My Descent into Insanity: Sonic the Hedgehog 4

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

This game is fucking terrible.
This game is an absolute travesty that completely spits in the face of everything that made the original Sonic games good. Calling this a sequel is an insult.

There is nothing good or redeeming about this game whatsoever. It's a blatant cash grab.

The worst part about it is that now that I've spent so much time playing it in order to get all the achievements, I naturally got used to the awful, broken physics so by the end of it I couldn't even hate it anymore. I was just playing for the sake of completing it and the whole thing was really dull.


Everything about this game is bad. The most obvious being the graphics and sound, but the controls and physics are near-unplayable (until you get used to them) and the level design is not only uninspired and unoriginal, but in a lot of cases is basically just trial-and-error until you learn the stupid level hazards that they put in to artificially inflate playing time and difficulty.
This is a very short game but the amount of time you'll spend being angry at it makes it a lot longer than it should be.

So, specifically, what about it is so bad?

GRAPHICS:
The visuals in this game clash harder than most fangames.
Here's a screenshot of the very first thing you see when you start the game.
(click all pictures for big versions)

What do we see here?
Aside from looking like an Emerald Hill Zone ripoff, the most noticeable thing is the graphics clashing with each other. Everything is bright and shiny and looks artificial, like plastic... except for Sonic. The background has this flat prerendered 3D look to it while the foreground has the same look but has this weird too-realistic emboss effect on it while Sonic himself is an actual 3D model which sticks out yet has this really odd cel-shading sort of look to it. The two don't fit together very well at all, not to mention that the shading on Sonic's model is odd in general.


But it's not just Sonic that's the issue. All of the enemies in this game (including this Motobug, as seen here) have that same odd cel-shaded cartoony look to them while everything else seems artificial and plasticy and shiny. Note that you can see rings in these pictures which are 3D models as well, except they're neither cel shaded nor plasticy and have their own metallic look to them. The 10 ring monitor seems to be some sort of weird amalgamation of the two, where it looks kinda cel shaded but also kinda not. The purple and pink flowers in front of the platform there also seem to have their own look to them which is different from everything else.
The second screenshot shows Sonic's odd shader a lot better. Note how his highlights are bright and then there's a hard change to a more medium blue, then another hard change to his darker blue shade(s). Nothing else on the screen (including the motobug) has that kind of shading (enemies look cel shaded but are just flat while Sonic has more dynamic shading) so the whole thing looks really odd all the time.

Bosses have the flat shading that regular enemies have as well.
Something else to note on this level, you can see the ocean in the background, which unlike the rest of the level elements, is an actual 3D model instead of a prerender. The water is animated and moves in the background and sticks out from the rocks that you can see back there as well as the foreground and looks odd in itself.

All of the levels in the game have these kinds of issues, though of course things looks a bit different in each level. Overall, every level clashes hard in some way and none of the visual elements fit together.

SOUND:
The music in this game is just really unfortunate. The credits list Jun Senoue as the composer, but that's either a lie or he put in the absolute minimal effort needed to make every track in the game.
The majority of the soundtrack is bland and boring and it uses an annoying pseudo-Genesis soundfont combined with the original snare drum sample from Sonic 1. The problem though is that the soundfont and genesis drums don't actually work well together which causes the music to clash with itself. From what I can tell, they only got the original kick and snare and didn't bother getting any of the other instruments.

I think the worst part though is that, at some point, there was actually potential for the music in the game to be pretty good.

Compare the official Splash Hill Act 1 music (which in itself is just bland and boring)




to this fan-made remix made using actual Genesis sound technology:




It's like the original doesn't even try. To me, the remix completely changes the feel of the level entirely and it pumps you up and makes you actually want to play the game. The original song is just sort of... there. "Oh yeah guys... Sonic music... look, we even got the original Sonic 1 drums (but that's it). We can still make old school, see?".

