What you need to know:
Released last year to celebrate Sonic’s 20th anniversary, Sonic Generations is, quite literally, a trip down memory lane of Sonic’s past 20 years. From the very first game, all the way to Sonic Colors.
Sonic and co. have been zapped back in time by a giant thing that wanders around “eating time” and sucking the life out of anything that comes it’s way. Today’s Sonic and Tails meet their past selves and team-up with them, and for some reason, when the Sonics run , they restore color and life to the area. I know, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either.
ESRB Rating: E
Review:
Graphics are pretty good. Same with the 3D effects.
Although the graphics do look kinda edgy, they’re still decent. Turn the 3D on, and the 3D will give a real good sense of depth, especially in the bonus stages where you run down a tunnel and have to collect the Chaos Emeralds. Nice, SEGA! Great into-the-screen 3D!
Lack of control
But here’s something bad I noticed right when I started the game. You don’t have a whole lot of control over the Sonics (see what I did there?). Just hold the D-Pad for less than 1 second, and they’ll immediately go into a full sprint that can send you off a platform and into a bottomless pit. True, you can use the Circle Pad for better control, but whenever I play a 2D side-scrolling game I just prefer to use the D-Pad.
Controlling classic Sonic is the worst, however. Moving him around feels like you’re trying to walk on ice, which makes the (notably slow) platforming difficult. It’s not to much of a problem in the early stages where the platforms you have to jump on give you enough space to walk around some, but in later stages like Radical Highway, you’ll end up sliding off a tiny platform and into your doom
Ridiculously fast!
Sonic is mostly known for his speed, and Modern Sonic is definitely speedy. His stages are basically roller-coaster rides with some platforming mixed in now and then. They are the perfect mix of speed and platforming, and it’s never just a “hold right to win”, you still need some skill to beat them.
Several games missing references
What that means is that there are many games that didn’t get a stage made after them. There is no Sonic Heroes stage, no Shadow the Hedgehog stage, no Sonic 06 stage, no Sonic Unleashed stage, and more. And all of these games (with the bizarre exception of Shadow the Hedgehog) got a stage modeled after them in the other versions of this game. I found it very odd to jump from the Sonic Adventure 2 stage to a Sonic Rush stage and then to a Sonic Colors stage.
Judgement
Overall this is a good game, but with slippery control using the D-Pad, and several games not getting references, it feels somewhat unfinished. Add mixed music (classic remix of Radical Highway is super-awesome, but modern remix is lackluster), and this game falls into the category of “good but not great”.
Final rating: 3.5/5
