Think of a character that has something to do with games, and the first name that pops into your head will probably be Mario. Think of a second, and the chances are you'll get Sonic. For twenty years, the speedy blue blur's entertained tens of millions of players nationwide with his trademark blend of speed and platforming, seeing you running, rolling and jumping around increasingly spectacular levels. And as part of his 20th Anniversary celebrations, in his latest game, Sonic Generations, everyone's favourite blue hedgehog has decided to take a look back at his past and return to his roots. Somewhat literally.
Those dastardly robot fish again. 20 years later, we still run into them.
In something of a break from gaming tradition, Sonic Generations actually opens with a level. Dropping you straight into the grassy fields of Green Hill, if you've ever played the original Sonic, it's a stage that should be instantly recognisable, as it's actually exactly the same as in the original, just remade with fancier graphics. With the ever helpful small robotic blue cute thing Omochao on hand to help you out, you should have no problems getting to grips with the game, as one button does pretty much everything anyway - and Omochao's there to explain anything new players may not have come across before. What follows is a 2D side-scrolling level that'll see you speeding through green fields, looping through loops, springing from platform to platform, collecting rings, and destroying the evil robotic monsters that lurk in the long grass as you whizz to the finish.
In traditional Sonic style, there's something of an odd storyline here. Once you've finished the stage, you'll be presented with a cutscene that fills you in on the plot. It opens with Sonic and friends having a nice picnic in a park as a surprise birthday party for Sonic (after all, he's no longer a teen) when all of a sudden, a vortex opens in the sky, and sucks Sonic and friends into it. Stuck in a strange rift in time and space, Sonic finds himself coming up against levels from the games of his past, from Sonic the Hedgehog way back in 1992, all the way through to the Wii's fairly recent (and really rather good) Sonic Colours. With nine Sonic games represented in total, and a level being taken from each, there's effectively 18 levels for you to play through here, as you can choose to play through each of them in one of two modes, each of which offers an entirely different perspective on the stage. Quite literally.
Playing as old-school Sonic (who's smaller and fatter), the levels are 2D, side-scrolling affairs with a gentler pace. Letting you take things as steady (or fast) as you want, you'll be bouncing off springs, rolling around loops, and dodging various moving parts as you try to reach the finish. Meanwhile, new Sonic (taller and with more attitude) is all about speed, and zips through the stages in 3D, making things a little bit trickier than they really should be. Of course, with one being 2D side scrolling, and the other 3D, playing as both types of Sonic offers an entirely different perspective on the level, letting you see things you've never seen before, and reach parts you haven't reached before - it's much more than just a different viewpoint.
Apart from taking different routes through the stages, and seeing entirely different sections, each of the Sonics also have their own distinct powers, too. Actually, come to think of it, bar being able to curl up into a ball and spin really fast, old-school Sonic doesn't exactly have that many abilities to help him through the levels - but new Sonic's tricked out with a homing attack, which lets him zoom into enemies from a distance, and the ability to dash - helpful for clearing large gaps, and, er, running on water.
You can take your time a lot more easily on the 2D levels.
In order to progress through the game, you'll have to clear each of the nine levels (divided into groups of three) as both Sonics - and upon doing so, you'll unlock a boss fight. These are usually fairly simple affairs which see you facing off against the impossibly moustachioed Sonic baddie Dr. Robotnik/Eggman's latest giant robot contraption, and usually follow a fairly straightforward pattern of chasing down the dastardly Doc, before jumping into his creation's inevitable weak spot. As you may imagine, Dr. Robotnik does play a somewhat central role in the plot, but we'll leave it up to you to find out what...
The return to his roots is both good and bad for Sonic. The first three levels, which have been taken from the first three Sonic games, are amazing in 2D mode, and interesting in 3D, especially if you've played the games the first time round - seeing them remade, and taking an entirely different path through the stages as new Sonic is a very cool experience indeed - and the soundtrack is something special, too. The only problem is, it kind of makes you wonder if the only reason these work so well is because the quality of the games they're based around was so high - because, as you progress through the levels, Generations follows the same sort of iffy quality as the games it takes its levels from.
