SONIC GENERATIONS Review [XBox 360]
Sega's flagship blue hedgehog starring franchise investigates its roots, as well as opening new possibilities for fans new and old.
rating:3.5
We open on a birthday party; a collection of old and new characters hushed around a table spread. An electric shock of blue bolts into the frame the guest of honour. Sonic the Hedgehog is as chipper as ever, wisecracking his way through a social life that consists of friends that look like him in various party costumes, old rivals who just cant be bothered anymore, and a fox. Theyre all here to celebrate his twentieth birthday, as are we. As Sonic waltzes his way around his gathering, his friends fawn over him. "Its kind of impossible to surprise you anymore", Tails remarks. Thats right; Sonic has seen it all before. Have we? The short answer is yes. Sonic Generations is the closest the videogame industry has come to a best of episode of some long-running sitcom, but thats not necessarily a bad thing and, rest assured, it doesnt mean youre paying for exactly the same content you bought ten or twenty years ago. Not exactly.
The aforementioned party is crashed by a new, mysterious enemy. Sonics friends are whisked away through tears in time and space, scattering across Sonics two and three dimensional history and giving the game a narrative conceit which affords SEGAs Sonic Team an attempt to rekindle interest in the internationally famous videogame mascot by guiding us through a very literal trip down memory lane. Along Sonics journey to save his motley crew, he bumps into an old version of himself, the one thats only able to move along two dimensions and cant speak. Naturally, they team up and race their way through 2D and 3D versions of levels that span Sonics twenty year history as the industrys favourite hedgehog. All the favourite Sonic characters are present and a handful more, but only the modern and classic Sonics are playable. Theres Tails, Knuckles, Amy and the gang chatting to Sonic along the way, as well as a bunch of other less memorable characters whose names are utterly forgettable and seem to have been thrown in as a measure of desperation as franchise popularity dwindled, including Pink Sonic, Desaturated Pink Sonic and Gay Bondage Sonic. Forgettable, in fact, to the point that Robotnik upon meeting his past self and simultaneously being confronted with this strikingly similar band of sidekicks, simply remarks theyre insignificant. Indeed. But Generations postmodern pastiche and SEGAs nostalgic backslapping aside, how does the game actually play? 
With nine levels in total, the game covers three eras of the franchise; Classic, Dreamcast and Modern. Each level is divided into two acts, act one a 2D version where you control Classic Sonic and act two being the 3D version played with Modern Sonic. Completing each level will award you a rank based on your speed and the amount of lives you lost. A metaworld allows you to access these stages and is presented as a side scrolling level in itself, where you can access acts and stages youve unlocked, as well as purchase skills which boost your characters abilities, and fight bosses which await you between each of the three eras a wonderfully simple and well-presented idea. The aforementioned skills are purchasable by using points gathered from playing through the stages and are mostly focused around getting Sonic to his goal quicker, whether its a shield which allows you to shrug off damage or the ability to run uphill without being hindered by gravity. Each skill is assigned a number depending on its strength (20, 30, 40 etc.) and, once youve purchased them, you can equip these skills to work in unison as long as youre not exceeding the overall value of 100. As for the stages themselves, if youre anything like me, youll remember the rush you got when racing through Green Hill in the early 90s, the panic which set in when frantically trying to reach an air bubble in Chemical Plant, or that unbeatable feeling of accomplishment and elation you got when nailing a level at full speed, flowing as majestically as a blue hedgehog can. Remember that? Well, thats exactly how it plays. 
As old and unchanged as this gameplay may be, its a wonderful thing and within minutes youll either be constructing some kind of they dont make games like this anymore dialogue in your head, or for the more recent fans marvelling at the stripped back, well-balanced simplicity of a side scrolling Sonic. When youre playing these levels as they were in the early years of the franchise, there really is nothing like it. However, if you recall all that, you might also recall the frustration at Sonics later 3D and 2.5D gameplay; the self-aware camera that seems to deliberately antagonise you, the staccato rhythm of the level design and the confusing mixture of high speed and open space which just doesnt seem to match up well against its side scrolling counterpart. Furthermore, these issues are transposed onto the 3D versions of older stages, whilst the 2D versions of Dreamcast and Modern era levels seem to suffer from an attempt to simplify an overly-complicated thing. Like the unnecessary shoe-horning in of myriad new sidekicks in the latter Sonic years, power-ups such as rockets, skateboards and hammers seem only to detract from what makes Sonic such great fun: speed and timing. 
As you might expect for any game which feeds off audience nostalgia, theres an absolute ton of unlockables such as skills, artwork and music, mostly accessed by completing a variety of challenge levels associated with each stage. There are several types of challenges, such as time trials, races, character-specific goals and they are, for the most part, a lot of fun and can be played in short bursts, giving the game a great pick-up-and-play value. All in all, theres no denying I finished the game wanting to play more. As much as I know Ill never look at the artwork or listen to that music, I felt compelled and excited to reply each level and achieve the highest rank. Yes, the boss fights are clunky, the tone is a little too saccharine, the skill system doesnt add a whole lot and the later level design is as frustrating as it was the first time I played it several years ago, but it didnt matter. There was enough of what I loved about Sonic in Generations to give me an experience that Id happily pay for, because its the closest SEGA have ever come to a definitive Sonic the Hedgehog experience. This may be the last time I find myself enjoying a Sonic game, because I honestly dont know where they can go with the franchise, but if that is the case, Im glad that Ive parted ways with Generations. Id only have one request, for the sake of future generations of Sonic fans. Please, SEGA; when you get round to making the next instalment (which is undoubtedly on its way), please do get rid of that ghastly ensemble of sidekicks. Eggman was spot on. 
Sonic Generations is available to buy on XBox 360 an PS3 now, and on PC and Nintendo 3DS on November 25th.