Sonic Generations (PC)

Developer:

Sonic Team

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Release Date:

2011

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Systems:

Xbox 360, PS3, Windows

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Sonic Generations, which is something like the 73rd or 74th Sonic game I think. Somewhere around there.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because this year I'm (mostly) writing about games that have made it onto someone's top 10 list. So when I say this reached #9 on Polygon's The Best 12 Sonic Games Ranked list, you can picture how many games it had to defeat. Sonic's Schoolhouse, Tails' Skypatrol, Sonic Kart 3D X... none of these games could stand against Sonic Generations' might.

Here's some more trivia about the game: it was the first mainline Sonic game to make it to Windows PCs since Sonic Heroes 7 years earlier, it has nothing to do with the movie Star Trek: Generations, and it was made to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary.

Oh, plus it's 10 years old, as it's Sonic's 30th anniversary today... which means it came out the same year that Super Adventures started now that I think about it.

I've never been the biggest Sonic fan to be honest, I usually get bored of the games after a level or two, but I've actually finished Sonic Generations before. You'll have to keep reading if you want to know what I think about it though. Or you could just scroll down to the end I suppose, but then you'd be missing out on all the screenshots, many of them with whole paragraphs of text underneath!

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Damn, the game doesn't waste any time. I selected 'New Game' and it sent me straight to the first zone without any kind of intro. It's like I'm playing one of the Mega Drive/Genesis games, except with more tutorial messages from this Omochao thing.

But is this Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone or Sonic 2's Emerald Hill Zone? How do you even tell them apart? I'm going to have to do some research and work this out.

Okay, Green Hill Zone (on the left) has polygonal palm trees, chequerboard ground and jagged rocky mountains in the distance. Emerald Hill Zone (on the right) has slightly different robot fish, ground that looks a bit like Tetris blocks, corkscrew paths, and a golf course in the background. So Sonic Generations' first zone is definitely the Green Hill Zone then.

Both zones also have a lot of rings floating around and Sonic Generations isn't messing with that tradition. I probably don't have to point out that when you're carrying any amount of rings they count as a hit point, and getting hit knocks your whole stash flying, but I'll mention it anyway just to be safe.

Plus the TVs are back, and the classic enemies!

The game was made back when they were trying to make 3D televisions a thing and it has 3D support, but it looks plenty 3D even without them, thanks to that depth of field effect. It's like a diorama. It's also extremely side-view at the moment, just like the classic games.

There's one big difference I've noticed though: smashing robot enemies doesn't release cute animals anymore. So now I don't have to feel guilty for not wrecking them all along the way! Well, unless one of the survivors goes and shoots a rabbit after I'm gone, or something.

Thankfully this also has the gameplay and physics of the classic games... mostly. The similarly side-view Sonic the Hedgehog 4 came out the year earlier and messed up the physics so you can just walk up hills and come to a stop almost immediately. This is nothing like that.

Though I am struggling a bit to keep him rolling. In the classic games I could duck while running to tuck Sonic into a semi-invulnerable ball; very handy when you're hurtling blinding down the level. It works here as well but he keeps losing speed, unless I stop first and then fire him forwards with a Spin Dash.

Incidentally the Spin Dash move was introduced in Sonic 2, not Sonic 1, so I technically shouldn't really be using it in the Green Hill Zone, but I really don't care. It's going to take me a while to remember to hold the button down instead of tapping it though.

The game does have some actual platforming in it, it's not just about moving very quickly to the right, only now it's really hard to see them sometimes because of the complicated backgrounds. They've done very little to separate foreground and background visually and the enemies are hard to see as well. It looks very pretty in motion though.

Hey, you can't make me run across a corkscrew! That's an Emerald Hill Zone thing! You're just mixing the two zones up now!

I ran past the classic goal signpost and that was it, level complete in under 3 minutes. I did try to get a screenshot of it but he's a really fast hedgehog and I didn't hit the button in time.

The fuck? I did not S rank that level! I waited around for like 11 seconds at the start to write a note down about the Omochao giving me a tutorial message and I'm sure I didn't find the optimal route.

