Sonic Generations

It amazes me how attached I am to the Sonic series, considering there hasn't been a game I've absolutely loved since Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the Gamecube back in 2002 (and that game only partially holds up as great now, mind). But playing through Sonic Generations was, for the most part, a blast.

The premise of the game is that some time monster is erasing time and now classic Sonic and new Sonic have to team up to stop it. That's all you need to know; like any Sonic game, the story is dumb and irrelevant. What it does is set up a reason for two different types of Sonics, alongside their own type of gameplay, to run through heavily remixed levels from the whole series.

Sega did a fantastic job on many aspects of this game. First of all, the music is 100% great from start to finish - not one complaint on any of the remixes. Hell, my least favorite level of the game (the only level I would argue is actually really BAD, but I'll get to that later) has awesome music. If I could, I would buy the soundtrack to this game, and that's only partially because of the remixes present - the stuff I hadn't heard before is great, too.

The level designs themselves are very well done, for the most part, as well. Anyone who has played the games the levels are from will appreciate the lengths Sega went to to both reference the original levels and put a twist on them. I won't spoil it, but 3D Sonic's Chemical Plant Zone level is worth the price I paid for the game alone ($10, admittedly, but I would recommend the game even at $20). It goes both ways, too - Classic Sonic's City Escape is probably my favorite level for him, mostly because of what they do with the truck from Sonic Adventure 2 throughout the whole level. Absolutely brilliant.

But, this IS a Sonic game, meaning it has faults. The bosses are pretty terrible, save the Silver the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic fights. As much as I like the game he's from, the Shadow fight is boring, lengthy, and stupid. And every one of the Robotnik/Eggman fights are slogs, too. The final boss is easy and boring. Now that I've beaten the game, I never have to play those fights again (at least, I don't think I will - if I go for 100%, I'll probably have to get S ranks on those stupid things too).

But, the most egregious level in the game comes from Sonic Colors (not even the Sonic Heroes level was the worst - who'd have thought?!). Planet Wisp has turned me off from playing either version of Sonic Colors because that level is so godawful it makes me cringe. I've never played Sonic Colors, but it seems to me from the level that Sonic collects little things called Wisps that grant him temporary powers he can use to traverse the level, such as a rocket which launches him very high vertically, or a spike ball thing that allows him to attach himself to walls and ceilings. These are the two wisps in the game, and Sega uses them to create puzzles the player must solve to advance in the level. I'm going to break it down by Sonic, here:

Classic Sonic:

The Wisp classic Sonic gets is the spiky ball one, which allows him to attach to certain surfaces and move gears and such. When you press Y, it uses the Wisp, and then Sonic has a limited time to solve whatever puzzle he's doing. First problem - there is no indication how much time Sonic has while using the Wisp. Hope you solve the puzzle before time runs out! Also, the controls in spike mode are very laggy (I'm not sure if that's by design or from poor programming, or both), and considering all the missiles and stupid crap the game throws at you, missing a jump will cost you. This is the only level in the game where Sonic has to solve puzzles like this, and unlike a Mario or Yoshi's Island or something it is not fun. It slows the pace down to slower than even a water level. Yes, I would rather play through Labyrinth Zone any day than play this monstrosity of a level again.

3D Sonic:

The level starts out good, then the back half of it is this awful slog running around using the rocket Wisp. It's not AS slow as Classic Sonic's version, but if you screw up on the last rocket puzzle and take too long, as near as I can tell, it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to beat. You have to die and try again. Long story short, Sonic has to grab the final rocket Wisp, get to the center of the area, and rocket up. My first time playing this section, I wasn't sure where to go, so I wandered around trying to figure that out. There is a ceiling coming down that destroys platforms if it gets to low, but it can be pushed back up using the rocket Wisp. Problem is, the platforms don't come back, making the center of the stage impossible to reach! If there was a way to do it, I couldn't find it, so I let the ceiling crush me and tried again. The game gave me no indication save me running around for boring minutes on end trying to figure out if I could proceed. Awful, just awful.

That aside, I enjoyed most of the game quite a bit. I would say it's definitely the first good Sonic since SA2:B, but I think I want to go back and grab Sonic Unleashed - I've heard mixed things (I don't want to be a stretchy Sonic werewolf, for example), but the level in Sonic Generations from that game is fantastic and the little clip they showed of it in the credits looked pretty good, too. Sonic Colors and Sonic 06 are not games I'll be looking into, though. And maybe I should try to beat Sonic Adventure 1 one of these days... Nah, I don't want to play crappy Dreamcast-era fishing minigames.

Anyway, I think I'm going to poke around doing some of the challenges in Sonic Generations before I shelve it. If I ever get a Wii U, I might look into Sonic Lost World, too - it looked like it would be pretty fun, though I don't know much about it.

Lord help me, I'm a Sonic fan.