Have you ever enjoyed any Sonic game, ever? …Right, well there you go, that’s that decided- this game’s for you. Have you no experience of any Sonic game, ever? …Right, well there you go, that’s that decided- this game’s for you.

SEGA has released Sonic Generations, a compilation of Sonic’s best stages from his twenty year history. Each stage has been reimagined into something nostalgic, but at its heart, entirely new. And it’s all quite brilliant.

Textual Analysis

I suppose we’d better get the thorny issue of plot out the way, as quickly and painlessly as possible. The story’s actually refreshingly minimal… by Sonic’s standards, and is actually quite enjoyable…by Sonic’s standards.

At Sonic’s surprise birthday party, his friends are sent back in time and-look, look; it doesn’t matter, okay, none of it matters- the story is just there to provide an appropriate context and motivation. The Sonic we all know and tolerate through gritted teeth bumps into his younger, plumper, gloriously mute self. You take control of both of them, and revisit the standout stages of the last twenty years.

In this game, the stages have been sliced into two halves. In case you weren’t aware (you lucky sods), modern Sonic games play quite differently to how they used to. Sonic Generations features both the classic and modern styles of gameplay, which I’ll describe below.

How Does Sonic Generations play? How does any Sonic game play?

Hey! Sonic fans! Right- Do you remember Sonic Unleashed? Sonic 2006? Sonic and The Secret Rings? Right, well it’s all of that, right- but GOOD. Good. Really bloody good.

“But wait!” I hear you cry. “What’s Sonic the Hedgehog?”

…Yes, just what is Sonic the Hedgehog, you ask with a horrible hipster irony. For the five of you who don’t actually know, and are looking at me with scared, wide-eyed innocence- read on.

While there has never been a better time for old fans to become reacquainted with the series, there paradoxically has never been a better time for the uninitiated to jump straight in. Platformers exist as highly accessible entry level material for young gamers who are starting to crave more than film-licensed mini-games.

The style of platforming perfected in the Mario games has been pretty much the mould for the genre. The emphasis on exploration, moving with careful precision…yeah, that’s pretty much the opposite of what you’re getting here.

Each individual level gives you a point A, a point B, and a desperate need to get from one to the other as quickly as possible. The levels last roughly three minutes each, which is the perfect length for them; this sort of no-frills experience is best administered in short bursts.

The classic levels play on a 2D plane, and with a greater emphasis on exploration. There are multiple ways to progress through a level, with layers upon layers of routes stacked on top of each other. Up top, you can glide as free as a bird (if you’re skilful) along the shortest path, but down below lies heavier burdens of spikes, traps, and a level design built to slow you down. It’s a constant, desperate scramble to get higher up, and the ability to carve your own route as your knowledge and skills increase makes each level a joy to replay.

Springs, enemies and the like are all carefully placed where Sonic Team expects you to land, and bouncing off each in quick succession is incredibly satisfying. It’s plain good level design.

It all just flows so well- at its peak, when those sweet spots arise, you just sink into the game and your reflexes take over. Flinging yourself from enemy-to-platform-to-precipice to-rail-to-enemy-to-enemy-to-enemy-to-enemy at LIGHT. SPEED. – with complete ease, and a glazed, gurning smile to boot- this is one of the most completely undiluted doses of fun I have ever had in a video game.

The Difficult Second Act

There’s a problem at the heart of all modern Sonic games.

3D Platformers are inherently less linear than their 2D parents, which implies an emphasis on exploration. You’re not just running from left to right on a fixed path; you can move 360 degrees! But exploration is completely the opposite of what Sonic’s about. The path from A to B has opened up- and not being stuck on a strict path means your likelihood of death rockets sky high. There are enormous drops all around you (they couldn’t be seen from a 2D perspective), and when moving at top speed it’s easy to hurl yourself into an abyss.

Sonic Generations does much to compensate for this conflict of interests. These levels are extremely linear; there are far fewer paths to choose from, and invisible walls have been put in place in several areas where difficulty may arise.