To be fair, not all the music in the game is necessarily... bad, it's just not as good as it should be. I even like a couple of the tracks and think they have a lot of potential, but there's that constant feeling of bland and uninspired that makes it so that none of them really draw you in. It's disappointing having that constant feeling of "This could be good, but..." all the time.
Not to mention the fact that, unlike previous Sonic games, the music changes ENTIRELY between acts. Gone are the Act 2 remixes from S3&K which keep the levels feeling similar-yet-different. They just threw in a completely different track each act. I mean, yeah, the music still sounds "like Splash Hill" or "like a Casino", but the tracks don't share anything in common beyond that.

Compare Splash Hill Act 1



to Act 2 (which feels ENTIRELY different and is just boring and bad)



to Act 3 (which is better than Act 2 but in itself is just okay)




If I didn't know any better, I'd never guess that these were songs intended for the same level, and that's pretty sad.
The whole soundtrack reeks of this bad sound design all over.

There are actually a couple of tracks I like (despite their aforementioned issues), which I'd like to see done up Genesis-style like the Splash Hill track I posted above:
Lost Labyrinth Act 2: (Short, yet interesting.)




Mad Gear Act 1: (This is probably the best track in the game and is the first one that actually feels like a pump-up track which is really unfortunate considering that it's one of the last acts in the game.)




Mad Gear Act 2: (I think this is probably the first track that feels like it belongs with the previous Act. It's still pretty different and I don't like it as much as Act 1, but it's not a bad track and retains the "feel" of Mad Gear zone.)




I think Mad Gear Act 3 somewhat retains the feel as well, but I don't really like that track so I won't put it here.

As far as sound effects go, they're all just ripped straight from the Genesis games so there's not much to comment on there.

Overall, the sound in this game feels lazy and uninspired to me and it carries the constant unfortunate feeling of wasted potential. It's like it's close to being okay... but just isn't.

CONTROLS/GAMEPLAY:
Ugh.
UGH.
UGH.

That's really all I can say. Ugh.
I played this game using a wired Xbox 360 controller. Overall, the actual controls themselves didn't feel too bad or anything. I never got laggy button response or anything and aside from the terrible D-Pad (which I can't fault the game for), overall the controls felt tight and did what I told them to do.

The physics, on the other hand...
absolutely dreadful. Completely atrocious. I probably can't even fit all the problems here simply because there are so many that I can't even remember them all.
Here are some youtube videos that will illustrate it for me.









There's not really much else to say in this section since the majority of the issues are level-specific but I'll get to them later. Unfortunately, much of the issues that I have with this aren't something can be be expressed very well through text and would be better suited to a video review.

Somewhat unrelated: While I played the PC version of this game, the Ouya version (which in itself is a very basic port of the Android version which is a port of the iPhone version) has this really strange camera effect where it follows Sonic 360 degrees through loops.



Skip to 2:00 and wait for him to take the loop and you'll see it. That's ridiculously jarring during actual gameplay and if I recall correctly all the smartphone versions of the game have that effect but fortunately they removed it for the PC release. Interestingly, it seems that the Ouya version has less graphical effects and Sonic's cel shaded look isn't as strong, so while none of the graphical elements fit, it doesn't look as bad as is does on better versions.

Aside from the physics being awful, the game is otherwise baby easy. There are some really annoying level gimmicks and a couple of death pits, but overall it's impossible to actually get a game over in this game because it just FEEDS you lives. One of the achievements in this game is to get 99 lives, and it's very easy to actually make that on your first playthrough just by playing normally. Getting 100 rings in every level is laughably easy, not to mention that you'll very very likely end up getting an extra life at the end of every stage anyway. One of the levels completely FLOODS you with extra lives, but I'll get to that later. There's basically no challenge to this game at all outside of minor annoyances which you learn to get around. The most difficult thing in the game is getting used to the physics.

