Sonic has been through some ups and downs in his career, while many of his older gen games are great, his current gen games have been hit or miss. Sonic 4 Episode 1 was a step in the right direction, getting back to what made Sonic great in the first place. However while being a good game, it wasn’t a great one. Sonic fans need something that not only captures the Genesis era, but also brings in the speed and craziness of the current gen Sonic while leaving out the “creativeness” that seems to slow him down like a pair of spike strips. Sonic Generations is looking to marry old and new Sonic in a union of speed and platform goodness. While this game is on of the best Sonic games in a good while, it still doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

 

So the story goes, Sonic’s friends are throwing him a party for turning 20 years old. A monster appears and sucks up everyone into a colorless world outside of time where old Sonic meets young Sonic. Somehow the two Sonics “running super fast” will restore the worlds to normal. Yes, that’s the story, fascinating right? Well, the story has never really been this franchise’s strong point. However the voice acting is some of the best I’ve seen in a Sonic game. If you’ve been with the series since the beginning, you’ll laugh at jokes about how ridiculous some of the games have gotten. The visuals are also beautiful. Rushing through the level at top speed and visually gratifying with the different levels and paths that can be taken. I personally would have liked to see more levels than just three from each generation for a total of nine levels but the effort is there. It feels like the developers spent a lot of time re-imagining these levels from past sonic games to work for both Sonics. With that being said, the controls still need a bit of work.

 

In the early levels of Sonic, the controls seem really tight and responsive. In later levels as they become increasingly harder and more complex, the problems with the controls become more apparent. This is something you will run into more with current gen Sonic than the old school one. Sonic has always been about speed, so it helps to have tight controls to perform all the feats of speed you’d expect. But many a time you will find Sonic speeding of the edge of the levels and dying at the push of a button. You will run into this problem over and over again if you are aiming to get all S grades and do all the challenges. It’s frustrating and annoying but not game breaking. 

 

With only nine levels with two stages each, Sonic generations may appear to be a short game. But the is plenty of replay value. There are three rivals to face against, although they are all very similar along with three bosses that re-imagine the original bosses in a fun and entertaining way. Also, there are 45 challenges for each Sonic to complete. Some challenges are fun, some are pretty annoying, and others involve Sonic friends, which are most annoying when you are racing them. But it gives the game a lot of replay value for the perfectionist and collector. There are a ton of art works to collect and music throughout the Sonic history. One of the best features is that in the challenges you can change the music, which is pretty awesome and nostalgic for the long time fans.