Gravijah said:
No game after Super Mario Bros 1 is a Mario game?
I see your point...
Consider that most people agreed that Mario 2 was so different than Mario 1 that its as if Nintendo replaced sprites from a totally different title to Mario sprites.
The fundamentals are the same. Mario still can't walk up walls in those games.
Nintendo has been good at renaming the Mario games based on the key differences in gameplay. Mario Sunshine was called that for good reason. Miyamoto introduced some new concepts built on Mario 64 but the end result was very different so the renaming made sense. So much from Mario 64 was still there but they were smart in not implying a direct sequel.
Sonic 4 breaks the fundamentals from the classic Sonics. Each Sonic game added something new but there is too much different here. One thing is game breaking and takes away from the platforming.
Accessibility is great but you aren't going to expect a company like Nintendo release a "Super Mario Bros. 4" that doesn't live up to the previous games in terms of controls and challenge. New powerups and abilities can work but there won't be anything like a win button or auto-attack.
Can't imagine a 2D Mario game with an auto-attack. It would break the game for me. Same idea applies here.
Just trying to explain why people are disappointed here. Had Sonic 4 been a spin off game based on one of his friends it might have made sense. It would explain why he runs and jumps weird and has a homing attack. Expectations would be different and people would see past these big differences and try to have fun with it.
But that wouldn't sell...so Sega had to slap on the name "Sonic 4".