In short, the physics are quite simply bad. The controls are tight and Sonic generally does what you tell him to, but that's not saying much considering that the physics make him do completely different things. In addition to Sonic's old moves, Sonic 4 adds in the Homing Attack from the modern games and it's clear that the levels are designed around it to the point where some levels are simply impossible to beat without using it (for various reasons, usually a line of enemies over a death pit.) To be fair, there are a lot of situations in which the homing attack is useful and even welcomed (such as being able to jump-cancel or change directions quickly) but honestly it's not even really NECESSARY in this type of game. The homing attack makes sense in the 3D games since they'd be much harder to navigate without it, but 2D games have no need for it at all.

That brings me to the level design. Not only are the graphics and sound and controls bad, but the level design is bad as well. Each level in this game has its own gimmick that none of the other levels have and it's really strange because you do different things in every level.

I figured I'd go through a level-by-level basis of what makes this game suck now that I've had enough time to really experience the whole thing.
Splash Hill Act 1
Not too much to say about Splash Hill 1 that I didn't cover previously. Outside of the awful physics, it's just a basic Green/Emerald Hill copy. Annoying on your first playthrough when you get used to how the game works, but overall it's a tame and easy level.
The most annoying part of the level is probably this right here, where this unkillable enemy spawns in the wall and shoots at you.


You'll also notice that they included these boosters from Sonic 2, however they work differently. In Sonic 2 you hit one and they'd send you off at max speed, while in this game they force you into a roll (which I assume is because they couldn't get sonic to roll into a ball by himself to enter tunnels since there is ALWAYS a booster in front of every tunnel) which can be a bit annoying as rolling physics work slightly differently than running physics.

(this screenshot is actually from Splash Hill act 2, though the boosters work the same in all levels)

Splash Hill Act 2
Ugh. This is where the annoyances start to kick in hard.
Splash Hill 2's level gimmick is these vines which are terribly designed and completely stop all momentum when you grab them.

Your first instinct is to jump at them at full speed, thereby allowing you to grab the vine, swing out as far as you can, and then jump off to the next part of the level all in one smooth motion.
Nope.
Grabbing the vines (at any speed) kills your momentum and it's very rare that you can actually get a full powered jump on your first try. Generally speaking, the best jump you can make without stopping is probably the second-to-last most powerful jump, which makes no sense. The best strategy when dealing with these vines is to stop completely and then manually swing back and forth until you build up enough momentum to get a full jump, which is absolutely stupid and kills the flow of the game.
Not to mention that there are several parts in the level where you have to make several of these vine jumps in a row from one vine to another, which gets really tedious quickly.

The worst part of the level is by far this spike pit, which is located directly under several vine-to-vine jumps. I guarantee you'll hit it on your first playthrough of the game.

Not much else to say about this level otherwise.

Splash Hill Act 3
This level's gimmick are these awful ziplines. How fast they go is directly proportional to how fast sonic is moving before he touches one, so it's possible to be stuck on one that's just inching along.

One of the first bottomless death pits is located on this level, and while it's usually not an issue (because it's set up to work exactly with Sonic's physics that you pass it just by holding right), if you use Super Sonic and aren't aware that the pit is coming up, you'll fall in it every time because Super Sonic moves too fast to land on the spring which propels you over the hole.

Splash Hill Boss
Green Hill Zone boss rehash, though he has a new attack. Not much to say, easy kill. Homing attack makes this a breeze.
Pictured above, no need for another screenshot.

Casino Street Act 1
Ugh, Casino Street. This level is a clear Casino Night ripoff, and this act in particular has some of the most boring background music that I've ever heard.
Bad level design of course, made worse by the fact that all the bumpers and flippers and pinball mechanics don't play nicely with Sonic's broken physics.
One of the most annoying parts in this level is this enemy right here, which is placed right at the beginning of the level and right in your path so that you'll always hit him moving at max speed on your first playthrough.

