12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

An Outstanding 20th Anniversary Celebration!, 4 Nov 2011

20 years ago, a gaming legend was born. Not only would he become the rival of Mario, but also one of the greatest video game characters of all time. Sonic The Hedgehog first debuted on the Sega Mega Drive on June 23rd 1991 and has become an icon to many since then. Now the year is 2011 and it’s the 20th Anniversary for the blue blur. To celebrate, Sega have given us not only one of the greatest games in the series history, but also one of the greatest celebrations of a franchise’s history ever. Sonic Generations brings together fans and gamers young and old to celebrate this Hedgehog’s 20th anniversary, and it does it with style and pure fan service.

The plot is as basic as it gets. It’s Sonic’s Birthday and his friends put together a party to celebrate. Suddenly a mysterious entity appears out of the sky and sucks in all of Sonic’s friends. Sonic tries to stop this being but is easily knocked out. He wakes up in a strange dimension where everything has lost its colour and notices locals that look very familiar to him. Not only that but he also meets up with his younger Classic self. It’s up to both Sonic’s to rescue their friends and figure out what’s going on. It’s a very simple tale that works well and has plenty of references and injokes of the series history that fans will appreciate.

The gameplay is split into two styles for both Sonic’s. Classic Sonic plays like the Mega Drive games. 2D style platforming with momentum based physics. You’ll be collecting rings, jumping across platforms and destroying badnicks just like the good old days. The old TV box powerups are back such as extra rings, extra lives, invincibility and more. Classic Sonic’s controls are solid and handle just like they did in the Mega Drive games. He has a new feature by pressing the X button to activate the spin dash, but for those who prefer the old way of doing spin dash, it’s still here. Classic Sonic is represented perfectly and his gameplay will please those who loved the old games.

Modern Sonic’s gameplay uses the formula of Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colours gameplay. His levels are played in 3D and 2D. While he doesn’t have the spin dash like his classic self, he has his own abilities which are the returning homing attack which auto targets enemies, the slide which is used to fit through small gaps, the stomp attack which sends Sonic slamming on the ground and his boost which propels him at high speeds as long as he has enough energy in the boost gauge. He also has a new feature where he can do freelance tricks when he jumps from a trick ramp or a rainbow ring. When you perform tricks, it builds up Sonic’s boost meter and can even extend beyond the meter. Modern Sonic’s stages are much faster than Classic Sonic’s stages and are a blast to play. The controls for Modern Sonic are the best they have ever been. They are much smoother and you feel more freedom in Sonic’s movement then he was in Unleashed. The controls are a great upgrade.

The game has a hub world called White Space. The hub world is played from a 2D perspective and you can go around the various levels of the game and take higher paths to find challenge missions. There is a skill shop where you can buy skills to equip to both Sonic’s which will give them new abilities. Also there is Sonic’s collection house where you can view the extras you unlock.

Each level has two acts. Act 1 for Classic Sonic and Act 2 for Modern Sonic. As you complete levels, you will be able to play challenge missions which have 5 for each level for both Sonic’s. As you complete missions, you will unlock boss keys which will be needed to take on the bosses of the game. There are also rival battles with other characters from the Sonic universe. As you beat rivals and bosses you unlock more levels and Chaos Emeralds.

When it comes to level design, Sonic Generations has this nailed. Each level comes from a past Sonic game such as Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, Chemical Plant from Sonic 2, Sky Sanctuary from Sonic & Knuckles, City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 and much more. These classic levels have been re-imagined with new level design and even nods to the levels original design. There are plenty of alternative paths to take which makes for fantastic replay value and aiming to finish stages in the fastest time possible.

While the main quest will only take you about 4 hours to finish, the amount of extras will keep you busy for a while. There are plenty of unlockable extras such as music, artwork, character bios and videos. You unlock these by finding Red Star Coins hidden in the levels which have 5 in each act. There is also an online mode where you can go for the fastest time in levels you’ve unlocked and try to get to the top of the leaderboards.