It seems like the rank bar is filled up by your time at first (marked in green), then you get a bit of a bonus for the rings you're carrying (marked in orange) and if make it to the end without losing a single life your grade gets upgraded to the next letter. So I got an A and it upgraded me to S... then gave me lots of pt(s) as a reward.

I played some of the earlier Sonics for research and I can assure you I was not getting S ranks in them. More like D and E ranks, when I was lucky.
 

The level didn't start with a cutscene but it does end with one, featuring this guy being creepy up in the sky.

Meanwhile, in the future, a bunch of animals are throwing a party in the Picnic Zone.

It looks like a Knuckles' Chaotix reunion, celebrating 10 years since my terrible Super Adventures article about the game, but they're actually celebrating Sonic's birthday! There's no candles though, so we just have to guess how old he is.

Everyone has chili dogs and they're all very happy about it. In fact Sonic's best friend Tails has even gift-wrapped a chili dog to give as a present.

Here's some fun Sonic Trivia for you: Sonic has had four fingers and a thumb on each hand from the very start, which is more than Homer Simpson, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Bubsy the Bobcat, Mr Nutz, Zool, Awesome Possum, Aero the Acrobat and Jazz Jackrabbit... but not Mario. Nope, Mario has a full set of fingers, Luigi too!

Anyway that time monster from before shows up in the modern era as well and knocks all the food flying, with Sonic's favourite chili dog getting flung up into the air with a dramatic camera angle. He's so distressed and baffled by its disappearance that it takes him a while to notice the threat, but when he does he leaps into action! He flies at it head first and knocks himself out.
 

Meanwhile all his friends get dragged into time portals.

Wait, did I just enjoy a cutscene in a Sonic game? Maybe it's because it wasn't about Sonic facing off against Eggman for the 15,000th time, or Chaos Emeralds, or whatever.
 

Okay, now I'm playing as Modern Sonic in a white void. It's still a side-view platformer, it's just that there's no platforms, or anything in fact. I'm trapped on this one screen pretty much, and my only option is to stand in front of this grey model of the Green Hill Zone and start stage 2.

I don't have any other levels to select yet, but it's already a way better level select than in the earlier 3D games which have you walking around a town. There's no messing around.

Alright, now I'm playing a Sonic Adventure-style Sonic level, where I'm basically racing down a track. Or maybe I should say Sonic Unleashed-style, as it's a lot slicker than their first attempts at 3D gameplay. The camera is very well behaved and I'm not getting stuck on the sides of the level at all.

This is an entirely different level to the Classic Sonic stage, it's not just a Sonic CD-style time jump into another era of the same stage. The gameplay's not just a straightforward perspective shift either, as Modern Sonic has different moves to Classic Sonic. He has a Homing Attack that zeroes in on enemies (when I'm close a crosshair appears and I tap A to dash into them), and the Spin Dash has been replaced by a boost that runs off a boost gauge. They're both smart ways to keep the pace up, though it means I have to mentally switch gears when I switch Sonics and keep track of what abilities I have.

There's Sonic Adventure-style grinding as well, even though Sonic left his Soap shoes behind a long time ago. Hang on, the level's gone side-view all of a sudden.

The Sonic games started playing with the camera like this back in Sonic Unleashed, I think, seamlessly switching perspective to incorporate sections of 2D gameplay into 3D levels. It's a great idea I reckon, and really well implemented. Sure it keeps asking me to reassess which direction to hold to make Sonic go forward, but I usually seem to pick the right one.

I remember Sonic Adventure used to confuse me as well. Suddenly the camera would switch around and I'd be chased by a fish that's smashing through the pier I was racing down.

Sonic Adventure DX (PC)

Do I keep pressing 'up', or do I press 'down' now? What happens if I let go of 'up' for a moment, do the controls reverse to match the new angle? I don't know!!!

That's a point, where's the giant fish in Sonic Generations? I know Green Hill Zone didn't have one back in the day, but Sonic Adventure and Sonic 06 both have one on the first stage and it seems weird for an anniversary game to not call back to that.

