Sonic and I have had a rocky past. Sure we had our fun in the 16-bit era when I first got my hands on a Sega Genesis and the original Sonic the Hedgehog. As the series progressed to include Knuckles and its crazy snap-on cartridge, I was rapidly losing interest in the little blue guy. Then along came the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure which hooked me once again. That is until I came across the levels starring anyone but Sonic. When I hit the first Big the Cat section, I left the game for good. I’ve played a few levels from random other entries in the series, but Sonic Generations is the first time since the classic games that I’ve completed a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

I bring this anecdotal history of my time with the franchise up, not to disparage the fans of the game or the franchise itself. I bring it up only because SEGA has made it very apparent that Sonic Generations is for the long time fans of the franchise, and after playing most of the console version, I wanted to see how the 3DS entry stacked up as a modern platformer.

When I first started the game, I was overjoyed to find that it started with a level. I don’t mean there was a big intro followed by a level. I mean, just as if you were putting in its 16-bit predecessor, you hit start and start running. I could not appreciate this more. The classic Sonic felt exactly how I remembered the old games, and that sense of nostalgia they were going for immediately hit me. SEGA won that round.

After the initial stage, it slowed things down with the story. Just like its console counterpart, it revolves around a creature that has broken the timeline, forcing Sonics both old and new to team up and defeat Dr. Robotnik (he will never be called by any other name to me, no matter what you say) to bring the world out of its strange limbo state. Each world is pulled from a different Sonic title and is played first as classic Sonic, then as the hip, new, skinny Sonic. In the 3DS version, a third stage is then played where you recover one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. These take place in a pipe very similar to those in the bonus stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, only they are much, much easier.

While playing as modern Sonic on the PS3 or Xbox 360 versions has you running around in full 3D, the levels in the 3DS version are ironically in 2D. I guess it would be more accurate to say they are in 2.5D, since they do often move around corners to give a sense of being less flat. Modern Sonic also has his new moves like the boost, homing attack and eventually the ground pound. These extra abilities are fun to play around with and definitely make his levels feel more speedy than his classic counterpart. Eventually, you will unlock the homing move for classic Sonic as well (modern Sonic creates a paradox by teaching it to himself), which make the Sonics feel a little less distinct, but does allow you more options for exploring.

I was happy to see that, other than Green Hill Zone which must ne included by law, the stages are pulled from different zones and sometimes even different games than the console version of Sonic Generations. Sadly, there are fewer of them (seven to be exact). I had fun running around in and exploring the ones that were there, but that is another glaring difference between the two Sonics. While classic Sonic’s slower pace made it feel like I could actually look around for a second and explore my surroundings, finding alternate paths as modern Sonic felt more about memorizing a specific spot to do a twitch reflex jump to get to a new area. Unlike the console version, the levels didn’t have collectibles within them to motivate your exploration.

One of my biggest gripes about all Sonic games are the bosses. With very few exceptions, I don’t generally find them memorable and always find them tedious. Sadly, this has not changed here. The good news is the final boss. While it is the same character as the console versions, it is a much better designed fight. You can actually tell what is going on and what you are supposed to be doing. There are also races against Metal Sonic, Shadow, and Silver, which were also more enjoyable than their fights on the console.

"Good, you hit him. Now hit him seven more times."

Sonic Generations includes a hundred challenge missions that you can play to extend the longevity of your purchase, but I honestly wasn’t sure when or how I was unlocking them. They use recycled assets from the game’s levels and give you specific goals to accomplish. I played a few of them, but there just wasn’t enough there to grip me when I’d rather just replay the normal versions of the levels.

How does it stack up as a modern platformer? It is little shallow and content light compared to its contemporaries. If you were ever a fan of the Sonic franchise and want a nostalgia trip, Sonic Generations might be right up your alley. It plays well and you’ll have some fun with it, but as I mentioned before, it is pretty short. If you’ve never played a Sonic game, I would recommend grabbing the first two games from one of the myriads of ways you can purchase them these days.

This review is based on the 3DS version of Sonic Generations provided to the reviewer by SEGA.

Tags: 2d, 3DS, Dimps, platformer, Sega, Sonic Generations, Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.