Sonic Generations Review

Sonic Generations

System: 360, PS3, PC, 3DS
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Price: $50 (360,PS3) $40 (3DS) $30 (PC)
Players: 1 (360, PS3), 1-2 (3DS)
Demo available on Xbox marketplace and PSN store

notes*
Review is based on the 360 version
At the time of this review, 3D mode was not tested

Intro:
After breaking the alleged “Sonic Cycle” with Sonic Colors, Sega had to keep going on it’s path to a better Sonic game and more and more kept asking for a return to Sonic’s Classic roots. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 failed to deliver with it’s flawed physics and changes in general 2D classic gameplay with additions like the homing attack.  Many began to lose hope in our blue friend but then Sonic Generations was shown, hoping to satisfy both old and new Sonic fans alike in a blur of nostalgia.
Only a video was shown and everyone started to believe again.

The world screamed, “CLASSIC SONIC IN 3D!” (at least that’s how it played out in my mind)
Did it turn out exactly how we all hoped? Read on to find out.

 

The game starts out with the Celebration of Sonic’s birthday (is he finally 16 now?) when all of a sudden the Time Eater comes and snatches away all his friends and traps them in different parts of Sonic history. Instinctively Sonic goes after his best buddy, Tails, first and suddenly finds himself in Green Hill Zone.

Controls:
Modern Sonic is a mix between Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors. The responsive controls from Sonic Colors have been further tuned so death is less likely based on the fault of the controls, while allowing the freedom of doing anything at anytime comes from Sonic Unleashed such as the use of drifting and quick turns whenever one pleases. Homing attack works as well as it always has days of the Dreamcast (excluding 2006). A personal favourite of mine, the light speed dash has been severely hampered in this game. Instead of function on any line of rings, there are only a select set of rings throughout the game that can be used marked by their shimmering glow. In previous games the Light Speed dash caused much inadvertent input in the game when it shared the same button as the spindash. However in Sonic Generations not only has the spindash been removed from Modern Sonic but the light speed dash has been given it’s own button all together completely alleviating the problem but in turn removing the function almost completely. Modern Sonic’s improvements highly outweigh features that were removed and he is as blissfully fast and accurate to control as any modern player would like.

Classic Sonic plays nearly exactly like he did in the Genesis series save for a couple of differences that you may or may not enjoy. One of the biggest difference in Classic Sonic from the days of yesteryear is his spindash. How Sega could change the design of something so simple is beyond comprehension. I would like to take this time to explain that the change isn’t necessarily bad, just different. The spindash in generations is the most powerful of it’s kind in the entire series. It starts out as a slight mix between Sonic CD’s spindash and Sonic 2’s spindash. For those confused in the differences, Sonic CD’s spindash had to be charged to a certain point before it could be used, if it was not charged enough Sonic would simply just stand back up as if nothing happened. Sonic Generations took this one step further and allowed for any charge level to be used. If the spindash button was ever accidentally tapped Sonic will charge for a split second and take a slow short tumble forward. This was very harmful to his health especially when you were right next to an enemy as it left you wide open, rolling right into their path. The opposite of this uncharged tumble would be a fully charged spindash that would send sonic miles ahead at a blazingly fast speed that rivals Modern Sonic’s bursting. Another drastic change is Sonic’s rolling in general. Unlike previous games up until Sonic Adventure 2, rolling will no longer gain speed when going down hill, in coalition with this, spindashing will eventually lead to Sonic unrolling and running when he slows down to a certain speed. This is great for speed runs and generally keeping Sonic as quick as ever but like the tumble can leave you in many predicaments when you don’t exactly know what is coming up next. Despite these improvements and minimal downfalls, Classic Sonic controls just as well as you would hope and should please nearly all classic fans with a nice fresh feeling to keep him from feeling to stale and boring when compared to his modern counterpart.

