[review] Sonic Generations - 20TH HAPPY SONIC!

I've been meaning to do a review of Sonic Generations for a while now, since I picked the game up a few weeks ago. Honestly, I wasn't really expecting much out of it. I enjoyed both Unleashed and Colors, so I didn't have low expectations just because it was a Sonic game. It's just that I was really unimpressed by what we were shown just before its release. I'd heard some pretty nasty things about Classic Sonic's gameplay, plus I was pissed that almost none of the stages I wanted to see were included in the game. So, I had a rather pessimistic attitude for a while.

Much to my surprise, though, Generations turned out a lot better than I thought it would. It's still got its share of flaws, and there are a number of things I would've done differently if I'd been the one in charge; but it's a truly solid experience and it's quickly become one of my favorite entries in the series.

"I'm waitiiiing~"

Let's start with the most important thing: the gameplay. At risk of sounding like those journalists who simply must mention that the series has been in a rut since the Dreamcast died, this is where Sonic games have been sorely lacking for quite a while now. Even Unleashed and Colors--which, in my opinion, were excellent--had several design flaws that made them pretty polarizing for some people. However, I think the quality of the games has been on a steady uprise for the last few years, and that definitely shows in Generations. For the most part, the game plays incredibly smoothly, and I quickly forgot about the complaints I'd been hearing once I started playing for myself.

Generations is divided into two gameplay styles: we've got Modern Sonic, whose gameplay is pretty much the same as in Unleashed and Colors; and Classic Sonic, whose play style is modeled after that of the original Genesis games. Since Classic Sonic is my favorite part of the game, I think I'll talk about him first.

Before I played the game, all I ever heard was how fundamentally dissimilar Generations' Classic Sonic was to the Genesis games. Seriously, there was all sorts of talk about how the physics were completely wrong, and I think I even heard a few claims that it missed the mark just as badly as Sonic 4 did. Complete and utter bull. Most of the physics are left intact, with Sonic still picking up speed as he runs down ramps and all that good stuff.

Now, by no means is Classic Sonic exactly like the old games; there are a few differences, but in my opinion, most of them are minor enough that being harsh on them would just be nitpicking. Sonic accelerates a lot faster than he did in the classic games, and the Spin Dash now propels him at much higher speeds than it did before, but personally, I don't consider these to be real flaws; true, in the classics, that kind of speed was a reward for playing well, but that was never the only focus of the gameplay. There was also a big emphasis on platforming, and that holds true here. Sonic's faster, but the level design prevents him from just spamming the Spin Dash all the way to the goal. It's not "hold right to win". You've really got to slow down at various points, or it could cost you tons of lives.

I will say that Generations pretty much nerfs Sonic's normal Spin. In the old games, the physics made it so that you could curl into a ball and build momentum as you rolled downhill. In this game, using the Spin actually slows you down somehow, so you can't really use it so coast through loops or anything like that. The only other purpose it serves is killing enemies and breaking barriers, but the Spin Dash does that just fine; thus, the Spin is rendered functionally useless. I'm not sure why they made it that way, but it's pretty lame and it's my only real issue with Classic Sonic's gameplay.

As for Modern Sonic, I don't really have much to say about him except that his stages are a hell of a lot less frustrating than anything in Unleashed. This can mostly be attributed to Generations' superior level design. Whereas Unleashed had pitfalls and cheap traps strewn all over the place, this game cuts back on all the frustrating trial and error. However, I still think that Colors' gameplay was a bit better, simply because it was more polished. Colors had nary a glitch throughout the entire game, but Generations' Modern Sonic stages have a few niggles in various places. The controls are a tad awkward at certain points; for example, at maximum speed, Sonic has an annoying habit of sticking close to the edge of the track, and his Quick Step is floaty and somewhat unreliable. These issues aren't as bad in practice as they sound on paper, but they're still pretty annoying and I'm wondering why Sonic Team didn't fix them. Overall, though, the positives of Modern Sonic's gameplay far outweigh the negatives, and the addition of Classic Sonic helps to balance out the ways in which it falls short of Colors.