This is also the level where Sonic can just brisky walk straight up a wall (as I linked in a video above) and it will totally catch you off guard until you realize that that's how you get past it since spindashing and momentum don't work.
You literally just hold right and sonic will walk right up the wall.

Throughout the various Casino Street acts you'll also encounter a few of these bumper sections which were really annoying in the original games, but with the homing attack are absolutely pointless since you can cancel all momentum in midair and just keep moving right.

You'll also find pinball flippers, as in all casino stages. But they work terribly and generally don't launch you where you want to go. It's also ridiculously easy to land on them in such a way that they won't launch you at all, as see here:

Not really much else to say about this level except that it's pretty pointless to have all the casino elements and pinball physics since the homing attack allows you to jump cancel and go where you want.

Casino Street Act 2
Earlier I talked about how one of the levels floods you with extra lives. This is the one. The gimmick in this level is that sonic spins things around in the background as he moves past them, and there are segments where the things he spins are playing cards. Line up enough cards of Sonic's face in a row, and the game gives you extra lives for each sonic face you line up.
...then it puts a bunch of these card segments throughout the level, several of them in quick succession meaning that you rack up lives faster than you can count them just by playing the level normally.
Not only that though, but one of the other card type that it gives you is 10 rings, which, after you get 100, ALSO gives you an extra life. So, even if you don't get the extra lives, the game gives you enough rings to get an extra life. The 99 lives achievement is laughably easy to get just by playing this stage a few times.

There are also these 3D sections where Sonic runs on a flying deck of cards which look kinda cool even though they're pointless.


The other gimmick in this level are these rotating playing cards which act as platforms when horizontal but you fall past them when vertical. There is a long section with these over a death pit at the end of the level which is annoying to navigate with regular Sonic, but with Super Sonic becomes nearly impossible unless you go very slow to time your jumps.


Over the course of playing through this level to take screenshots I got seven extra lives, and I was playing slowly and conservatively and not trying to hit cards. Seven is low for the number of lives you'll get on this stage.

Casino Street Act 3
Probably the most annoying level in the game.
This level has Cannons, similar to the ones in Carnival Night in Sonic 3 except you control where these shoot yourself and the level design is based around it.
Just getting inside the cannons is annoying enough since you have to be directly above the cannon to get inside (and can't homing attack into them even though the game gives you a homing reticle on every cannon), but controlling it is even worse.
Each cannon has 12 possible directions that it can fire sonic, and if it isn't obvious, the level is laid out in such a way that there is only one "correct" direction to fire each cannon, while all other possible choices either fire you directly into spikes or an enemy or to a dead end.
Several of the earlier cannons have arrows nearby to point you in the direction you're supposed to aim, but later in the level you have to figure it out yourself.

The end of this level is absolute bullshit. There are two bottomless pits side by side, the first of which you have to fire yourself out of a cannon over, only to fall short and have to homing attack a line of enemies in midair to get the rest of the way. This looks interesting when done correctly, but is annoying to pull off. The developers were very aware of this, because they included an extra life box and "try again" springs in places that you'll end up falling to if you miss or shoot incorrectly. Even with those though it's still way too easy to miss them all and fall in the pit.
After the first pit is another pit where you have to jump over two platforms and homing attack between some bumpers which is a lot more annoying than it sounds and will easily kill you.


Something else to note: if Sonic is fired out of a cannon directly at an enemy, Sonic will take damage and the enemy will not die. That's right, the game only puts Sonic in an "in the air" state and not a "rolled in a ball" state, meaning that even though he was JUST FIRED OUT OF A CANNON AND IS MOVING REALLY FAST, he can't kill enemies and they can kill him instead.

Casino Street Boss
Ripoff/rehash of the Casino Night boss with a couple of changes, except they got it wrong and he's laughably easy to kill. By far the easiest boss in the game.
The game expects you to kill the boss by using the flippers to ram him like in Sonic 2, except the inclusion of the homing attack makes the flippers completely irrelevant and you can kill him in seconds just by getting above him and bouncing on top of him.

