Sonic Generations

It's 20 years since Sega's most enduring mascot first sped onto the MegaDrive, bringing with him a completely different approach to the platform game: one built upon speed and style, not calculated, paced precision. Generations forms something of a love letter to those first baby steps, and whisks players off on a journey through the history of Sonic the Hedgehog, plucking single stages from each of the main titles in the series and reimagining them in two ways: a classic, side-scrolling platformer in the Classic Sonic style, and an into-the-screen rollercoaster hybrid platformer in the vein of Modern Sonic.

 

The plot involves something about a strange monster muddling up time and space, resulting in the Sonics' of both classic and modern timelines crossing paths and having to work together to restore everything to its natural order- and rescue their friends. In reality, it's basically an excuse to celebrate all things Sonic, but Generations is a lot more than mere fan service. Well, okay, most of it is fan service, but it also just happens to be about the best platformer out at the moment to boot.

 

Partly that's down to the feel. Now admittedly the jump timings are a little different to the MegaDrive games, and Sonic carries a bit more inertia as he runs and jumps about, but within the space of a couple of levels the Classic Sonic sections feel as natural as ever. The emphasis in these first acts, as it was 20 years ago, is on a slick combination of speed and precision, of multiple divergent criss-crossing paths where high-speed sprints blend into exacting platform-hopping. As is traditional, the highest paths through the levels tend to be the safest and fastest, but the most difficult to stick to, whilst the lower routes through each zone tend to be slower and packed with hazards including that implacable foe, the bottomless pit. The stage designs prove that Sega hasn't lost its touch, and that it can still do a better job than other developers when it comes to classic 2D Sonic levels - the stage designs of Sonic Advance and Sonic 4 are not a patch on the expertly woven levels of Generations which balance challenging sections with visual spectacle. They also prove brilliantly entertaining.

 

The Act 2's of each Zone are done in hybrid 'modern Sonic' style, and follow a similar template, though here the paths diverge across horizontal rather than vertical planes and the precision platforming is wisely dialled back, though the zones do occasionally flick back to a 2D perspective for some more traditional platforming moments. As the game proceeds the stages become more demanding, but you're given five lives to plug away at each with mostly generous checkpointing, and even if you lose all of them you can still start at the beginning of the level with five more lives. Given that most stages can be completed in 3-5 minutes, its not like restarting is going to loose you hours of progress. 

 

These Modern Sonic stages are perhaps where Generations seemed doomed to fail, but its obvious from the start that Sega has paid attention this time around, and has gone out of its way to balance out the frustrations of earlier 3D Sonic games: the camera is no longer your enemy, paths are clearer to see, Sonic's controls are sharper and more responsive than ever. Even the rollercoaster nearly-on-rails-but-not-quite sections are beefed up thanks to new control tweaks, ones which let you hop between 'lanes' by tapping the bumper buttons and make tighter corners by suqeezing the triggers. It all adds up to make stages that are a genuine joy to play, with their own distinctive flows, and it's especially great to see classics like Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zones re-imagined so completely. Particularly when they're such fun to play. I half expected to find myself dreading the second Acts of each Zone, but in contrast I found myself looking forward to them.

 

All of the Zones are accessed through a stark white hub world, which you can also explore to discover additional challenges and secrets. Each Act has 5 related challenges, many of which completely change the feel of the game - some of the Classic Sonic challenges include races with other characters, Sonic Rivals style, or task you with navigating a maze of swinging bridges to reach the top of a level in time, whilst Modern Sonic challenges see you taking Knuckles on a treasure hunt in a game mode lifted from Sonic Adventure 2. Each of these unlocks bonuses, often in the form of artworks, movies, or music tracks which you can choose to use for each level. There are also battles against bosses which need to be vanquished in order to proceed to the next group of Zones, and hidden bosses to defeat in order to get Chaos Emeralds. In short, there's actually a surprising amount of content on offer, and with hidden stars to collect within each stage - which often require specific skills (unlockable through challenges and equippable from the hub world) to reach - there's a lot of replay value to the levels too. 

 

Generations isn't completely without flaws, but they mostly feel nit-picky. Some of the stages can be a little harsh with the sudden drops, and some hazards will require some trial-and-error practise to overcome - but then, Generations is modelled on a classic platform game, and that these elements - which were one basic tropes of game design - should today be considered 'flaws' by some is pretty ridiculous. The only actual criticism I can level at the game is that Sonic can still feel a little loose to control in some of the Modern Sonic sections, and that there are rare, but noticeable, frame-rate dips every now and again, which can cause you to mistime jumps and die a frustrating death. But given the frequent checkpointing, this rarely becomes an issue, and its one that seems unique to the PS3 build of the game reviewed here - its not something I've noticed on other platforms. Speaking of the PS3, Sony gamers will have to put up with some fairly chunky loading times for each Zone, but there's no install to worry about.

 

Sonic Generations is also hands-down the best looking Sonic game ever, and then some. The stages are vibrant and beautiful, full of incidental details and stunning vistas. I was honestly awed at some of the visuals - the launch of Robotnik's Death Egg space station taking place in the background of the Sky Sanctuary Zone proving a particular highlight. Occasionally the backgrounds can be a bit too loud and distract from the foreground on the 2D stages, but when they look this good it's hard to care. And, apart from the occasional hiccup mentioned above, the frame rates are mostly silky smooth. Then there's the music; remixed versions of classic tracks taken from across the Sonic franchise turn up in various forms, and its great to hear even some of the more obscure (but brilliant) musical accompaniments turning up in unexpected places - one challenge race is conducted to the grimy electro beats of Sonic Spinballs' Toxic Caves music, another set to the Supersonic Racing title song from Saturn racer Sonic R. The highlight, though, is the dynamically changing hub music, an ambient piece injected with string interpretations of zone music as you explore. The violin version of the Green Hill Zone theme has to be heard to be believed.