This is the best Sonic game since Sonic Adventure 2.

User Rating: 9.5 | Sonic Generations X360
You might be aware of this already, but Sonic has not been doing well recently. After the Adventure titles, most 3D Sonic games have been terrible, or less terrible. In 2010, he started to regain his reputation, however, thanks to titles like Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, Sonic 4 Episode 1, and Sonic Colors. Now it is 2011, and Sonic is officially back at the top again. Sonic Generations is the best Sonic game in a decade.

Generations opens with Sonic's friends Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Charmy, Vector, and Blaze throwing Sonic a surprise birthday party. He is greeted with cheers, cake, and chili dogs by all of his friends. But a big purple monster called the Time Eater comes to the scene and captures Sonic's friends and traps them in past events Sonic has experienced. Sonic is thrown into limbo where he meets his younger self who was also captured by the time eater. The 2 Sonics have to relive those moments of their past in order to restore time and space, and save their friends. People should take note that throughout the game, the characters are aware of their past adventures. For example, after completing Modern Green Hill and Chemical Plant, Sonic and Tails reflect on the levels. Tails comments on the pink water in the latter as making him nervous and long-time fans should know why. However, these are rare and compared to Sonic Colors which had fantastic writing and the fact that Generations is an anniversary title makes it feel like a missed opportunity. As a result, the story itself is underwhelming. This would've been especially cool if Crisis City was reflected on.

Sonic Generations is the culmination of 2 decades of Sonic in one game - minus the parts that sucked. There are two parts to every stage. Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic. Classic Sonic gameplay is reminiscent to the Genesis titles with a heavier emphasis on platforming than speed. They evoke a feeling of nostalgia into one who grew up with the classic titles. Modern Sonic gameplay is reminiscent to newer titles like the HD Sonic Unleashed daytime levels and Sonic Colors. And like Unleashed and Colors, these stages feel like how current gen Sonic games should be. They control a bit awkward at times, though.

The real treat of this game are the levels themselves. Every level is a reimagining of a level from a past Sonic game. There's Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, Speed Highway, City Escape, Seaside Hill, Crisis City, Rooftop Run, and even Planet Wisp. What sucks is that there are only these levels. It would've been nice to add more levels. This results in a short period of 5-6 hours of gameplay. I hope that we can get some DLC for other levels of Sonic's past.

There are also boss battles. In this game, you'll fight the Death Egg, Perfect Chaos, the Egg Dragoon, and the Time Eater. Though they are on the short side and are a bit of a disappointment compared to the overall epicness of the game. The Time Eater has to be the worst final boss in Sonic history. Your friends won't shut up about warning you,(take a shot every time they say homing shot or be careful), and it's hard to hit it because it jumps back almost every time you're near its core. And if you're going for the can't touch this achievement, then be prepared to rage.

After a stage has been completed, there are challenges for each Sonic in each stage for you to complete. Some are fun, but some including the ones with Sonic's friends are annoying. And while the completion of at least a few challenges are mandatory, there is a wide variety of choices to select from so you can just do the good ones.

Just like HD Unleashed, the game runs on the Hedgehog Engine, and let me just say that Generations is a visually striking game. It is truly a marvel to look at and it looks even better while you are in motion.

Another cool aspect of Generations is the music. All of the music are remixes of music of past games' levels. The remixes are awesome and also give one a feeling of nostalgia as they look back on the first time they ran Sonic through Green Hill. There are some weak tracks like Modern Chemical Plant, Classic City Escape, and Classic Planet Wisp, but everything else is really good. The voice acting, like Colors, is 70% less annoying.

The controls are decent but not perfect. It's not that the buttons are unresponsive, but movement can feel slippery with Classic Sonic, and stiff while boosting with Modern Sonic. For Classic Sonic, you move with the left analog stick, jump with A, duck with B, and X to spin dash. As it reflects gameplay of the classic titles, control is simple. For Modern Sonic, you move with the left analog stick, jump and homing attack with A, duck or slide with B, boost with X, quick step with the bumpers, and drift with the triggers. As mentioned earlier, the movement while boosting feels stiff when turning and bumping into a wall or such can stop the action dead in its tracks.

Even with all that said, Sonic Generations is an excellent game and is one of the best Sonic games ever made. I think the main problem of the game is the issue with control in some cases, but everything else is just a nitpick, really. It feels refreshing to say that Sonic is good again, and we can only hope he can maybe get better as he revives. To put it simply, Sonic Generations is the pinnacle of all modern Sonic games. This game is, without a doubt, one of the best things you can spend your money on this year.