There you go!

Wait, that's the robot fish from Emerald Hill Zone, not Green Hill Zone! You can tell by the yellow fins and chin. I guess Classic Sonic broke all the old Green Hill fish and Eggman had to replace them with the newer model.

I finished the level without much trouble and got another inexplicable S rank! The game's just messing with me at this point I reckon.

Hey I've restored Tails! And it turns out he hasn't been having a fun time. The game didn't have to tell me about the hell that all Sonic's friends are suffering right now, but it did.

Sonic tells him he finds the Green Hill Zone weirdly familiar, but Tails doesn't recognise it at all (which makes sense, as he wasn't in Sonic 1). I always assumed it was Sonic's home actually, but I guess he was just passing through.
 

The Wii Storybook Series Sonic games have been left out of Generations, no stages for them, but one of them has gotten a reference at least! Sonic Colours as well.

Anyway, it seems that completing the Green Hill Zone as both Classic and Modern Sonic was enough to bring some colour back, and now I'm free to move on to the Chemical Plant Zone. Hang on, Classic Sonic completed the stage before the time monster ripped a hole in reality so how did that help restore it? Actually, I've just realised that I don't care.

The level select void has also been extended and there's platforms all over it now, but they don't actually go anywhere. Seems I need to sort out the Chemical Plant first.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive)

This is what the Chemical Plant Zone looked like in Sonic 2. Lots of blue pipes to roll on and moody skyscrapers in the background.

Does Sonic Generations nail the look?

Yes and no. The level's close enough that it feels right, in graphics and gameplay, but putting the screenshots side by side makes it obvious that there's no city back there. Then again the level design is different too, so there's no reason that this can't be slightly deeper inside the plant (or maybe the camera's just facing the opposite direction).

Overall I've been really impressed with how faithful the game's been to its source material, which is what you want in an anniversary celebration game. If you're going for nostalgia it's kind of counter-productive to update things to the point where they're unrecognisable.

Plus it's awesome to play the Modern Sonic level afterwards and get to see the old school environments the same way that Sonic sees them. The music's inspired by the original game as well, but Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic each get their own remix and they both sound great. Which is nice.

I'm still getting tutorial messages by the way, but you can turn them off in the menu so it's fine. Plus it means that the game's still introducing new gameplay features.

Oh right, I remember this. I wasn't all that nostalgic for the bit of the Chemical Plant Zone where you have to wait for moving blocks to slide around while you're drowning in mysterious pink liquid, but it's back anyway! It's even got the air bubbles you need to race for.

I somehow got another two S ranks on this zone, which is just getting ridiculous at this point. Plus I found a couple of Red Star Rings along the way and unlocked artwork 1 and 2! So I suppose I should go check that out.

Interesting room to find lying outside of space and time. It reminds me of Deadly Premonition... which probably means there was something like this in Twin Peaks.

I can watch all the cutscenes so far, browse unlocked concept art, listen to unlocked music and read up on the characters I've saved. That's a nice feature, as to be honest I have no idea who half of them are.

I also passed by a skill shop on the way, which is interesting. I've can use the points I've been accumulating by inexplicably S ranking stages to unlock special abilities. Then I put together the set that I want to bring with me into a level.

Though I can't just load up on all of them at once, as equipping a skill I own requires skill points, and I've only got 100 of them. Power Break costs 10 and Athleticism is 20, so that's fine, but if I get another skill that needs 80 points, I'll have to take one back off.

I'm going to leave this feature alone for now I think, as I'd rather play as a relatively default Sonic until I run into problems.

I've no idea what this Sky Sanctuary Zone is supposed to be from, but it looks cool. Well, looked cool. Whoops.

The game features multiple paths through each level, just like the classic games, but you move so fast it's not usually a conscious choice the first time through. Not for me anyway. I just keep coming across hints that I could've chosen a different route at some point, like here where there's three different paths spiralling up this tower, each leading to a different spring.