As you play through the game, you earn points that allow you to equip new abilities to each Sonic's moveset. With this, Classic Sonic can learn the Homing Attack, use the elemental shields from the old games and much more. Modern Sonic can learn stuff too, but I haven't really taken the time to see what sorts of powers are available to him. After you get all the Chaos Emeralds and complete the game, though, both Classic and Modern Sonic can transform into Super Sonic in any stage. This was also in Colors, and I think it's awesome that it finally seems to be becoming a standard again.

For both Sonics, each stage features an assortment of secondary missions, and you have to complete three per stage in order to unlock each major boss. Don't worry, though; they aren't bad at all. Unlike in previous games, these missions are simple and straightforward. Most (if not all--there's still a large chunk that I haven't played) of them are timed, and you have to reach the goal before the clock reaches zero. However, the game gives you more than enough time to dawdle around and still win, so there's not really any frustration involved. I still think it would've been better to include different stages rather than adding extra missions to existing ones, but that's just me. The missions work, and the game progresses at a brisk pace in spite of their presence.

My main beef with the game is probably how lame the boss fights are. Bosses don't really get much emphasis in this game, but I still think they hurt the experience of playing. The Death Egg Robot is fine, and Perfect Chaos is awesome (unless that's just the nostalgia goggles talking); but the Egg Dragoon fight is riddled with poor controls, and the final boss is terrible in just about every way--I don't feel like describing it, so just watch a video and you'll see exactly what I mean. There are also minibosses in the form of Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver; the fight with Metal is passable, but I didn't really enjoy battling the other two (the nostalgia of fighting Shadow aboard the ARK notwithstanding). But like I said, the fights are only a small aspect of the game, so they aren't too much of a problem.

All that said, I really want to talk about the presentation. First, the hub. Now, I've always liked hubs. They were awesome in Adventure and even better in Unleashed. However, a lot of fans consider them to be unnecessary padding and prefer to simply move from one level to the next. Generations offers a neat little compromise; the hub is more like a souped-up menu system, with each stage set side-by-side and Sonic navigating them from a sidescrolling perspective. It's kind of similar to how things worked in Sonic Advance 3, now that I think about it, only it's a lot less frustrating because everything's connected and you never have to worry about getting lost. You can also access extras that you've unlocked and chat with other characters. It's a really sleek interface and it's one of my favorite parts of the game.

The visuals are stunning as always. Like Unleashed, it really looks like a Pixar movie.The character animations are great, and everything is so detailed and full of life; Generations is easily one of the most beautiful games of the year. There are some occasional framerate issues when there's a lot happening on the screen, but they're minor and only last for a few seconds. The game also features an awesome soundtrack (a Sonic series standard), consisting largely of terrific remixes of tracks from previous games. I got goosebumps hearing "Open Your Heart" and "Live and Learn" again, I swear. And once you unlock a song, you can set it to play during any stage or boss battle! Seriously, Green Hill + "Sonic Boom" = feels good, man.

Last but not least, I wanna talk about the writing. Like some of the more recent Sonic games, the plot is charmingly simplistic; it's largely a neat little framing device to justify having stages from previous games jumbled together. I was initially worried about the story, since that hasn't really been Sonic Team's strong point lately, but it was actually really enjoyable. Like Colors, it was packed with tongue-in-cheek humor and it never took itself too seriously at any point. Yet, its lightheartedness didn't result in horrendous, cheesy writing--I'm looking at you, Heroes.

The dialogue was priceless, and the game is chock-full of in-jokes that any long-time fan of the series will be able to appreciate. Such gags range from the fairly blunt (retro Eggman scoffing that no one calls him Robotnik anymore) to the beautifully subtle (Shadow being the boss who rewards you with the damn fourth Chaos Emerald). The final boss even hilariously subverts the trend of Eggman being overpowered by the monster of the week. Though I will say that they missed a prime opportunity to have the cast lampshade the presence of Crisis City. I mean, really; with all the jokes about how Green Hill and Chemical Plant look familiar, you'd think they'd point out how that stage doesn't.

On the whole, Sonic Generations is an excellent game that managed to bring back some incredibly fond memories. I got into the series during the Dreamcast era, so I can't really call myself a veteran, but I'm very attached to the franchise; it felt good to see Sonic have a truly awesome anniversary game after the 2006 debacle. A lot of love and care obviously went into the production of Generations, and I'm optimistic about the series' future. I have been ever since I played Unleashed.

So, as cheesy as it is to say... happy birthday, Sonic, and I wish you many more.

8/10