Level Design:
Usually tied with controls at being the Hit-or-Miss with Sonic games level design can easily make you feel like you are doing more work than having fun. One of the biggest themes of Sonic Generations is traveling back in time to play older levels in new exciting ways while still maintaining the familiarity and feeling of “Yeah, I’ve been there”. While all the levels scream NOSTALGIA there are some notable ones that instantly bring you back to the days of old and memories of past creatures come back that you may have forgotten about. Some levels feel as if they are a reimagining of their original counterparts and act as if they completely replace the original in their respective game. Modern City Escape and Classic Green Hill plays nearly exactly the same as it did in it’s original Dreamcast and Genesis forms with barely a change and it does all this while still feeling new and fresh. Then there are levels such as Modern Planet Wisp, Modern Seaside Hill and Classic Chemical Plant that don’t necessarily replace the original level for a newer generation, but feel as if they add to the original as if they were another act in the original game. Whether a level felt brand new, or just slightly fresh they were all welcome additions as they all felt part of their original game and continued to drive the whole idea of the game in, Nostalgia. Almost all the cross over levels felt brand new and very distant from their originals except for a select few that felt like they were true to their originals. Classic Rooftop Run felt just like it did in Sonic Unleashed only in 2D form, while levels such as Classic Seaside Hill felt completely new all their own.

Music:
By far the best thing to come from this game, Music brings it all together and sends you back in time with the levels or in the case of classic stages gone modern bring it up to date. Stages like Modern Green Hill Zone go the route of what the original song would sound like without the restrictions of the Genesis while giving it a fast beat to go with the more speed focused Sonic.

When it came to classic the easy route wasn’t taken by simply chiptuning or 16-bitting the music to fit with how it would have sounded on Genesis. Many would have been satiated by this result but instead Sega decided to take it a further and instead have the Music completely redone in a style that would fit Classic Sonic and the style of the retro Sonic music in his once 2D world. This makes the music feel as if you could have heard it over a decade ago yet knowing that it still fresh from the second and third generations of games.

However with all great risks... There will always be failures and mistakes.
Why Sega decided to rerecord City Escape is beyond me.

Special Features:
A welcome feature in the game is the ability to unlock classic tracks from nearly every console Sonic game. along with listening to these at your leisure, they can be used to replace tracks from every level, and yes it saves your changes.
Also unlockable are new abilities to better improve your blue friend similar to Secret Rings. Among these are skills that will increase your default number of lives, the ability to stop on a dime, increase boost meter by 3x, and have the spindash carry your further. Other skills will bring abilities from other Levels and even other Sonic’s to use whenever you please. Along with these skills is the collection room that features bios of the Various characters seen in Generations, Cutscenes that can be rewatched Concept Art from generations as well as the original concept art from previous titles. and a Secret trophy room where 3D models can be viewed after being unlocked via a password system.

Pros:
-Wonderful Music
-Sonic has never been faster
-Levels are all fairly long with multiple branching paths
-Classic tails’ voice
-Cut-scene's contain same cheesy humor from old Sonic Cartoon’s and Sonic Colors

Cons:
-Over too quickly (about 5 hours)
-Modern City Escape music
-Classic Sonic’s spindash is awkward at times
-Cut-scenes are pixelated
-Where’s Jaleel White?

Closing Comments:
While not a perfect Sonic experience this is another step in the right direction to save Sonic from the dwindling fan count and is sure to bring back any of the previous fans that have once lost hope. A wonderful bridge to bring together 3 generations of fans in one final hurrah to Classic Sonic and show off that Modern Sonic can have some pretty damn good gameplay. Every should give Sonic Generations a shot and see what is one of the best anniversary tributes to the games of the past while take a good step forward towards a new future for the Sonic franchise.

Sonic Generations gets an 8/10
You’re almost there Sega. It’s a great game and a wonderful experience, but it lacks the “Play me again and again” that the original Sonic Games have.

 

*all YouTube video credit to their respective uploaders and Sega