The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The hedgehog engine that was used in Sonic Unleashed once again makes for brilliant visuals, lighting and outstanding…

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Two hogs are better than one, 4 Dec 2011

Following on from last years platforming masterclass Sonic colours, Sonic Team returns to celebrate 20 years of the blue blur with Sonic Generations. Here Modern Sonic (the long quilled, homing attacking, boosting trickster from Sonic Adventure onwards) teams up with his former self Classic Sonic (the short, tubby, Spin Attacking, Spin Dashing hog of the 16-Bit era) via a time travelling plot involving an outer space beastie know as the Time Eater. As a 20 year celebration each of SG’s nine stages have been selected from nine previous games in the series spanning three eras- Classic, Dreamcast & Modern. All redesigned with entirely new layouts. Acts 1 are played with C Sonic as strictly side scrolling 2D levels (albeit stunningly rendered using the hedgehog engine) and Acts 2 are played with M Sonic were you will mostly be running into the screen at ridiculous speeds. A game for every Sonic fan then, genius. The nine stages are unlocked three at a time once you have cleared all acts of the current era as both Sonics in addition to a few of each stages’ own Challenge Acts (more about them later).

Classic Sonic Overview

This is what all the old fans have been waiting for. Ever since the release of last years craptastic Sonic 4, Sega fans worldwide have been clamouring for a return of the original hog from the early 90′s. C Sonic can run, jump, roll, Spin Attack, Spin Dash and that’s it. In the original games Yuji Naka’s expert coding created an unrealistic pinball feel to Sonic’s physics were he could build momentum bouncing from one enemy to another. For SG C Sonic uses the Havok engine to create a much more realistic feeling of momentum and running, jumping & Spin Dash all feel great. It’s a modern take on the short spikey and while some fans will never be satisfied with anything less than the return of Yuji Naka’s exact 16-Bit gameplay, as a 20 year player I can mostly say I am very satisfied with how he handles here. There is however one area in which ST have dropped the ball- the rolling. The roll friction is too high when going downhill causing Sonic to slow down when he should be speeding up. Bizarrely this problem does not occur on flats were he can travel in a ball for some distance. To accommodate this deficiency the Spin Dash has been souped up and levels tend to be platform orientated. One noticeable exception to this is Chemical Plant which like the original is a mass of ramps and loops but to get him rolling at the correct speed he is sent through a series of boosters. Another anomaly are the invisible boosts at the top of most ramps throughout the game which overshoot Sonic into the air by meters. You more than build up enough momentum to clear them all without the unnecessary boosts (especially when using the overpowered Spin Dash) so why they exist is a mystery.

Modern Sonic Overview

Modern Sonic’s gameplay is the best it’s ever been in Generations. As fusion of the Unleashed & Colours play styles Sonic primarily sprints into the screen but every so often switches to a 2D perspective to hop platforms. 3D sections revolve around the boost (built up by collecting rings and performing air tricks similar to Colours), the quick step (a lightning fast side step used to avoid obstacles), and of course the homing attack which can be used in either perspective to lock onto and destroy enemies. Due to their incredible speed M Sonic’s acts are often more exhilarating than C Sonic, the downside to this being they also feel a lot more on-rails and linear despite the equal amount of branching routes due of the numerous choke points and fixed 3D angle camera making it difficult/impossible to backtrack. If C Sonic’s acts are built for exploration M Sonic’s are all about speed. The difference being you can also speed run the classic levels but the Modern Acts do not offer the same flexibility if you want to travel in any direction other than forwards. When played as the developer intended the Modern stages are a blast and there is nothing like executing a perfect run through Green Hill Act 2 (probably the greatest Modern Sonic level ever created) chaining boosts/homing attacks/air combos to achieve your best time. Boss/Rival battles of which there are six in the game are mostly handled by M Sonic with only the first two (from the Mega Drive era) played with the little guy. Once you have learnt their patterns Boss/Rivals are quite easy and best played on hard mode. Taking on Sonic Adventure’s Perfect Chaos to the tune of ‘Open your heart’ by Crush 40 being a particular highlight.

Negatives

Aside from C Sonic’s roll being broke there aren’t too many. On the whole level design is of high quality but both acts of Planet Wisp are a letdown. In Act 1 the player only gets access to the Spikes Wisp, and in Act 2 we only get Rocket. This removes the puzzle element of the original Planet Wisp (Sonic Colours) were the player could use all eight Wisps to…

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