Sonic the Hedgehog hasn’t had a great decade. After an excellent jump to 3D in 1998, Sega’s blue mascot slide straight down the mountain and into a deep, deep chasm. The series got more and more characters and more and more gimmicks, until it eventually forgot that the original games’ success came from the speed and flow of running through twisting, branching levels as Sonic the Hedgehog. Not as some tertiary character nobody cares about. Not as part of a team where each member has unique powers. Not as a hedgehog that becomes a monster, or swings a sword. As Sonic.

Sega has finally gotten back to basics with Sonic the Hedgehog 4. No other characters, no gimmicks, no third dimension, just running, jumping, and beating up a fat man in a futuristic Hoveround. It’s been released on every home console, plus the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Did Sonic reach a new top speed, or did he run headfirst into some spikes? Find out after the break.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 is not a sequel. Sega says it’s a sequel, it’s being marketed as a sequel, but instead it’s a high-definition remaster of Sonic’s greatest hits. In fact, the game hits the main Sonic notes so loyally, I honestly don’t know how the game can be episodic; almost all of Sonic’s side-scrolling career has been distilled into S1E1′s four worlds. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Longtime Sonic fans will get plenty of warm fuzzies playing the equivalent of Sonic’s Genesis Years Remastered.

If you’re looking for something to actually pull the series out of its longtime rut, you’ll have to look elsewhere (perhaps Sonic Colors, which shows some promise). The only “major” change in Sonic 4 is Sonic’s homing attack, which comes from a 12-year-old game to begin with. Even then, the homing attack isn’t used very often, and it doesn’t change the flow of the game. It makes hitting items and springs a bit easier, and sometimes a chain of floating enemies will let you reach a higher path, but otherwise it stays out of the way in favor of more direct run-really-fast-and-sometimes-jump gameplay. Again, that’s not really a bad thing; Sonic purists will be happy to see the series’ mechanics nearly unchanged.

Unfortunately, the frustrations from the old-school games are still there. There are still irritating pinball sections in the casino zones where you’ll bounce everywhere and keep falling in the same bowls. There are still moving walls and pistons designed to crush you if you don’t have perfect timing. There are still underwater sections where you’ll drown listening to that horrible countdown music. Seriously, has anyone ever liked the underwater sections in Sonic?

The four worlds include the standard hilly starter world, the standard night/casino world, the standard ruins/labyrinth world, and the standard industrial final world. With all four themes out of the way, it’s hard to imagine what Sonic 4 Episode 2 will hold. Will half of the next game more of the same, just because the side-scrolling Sonic games have always had traditionally similar starting and ending levels? Episode 2 will determine whether Sega can actually keep running on the concept of returning to Sonic’s roots. You can blaze through the game in about an hour, and there are plenty of different paths through the levels for obsessive speedrunners. Still, with only four worlds, Sonic 4 feels lacking. It hits all the old-school Sonic notes, but that’s all it does.

While Tails, Knuckles, and the series’ other ancillary characters are absent from Sonic 4, you can turn into Super Sonic. The special stages are based on the original Sonic the Hedgehog’s designs, but now can be navigated with the Sixaxis. It’s disappointing; the special stages have always been where the Genesis showed off its graphical prowess, and it would have been the perfect opportunity for Sega to get creative with mechanics and level design instead of going back to basics.Like before, you can collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, then turn into Super Sonic and blaze through stages at high speed with invincibility to everything but pits and crushing.

The game looks gorgeous on the HD consoles (I played the PSN version). It’s bright, colorful, smooth, and retains all the aesthetics of the Genesis Sonic games. In fact, every level, enemy, and nearly every boss was lifted straight out of one of the original Sonic games and given a high-def makeover. Unfortunately, sometimes the background and foreground are too bright and colorful. In certain levels, like the Mad Gear Zone, the decorative elements appear almost identical to the level elements, making it hard to discern the background from a platform.

Sound is forgettable but pleasant. The music tracks for each zone fit the levels’ themes, but they never resonate with the player, like the original Sonic games’ music. The sound effects are nearly identical to the Genesis games, with the classic ring chimes, damage thuds, and bastard drowning music music almost completely unchanged from the first game, 19 years ago.

If you loved the Sonic games on the Genesis, you’ll love Sonic 4. If you want something more than the bullet points of the side-scrolling Sonic experience, you’ll be disappointed. This game was built for pure nostalgia, and it shows. Unless you’re a die-hard Sonic fan, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1 doesn’t justify its $15 price tag. Perhaps after a few more episodes come out, if Sega can prove Sonic 4 can be a developed game and not just a rehash of the best bits of the early Sonic games.