This may sound like dumbing down, but…well yes. Yes it is. But these measures are wholly necessary for this half of the game to be enjoyable. The modern sections really are just stupid fun, and if you think that’s a damning indictment, I want nothing to do with you.

The Classic levels reward you with speed. The modern sections are those sporadic, exhilarating bursts of speed tied together with no pause for breath- they exist to milk as much adrenaline from you as possible. They’re much more hurried, with the focus ENTIRELY on moving from one point to another, and smashing through obstacles to do so. It’s wonderful.

As I said before, they are extremely linear, and feature less interaction-which is a GOOD thing when such a fast pace is being kept. The speed is just so fun, so purely fun. It’s incredibly, genuinely, honestly exciting-exciting! Really take in what that word means- when was the last time you were excited when playing a videogame?

How does it control?

That’s the key question.

In a slower paced, traditional platformer, floaty, twitchy, or sluggish controls could perhaps be tolerated. But in Sonic, the enjoyment comes from the simple thrill of moving very very fast, from marvelling at the speed at which you’re effortlessly able to dodge enemies, and fling yourself over bottomless pits.
Feeling in control is absolutely vital to your enjoyment. The primary source of fun becomes a source of worry if you know the slightest twitch of the analogue stick will throw you down into Hedgehog Hell. This game doesn’t have any such problem.

To put it in the least eloquent way possible, Sonic feels very…solid. He has a lovely weight to him, making him feel grounded, and making you feel totally in control. You feel secure, but not bogged down- Sonic’s responsive, but not over-eager. I was entirely confident and comfortable with the controls, and thus entirely comfortable with the speed.

Sonic Generations is fun because moving at high speed is fun. That’s it. That’s why it’s fun.

It’s such a simple pleasure- which is really frustrating, because there are only so many ways I can describe it! It’s just bloody good fun, and it plastered a grin across my face so many times!

And all the fat has been trimmed away. The formula at the core of the Sonic the Hedgehog series works. It just needs to be streamlined so that nothing clutters your enjoyment of it. That’s where previous games have failed.

“the basic structure of a Sonic game provides exhilaration and pure, pure fun.”

Why do you think Sonic Generations has been so enthusiastically received? We never wanted arbitrary innovation, gimmicks or quirks- we wanted to see the traditional Sonic game done well. And this is it! It’s absolutely fantastic, we know it’s fantastic- we know from experience that the basic structure of a Sonic game provides exhilaration and pure, pure fun- this is that formula with no complications, no interruptions.

The camera presents no problems that I could find, the controls aren’t ridiculously hypersensitive, the homing attack actually works this time around, there are no “werehogs”, no guns, no chilling bestial undercurrents worthy of Silent Hill-this is the most bare bones Sonic has been this side of the handhelds. Sonic has been whittled down to his very core.

Visual Splendour

The characters, the enemies, the environments- they don’t look like they’ve been created by computer. They look sculpted out of clay.

And I mean that, I really do. Everything looks like it’s been handcrafted- luxury figurines nabbed from a collector’s trove. But Christ, don’t take my word for it! Just look at the screenshots-no, God no-don’t. Look at the game in motion. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and come back when you’re done. I can wait.

The look of the game adds so much scope to the classic sections, scope that we’ve only previously seen in modern 3D Sonic. I don’t think it’s shallow to gush over the visuals, because it’s not the graphics I’m captivated by, it’s the aesthetics. These are gorgeous wee worlds Sonic Team have crafted over the years, and they’re wearing their Sunday best here. They sparkle with polish and care- these are places that I want to spend time in. The music captures the atmosphere and pace of each level perfectly, and each track is tinged with surprising little twists and turns to keep them fresh.

How Could It Possibly Go Wrong?

It does.

Hey! Right- Do you remember Sonic Unleashed? Sonic 2006? Sonic and The Secret Rings? Right, well it’s all of that, right- but…uh. Yeah, there’s no ‘but’. It’s that bad. Again.

