Sonic Generations – They Could Be On To Something…

You know the feeling you get when you meet up with an old buddy from a long time ago? All the good times you two had together come to mind… and you pick up from where you guys last left off. Your buddy may not be the perfect person in the world, they come with some flaws and a little rough around the edges. But you are thrilled to see your buddy and relive the good times. You may wonder what happened all of these years, but what matters to you most: you are reunited and it feels good. Yeah, Sonic, where ya been, buddy?!

There is no fancy and epic story. A time-altering dark force steals Sonic’s buddies and warps them in the past. It is up Sonic to figure out what happened to his friends and where the heck is he? We also get a peak of Sonic’s older self (the short, chubby, mute yet speedy) self running through Green Hill also encountering the same dark force and decides to pursue it. This begins our epic journey with two Sonics! Yeah, the story doesn’t hold a lot of water, but saving Sonic’s pals in the past is an awesome excuse to go back and remind us how awesome Sonic really was.

 

I had my reservations about the release of this game. I have been a devoted Sonic The Hedgehog fan since the Sega Genesis. When the Dreamcast first came out, one of the big releases was Sonic Adventure. It was successful in many aspects of level design and gameplay mechanics of putting the camera behind Sonic and speed through fun levels. Sonic Adventure 2 went beyond the call of duty and hit a home run of level designs and story behind Shadow. Then it went down hill, Sonic Heroes went away with what could have made the 3D conversion of the hedgehog successful. The voice acting began to be cheesy, the levels were bland and music lost its edge. However all 3-D Sonic game suffered one constant issue: THE CAMERA! It would bug out randomly and make like hell for the player to control Sonic.

Here comes Sonic Generations… I rolled my eyes. But then I saw the genesis era trailer from Sega and it quickly changed my mind. It features key levels from the previous Sonic 1-3 and Knuckles restored to today’s graphics through classic Sonic and redesigned for modern Sonic. The music has been touched up to carry the same melody, but sounding crisper and pleasing to the ears. The old tracks are not hampered from the 16-bit limitations either.

The game itself is one epic adventure divided into three eras (Classic, Dreamcast and Modern.) There are 9 zones with two acts (which adds up to 18 acts.) Each act utilizes classic and modern Sonics’ point of view. Classic Sonic is 2D with a 3D background going left to right. Modern Sonic is behind the view of our blue guy in a fully 3D plane with his homing attacks and boosting. The camera occasionally flips from 2D/3D camera views in the modern acts.

In between eras, there are boss gates which take a specific boss encounter from each era and relive the experiences. In order to unlock these boss gates, you have to play challenge side missions to acquire the keys to unlock the gates. Thankfully, you can choose one challenge mission in any order you wish to get the key from each level. They range from racing your clone, acquiring as many rings in shortened time, using a buddy (like Knuckles, Tails or Cream) to find items in certain sections of the level.

A nifty leveling up system is put in to upgrade each Sonic. You can acquire the points by collecting red star rings and finishing each act with a high rank (“S” is perfect ranking, “A” to “E” from greatest to least.) In order to get a high rank, you need to speed as quick as you can without taking too many hits and score tons of rings. The better you can navigate Sonic through the courses, the better your odds of getting a bonus to help your score. Whatever points you get from finishing the level and how many red rings (there are 5 of them in each level) you can purchase skills like speed boost (make Sonic faster), athletic (climb hills faster), shields (protected from one hit) or safety nets (continues). You can apply a skill set of any five to each Sonic to make them easier to use in the later stages. There is also features an online mode. There is a Ranking Attack mode and 30 Second Trials. You race for the best time and score on each level. Also how quick you can travel through a zone in thirty seconds.

The Classic Era involves Sonic 1 and 2, also Sonic and Knuckles. (Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary Zones.)

The Dreamcast Era involves Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, also Sonic Heroes. (Speed Highway, City Escape and Seaside Hill.)

The Modern Era involves Sonic the Hedgehog (2007), Sonic Unleashed and Colors (for Wii.) (Crisis City, Rooftop Run and Planet Wisp.)

Okay, after all the gushing I have done about this game… there are some faults I must warn you about! The camera again has some issues through out the modern Sonic stages. At times I would make a turn, Sonic disappears for a moment and the angle is awkward; I cannot see the next ledge I gotta climb. There are occasional straight speed paths I blast through, but I miss the timing to jump and fall into a pit (to die.) These glitches pop up more in the Modern Era, which these games originally were flawed beyond belief! Each modern zone were the best ones from their respective titles, but were still a drag for me to play. Crisis City and Planet Wisp were probably the most trouble I encountered much of my lives to be spent.

What happened to playing a boss at the end of each level?! The three bosses were not enough! And they were too damn easy! I think Sega and the Sonic team missed a good opportunity to capture the awesomeness of facing off Dr. Robotnik (‘Eggman’ to some of you) and his mechanical beasts of burden! They brought back each era’s of iconic bosses, but each of them took like four hits and that’s it. Then they have rival hedgehogs, Shadow, Silver and Metal Sonic, you race against them and dodge their attacks. That’s about it. Nothing else. There are no special stages for the chaos emeralds like in the old Sonic games (probably on the 3DS will have them) which is a serious shame. You get the emeralds by defeating rivals and bosses. Sega missed another chance to fully complete the Sonic experience here.

By George! They could be on to something…! For those of who you who missed out on the Classic and Dreamcast Era titles, this is your chance to play a sample of what you missed. Sega and the Sonic Team could be on to something, they finally made a game worth playing with the title “Sonic” attached to it! There are no gimmicks like the werehog a la ‘Unleashed’ or using three characters in one stage a la ‘Heroes’. It is just straight fun using the little blue hero we have come to love.