By far the easiest boss in the game.

Lost Labyrinth Act 1
Labyrinth Zone ripoff. Even though this level looks just as bad as the others, I still kind of like the aesthetics for this level, the background in particular. Maybe it's just because I have a soft spot for Lost World from Sonic Adventure 1 and the background reminds me of that, but I don't entirely hate the looks of this level.
These guys are back and just as annoying as ever.

The gimmick for this level are these giant spheres, which do various things like roll at you and try to crush you. There are also sections throught the three acts in which you roll on them and have to keep your balance, as seen here:


If you've been trying to get the Chaos Emeralds in stage order, this should be the level where you get the last emerald making the rest of the game a breeze if you use Super Sonic.

Lost Labyrinth Act 2
The gimmick in this level: it's dark and sonic is holding a torch. Touching braziers on the walls will light them and light up the area, some of which have effects like opening doors and moving platforms. In addition, sonic has to use the torch to light dynamite to blow open the path ahead.
That's about it.

Using Super Sonic in this level gets rid of the darkness and allows you to skip most of the puzzle sections since you can just jump over them.
Overall, this level isn't really all that annoying (which unfortunately makes it unmemorable since "not annoying" doesn't mean "good") but there is one puzzle in which you have to light braziers in a certain order which was pretty annoying to solve. I had to google the answer.

I think this is also the level with the infamous minecart section????? But in getting screenshots I didn't care enough to play the level far enough to confirm if it was LLZ 2 or 3 that had that section. It's been reworked since the original iPhone version and the new version wasn't that bad anyway so there's nothing to say.
It's in one of these levels though.

Lost Labyrinth Act 3
This is where the Labyrinth Zone ripping off really comes into play. This is a water level and of course it has the infinite water slides from the original.

Not a hard level regardless, and there are enough air bubbles that you should never be in danger of drowning at any point.

At one point there is a Hydrocity Act 2-style sliding wall that you have to run from which isn't too bad generally but gets really annoying with Super Sonic because he moves so fast.


Lost Labyrinth Boss
Labyrinth Zone boss ripoff. Sort of.
The beginning of this boss fight starts out in Labyrinth Zone-style chasedown where you have to follow Robotnik while dodging enemies and the rising water until you get to the actual battleground.

Once the real fight starts, it plays sort of like a combination of Aquatic Zone and Final Zone's boss fights. Robotnik stays st the top of the screen where you can't hit him (honimg attack won't work) and you have to wait for him to attack so that you can hit him.
His attack is done through Final Zone-style crushing pillars, except there are a lot of them and they come from all different directions in a few different patterns. You have to use the pillars to reach Robotnik and hit him.


Mad Gear Act 1
Aw yeah, this music sounds pretty good! What kind of leve--
oh, it's a Metropolis Zone ripoff.

The gimmick on this level is the Metropolis-style crushers and steam jets.
Nothing really to say about this one. Half-decent music, unremarkable level. (un)Interestingly, I learned that there's actually a bottomless pit towards the end of the level while trying to take a screenshot for this level and missing a homing attack, which should never happen during normal gameplay.

Mad Gear Act 2
The gimmick(s) on this level are these big cogs, some of which you run on to cause various things to happen. The level is otherwise unremarkable.

Fun fact: at one point, when I was going for the 1000 enemies achievement (I'll get to that later), I was playing this level and got Sonic stuck between the ground and one of the spinning cogs. The game didn't know how to handle the collision and softlocked. I had 857 kills. I held my head in my hands for several minutes.

This is the other type of cog, which you have to run on for transportation and to solve puzzles.
Decent music, otherwise unremarkable.

Mad Gear Act 3
I made it guys!!!! The last level in the game!
It starts off with a... not a bang, but a thump I guess, with another Hydrocity wall coming in from the left.

