Sonic Generations is a same I enjoyed a little. The old levels poked at my nostalgia and I completed it fairly quickly. The only Sonic games I have played in the past was Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic heroes, Sonic 06 and a few others. I wasn't the biggest fan of the series but I still enjoyed the fast paced gameplay that most of my other games didn't have. This game was like a flashback to when I played those last games but there were a few things that bugged me about it.
Sega has been corrupting this blue hedgehog, turning him into all kinds to grab some attention from the Sonic fans. From giving him a bestiality romance with a final fantasy character to just turning into werewolf. Sonic was Sega's guinea pig while they tried to find something that worked. Something similar to the old Sonic, so why not make a game with old Sonic? Ehm.. I mean... A game with most of the annoying characters from the old games and levels from some of the past games, including the trainwreck which was Sonic 06. Sonic Generations was finally created and released to consoles in 2011 for PS3, Xbox, 3DS and PC. The game was for the 20th Anniversary of Sonic and the game was a surprise to the fans who waited so long for the old Sonic to get back onto their television screens.
The story is... strange like most (if not all) Sonic games that have been vomiting out from Sega's mouth in the recent years. The story starts in White Space, a realm where time and space end up after they have been "erased" by being drained of color and life. The final moments of the game take place in the Center of Time, and Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic has to explore the nine worlds (seven in the 3DS version) to save history and rescue their friends as Eggman and Classic Eggman team up to erase their past defeats from history using Time Eater.
Nineteen of the characters in the previous games make an appearance. With Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic, Tails and his Classic self. There's also characters including Amy, Knuckles, Charmy the bee, Vector, Shadow and even Blaze and Silver. The side characters barely do anything than tag up with you with missions, which makes the challenges differ between each world.
The graphics are similar to that of Sonic colors. Very vibrant and colorful in each stage. The camera is zoomed out, giving the player a better time to react to things that comes towards them on the screen, where as the old games had the camera zoomed in and it was hard to see when things were coming at you. The music is catchy, keeping to the original songs of the levels. My favorite being City Escape. The game didn't alter too much of the original designs, but added enough to make them feel fresh to nostalgic players.
The thing I didn't like was that they included a map from Sonic 06, which I had said before. It was a train wreck. I'm unsure why the Sonic team would want to add that into this game, since that game was the sin of Sonic games and should be buried into the ground, and I didn't want to be reminded of that piece of garbage while playing this game.
The controls for Classic Sonic are like the ones for the past games, using classic moves like the Spin Attack and Spin Dash and the leveling for him is fixed on a 2D side scroller. Modern Sonic is giving 2D/3D platforming similar to Sonic Unleashed and Sonic colors, giving him some past moves like the homing attack and and speed boosting. Although you can pick which one you want to do for each world. You have to do both in order to process, forcing the player to play the level twice. This can be considered a good thing as the two levels have different ways of playing, but it can be frustrating for players who prefer one playing style over the other. There are 10 challenges in each zone which spices up the game and is also required to do before you can go to the boss stage, forcing the player again. A Skill Shop allows players to use points earned from high scores to unlock upgrades such as abilities, shields, and even the original Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis game, which was the main thing I was saving up for. Completing challenges, as well as finding Red Star Rings hidden in each of the main Acts, unlocks additional skills, as well as bonus concept artwork and music so I guess the challenges are useful and not just for filler. There are also online leaderboards for two modes: Ranking Attack, which challenges players to obtain the best time and score on each level, and 30 Second Trial, which challenges players to see how far they can get through a level in 30 seconds, which can be fun when challenging your friends and beating each others scores online (if they have the game also).
I found this game fun to play in my spare time for a few minutes. The levels are nicely laid out and the music is catchy and fun to listen to, whether you're new to the Sonic series or not. There are some annoyances like sometimes the homing attack won't target an enemy and the chaos emeralds can be frustrating to get when the game gives you no indication on what to do, but it's alot better than the previous experiments that Sega has put out on the shelves. It's possibly one of the better modern Sonic games and it's an example that it's okay to sometimes take a step backwards when coming up with new ideas, sometimes old is good.
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