Sonic Generations Review

[Zera]

Greetings, folks. This is my review of Sonic Generations. Despite the inconsistent quality of the Sonic series, Sega and Sonic Team decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a game made entirely of remade stages from previous games. These were apparently voted on by employees as well as fans who participated in an online poll. But should the 3D, modern stages be remade in the classic sidescrolling style, or vice versa? Apparently the answer was "both", as each stage contains two acts - one for Classic Sonic and one for Modern Sonic. The stage selection itself is mostly great.

Classic Era
Green Hill from Sonic 1
Chemical Plant from Sonic 2
Sky Sanctuary from Sonic & Knuckles
Dreamcast Era
Speed Highway from Sonic Adventure
City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2
Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes
Modern Era
Crisis City from Sonic 2006
Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed
Planet Wisp from Sonic Colors

I say "mostly" because not only is there no stage from Sonic 3 (unless you count Sonic 3 & Knuckles as one game), but there is a stage from Sonic '06. Instead of remaking Hydro City or Carnival Night like they should have, Sonic Team decided to metaphorically roll in their own s***. Granted, this Crisis City is much better than the original, and makes me wonder - if Sonic Team completely remade Sonic '06 in this style, could they actually make it good?

The other stages are less controversial. Green Hill and Chemical Plant are so classic that if anything else were picked, the universe would implode. (And it would be hard to make Scrap Brain the first stage without killing its difficulty) Most of the other stages are the best in their respective games. The only odd pick is Planet Wisp. Of the stages in Sonic Colors, the only one I'd prefer is literally any of them. Whoever voted for Planet Wisp over Sweet Mountain simply has no taste (get it?). All the stages are remade to near perfection ("near" as in "hope you have precognition for this shortcut"), featuring key mechanics and nostalgic setpieces, but new layouts. Planet Wisp even has color powers - pink "SPIKES!" for classic Sonic and the orange "ROCKET!" for Modern Sonic. (Unfortunately, the Spikes aren't as polished as they were in Colors - they can get stuck on corners at low speeds.)

Classic Sonic has sidescrolling stages and controls similarly to how he did in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, for better and for worse. Old school Sonic fans will feel right at home, but his poor acceleration makes for some slower platforming. Still, I'll take sluggish platforming over bottomless pits. Mistakes will often force you into a lower, slower route instead of death, and even when pits do appear, there are usually springs to rescue slightly-short jumps at the cost of time. In other words, the acts are designed with the fragility of speed and goals of speedrunning in mind, which is perfect for Sonic. One thing I like about Classic Sonic is his spindash, which is ridiculously powerful. There are certain platforms where you can spindash to bounce off enemies and fly over an entire chunk of the act at hyper speed. It's stupid, it's cheating, and it's undeniably awesome.

Modern Sonic controls like he did in Unleashed and Colors, for better and for worse. His mix of 2D and 3D gameplay has more focus on speed and spectacle, with a plethora of moves to use. Run, jump, wall jump, homing attack, bounce, boost, stomp, slide, trick, grind... the list goes on. There are clever shortcuts and secret paths for eagle-eyed players, and the five Red Star Rings hidden in each act encourage you to find them all. However, it's not perfect. Despite a noticeable amount of 3D platforming, Sonic's low-speed controls have not improved to accommodate it. With poor acceleration and poor turning speed, the 3D platforming feels unresponsive and even sloppy. However, it's a very small portion of these acts, and expert players can literally boost right over them.

(Side note: My appreciation for Sonic Lost World has increased. While not as fast as Generations, it had much better 3D control.)

Sonic Generations also has bosses and rival battles of mixed quality. The Death Egg Robot, Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Silver are all decent. The Egg Dragoon and Time Eater... not so much. My favorite boss is Perfect Chaos, which is basically a Modern Sonic stage that looks like a boss.

There are a whopping 90 optional challenge stages - five for each act. While the conditions vary, they always involve traversing a unique level layout, with a tricky time limit for an "S" rank. Some of them - such as an obstacle course with elemental shields from Sonic 3 - are interesting puzzles that wouldn't fit in the main acts. These challenges are the "filler" of the game, but they're the good kind of filler. Others are less worthwhile - a handful bring in Sonic's friends for scrappy mechanics you'll never want to use again. And then there's the mission "Vector: Pick Up the Beat", which is so bad that I have to knock an entire point off my review score for how much it lowers the baseline quality of the game.

I then have to return that point for the in-game Sega Genesis that lets you play the original Sonic the Hedgehog. If you already have Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection it doesn't matter, but for everyone else, it means you get a whole extra Sonic game for free. I'd add yet another point if Sonic 2 and 3 were included, but this is sadly not the case.

Clearing the challenges will unlock three things - art, music, and skills. Skills are abilities you can equip in the hub world, and you have 100 points to mix and match with. For example, you can use 30 points to make rings stay on screen for 10 seconds. Or you can use 20 points to make Modern Sonic even fasterer. Or you can use all 100 points to give Classic Sonic a homing attack.

The music is excellent as you would expect, and any song can be played on any act or challenge. So if you want to hear "Sweet Mountain" on every stage in the entire game, you can do that. I'd like to praise this feature more, but the full list of songs is lacking in comprehensiveness. Even stranger, the arranged songs of the main acts themselves aren't in the sound test and can't be used. Graphically, the game is beautiful. The stages are way more detailed, but still feel authentic to the originals. Unfortunately, the game only runs at 30 fps on consoles (60 fps on PC).

Sonic Generations is a very good Sonic game. While the lows are lower than anything in Sonic Colors, the sparsity of them is impressive. When you're playing as Classic Sonic, it's a really solid 2D Sonic game (albeit lacking shield powerups). When you're playing as Modern Sonic and hitting all the shortcuts like a pro, it's a "speed crazy dream extravaganza"... with some nostalgia. Whether you're an old or new Sonic fan, or never met the blue blur, I can safely recommend Generations.

8/10 (Great!)
 

Spoiler

Above: You won't find a more thorough review of Sonic Generations anywhere. Except perhaps that one...

Modern Sonic Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABun_CKEpAU

 

[Jedi]

If you think the feel of Classic Sonic feels anything like 3&K you need to play 3&K again because its quite stilted in comparison, you lack the insta shield technique and the spindash is broken. Also the shields are in the game as purchasable upgrades you can equip. 

Also Lost World handles way worse than Generations, I never once had an issue controlling 3D Sonic in generations. Its vastly improved from both Unleashed & Colors as well. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Jedi

[Zera]

I haven't played Sonic 3&K recently, but since I played Sonic 1, I know it was much more sluggish than 3&K or Generations. I am aware of the shield skills (I did 100% the game after all), but it's not the same as having them collectible in the stages. Make one mistake, and the game becomes shield-less again.

As for Lost World handling worse... yeah, I don't remember that. I'll have to play it again.

[henrymidfields]

I remember in both here (in a different thread) and in Bulbagarden, a good number of people reckon that Sonic 2006's badness was simply due to Sega rushing production with shoddy gameplay, and that otherwise the game would have come out fine...