Sonic Generations Game by SEGA Reviewed by Philip "Pocket Squirrel" Wesley Save: Battery Released: 2011 Works with: Nintendo 3DS ESRB Rated: E Rating Descriptions: Mild Cartoon Violence Quick Opinion: Buy if you find it cheap and enjoy being a little depressed. **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: The first Sonic the Hedgehog game debuted in 1991 and this game was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic has had quite a few depressing turns and twists in his games that have a lot to do with the inclusion of more and more animal friends, questionable design choices, and a lot of the emphasis on exploration and not speed. There were also questionable choices like giving Sonic a sword, turning him into some weird "Were-Hog," and so forth. It also did not help that an A-List character ended up in so many D-List games on the consoles. Thankfully, I care very little about the modern consoles and have been keeping a close eye on Sonic and his handheld adventures. Usually, these turn out to be fairly good and I hope that this game continues that trend. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Description: The story begins with Sonic on his way to a surprise birthday party. Suddenly, a huge monster appears and Sonic is thrown into a dimensional warp to the past that is not "the past" so he can meet a younger version of himself from an alternate dimension. Together they hook up to stop Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik's evil plan that he planned with himself to use a giant creature from beyond time and space that eats time and space. This creature is called the Time Eater and it has lasers and cool stuff and there are two Tails and Classic Sonic does not have green eyes and does not talk and he is the best Sonic and there is Metal Sonic and Bio Lizard and Shadow and Silver and they race Sonic. But Sonic WINS ALL THE TIME and that is because SONIC is my BESTEST FRIEND FOREVER. BFF! AND there are friends of Sonic who show up in the ending credits and you race on all the okay stages from some of the Sonic games like a level from SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG where Sonic was not actually there and look there is BIOLIZARD. It is a lizard with bionic stuff attached to it and it is big and powerful but not too powerful, so Sonic can defeat it without a gun. One of my only friends dad had a gun and he thought it was candy and it was not candy and he died. But Sonic visited me in a dream and told me about this game and how it would be all okay. Then Tails touched me in an uncomfortable way and I woke up. Tails is not a good person and I told on him to my mom and dad just hit me with the "Stop Lying Pipe" on my neck and I told them I fell down the stairs at my school. I hate Tails very much. That was everything you need to know about the story of Sonic Generations. There are six different options on the main screen to check out and four different ways to play the game. PLAY GAME is the first option and this brings you through the core of Sonic Generations. You have to play this mode to unlock the other modes. This is also where the awful story comes into play. You can skip the story cut scenes by hitting START while they play. There are SEVEN levels and FOUR "boss portals." Each level is taken from a previous Sonic franchise game and consists of a first act played as "Classic Sonic" and a second act played as "Modern Sonic." Modern Sonic has a bunch of different tricks to him and has some sort of "special" sequence near the end of each of his levels. The normal levels also have a Special Stage you can select where you run down a tube of obstacles and speed pick ups to catch a Chaos Emerald. The Boss Portal levels consist of a race against an opponent followed by a boss taken from a previous Sonic title. I am going to go ahead and spoil the particulars for you in a handy list. LEVELS: Green Hill, Casino Night, Mushroom Hill, Emerald Coast, Radical Highway, Water Palace, Tropical Resort. BOSSES: Metal Sonic, Big Arm, Shadow, Biolizard, Silver, Egg Emperor, and Time Eater. The general flow of gameplay is to get from point A to point B while avoiding traps. The only deviation on this would be Tropical Resort which has power ups based on the creature mechanic in that game. Once you beat the game, you unlock the real meat of this title. VERSUS MODE is an online or offline racing mode similar to the Boss Races but with power ups. You race through levels trying to get to the end first. MISSIONS is where you will spend all of your time in this game. The missions are variations on the levels unlocked in the main game or with Play Coins. In these variations, you have fun conditions like "beat this level without killing any enemies," or "collect this many rings." There 100 different missions and the missions unlock extras in the COLLECTION option like 3D Models, Music, Event Scenes, and Art. You can also use your 3DS Play Coins to unlock missions or purchase extras. TIME ATTACK is the next mode and this is intended to keep track of how quickly you can beat a level or boss. Your times are also added to online rankings. COLLECTION is the aforementioned option where lots of artwork and FIFTY musical selections are stored. You unlock stuff in here by playing the main game and the missions. OPTIONS is where you configure the card you pass along via the 3DS STREETPASS feature. This allows you to send information about how you are doing in the game and a few generally nosy questions about what your favorite Sonic game is, who your favorite character is, and how long you have been a Sonic fan. The missions add some life to this game, because the main game is ridiculously short. The first couple levels are fun and then they give Classic Sonic the ability to lock on to his enemies. The later bosses and levels are irritating in this game to the way they are designed. Also, Modern Sonic does not roll into a ball, instead you have to push DOWN and B to slide into things or under walls. The game does have a sense of speed for about three levels and that is both fun and really frustrating. The Missions mode is really only useful for collecting the MUSIC in the game. What I am trying to say is that you run though a few nostalgic levels to unlock missions to unlock music. That is the whole reason I kept playing it and I can also use the glut of Play Coins I collected by walking to unlock those as well. The Bonus Rounds that you play to get the Chaos Emeralds are my favorite part of the game aside from the first few levels as Classic Sonic. If anything, the first few levels are there to remind you of how Sonic games used to be. Liked: Lots of music to unlock, lots of Mission challenges, and a few decently designed levels. The bonus rounds are great fun and very fast paced. Some of the little surprises near the end of the Modern Sonic levels are genuinely challenging. Hated: The decently designed levels demonstrate very quickly that the Sonic series did NOT change for the better as it progressed. I could save time and money just buying a mix CD of Sonic music, because unlocking all of the music is the only thing that brings me back to this game to replay it. The boss races and battles are all terrible. