Sonic Generations

Sonic Generations skilfully incorporates high speed gameplay with clever platforming based puzzles and is a must have game be you a SEGA fan or not. It is incredibly easy to get into and the learning curve is just right. Every boss, even the initial eggman-robot-with-glowing-green-weak-spots, provides a fresh challenge and even the art style has been revamped for this Sonic game, it having an almost De Blob-esque feel to it.

Sadly, Sonic Generations falls just short of being an amazing game due to a few issues with gameplay and (as ever with any game that incorporates a three dimensional Sonic) controls. However, there is nothing in this game that stops it from being enjoyable at any point. It is just fresh enough to allow it to constantly be an enjoyably innovative experience, which may sound odd seeing as one of the biggest selling points for this game is that it spans twenty years of Sonic nostalgia.

Now, before I go on, I feel obliged to say that the storyline really isn’t much to look at. Seriously though, what were you expecting? This is a Sonic game, a series that revolves around a supersonic blue hedgehog and his animal friends going around stopping a robot-inventing evil mastermind imprisoning woodland creatures. Sonic games are not known for their thought provoking plot lines that explore deep issues and the meaning of life. No, rather they provide high-paced action with the plot line kind of thrown in there for the sake of it.

I will say this for Sonic Generations though, for a Sonic game, the plot line is decent.

Suffice to say, short of spoiling the narrative for you, Sonic is sucked into a mysterious white landscape by an evil mist with a face. The landscape seems to gain colour only when Sonic dives into his past, so Sonic sets out to do just that. Also, classic Sonic has been dragged there as well by the same force. Between them, they now have to find out what on Earth (or what ever strange planet Sonic is based on) is going on.

His attacks are all variants on shooting water at you, but he sure looks impressive.
While not much of a plot line, the gameplay amply compensates for this. It is here that Sonic Generations really shines.

Before you enter each level, you have to choose whether to play as classic Sonic or modern Sonic, the choice of which is made at the single touch of a button. The two levels play out completely differently.

Chosing to play as classic Sonic restricts you to only moving the second dimension, despite a 3D background. It’s really nice to see SEGA make use of this idea; certain enemies move in 3D space, while you only have two dimensions in which to combat them. In the back and foreground, sections of modern Sonic’s level fleetingingly pass by. Classic Sonic also has vastly different moves when compared to modern Sonic; all he is able to do being run, jump and charge.

When you do choose modern Sonic you are dumped into levels that alternate between 2D and 3D. The action is kept fast-paced most of the time with incredibly straight 3D paths to follow and a lock on function that allows you to simply jump to get Sonic to target the nearest enemy. Or you could just boost straight through them using the energy taken from the rings but that isn’t always possible. Of course, 3D Sonic is only fast most of the time, because every now and then he is introduced to a large(ish) 3D plain and becomes about as wieldy as a Formula 1 car with no steering wheel. Thankfully, these sections are kept to a minimum and for the most part you can keep up the pace.

There are some other niggling problems with the gameplay as well. Namely that Sonic Generations was designed for consoles, not the PC I was playing it on. This led to choppy frame rates when Sonic got too fast and the game telling me to press buttons on my Xbox controller during quick time events, despite my playing on a keyboard.

The featured minigames are mixed blessings. On the one hand they, are plenty of fun in bite-sized chunks, but on the other, the fact that you are expected to complete a number of them to collect keys to unlock boss battles can get a bit tedious. This is especially frustrating when they feature other Sonic characters who you have to utilise in order to win. This was a neat idea, but my idea of fun is not to stop Sonic running in order to call on Rogue in order to distract the bad guys. Thankfully you only have to complete a tiny number of these to progress (three per boss) and by switching between the unique sets of mini-games that open up for the two different Sonics, you can generally find a few mini games you enjoy.

Oh and stay away from the online mode. It is basically a time trial feature that sets you alternately against your friends or the rest of the world and isn’t really worth a mention.

On the whole, it is a good job that both modern and classic Sonic’s levels are fun to play, seeing as you have to play as both Sonics to complete any particular level (excluding boss fights).

Look how pretty it all looks. Er, ignore my high … I mean … lowest score ever there.
However, while you are playing the insanely fast levels you do have to be careful not to get distracted by one element in particular; the awesome graphics. Seriously, these blew me away. Maybe it’s because the last Sonic game I played seriously was Sonic 2 but wow. The turf looked like cartoony turf, the robots looked like cartoony robots, the animals, well they still look like weird 3D models of animé creatures, but they sure as heck move realistically!

I think what most shocked me about the art was the fact that not only does it now look spectacular, but a lot of the game seems focused around it. For instance, whenever you complete an act to a level, a bit more colour is restored to the initially all white hub world. Further, every time you complete a minigame, a piece of bonus art work is unlocked. Surprisingly, Sonic Generations likes its art work.

While you are careering through this beautiful landscape, you also have the music to deal with. Again, wow. I never thought I’d hear the Green Hill Zone soundtrack played by an orchestra in a game but there we have it. Pretty much all of the tunes in the game have been revamped making for a much more full-bodied musical experience. The only sounds which seem to have missed the update are the voices of the characters, and yes, Tails is as annoying as ever.

He’s so awesome the laws of physics simply pretend he doesn’t exist.
SEGA have gone all out for this game and it really shows. The story is fine, the gameplay is good, and the art and sound are brilliant. There are enough challenges and minigames in Sonic Generations to keep you playing for a long time after you complete the main story. Most importantly, Sonic Generations is extremely fun.

I feel the one thing SEGA have done well in this game, above all else, is the appropriate use of nostalgia. What I mean by this is that Sega could have just rereleased one of their old games again, with revamped graphics and music. This would have cost them very little time and effort and made them about the same amount of money. However, they didn’t. Instead they chose to create an entirely new game based loosely off the old ones, but with new plot lines, new gameplay and too much new content to list in a single review. The result is brilliant and I’d absolutely advise that you go pick up a copy – Sonic Generations will be worth every penny you pay.