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Sonic Generations Preview Posted by Garrett Green on Sep 15, 2011 04:25 (247 days ago) |
The 90’s were a great decade; awesome cartoons like Batman and X-men, pop bands that roamed the earth like sparkly dinosaurs, and Sonic the Hedgehog games were actually good and consistently so. Well Sega is looking to once again try and make Sonic relevant in their new game Sonic Generations. As a die hard Sonic fan, I always look forward to new Sonic games, only to be disappointed by Sega almost getting it right but losing all their rings in the end by trying to push some new way to play the character. Sonic 4 Episode 1 was a great step in the right direction but couldn’t quite capture the greatness that was Genesis Sonic. With Sonic Generations around the corner I must say that once again I’m looking forward to it but not getting my hopes up. That was until I got my hands on the demo on the X-box 360 and 3DS. And people, I couldn’t be more excited for this. The demo let’s you choose to play either old gen or new gen Sonic in the Escape from the City level from Sonic Adventure 2. I first decided to play as new gen Sonic. New gen Sonic plays like the day time levels from Sonic Unleashed, don’t worry, no werehogs have shown up yet. This level really captured the speed we’ve come to expect and demand from a Sonic game, switching the view from behind to the side and sometimes in front of Sonic fluidly and seamlessly. Sonic handled smoothly and the level itself (when it wasn’t just a blur) was beautifully rendered. Even when it was just a blur it looked beautiful as I really felt like I was moving at the speed of sound. Once I finished the level I played it again as old gen Sonic to compare the differences. Old gen Sonic took me back to what made fall in love with that chubby blue hedgehog in the first place. While not as fast as current gen, old gen Sonic still uses his speed well along with good platforming elements reminiscent of Sonic 2 and 3 from Genesis. The platforming works especially well to split up the level into multiple paths all with varying elements of speed and challenges. The level really felt like it could have been ripped straight from a Genesis cartridge. Once I finished both Sonics I went back and played each a few more times to try and find different paths to take and beat the time I had. This is just one level, two if you want to be specific, and I could have kept playing all day long if I had the chance. I finally worked my way briefly to the 3DS version. I don’t know how many of you out there had a Game Gear, the portable Sega system to rival Nintendo’s Gameboy, but Sonic was just as fun on it. The 3DS reminded me of the good Sonic games not only on the Game Gear but the Gameboy and DS as well. The 3D was pretty good, if you keep you head perfectly still as it is with that system, and there was no lack in quality here. Dimps is handling the 3DS version and from what I got to see, they know what they are doing and handling Sonic properly. This is what I have been waiting for. This is what all Sonic fans have been waiting for, a great Sonic games. I’m happy to actually not have any worries for this game. Only time will tell if this game meets my expectations, but I have never been more hopeful to see that blue ball of speed race across my screen. Sonic Generations is set to release November 1st on X-box, PS3, and Nintendo 3DS. |
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