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The backgrounds in this game are simply gorgeous and the 3D option is used to make it appear like you are staring into the screen. The lush, vibrant look of levels like Casino Night, Mushroom Hill, and Green Hill just demonstrate how very pretty a remake of Sonic 1, 2, and 3 + Knuckles would be on a modern device. Sadly, everything after Mushroom Hill looks barren until you get to Tropical Resort where the graphics go from barren to ugly. The bosses look okay and Sonic has all of his sassy animations. The 3D effect is nice looking on the earlier levels but it does not add to the gameplay. It does add to the vibrant feel of the first few levels though. The 3D looks especially good in the bonus rounds. The sense of speed is here in this game and I feel that it does contribute just a little better of effort toward making the normal gameplay interesting. The story is presented in RPG style dialogue sequences, but you should be skipping those as quickly as possible. There is a bit of fan service in a few of the levels when you play as Modern Sonic. This means that the last section of whatever level Modern Sonic is in has a "special" sequence at the end of it. Those usually look pretty cool. Liked: Green Hill Zone, Casino Night, and Mushroom Hill are amazing looking. The 3D effect is subtle and used to compliment the overall graphics in a way that is not intrusive or annoying. The game -at times- looks 3D but is a staunchly firm 2D side scrolling title. Hated: Some of the later levels are kind of bland looking. You can really see at what part the character design for the Sonic games got very, very ugly. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Almost all of the music in this game is taken from previous games. This is not a bad thing, but it is a stark reminder that Sonic music went down hill in later games. The music is essentially a best of Sonic collection and I do appreciate the nostalgia factor for the game. However, I feel that recycling music is a bit lazy. Liked: The music and sound effects are really quite good... Hated: ..Which is a testament to good early design. The "original" bits of music for this game are not memorable. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: The story is stupid, the way that Modern Sonic slides instead of rolling is stupid, and the level of nostalgia in this game feels like it is hiding a terrible corpse. The problem with this game is that the presentation of Classic Sonic levels from Sonic 1, 2, and 3 + Knuckles is painful. I feel that the game is thrown together like a quick cash grab and I would rather they just remake Sonic 1, 2, or 3 + Knuckles in the same graphic style established in Sonic Generations. The addition of homing attacks for Classic Sonic also ruins the delicate sense of nostalgia. Sonic Generations actually makes me frustrated and annoyed that Sega stitched together a bunch of "favorite" levels instead of just remastering Sonic 1, 2, or 3 + Knuckles. I would pay more for a complete Sonic 1, 2, or 3 + Knuckles in the wonderful fully rendered 3D Side Scrolling Style of this game. There are no problems with play control, and you can navigate game menus with the touch screen. This feels like the concept was cobbled into a final product through the great gnashing of teeth. I really like what they did with the early levels but I would rather have THOSE GAMES with the graphics from this game. At least the game has some decent bonus rounds, decent challenges, and really great presentation. Liked: This game is not terribly broken, nor does it have bad design... Hated: ...Instead it just feels cheap and lazy. **************************************************************************** Improve: Just release Sonic 1, 2, or 3 + Knuckles in the same graphic style. DO NOT MESS WITH THE LEVELS, and just embrace the idea of porting older sprite based games into 3D model graphic masterpieces. They could even mix it up a bit and let you play as a pixel version of Sonic in a fully polygonal world. This game gives you just a taste of what they would be like. Why not deliver on that promise, Sega? RIYL: Sonic the Hedgehog. **************************************************************************** Final Words: The fact that they went for MUSHROOM HILL instead of ICE CAP is blasphemy. I just want a Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) 3D Edition. It actually feels a bit depressing that there are not MORE (and better) retro levels in this game. I feel like I have been given a sample of great food that does not exist past that sample. This game is about Sega missing the point of celebrating the first Sonic game. I feel they would have been better served by remastering the first game in modern graphics and just releasing that instead of this game with botched potential, a terribly stupid plot, and diminishing replay value. To the credit of this game, I did find it to be fun until the sense of wasted potential seeped into the game. Which I would say happens at about the first Boss Portal. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: *** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: ***** Play Control/Game Design: ** Value: ** Star Total: 51% Personal Opinion Merit: 21% Final Score: 62% Letter Grade: C ****************************************************************************