Sonic Generations Review

So, it seems we here at TheO&E are following a biased review pattern. To be fair, I was absolutely ready for this game to suck. After all, I have had so many good Sonic games in the last couple years. (durrrrr)

So gorgeous.

So with that being said, it in fact did not suck. I first played the game at Chris' deciding on whether or not I wanted to shell out the $50 for it. As soon as I fired up the first Act I was blown away. The environments look beautiful, and the game, in fundamentals, plays flawlessly. I immediately bought it.

The game follows two main styles of play. Each Stage (and each Challenge Stage) has two acts (duh). Act 1 follows Classic Sonic, the short pot-belly Sonic we love from the Genesis Era. He very much follows the style of the games from which he hails. Side scrolling, ring collecting, baddie smashing, old school beauty. Old Sonic can only charge up speed (spin dash), and of course jump. He finds his charm and uniqueness in the form of Power Ups. Like These.

Decisions, Decisions....

All the old favorites are reused (Speed, Invincibility, even the Bubble and Lightning Shield) of course, and a few new power ups are introduced (the Skateboard, primarily. Pretty fun).

Act 2 plays like the newer games, and follows new lanky Sonic. Sonic, in Act 2, has a running speed boost, and homing attack. The world is much more 3D and only switches to a 2D mode for brief moments during the stage. Much like Adventure and Adventure 2, but... you know... better. Act 2 Sonic doesn't collect power ups like Classic does, primarily because boost and the homing attack are a huge advantage.

Probable Quote: "WHOA! There goes the Neighborhood!"

The one primary change in gameplay is the ability to buy skills. You can go talk to the way annoying Omochao, and purchase skills for both New and Classic Sonic. There are general skills, that apply to both Sonics like stopping faster, or recovering from being hit faster, etc. and there are Sonic specific skills. For example, Classic Sonic can purchase and equip the Lightning Shield (which I chose to do, exclusively for the double jump) which can be activated during a stage until you lose it by getting hit.
New Sonic can equip skills like running faster, or a longer boost meter.

I mentioned earlier Challenge Stages. After you beat 3 Stages, you encounter a boss Stage. Right. Well, the boss stage is locked, and you need three keys to unlock it. The three keys are found in the area surrounding each stage, which is also where the Challenge Gates (entrance to challenge stages) are located. A kind of Banjo Kazooie style of free roaming that really only succeeding in annoying me. The "world" isn't big enough to require any kind of searching, but intricate enough that you can take wrong paths to get someplace, which only proves to be inconvenient. Anyway, you have to beat Challenge Stages to unlock the keys (o.O) and then you can go fight the bosses. I like the Challenge Stages for the most part, but some of the later ones made me really angry.

I will warn you. The phrase "Free Bee" will make you vomit at some point during this game...

It's not really a secret that we hate the new characters. So initially I was afraid I might have to play as them. Well no, you don't have to play as them but you do have to use them. Each new character is freed when a main stage is completed, and in one of the challenge stages for that level, you have to utilize that character. Pretty much all of them were stupid. (Tails' and Knuckles' were not too bad). The stages get progressively harder as the game goes on, and so do the Challenge Stages. I managed to get rank A on each stage, but some of them are really unfair. It's one thing to have difficult stages, but if I had a dollar for every time I thought "It's a trap!" because I unwittingly ran into instant death...  I'd probably have about 3 dollars. The joke got old pretty quick, eventually I just started yelling because I missed rank A by .5 seconds (true story).

Overall it's a good game with an "eh" storyline and shitty dialogue. Thankfully, god oh god thankfully, Classic Sonic never speaks, so he can never be ruined by anus style writing but new Sonic was not spared such an overt display of ignorance to humor, he still says stupid things when speaking to Eggman, like "You and what mustache?!" uuggghhhh......
It's fun. It truly is the culmination of the last 20 years of Sonic The Hedgehog, utilizing old Power Ups, to Color Powers (At least.. I think those were color powers.). The old and new style side by side creates a really fun juxtaposition, and I had a whole lot fun feeling like a child again.

8/10 Golden Rings!