There are eighteen acts. Fourteen are described above. The other four? They’re described below.

It’s such a horrible, stomach-lurching drop to make from the dizzying heights of the early stages.

It’s such a horrible, stomach-lurching drop to make from the dizzying heights of the early stages. Because of course the problems lie in the later stages. I just can’t understand how such enormous mistakes were made, when they’d been completely sidestepped in the rest of the game.

These later levels forget they’re part of a Sonic game. Some modern levels slow down for a bit of precision platforming (and no, that term doesn’t exist, thank you for asking) which doesn’t work at all when you’re in the mindset of a hypersensitive supersonic hedgehog. You have to adjust the way you view the game without any kind of warning, which is the least that could have been offered.

Jumping carefully from platform to platform isn’t a style of gameplay suited to modern Sonic (because of course the problems lie with modern Sonic). This mix-and-match attitude, this insistence on putting Sonic in environments better suited to Mario, will result in you falling to your death again and again. And again.
And again.

I don’t think I was ever frustrated. Just bitterly disappointed. Everything was still functional- that counts for something. It operated adequately. You can still play it, it just makes you question why you’re playing it. It’s kind of like depression.

In addition, outside of the main stages, bosses are damp squibs across the board, there’s a horribly unnecessary skills/upgrade component that bogs the whole experience down, and while some of the additional Challenges at their best feel like individual stages, at their worst they play like mods held together by sellotape and string. But…

You Need To Play This Game

Those bad levels? In the larger scheme of things? They don’t matter. They don’t matter in the slightest. Because the thing is: you were already aware of them.

Sonic Generations has been out for the last two months. And this site is a tiny blog, adrift in a sea of tiny blogs. It’s highly unlikely this is the first review you’ve read. You know about what the game does wrong. But I don’t trust other reviews fully impressed upon you just how well this game does things right.

Trying to tell you why Sonic Generations is fun is like trying to describe why a comedy makes you laugh- it just works. It can be said in very little words. But describing the problems in it? That can be dragged out for far longer. That’s how Yahtzee Croshaw makes his living.

You can praise something in five words, and criticize it in five hundred. But the praise is worth so much more than the criticism.

Yes, it’s extremely disheartening to see everything you love about a game drift away by the end. It’s horrible to have to add a disclaimer, a note of caution and restraint, to what should be boundless enthusiasm. But ultimately, it’s only the last third of the game that suffers from the problems described. I really don’t want you to focus on the negative when reading this review, because it matters so, so little.

You have to fight through the mess, because this is the best Sonic the Hedgehog has been in a decade.

I don’t want to put anyone off playing Sonic Generations. The only positive thing that can result from this review is somebody on the fence about buying this game, throwing caution to the wind and just getting it. Because the bad levels are there. The horrible bosses are there. But…you just can’t not play this game. You have to fight through the mess, because this is the best Sonic the Hedgehog has been in a decade. The praise that I’ve dished out has so much more enthusiasm behind it than the criticism.

The good levels are bloody golden. Whether you’ve struggled through the last decade as a veteran of the series, or you’re a complete newcomer, you are going to have fun, you’re going to have so much fun. Read the first two thirds of this review again, where I’m writing off my nut with joy. That’s what really matters in the end.

Sonic Generations was, without a doubt, the most fun I’ve had with a Sonic game in years. Years.

Score:

8.2 out of 10

Why so high? Sonic has been whittled down to his very core. The simple formula allows for blasts of utter perfection throughout.

Why so low? I’m afraid I have to bring the score down quite significantly for the three or four (I really do hate to say it) appalling levels. The entire game is very short, clocking in for me at seven hours- and I’d taken it upon myself to play through more challenges than necessary.

(Before Sonic Generations, Sonic Heroes was my favourite 3D Sonic game. Before you dislocate your jaw to drop it any further in disbelief, I was playing it on a PC that could only run it at what seemed to be a quarter of the speed. That might have helped.)