up everything I liked about Episode 1 because there were only 2 things I liked about the game and that was:

• the sound effects
• the special stages

And sadly, that's it.  Everything else weld up the entire experience as an utter bore.  The release of Sonic 06 - a severely unfinished product, was a time when everyone paid for Sega's struggle with themselves and with Microsoft.  It was supposed to be... a lot better than it turned out when it was released.  Sonic 4 Episode 1 was just a slap to the face of the classic fanbase through false marketing tactics.  It wasn't like Chrono Trigger->Chrono Cross where the latter was deserving to be Gamespot's GOTY in 2000 even though the former still upheld its legacy.  Sonic 4 Episode 1 was Dimps/Sonic Team simply looking at pictures of Sonic 1 and 2 and making a Sonic game around Rush's level philosophy and physics.

And there goes the classic fanbase in an uproar.

The only time I remotely enjoyed playing Episode 1 was when I put on some real Sonic music.  To this day, I disliked every single track Ep1 had and I was convinced the instruments were likeable, but the composition was trash.  A lot of people who didn't like the music felt the exact opposite.  It wasn't until recently that this was brought up again in regards to episode 2 and I realized it was even more prominent that the instrumentation really sucks.  Ep1's Splash Hill sounds disgusting to me... but in the midst of replying about Ep2's instrumentation, I decided to imagine how Splash Hill would sound if it happened to be played as a piano solo...

And WOW...

I mean, I don't really need to actually hear it played by someone, but I just had that realization face Lightning (from FFXIII) had where it all made sense. O_O  Guess that explains why the theme itself is difficult to forget.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go on an all-out anti-Episode 1 rant about everything else I disliked about it, but this is probably the most I've actually said something good about it.  Don't really need to go into detail about the Special Stages.  It was a fair challenge and it didn't feel as bad as the rest of the game.  I can't say it was much better or worse than Sonic 1's special stages, so progression of it was rather... minimal.

Man... 4 is so controversial... and I feel Sega will continue to keep it a controversial game even if it means core fans give up the hope that things could be different.  If Sega's not getting paid from 4, then surely it isn't worth it.  But if people are talking about it (like myself) en masse, then there's that possibility it'll be worth the few dollars its sold for.

Episode 3?  Shit, I've got better things to worry about... such as if the next console Sonic game will be on the current systems, and if they are, how will they have evolved the gameplay from Generations?