Hang on, they lead to different red star rings as well! There's five to collect on each stage and it seems like there's no way to collect all of them on a single run. I'm not really surprised to be honest, as the game's built for replaying stages over and over to beat your times, find more Red Star Rings, or make up for the fact that you fell down a hole and only got an A rank. My first A, it tastes like... failure.
 

It doesn't seem like I'm going any further in the level select void just yet. No Dreamcast era for me until I clear some Challenge Acts and collect three Boss Gate Keys. They forgot to tell me how to start the Challenge Acts though. I guess I'll just go finish the other Sky Sanctuary stage instead and worry about it later.

Hang on, there's a Casino Night pinball table up there? Do I own the Casino Night DLC? What even is the Casino Night DLC? I'm going to have to check that out.

Oh it's an actual pinball table! The Casino Night Zone was halfway to being pinball already, so that makes sense I guess.

This seems pretty well made and very authentically pinbally, but I'd still rather play Pinball Fantasies. Hey, that's another game I wrote about 10 years ago.

Sonic Generations (3DS)

The 3DS version of Sonic Generations goes a step further and features an actual Casino Night Zone, though by 'version' I really mean 'entirely different game with the same name'.

3DS Generations has an entirely different set of stages in a different selection of zones and they're all side-view only. That wouldn't be so bad, except the physics don't feel great to me. The gameplay's not quite as (subjectively) bad as Sonic 4, but the console version of Generations is so much better.

Right, back to the collapsing towers of the Sky Sanctuary.

SOON

Okay, it turns out I just had to finish both the Classic and Modern acts on each of the three zones and that got me my Challenge Acts. So this explains why there were platforms everywhere leading to nowhere: the gates just hadn't appeared yet.

There's a bloody lot of them as well, five per Sonic, per zone, so 30 in total. I only have to finish one in each zone to get my Boss Gate Keys though.

Okay that's a big robot monster. Giant enemies are so cute!

I was expecting the Challenge Acts to make me replay the stages with different conditions (like get a certain number of rings or beat a certain time), but they're a bit more interesting than that. Plus I'm not even sure this is the same level I was playing earlier.

Variety can be a good thing, but it's something the Sonic games have always struggled with. The Chaos Emerald stages in the original games aren't for everyone, the Sonic Adventure games keep taking control away from Sonic and making you play as someone else, Sonic Unleashed has those bloody Werehog stages...

... and this Challenge Act has me controlling Tails as he flies through the Chemical Plant, tapping the A button to gain height. So it's basically Flappy Bird. I switched the music to "Sonic Boom" from the Sonic CD soundtrack and I'm not sure whether it's helping or making it worse.

The game lets you choose any unlocked music as the background tune on any stage, but you have to complete Challenge Acts and collect Red Star Rings first to unlock them. I could just go fight the boss after getting three keys but I'm feeling motivated to hang out in the Mega Drive era for a while longer and get more songs, at least until it gives me the Angel Island Zone theme from Sonic 3 (YouTube link).

You can also unlock new skills, so there's another reason to play the optional content. It's all part of a cunning scheme to make the player want to play longer instead of dragging the game out with mandatory levels.

EVENTUALLY

Okay I can't put off fighting this first boss any longer. Time to watch the pre-fight cutscene and get it over with.

I thought the two Sonics were going to pull a Marx Brothers routine for a moment here, as they mistake this mysterious window for a mirror. But they're the same person and they're naturally in sync, so they've got no reason to suspect a thing. Classic Sonic is a little quicker to jump into action though, and manages to get through the door before it closes, leaving Modern Sonic behind.

Oh no, it's that giant robot from Sonic the Hedgehog... 2 maybe?

I'm generally terrible at boss fights but it's hard to screw this up when I've got Omochao's tutorial giving me a step by step guide. All I need to do is stay of out the way of its attack, Spin Dash under its feet when it jumps, then Spin Dash back again to smack its ass. Repeat as necessary.

Oh crap, there's a second stage! This is all different! Quick, Omochao, come back and tell me what I'm supposed to do!

The Death Egg Robot keeps trying to lock on and fire his hands at me, and there's switches everywhere that make bombs appear... hang on I think I'm coming up with a plan here.

