A more creative way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of everyone's favourite blue hedgehog
The story goes that Sonic and his friends are sent back into a weird White Space by the Time Eater. This White Space contains places from the more iconic past games. Whilst there, Sonic meets his former self from the Mega Drive / Genesis era of games and the two team up to stop the Time Eater once and for all.
During game play you get to play as CLassic Sonic and Modern Sonic over (sadly only) 9 levels which are re-imagined versions of levels from the more iconic games such as City Escape, Planet Wisp and of course Green Hill Zone! One good thing they did actually was put little bits of rejected levels into other levels. So you will get a little nod to the rejected Hydrocity in one of the Classic levels. There are little nods to help make each level feel different such as skateboarding, wips powers, some levels have a greater emphasis on speed whereas others have more of a focus on platforming.
Classic Sonic tired to emulate the old games. He has his jump and spindash! The classic levels are better in my opinion (which is odd because I initially perferred the Modern levels) There is a strong emphasis on platforming as well as speed, so Classic definitely has a strong balance. One thing that really makes the classic levels shine is that there is more that separates the levels, they feel more differentiated than the Modern ones for various reasons which I can't actually put my finger on.
Modern is like Unleashed and Colours. BOOST AWAY! With platforming sections too! Modern Sonic retains his abilities and can slide, quickstep, homing attack - all the awesome stuff. The modern levels offer fast pace action and really are fun to speed through, but as mentioned before don't appear to be as differentiated as the classic levels. But still the modern levels are awesome too!
In addition to levels, there are also missions. You need to complete at least one mission from each level to get boss keys to unlock the bosses. There are a variety of missions for both classic and modern and a variety to choose from. Some missions are races where you have to beat a ghost to the goal, others have an emphsis on item usegae such as the elemental shields which can then be bought from Omochoa's Skill Shop after doing the mission. Others are speed based, some are more platform based. More interesting missions focus on Sonic's freinds - in one mission Tails has to grab you by the hands as you fly through the air, another has you trying to collect chao before Cheese can. These missions show off more rejected levels, for example one of Modern Sonic's missions features the hovering spring things from SA2's Sky Rails. The missions are actually mostly really fun so are a great distraction!
So the gameplay is great, both the Classic and Modern levels are great to play through. The missions are a fun distraction too.
The graphics are beautiful, and the music... EEEP I LOVE THE MUSIC! The soundtrack consits of remixes which are great. Another great feature with the soundtrack is that you can unlock older songs from past games and play them in levels. You may be surprised to see how well certain levels and songs go well together. So if you want to pretend Seaside Hill is Emerald Coast, just go switch the music! If the Final Boss music is just too boring for you - stick Live n Learn on.
Sonic Generations isn't a perfect game and as an anniversary title, there are many things that appear to have been overlooked. Allthough despite this, Generations is a great way to look back at the older titles, much more creative than your average anniversary game and above all - a fun game to play. It is prehaps, a little overrated, but if you're a Sonic fan or just someone looking for a short nice n' easy game to play - then check it out.
milesprower2K9 original reviews