Opening the middle phase of the game is Sonic Adventure's Speed Highway, which is an OK, if occasionally buggy race across the highways, and up and down the office blocks of a glistening city of the future, while Sonic Adventure 2's City Escape opens with you skidding downhill on a snowboard, and ends as you're chased through the streets by a giant 18 wheeler that's crushing everything in its path. And both of these are pretty good - as were the original games (the first of which is available on the Xbox Live Arcade right now, if you fancy seeing the original for yourself). Then we get to Sonic Heroes, and things fall off a cliff, as all of a sudden, things get incredibly hard - and worse still, incredibly buggy.
Thankfully, it's less buggy in 2D mode.
You see, Sonic Heroes, released on the GameCube/PS2/Xbox during their heyday, was one of the trickiest Sonic games released to date. Many of the jumps in the game required you to jump at exactly the right time - and, more importantly, be going at exactly the right speed, or else you'd either not make it, or simply glitch off the edge of a platform, and slowly plummet to your doom. With Sonic being as fast as he is, if your jumps weren't perfectly timed, it led to a lot of frustration, and sadly, the same is still true for this stage in Generations - if you don't jump exactly where, when and at what speed the designers expect you to jump, you'll likely find yourself falling to an unfair and untimely death. There are a few bugs here, too, just to make things more awkward. When playing as new Sonic, the view sometimes switches between 2D side-scrolling and true 3D platforming as you progress through the level, which is all well and good, if a little confusing to begin with. At one point, however, something went strangely wrong, as we found ourselves in a 3D part of the level, but only able to move left and right - we couldn't go forwards or backwards. Unable to reach where we were meant to be going, we actually ended up losing a life because Sonic physically couldn't move far enough forwards to reach the platform we were headed for. With this meant to be a celebration of Sonic, you'd have thought they'd have ironed glitches like this out. And then we get to the Xbox 360 generation.
Somewhat inexplicably, Generations features a level from Sonic the Hedgehog (from 2006, not 1992), a game that's universally regarded as the worst Sonic game ever - and with good reason. While it's undoubtedly better in its slower, 2D form, both versions end up feeling like a collection of awkward jumps, terrible platforming, and unfair deaths if you're not playing exactly as the developers had planned - especially towards the end of the 2D mode, where the game presents you with a series of floating cars and platforms, only certain ones of which you can actually jump to. Without any way of making it obvious which ones Sonic can reach, and which he can't, it's another stage of frustrations and unfair deaths. Luckily, things get better from here on in.
Thing get a lot more upbeat when Sonic heads to the Mediterranean inspired Sonic Unleashed.
Dashing through an intricately detailed Mediterranean city, before a race to the top of the clocktower, Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed is a lot of fun, and the game ends on a high with a huge level from the Wii's Sonic Colours that's more giant puzzle than dash to the finish - and, at least in 2D mode, requires a decent amount of exploration in order to reach the end. Even better, the level includes the magical "wisps" from the original game, which grant you power ups as you collect them - as an example, the yellow one lets you blast through metal to access other areas.
Complete each of the levels in an area, and you'll unlock a large number of bonus stages, which range from the hugely enjoyable to the incredibly annoying. Taking place in the same levels as the main story, each of the bonus stages adds a twist - whether you're collecting as many rings as possible, racing a doppelgänger to the finish, facing off against giant enemies, or trying to rescue as many animals as possible, the majority of these bonus stages are nice little distractions to keep you playing that little bit longer - although there are a fair few stinkers amongst them, with the races against the doppelgängers being particularly nasty.
On the whole, then, Sonic Generations is a fairly enjoyable tribute to all that's good and Sonic - although the level selection does leave something to be desired, as you'd imagine they'd be wanting to forget about the glitchy, precision jumping of those difficult teenage years. It's a shame that there are no levels from the fan favourite Sonic CD available either, and we'd have preferred to have visited more than just the one stage from each of the games.
But perhaps what's the most worrying here is how certain levels in the game still seem to require you to read the mind of the developers, in order to jump from exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, at exactly the right speed. While a few years ago, speed was Sonic's calling card to show how much more powerful SEGA's console was compared to Nintendo's, today, on the same formats, it's much less needed. In fact, if there's one thing the game shows without a doubt, it's how much better the game works in 2D - not necessarily because there's less movement to worry about, but because it lets you play through at your own pace. We're not convinced simply holding X or Square to dash through a level is all that much fun - yet seemingly, that's what the designers want you to do.
Perhaps, for his next game, Sonic needs to take a break from all this "as fast as humanly (hedgehogly?) possible" malarkey and start to slow down a bit. Take it steady. After all, twenty years is good going for a hedgehog.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
