November 1, 2011

My Final Verdict on Sonic Generations



So the game came out today.

I played. Got pretty close to beat it, but due to time constraints, couldn't quite beat it. Only thing left to see theoretically is two bosses.

That said, I think I played enough of the game to review it.

Graphics:
This game is beautiful. I was playing and watching Crisis City go by and it almost made me wanna play Sonic '06. Almost. Planet Wisp looks amazing too... that whole Wii vs. HD stuff makes a difference.

There are a few cases where I feel like Classic Sonic levels shouldn't be so detailed because I seriously saw a platform just float from foreground into the background (fuck you Crisis City). Otherwise, it's sick. As in awesome.

Sound:
The music already makes this game 5 times better than it had to be... aside from the modern City Escape remix. I still think that the original City Escape is infinitely superior to any version in Sonic Generations, but maybe you like them, and they aren't bad. Just preference.

And then you have situations where you win music from doing certain challenges, finding a certain amount of red rings, and other stuff. And then you have situations where you can choose to play certain music for certain challenges. That makes the game 10 times better on top of the 5 times better than it had to be. For some reason, I was blasting the Toxic Caves Remix to any rival battle and doppelganger race. I'm sure that the more music you crack open, the more fantastic personal choices you can make for any given challenge.

And the sound effects... all your classic stuff is all there.

Controls:
I have a minor issue with the controls...
1) Classic Sonic's jump feels like it's too low to me... like Classic Knuckles' jump or something.
2) There are times where I try to homing attack with Modern Sonic, and it just doesn't come out.

I feel like issue 1 is definitely design based. While there aren't any places that can't be passed due to Classic Sonic's lower feeling jump, I do kind of find it a pain.
Issue 2 is probably all my fault. lol.

Otherwise. There doesn't seem to be much of an issue with the controls... Oh yeah... drifting? Fuck drifting. Then learn how to drift. Then be amazed at how drifting works.

Gameplay:
I still stand by my statement that the game is too short. I also stand by my statement that there are levels that should have made the cut. But damn it if they didn't pad it as much as possible.

You have 3 eras, 3 levels per era, and 2 acts per era. That's 18 acts. Each act has 5 challenges, so that's virtually 90 levels or something like that. Technically, you should have to only play, like, 18 acts, but the game is such that after you complete each era (or 6 acts), you gotta do 3 more challenges before moving on to the boss... so it's like 9 acts, and then a boss. And that doesn't include what is probably the mandatory Rival Battles that have fake hedgehogs just chilling.

Whatever the case may be, Sega extended the hell out of the few levels that they had in the game.

As far as the game itself is concerned... it's plenty of fun. And it's not quite the easy quest that Sonic Colors was... these levels do get rather challenging towards the end... or towards Sky Sanctuary depending on how fast you think you should be able to go as Sonic the Hedgehog.

These levels, however, are huge. Instead of the micro levels that Sonic Colors had, they just gave us Huge levels in Sonic Generations. Eventually, you'll look at the time and be glad that the 10 minute time limit doesn't exist. Seriously. Some of these levels are one hell of a quest on their own.

And then you have the challenges. Some of them are easy, some of them are ridiculous, but all of them seem pretty cool. And of course, everything is ranked. They start at D, and end in S. And some of those S ranks are harder than they come off... I would know.

Overall:
This game is plenty of fun. I still think it's too short, and I still think that there should have been more levels. Hell, if Tails can be like how he didn't remember Green Hill but found Chemical Plant very familiar by its smell, I see no reason why there couldn't have been a Carnival Nigh reference.

That said, I don't think Sega was lazy with this game like I first believed. They definitely put in a lot of work into this package, and levels that should have made the cut aside, this is a very complete package.

If you're a Sonic fan of any kind, you should definitely check this game out. It's incredible by all kinds of gaming standards.

some extra notes:


  • Seriously though. The best part of this game has got to be the music.
  • And my favorite level is Speed Highway.
  • Silver has gained my respect... that Rival Battle...
  • But why all the bosses so weak though? Four hits?
  • Shadow, however, proved to be the worthiest opponent in my opinion... like, you gotta beat rings out of him and whatnot lolol.

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