Sonic Generations Review (360)

Sonic takes a hard look on his past…and comes out all the better for it

Everyone has their own theories on how Sega’s most beloved mascot has become something of an ageing pet in the past 20 years. Some would pin it on the horridly clumpy Sonic Adventure 2. Others would lay blame on a certain werehog. I personally shift some of the negativity on the genius arch nemesis changing his name to highlight his likeness to something that comes out of a chickens anus. Sonic Generations takes a cold hard look at the past to learn from mistakes, and blasts to the present day as a shining example of how Sonic games should be. Love or loathe the critter, it’s only fair that the bolt in blue has his own surprise party to revel in the 20th birthday wishes. The bad news about the celebrations? All his friends have shown up for it. The good news? A mysterious entity sucks them into a timeless purgatory. As pals and locales are drained of colour and life, Sonic is even more surprised to come across a very familiar face…himself. Sent back in time to meet his shorter, younger and slightly more obese counterpart, the two blue hedgehogs must zip through bygone days in order to restore the space time continuum. The science behind zipping through the past to sew together the structure of time isn’t fully explained…but it does create an incredibly fun platformer. Travelling through three major eras that have defined the hedgehog we know today, each level focuses on the best (and occasionally worst) games in the blue blurs career, but never falters with the levels it offers. Whether it’s Sonic & Knuckles’ blissfully sublime ‘Sky Sancturary’ to Sonic Colours’ more recent offerings on ‘Planet Wisp’, both Sonic’s have a chance to dip into the 90’s and 2000’s. Act 1 of each level focuses on classic Sonic segments, and they play out exactly how you’d expect them to; fast, fluid and fun. You’ll fasten your eyelids to your skull as you zoom through stages, reflexes will burn as you attempt to jump in time to reach the best routes, and most of all your memories will be aglow with the warm cuddles of nostalgia. There were days where our eyes were in danger of leaping from ears at the pace of the Mega Drive titles, and these acts don’t disappoint, and doesn’t make the Sonic 4 errors of revelling too much in the past or stopping you every five minutes to work out a feeble puzzle. Modern Sonic acts redabble in 2D days gone by whilst constantly taking advantage of the third dimension. Juggling side scrolling action along with fast paced platforming brilliantly well, you can’t help but wonder why recent Sonic titles have had such an issue being enjoyable. The transition of ye olde titles to a conventional 3D platforming world can occasionally bring about goosebumps as you tread familiar ground like the weaving lanes of ‘Chemical Plant Zone’ from almost a first hand view. Even levels based around more recent titles aren’t afraid to shuffle perspective, and they really do benefit from it. No longer will you start blitzing at a half-decent speed before running into acres of dull enemies to noggin bounce. No longer will you encounter acres of annoyingly broken rail-grind segments.

Classic tunes and catchy (non-lyrical) hits lure you into the levels

It’s a shame there are only 9 levels on offer, and that a minority are throwbacks to the early years I’m so smitten with. However, each level comes with a stack of challenges that’ll really push super-fans to the limits. From tentatively speeding from beginning to end with a slim amount of rings being drip fed to you to juggling various shields in a bid to traverse obstacles, each are a challenging and unique array of trials that Sonic addicts won’t help but want to obtain a clean sheet of S Ranks for. If the compulsive need to prove your self worth, however, the sheer amount of unlockable art, soundtracks and abilities will have content hoarders hooked. Although Sonic Generations maintains an ice cool bravado as it juggles the best of both worlds, cracks appear in the polished design in which the flaws that have plagued the series can seep their way in. Occasionally you’ll snag yourself on a seemingly invisible twig during a high speed segment and dwindle around as you try to get back on track. Occasionally your homing attack will launch into the sea. When these all too familiar technical hic-ups occur however, they’re quickly stamped out and rarely seen again. Whereas the levels are a joy to blast through, boss battles and Chaos Emerald stages aren’t quite as consistantly great. There’s no wonderfully hypnotic secret stages to traverse in order to gather the elusive gems, you’re forced to get them to finish the game. Half are acquired through yawn-worthy cameos that are so petty they practically act as sub-encounters, the remaining are gained by defeating recycled bosses, and I don’t remember such conflicts being so dull. Analysing attack patterns grows old incredibly fast, and details on the final ‘climactic’ boss battle were exceptionally scarce that, in the end, the overall tactic was to just keep on moving forwards. Yes, I was two Super Sonic’s and we were surrounded by multi-coloured portals and explosions, but the whole thing was so painfully boring that in might as well have been set on the M25. As you stand in the desolate wastelands of limbo, the stages you’ll traverse stand colourless and shrouded in mystery, until a very important element of the Sonic saga pulsates through your ears. Classic tunes and catchy (non-lyrical) hits lure you into the levels, and although the more recent offerings aren’t quite as masterful as the retro tracks, they still hold up well without the aid of fond memories. Should an alien Sonic be racing through the wrong era, the traditional tracks are given a masterful remix to rush to. If you really can’t stand any of the more recent tunes where a cringeworthy High School Musical hopeful chants about love where you really should be socking it to some robots, you can change the stage music to some more familiar melodies etched into your brain. You’d be surprised how much better everything sounds with the original ‘Green Hill Zone’ music. It may not be the Sonic game everyone’s been waiting for, but Sonic Generations is the perfect accolade to 20 years of rapid gameplay. I speak of the Mega Drive all starry eyed, but Generations has managed to marry the Sonic we knew and the Sonic we know together so well that it almost makes up for the years of namesake sullying gameplay we’ve encountered for the past few years. It may just be a sublime blast from the past, but hopefully will be a starting block to a fantastic future…hopefully.