No no, shut up Omochao, don't tell me, I've figured it out myself.

Alright I've got the robot to punch next to the bomb and it's blown his hand up, now what? I suppose his arm does look a bit like a platform when it's stuck extended like that, maybe I could...

C'mon Omochao, I'm literally running up the arm to attack his head at this moment. Well, rolling, whatever.

I actually managed to defeat the boss on my first try, though it was hard not to with all the rings lying around. Unfortunately rings only count towards my final score if I'm actually holding them, and I hadn't collected enough to reach the S rank this time. Another rubbish A grade.

The Sonics finally meet, and there's two Tails' as well! Though weirdly Classic Tails talks and Classic Sonic doesn't. Not sure why the writers made that decision.

Classic Sonic sure is an expressive little guy though. They've given him a lot of character with just his expressions. The animation's pretty great.

Even the little Sonics on the loading screen are cute. Which is good, as I've probably seen more of this than I have actual cutscenes. I don't mean the game takes ages to load, I mean there's barely any story.

Alright I've finally reached the Dreamcast era! I checked and this looks 100% identical to how Sonic Adventure looks in your memory if you haven't seen it for 20 years.

It's actually kind of spectacular in action, as you're racing down these inexplicable tracks in the sky. Even that's not fast enough for Sonic though, as he keeps taking shortcuts. He rides a rocket, runs down a skyscraper, grabs onto a helicopter... there's lots of scripted events. Absolutely zero QTEs though thankfully.

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)

It's the Sonic Adventure 2 City Escape stage I've been wanting to see though. The one where you snowboard down the street, smacking cars around effortlessly. Because you're a hero.

Turns out that the Sonic Generations version is very similar, and also very different.

It's recognisable and it still has you knocking cars about (or not, if you're any good at steering), but now I can take sharp turns by holding down a trigger, or take a shortcut across the rooftops if I hit the ramps and time my jumps correctly. It's bigger, better, and more impressive. Just like all the other stages.

This was my favourite Sonic level from Sonic Adventure 2 (mostly because I always quit before reaching the second one), and the thing I always remember about it, is the music (YouTube link). And also this truck:

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)

Hey, slamming cars out of the way is my trick!

The surprise GUN truck rampage is one of my favourite moments in any video game, and I remember being curious to see what they'd done with it in Generations.

And now I know. They've added spinning saw blades to it! Oh plus it can fly and drive along buildings now.

This isn't right, this isn't right!

But what I was really curious about, is how they were going to make the truck work in the 2D Classic Sonic stages.

Turns out he keeps harassing you for the whole stage, finding different ways to make your life miserable. Like here where he demolishes the scaffolding you're trying to climb up! The GUN truck is a real jerk.

Another thing I like about the game is the little references scattered around. Like this poster:

Well that explains why they weren't at the party. Missing for 18 years, damn. Where was Big the Cat though?

Alright, I'm pretty much done with the game now, seeing as I'd have to fight another boss before it lets me unlock the final chapter and play the Sonic Unleashed stage. I never did get the Angel Island Zone theme, but there's no way of knowing how far I am away from getting it, or whether I have to play Challenge Acts or find Red Star Rings to unlock it, so I'm going to have to just live without it.

Okay maybe I'll just replay City Escape one last time before I turn the game off.

SOON

Oh damn, it was the next song to get unlocked! That was fast. I guess this means I really do have to turn the game off now.


CONCLUSION

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The Sonic the Hedgehog series used to be one of the most highly-acclaimed and best-selling game series in the world. It was a legitimate rival to the Mario games and it helped make the Mega Drive into a serious contender, but after Sonic 3 it started to struggle a bit, for a number of reasons. For one thing by the mid-90s everyone had decided that 2D games were dead on consoles forever, so the classic gameplay wasn't going to work anymore, and they completely failed to produce anything to succeed it on the Saturn.