This level basically consists entirely of "run from the wall and don't die", and along the way has some security doors that close which are an insta-kill if you don't make it in time.
It's not too hard and I've died a few times on it but with 200+ lives it's not exactly a problem. Even on your first playthrough this level is a cakewalk.

Mad Gear Boss
Metropolis Zone boss ripoff.

After enough hits, he moves onto his second phase, which has you chasing after him while he throws different sized robotnik balloons at you.

I know I've fought this before in a different Sonic game so it's ripping SOMETHING off, but I'm not sure in which game the second form is from. I think this is one of the bosses from Sonic Advance?
This fight (the first phase in particular) can get pretty annoying because the game allows you to homing attack the balloons but you take damage if you do so.

EGG Station
A boss rush stage in which you fight the previous four bosses (with some slightly changed attacks) in a row before moving onto the final boss. Unlike other final boss levels in previous Sonic games, this level gives you rings so the bosses won't one-hit kill you.
No screenshots because I don't feel like playing through this level again, but the bosses are just as easily killed in this level as they are in their original appearances (Casino Street can be killed EVEN FASTER) while the true final boss is a ripoff of Sonic 2's final boss with some new additions. He's surprisingly difficult until you learn how to kill him.

Special stages:
The special stage in this game is one of the jankiest things I've ever played.
It's a copy of the Sonic 1 special stage, except instead of controlling Sonic in a rotating stage, you don't control Sonic at all and instead rotate the stage around Sonic.
The jump button is supposed to make you jump, but... it doesn't actually really do anything? It sort of shakes the walls of the level and is really janky and is impossible to explain.
The main goal, like in Sonic 1, is to get through the maze and reach the Chaos Emerald at the end. Except the game puts gates in front of you which you have to collect rings to go through, which the game NEVER TELLS YOU. There is no ring counter on the screen. The ring counters for the individual doors are actually located ON THE DOORS THEMSELVES, which most of the time aren't ever actually onscreen. The first time I played a special stage I actually lost due to the fact that (aside form the terrible controls), I had no idea how the heck I was supposed to open the door. Maybe I'm just dumb but it took me a couple of minutes to realize that the number on the door corresponded to the number of rings I had, which isn't displayed anywhere else.

Once you figure out how to play they special stages, they aren't hard. Ridiculously annoying, yes, but they aren't hard.
The most difficult special stage was by far stage 4 (which requires several precision movements that can be difficult with such terrible controls) and the most annoying is stage 7 which is filled with bumpers.
To make things.... worse? THE SPECIAL STAGES HAVE A RETRY OPTION. The stages themselves can be annoying to get to because they're accessed Sonic 1-style (beat the stage with 50 rings and jump into the giant ring at the end) but the special stages let you retry them as much as you want so long as you don't run out of time or hit a goal object. There is no downside to retrying; you don't lose lives or anything and can redo special stages until you beat them.

Also, the music in the special stage is one of the most boring tracks I've ever heard.


So let's talk about the achievements.
The Story Begins
Beat Splash Hill 1. Nothing to even say.

Crush Dr. Eggman
Beat the first boss. Nothing to even say.

The First Chaos Emerald
Beat the first special stage. I talked about the special stages above so there's nothing else to say.

Enemy Hunter
Defeat 1000 enemies.
And here's where the frustration kicks in.
You'd think this achievement would be cumulative over your entire playtime of the game, wouldn't you? Except, nope, THE ENEMY COUNTER IS BROKEN AND RESETS EVERY TIME YOU CLOSE THE GAME.
Yes, that's right. The enemy counter is broken, thereby forcing you to kill 1000 enemies IN A SINGLE PLAY SESSION to be able to get this achievement.
As you can guess, in a game this bad, playing long enough to kill 1000 enemies without closing the game can get really frustrating.
Earlier in the Mad Gear 2 section I talked about how at one point the game crashed when I had 857 kills. I had played for a couple of hours at that point and in that second all of that progress was gone just like that.
Eventually, I finally tried it again and just played Splash Hill 1 over and over. You can get about 20 to 25 kills for every time you go through the level, making replaying it the fastest way to get the achievement.

