5 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 4.6 hrs on record
Posted: 6 Dec, 2014 @ 9:26pm

Sonic Generations takes gamers on a romp through the history of Sonic the Hedgehog and, as a result, shows a bite-sized look at the downfall of their mascot.

The story plays out like this, at a picnic for Sonic's birthday, all of his buddies including Tails, Knuckles, Amy and... everyone else... get sucked into a big portal thingy made by a big monster. Sonic follows and has to save them as they have been frozen in a big, white wasteland. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails from the past have been scooped up as well and are also running through levels too because reasons.

Sure the storyline is a bit ridiculous but that's fine. It's a great excuse to have Sonic play through reimaginings of his most iconic levels in both the original 2D style and the new 3D style of his more recent outings and it first, it's a blast. Only at first, though. The game works like this, there are three sections of the game consisting of three stages and a boss battle. Each stage has two acts giving a total of 18 levels plus four boss battles (because of the final boss). Act 1 of every stage has you playing as old-school Sonic in a 2D style while Act 2 lets you play as the newer Sonic.

At the beginning of the game, this works out really well. I grew up with Sonic the Hedgehog and getting to play through the reimagined Green Hill Zones and Chemical Plant Zones were wonderful. Not only that, but they actually gave me a greater appreciation for the newer style of Sonic the Hedgehog. 2D Sonic was great but I often found myself missing the homing blast and greater ability set of older Sonic of which younger Sonic is missing all but his iconic spin dash. Once you get through a set of three levels, a huge glut of 30 challenges unlock that have you playing through the levels with different variations such as ghost races or playing with one of Sonic's friends. It can be overwhelming but the game only makes you try one from each stage in order to unlock three boss keys bringing you to the boss fight. It's a great way to add additional content without forcing players into repetition.

Unfortunately, as the game progresses, the level design starts to reflect the newer games which is far from a good thing. the Sonic '06 level takes you into a firy apocalpyse where you have to avoid a giant flame tornado and from here on, the whole game starts going up in smoke. Levels start throwing ridiculous obstacles in your way and seem to actively prevent you from enjoying the speed previous levels have enjoyed. Whereas before you got to skateboard down a hill chased by a giant, demon-possessed truck, now the ground is broken up with near-constant stops and barriers. Playing as 2D Sonic, it was a blast getting to spin dash and enjoy the rush of speed but now, spin dashing will only bring you less than a second before you run into a wall that simply doesn't need to be there.

The 3D Sonic fares better in these stages but he's not immune from their effects either. Levels start frequently using newbie traps that aren't challenging as long as you know they are there, bringing your fun to an unnecessary stop seemingly just to prevent a perfect run on the first try. Also, the camera starts doing very funny things, trying to work around all the jumble of visual assets that frankly don't need to exist. Depth is also a very tough thing to judge in the 3D levels, frequently resulting in missing rings and rails that require a specific type of jump.

Despite the dire nature of the game, Sonic '06 is far from the worst. In fact, one of the better rated Sonic games in recent memory, Sonic Colors, results in easily the worst of the bunch. Requiring ridiculous power-ups to move forward that constantly result in slowing down and finding the ability means these levels take easily over 8 minutes each, a near-eternity for a Sonic game. Considering the powers weren't fun to begin with, 8 minutes of near constant power-up hunting is a slog that no one should have to suffer through.

*Possible minor spoilers below. Seriously, quite minor though. Skip paragraph if you so choose.*

So you've beaten all the stages, gotten all 7 Chaos Emeralds and are ready for the final battle. It's Super Sonic time, right? Well, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying yes (this is Sonic after all), but you're in for the worst time as Super Sonic ever. The movement is so incredibly unresponsive and your objective is so unclear that I actually wanted this segment of the game to end, the first time I've ever thought that playing as Super Sonic in any of the games prior. It wasn't a power rush but actually made me feel like I was completely out of control of the character as he did whatever he wanted. You can switch between 2D and 3D on the fly during this battle but I'm still not sure what the point of 2D was as it never did any damage to the boss. Maybe I missed something but, in that case, why was it not clear what I was supposed to be doing?

*End spoilers*

Ultimately, Sonic Generations starts off great and crashes and burns as it progresses, basically just like Sonic the Hedgehog. Still, this is probably the best Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2 and there is plenty of fan service ranging from unlockable concept art to music from the games. Saying this is the best Sonic game since 2001, though, really isn't saying much. If you are a Sonic fan like me craving a good, modern Sonic game, this is the closest you will get. If you are a Sonic skeptic, however, this won't change your mind.
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