They finally came up with a true 3D successor on the Dreamcast, with Sonic Adventure featuring a new behind-the-back gameplay style that looked great at the time and had a real feeling of speed. This new gameplay stuck around, but for whatever reason the developers were determined to find new ways to keep people from just playing the fun Sonic levels. Some games have you switching to different non-Sonic characters that don't gotta go fast, some make you wander around streets chatting to NPCs, some force you to sit through unskippable cutscenes, Sonic Unleashed had those bloody Werehog brawler stages that I never had the patience to finish...

The reason I'm giving you this history lesson is because for Sonic Generations they replaced the city full of NPCs with a nice 2D level select stage, and replaced all the other gameplay styles with classic Sonic gameplay. They took something that works and bolted it to something that works, so everything about it works! Having both styles of gameplay for a selection of new levels based on classic stages means that you always get to see familiar places from a new perspective, which is a clever feature for a game built around nostalgia. The game also lets you unlock bonus content from the across the history of the franchise and even replace the level music with classic tracks, which drives you to replay levels to complete challenges and find Red Star Rings, and helps keeps the experience from getting too repetitive.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 brought 2D Sonic back to consoles a year earlier, but it didn't win any friends with its weird physics, and the flat glossy look was kind of off-putting to me as well. Generations has much more faithful physics and it looks beautiful, with the camera moving around to really show off the levels as you go, even on the 2D stages. It makes the 2D acts feel like just much a part of the game as the 3D acts, not just retro bonus stages. The 3D levels are also as slick and polished as Sonic games get, as issues from the early Dreamcast games had been ironed out by this point. So it's fun to play as either Classic Sonic or Modern Sonic, as long as you can keep track of which you're playing as and what they can do.

One thing that gets criticism is the story, and yeah it is kind of nonsense to be fair. But it's nonsense with nice character moments and comedy. I'm the wrong person to talk about stories in Sonic games though, because they're really not my kind of thing. I've got zero attachment to anyone who isn't a blue hedgehog or a fox with two tails. Also it feels like they've used the Axe Cop method of generating plots, and just asked a five year old to come up with something. The stories in these games are like a fever dream filled with hedgehogs, Chaos Emeralds and super lasers. THE EMERALDS AREN'T EVEN GREEN, WHAT THE HELL? Well, except for the green one.

Anyway, I didn't even think about skipping any of the cutscenes in this, so the game must be doing something right. It doesn't do everything right though. I have actually finished this game before and I've got vague memories of the last few levels being less great than the earlier stages. My vague memories are also indicating that the final boss was a pain in the ass, but then that's arguably what last bosses are there for. They're a big roadblock to prevent you from reaching catharsis and enjoying your closure until you've smashed your head against a metaphorical brick wall enough times. They're a bunch of jerks, all of them.

The rest of the game has been pretty easy though. The challenge for me has been trying to find and reach the Red Star Rings, as just getting to the end of the level hasn't been a huge struggle for me, even without buying the characters skills (and my own platforming skills aren't great). It's been fun though and I've been enjoying it... even when the camera changed direction and I got confused about what direction to hold the stick. In fact I wish there was a bit more game here to play. There are only nine zones in the game, with two acts each, so you can get through it all in about 5-6 hours. Sure you also get the ten Challenge Acts to go with each of them, but I wanted to see more pretty scenery and more classic locations.

I also want to see other series do this with their history as well, celebrating classic games and revisiting old levels. There's plenty of remakes like Twin Snakes and Tomb Raider: Anniversary, but where's Need for Speed: Generations and Super Mario Generations? I suppose there was that 007 Legends revisiting the different movies, but it wasn't all that great. Hitman: Contracts, that's another one, kind of.

Anyway, Sonic Generations is the first Sonic game to really win me over. I mean, I've always loved the classic Sonic platformers, but I can only play them for a few stages before I lose interest. I actually finished Generations the first time around and the only reason I'm not still playing it this time is because I need to get around to playing the next game or else you'll have nothing to read about next week.

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You've got no idea how many times I nearly typed Sonic Advance instead of Sonic Adventure.

Anyway thanks for reading, I hope you decide to leave a comment. I've made the 'next game' clue a little more challenging this time but I'll be very surprised if no one gets it.