I'd been grinding this single level for about two hours and got up to about 980 or so kills. I alt-tabbed out of the game to check how many kills I had (the game tracks them in a text file) and when I alt-tabbed back into the game... the screen was black. And it stayed that way.
The video output went completely blank. I put my head down on m desk and stayed that way for several minutes. Eventually, I cocked back to throw my controller at the wall but then suddenly realized... hold on a second, I can still hear the game audio. And the controller seems to be navigating the menu. What if...

And I proceeded to navigate the menus in pitch black and then kill the first three or four enemies in the level over and over without being able to see anything.
After a while of this I got tired of it and alt-tabbed to check my kills, and...
"Splash_Hill_Act_1 killed 1000"
Looks like I got incredibly lucky, ahahahahah
I got the achievement while the screen was black but without video output I couldn't see it trigger. Oh well, it was finally over.

Golden Flash
Finish every act while playing as Super Sonic.
This one is pretty easy to get, but it requires you to go through all the levels (minus boss acts and special stages) again. You don't have to play the whole level as Super Sonic, just pass through the end post while super.

All Stages Cleared!
Beat the game. Nothing to really say about this one.


Contender
Upload all scores to the leaderboards.
This one requires you to beat the game for a second time, including the special stages. Once you've beaten a level in normal (Score Attack) mode, it unlocks the ability to play in Time Attack mode. Fortunately, you don't have to play the levels in order or anything and only need to play through them once in Time Attack, but this achievement still essentially requires you to complete the game twice, once in Score Attack, and once in Time Attack.
...and then upload each level individually to the leaderboards.

Ring Collector
Collect all the rings in the first special stage and then collect the Chaos Emerald.
I actually had to do this one twice and I'm not sure why. The first time I did it I got all the rings and got the emerald but the achievement didn't unlock.
I was pretty mad but it was easy to do so I just did it again and it worked. Whatever.

Immortal
Build up 99 extra lives.
I've already pretty much spoken at length about this one. Just play Casino Street 2 and you'll rack up lives like it's nothing. You get way too many lives just through normal gameplay, but that level in particular gives you lives in droves.

Super Sonic Genesis
Get all the chaos emeralds.

This one is annoying to get but just use the retry button and that makes the difficulty nosedive since you can retry with no repercussions.

Speed's My Game
Beat Splash Hill 1 in less than a minute.
This one isn't hard to get but it's much easier if you use Super Sonic. Basically all you do is stay on the upper path of the stage and fly over the whole level.

Untouchable
Beat E.G.G. Station Zone without taking any damage.
This one's the hard one.
You have to beat the entirety of EGG Station without taking any damage, whatsoever. This includes going through the four-boss boss rush before the final boss.
I guess saying this one is "hard" isn't entirely accurate, but it's more something that you need to practice a lot to be able to pull off. Basically learn the boss patterns and grind it out and you can do it.

Final thoughts:
This took way too freaking long to write and I'm just rambling now.
I've 100%ed the game and got all the achievements which required me to play through the whole thing THREE TIMES (not including taking screenshots for this) so I'm never going to play it again.

In a conversation that I had with a friend the other day, I said this to them: "I beat sonic 4. It was awful. Finally got all the emeralds, all the special stages were baby easy except Stage 4 which was the hardest and Stage 7 which was just ridiculously annoying. Surprisingly, the game is decently playable as super sonic since he goes so fast that the broken physics don't matter and you can skip all the abysmal level design"

They then responded: "Surprisingly I didn't hate the game while I was basically not actually playing it"

That sums it up pretty well.
I hate this game so much that I've completely exhausted my hate reserves and can't bring myself to care anymore.

Time to play Episode 2.