Its nice to see SEGA trying to go back to it's old roots, but still needs make a few more adjustments.
Main story for Sonic 4 will be released in episodes and the story takes place after Sonic & Knuckles. With the Death Egg destroyed, Sonic heads off to explore new territories alone. However Dr. Eggman has survived their last encounter, and has revisited and improved some of his creations from previous games, attempting to get rid of Sonic as the first part of his new grandiose scheme.
Gameplay: There is actully two different ways in playing Sonic 4 if you have an Android/Xperia Play, you can either use the touch screen or use the standard Xperia controller using the directional pad to move and using X to jump. The touch screen your using the left analog on the left side of the screen and the button on the right side of the screen to jump/attack.
Certain enemies that are quite far away or at places you can't reach, you can lock-on to enemies or objects using Homing Attacks. Like past Sonic games you can smash through boxes to gain Shield, Speed, a Life or Invincibility, if you collect more then 50 rings at the end of each level you can play through the Special Stages and try to gain a Chaos Emerald.
The Special Stages are a little simular to Sonic 1 where you go through a maze and navigate your way around obtaining a Chaos Emerald, but however you'll be timed so you'll have to be quick on getting it. You have to also tilt your android phone to move around.
Graphics and Sound: For once its nice to see SEGA going back to its old roots on Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1 does bring back a few good memories. There's only 4 main stages but they simular to the levels we've seen in both Sonic 1 and 2, it would have been nice if they added a few more stages because it does feel a little short for a Sonic game. Some of the stages can come to a stand still that they can make the gameplay run down a little slower.
But it still has some really good art and visuals making this a polished 2D platformer. Same classic sounds which we've heard in past Sonic games return from the classic SEGA logo, the spin dash, jump attacks and collecting rings. Isn't much to say about the soundtrack but its fans would most likely not be listening to the full track.
Overall: I wouldn't say that it was the best Sonic game on its 2D platformer I think SEGA had tried to make an effort by bringing back its classic platforming but it still needs to make a few more changes. I don't know how many more episodes they will do for Sonic 4 after Episode 2 was released a while back, but Episode 1 is quite easy to play through and shouldn't take you long I would say at least 1-2 hours pending on how much you play through it. SEGA still needs to make a few more adjustments on its future games, but still worth checking out if its cheap on the Android store.