Review: Sonic Generations
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December 14, 2011 • Esteban Avila
Filed under Reviews, Top Stories, Videogames
Sonic Generations is newest entry in the “Sonic The Hedgehog” videogame series. It’s intended to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary. It was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA. The game was released on November 1, 2011 for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.
The game opens up with Sonic or rather Classic Sonic (referred to as such because of his resemblance to the original character design of Sonic used in the franchises’ earlier years). You are then prompted to play through the level called Green Hill Zone. It’s worth noting that Green Hill Zone is a remake of a level from the first Sonic The Hedgehog videogame.
You are then introduced to Modern Sonic (referred to as such because of his character design being the one we are currently accustomed to) as he celebrates his birthday with his friends. During the celebration a mysterious creature appears, captures all of Sonic’s friends, and sends them along with Sonic into an alternate dimension seemingly in-between time and space.
Sonic (Modern) finds himself trapped in this place with the only place to go being the rather familiar location of Green Hill Zone. After playing through this level as Modern Sonic you’ll meet Sonic’s friend Tails who predicts they have somehow been transported to a hub that connects certain places in time.
Now both Classic Sonic (from the past) and Modern Sonic (of the present) must team up to race through levels, take down bosses, save their friends, and restore time and space to normal.
The game plays like most Sonic games with the objective being to complete a level to unlock the next. Levels are divided into 3 sections; Classic Era, Dreamcast Era, and the Modern Era. Each has 3 levels, several challenges, one boss fight, and one rival battle.
Each level has 2 sections called “Acts”. In Act 1 you’ll play through the level as Classic Sonic and in Act 2 you’ll play it as Modern Sonic. You can complete each Act in any order.
All the levels are remakes of levels from past Sonic games. Each section representing the era of games they are remade from. Since they can be played as both Classic and Modern Sonic you can experience old levels in new ways. This is due to the two Sonics having different styles of gameplay.
Rules of the game apply to both Sonics. Like in other Sonic games you collect rings in levels that functions as your health. Take damage and you’ll lose a bunch of rings that’ll scatter all over the place which will give you a little bit of time to re-collect them. Use your abilities (which differ between the two Sonics) to destroy enemies along the way and in the end it all boils down to completing the level as fast and efficiently as possible.
You’re performance in the level is ranked on a scale of letters with D being the lowest and A being the highest. If you can clear a level with a rank A without dying once you’ll obtain the elusive rank S.
Playing as Classic Sonic is reminiscent of the original games on the Sega Genesis with the game being played on a 2D plane. Classic Sonic’s moves are the same as his Genesis counterpart with him being able to move around, jump, and spin-dash.
Classic Sonic plays like a dream. You’re able to hold down a button to use the spin-dash is a nice improvement over the original Genesis games’ method of holding down and the jump button.
Level design for Classic Sonic is also rather good for the first 2 sections of the games. However it becomes extremely problematic in the last section where levels give a bit too much freedom.
Though it’s not really freedom per say. It’s more like you just don’t know where to go. It doesn’t help that Sonic’s small character model blends in with the background too much. This kind of level design just doesn’t work for a game based on speeding to the end of the level as fast you can.
Modern Sonic’s style of play is reminiscent of the Day-time levels from Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors. The game takes place on both a 2D and 3D plane. The 2D sections are best compared to Sonic Rush but with some new abilities. When the game switches to a 3D plane it resembles Sonic Adventure but again with these new abilities.
These abilities that Modern Sonic can use universally are as follows.
First he can boost to increase his speed (though it is limited by a bar that can be re-filled by destroying enemies and doing tricks) as well as use it to destroy enemies along the way. This basically makes it his version of the spin-dash with different functionality.
While in the air you can tap the jump button again to use a homing attack which can be chained to attack close by enemies.
Alongside these basic abilities he can also do a mid-air stop like in Sonic Unleashed, use the light speed dash from Sonic Adventure, and wall jump like in Sonic Heroes.
Level design is dramatically improved from Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors. The game doesn’t become too focused on boost to win like Sonic Unleashed as it incorporates more strategic platforming and it does away with the quick-time events.
Levels aren’t horribly short like Sonic Colors and there isn’t a huge difficulty imbalance like the former. Despite this greater difficulty consistency, the game does pose an odd difficulty spike in the last section.
After completing a level you can use it in an online 30-Second Challenge and Ranking Attack. The 30-Second Challenge gives you 30 seconds to see how far you can get in a level then records your distance and lets you compare your scores from others all over the world. Ranking Attack has you replay a level and compare your resulting score with others online.
Both Acts also contain 5 hidden red rings ala Sonic Colors. Collecting them will unlock artwork (which can be viewed in art gallery), music (which can be listened to in a music box or during levels), and various skills to modify your gaming experience.
These skills can be purchased from the skill shop with points you earn from levels. You can also use these points to purchase extra lives and the original Sonic The Hedgehog as an extra.
Once the section’s levels are completed various challenges are unlocked alongside a rival battle (which is an extra boss fight against one of Sonic’s rivals).
Challenges range from racing a doppelganger to the finish line, collecting rings, and an odd activity involving Sonic’s friends etc. Challenges yield the same rewards you gain from collecting red rings.
The quality of these challenges ranges from mediocre to decent. The challenges that are the most fun to play are really when you race your doppelganger to the finish which is really just playing already unlocked levels.
The ones that unlock skills are pretty good though as they serve as tutorials for the skill so you’ll know how to use it once you obtain it.
The challenges where you need to team up or compete with Sonic’s friends have some charm to them but rarely give you an objective that’s fun to complete. Some of these friend challenges are just more race challenges in disguise which is rather lazy on the developer’s part.
At least one challenge must be completed from every level in order to obtain 3 keys you’ll need to face the boss. Defeating a boss will unlock the next section.
In terms of the story there really isn’t much of a story. There’s of course the introduction to the game I mentioned but after that you’ll rarely see cutscene and when you do it’s just to highlight your next objective. The ending however is great and really the only other point of the game where you feel as though a story is playing out.
The Sonic series has never been known to have good plots and this may be the reason for the lack of many cutscenes. This does serve as a disappointment because what writers Ken Pontac and Warren Graff did do is just gold.
It replaces the more recent series’ standard of trying to work the hedgehog and his cartoony friends into more serious plots plagued by overdrawn dialogue or techno babble with a much more fresh take on the franchise.
The game’s tone resembles a Saturday morning cartoon in a sense that’s serious when it needs to be and funny when it isn’t. Expect all the glorious bad puns and in-jokes that go to the point of self-mockery of what many consider some of the worst games in the franchise.
Overall this is easily one of the best Sonic games ever created. It fixes all the little problems that plagued the previous entry Sonic Colors. The game shoves away all of the overly dramatic tales for the hedgehog and presents its story in a light that fits. This game is more than worthy of being the game that celebrates the series’ 20th anniversary.
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