5.0
Sonic Generations Review
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4.0 Good: It's the best Sonic game in years by a very wide margin
Bad: New Sonics levels can be a little too "on rails"
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Sonic The Hedgehog used to be a popular fellow. He was synonymous with Sega who, in turn, were synonymous with quality. Since the death of the Dreamcast however, Sonic has been on a steady decline into obscurity. Mario is still as popular as ever and every one of his games makes Nintendo a tonne of money, but if you were to ask a young kid about Sonic I doubt they could tell you much about him, let alone who actually makes his games. The last two years have seen the quality of Sonic’s games fortunately going up, starting with Sonic Unleashed. While that game still contained a silly gimmick that no one liked (The Werehog) it also contained some of the most fun 3D Sonic levels in some time and last years’ Sonic Colours was, by most accounts, a high quality experience.
2011 is Sonic’s 20th Anniversary, so Sonic Team decided that this year’s game should be a celebration of their most well known character and for the most part they’ve succeeded in their goals. Sonic Generations is the most fun I’ve had with a new sonic game in a long time, even more-so than Sonic 4. This new game pays respect to the blue blur in a meaningful way and it contains plenty of nostalgia for fans of the character.
Sonic Generations’ premise is relatively simple. Sonic (as he has been since Sonic Adventure) is hanging out with all of his highly annoying friends — and Knuckles — one day when all of a sudden they’re all transported back in time. Sonic and Tails run into their pre-Dreamcast versions and find that all of their friends are frozen in time and need to be saved, though if it were up to me I’d leave them there… except Knuckles.
The game then throws both Sonics into a series of re-imagined levels from previous Sonic games. Most of them are the most popular levels from his 20 year history, but there is one level from 2006′s Sonic The Hedgehog that could have been left out because, lets face it, we all need to forget about that game and the re-imagined version of said level is still as terrible as the original. During Sonic Generations you’ll be playing each level twice, once as Classic Sonic and once as current Sonic. Classic Sonic’s levels are side scrolling levels and new Sonic’s levels are over the shoulder affairs that you’ve come to expect from the current games.
Each Sonic offers his own good and bad aspects. Classic Sonic controls just like he did in those first three sonic games, which means you don’t get the lock-on targeting of the newer Sonic and that results in Classic Sonic’s levels being more challenging and, in my opinion, more fun. Beyond the lock-on targeting, current Sonic also has his boost ability which makes his levels much faster. These levels are still fun, but for the most part you’ll find yourself looking down at the controller and wondering why you even need it because of how ‘on-rails’ most of these levels feel.
Luckily, the game offers more than just a bunch of levels to play through. It contains some re-imagined boss fights from Sonic’s past, rival challenges that see Sonic going up against some of his well known friend/enemies, and challenge levels that give you an objective to complete in a certain amount of time. Along with these comes an online mode that will have you trying to beat your friends best times in the main levels of the game. The main story mode of the game isn’t that long, so having all of this side stuff waiting in the wings is great and adds a lot of replay value to a game that would have been fine without it.
It’s great to finally see a new Sonic game with some effort put into it. Sonic 4 was a fine game, but it was far too short and the controls weren’t as great as they are in this game. Hopefully Sonic Team can keep this upward momentum going for the Sonic franchise, because I would love to play more Sonic games like this. It definitely still has some issues — an unstable framerate, a couple of poorly designed levels — but overall, Sonic Generations is definitely worth playing if you have any sense of nostalgia for the ol’ Hedgehog. Highly Recommended.
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interesting
Thank you, Mr Worrad.
Nice review, Aaron. Haven’t played the game myself, but you’re selling it