Sonic Generations

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About the Game

Sonic Generations was developed by the one and only Sonic Team, the team responsible for most of the Sonic games. The blue blur had always been the face of Sega thus they are the publishers. Sonic games are mainly released with the anniversary of the freanchise and Sonic Generations was produced for the 20th Anniversary. The game was released in November 2011. The game was highly anticipated ever since the first teaser of the series, that had the blue Hedghog running and styling up until the moment he leaps and another Sonic ( the Classic one) appears right next to him as they both race. As more trailers were released prior to the game the hype and expectations only grew bigger and bigger. Sega announced that the developes Dimps were working on making a portable release for the Nintendo Ds.
Upon the release the game came out in two forms.
Standard Edition:(Playstation 3, Xbox 360)
Included the game
Collector Edition(Playstation 3, XBox 360)
Included the game, A Steelbook Case, Artbook, Audio Cds, Statue of Classic and Modern Sonic, a golden ring
The game's Ds release had the standard that included the cartridge and the small book that almost all the Ds & 3Ds games had. Nowadays, fans and casual player can enjoy the game on both the Playstation 4,5 and the Xbox One, series X though the online streamming services of Playstation Now and the X Box pass.

Story of the Game

First things first who re the two heroes:

  1. Classic Sonic
    2. A Sonic who plays in 2D levels and it has the same formula with the Sonic found in early games
  2. Modern Sonic
    3. A Sonic who plays in both 2D and 3D levels and has a few more abilities.
The story begins with Classic Sonic running around the famous Green hills zone. Everything semmed to be fine however, a monster broke out of a portal, and absorb everything inside it portal. In the mean time, Tails and the rest of the heroes through a suprise party to their friend Sonic(Modern) who celebrated his birthday(20 years anniversary). However, the same purple rift appears yet again and destroys everything. The monster absorbs all of sonic friends and traps them in various of rifts. Sonic the awakes in a white space where time and space are frozen. By finishing his Act he gets to free his friends Tails who explains how he felt frozen in time. They both seemed to have memories of the place they just were but cant really remember.The more they explore their feeling of Dejavu becomes more and more intense. The further they proceed more of their allies are being freed from there time prison. Eventually Dr. Eggman interfiere and it has both Sonic's acknowledge the presence of the other. Tails, put the pieces together and realize how the two Sonics, two Tails and the familiar Maps means the monster is messing with the time. The heroes decide to first rescue all of their friends until they re able to learn more about the monster. The heroes eventually come across Eggman and he reveals how after his defeat from the events of Sonic Colors Dr Eggman was left hovering in space. He came across this monster who could erase time and Space. This motivated Eggman to manipulate the monster to outdo all his defeats. His first plan was to visit to the past get his past self and take down Sonics.

The Good and Bad of the Game's Story


From an outside point of view, the games story is perfect. An original way to bring both 2D Sonic And 3D Sonic in a story that allows this concept to take place. In 2021 when this article was written, Two Sonics co-existing in a game may not be as suprising but back in the day it was a major deal and a game that combine the fans who Hated either Classic or Modern with the other half in an enjoyable experience. The concept allowed for some hilarious interactions with the heroes, as it takes some time to realise that there are currently two Sonics running around to save the day. Things become even more hilarious when Dr.Eggman meets his own counter part from the Original Sonic Series. Till this point Sonic had a weird era who received three games whose story was not nessesarily praised with games such as Sonic 2006 (the Elise Plot), Sonic Unleashed (The Famous Werehog) and Sonic the black Knight. NOTE: Not claimming any of these entries were bad, However their plot was heavily critisized.

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Gameplay

Sonic games are either 3D, 2D or Both platforming games. Sonic Generations, keeps the formula to the standard fromula that the series are known for. The players move around within a level collecting rings and trying to reach the end by avoiding enemies and death traps. The player dies by falling in a non playable area, running out of time, drunk in water, squash between items and getting hit when there are no rings. Rings act as a shield for the player. To elaborate when a player is hit they lose their coins and they have a few seconds to recollect them before they dissappear.When the player has zero coins and receives a blow, then they will will die. Every level has multple of checkpoints for the player to collect by passing through them. Checkpoints re represented in the form of a pole with a blue sphere.
The game Consist of seven Zones, each containing their own Act1 and Act2. The acts represent actual long levels, Act1 are being played by the classic Sonic while Act2 are player by Modern Sonic. Each of the Acts when played by both Sonic reveal plenty of mini challenges that the player can play in order to earn more points and unlock more items within the store. The hub world also has various of locked door, that will require the player to clear certain stages in order to pbtain keys to proceed further on. Each Act consist of 5 Challenger Doors which make them ten in total.(5 + 5 = 10) .
There are 9 types of Gates, these are :

Speed
Similar to time challenges Sonic has to cross the line within a certain time
Technique
Once again Sonic is given a time to cross the line but this time he has to use certain abilities in order to do so.
Doubleganger
Race Againts an Ai, the player has to defeat the bot
Friends
The player is joined by an Ai bot and they have to work together to clear the mission.
Enemy
Sonic has to go through a level where enemies have their status increased (Speed,Size,Number)
Item
Players have to use power ups to clear a level. Power up close to the ones found in the original Sonic games
Ring
Sonic has to clear a level with certain amount of rings, or by only having 1 ring thrughout the level.
Juggle
When classic Sonic crosses a finish line he gets to spin a plate. During a challenge Sonic starts with the plate and has to carry it to the end.
Rescue
A timer is set and SOnic has to free a certain amount of captured animals.

The game sperates it self in two different gameplays Classic Sonic played in Act1 and Modern Sonic who is playable in Act2. The player chooses with Sonic to use Whilst in the hub world. However all Acts have to be cleared at some point in order to proceed.



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Classic Sonic
Classic Sonic is the hero known from the past games. He is a representation of the older days where Sonic used to move only within a 2D environment. Classic Sonic can damage enemies by simply jumping on them. Another way of dealing with enemies is to spin towards an enemy. Spinning is achieved by holding down when sprinting. At the same time if the hero is standing still, the player can hold down and tap Square multiple times to build momentum. X is used the jumping but also allows the player to double jump by repressing X. Before landing after a Jump pressing square will build speed for the hero. Further more all the stages made for classic Sonic give the player Certain power ups to escort him on his fight. Item such as invisibility, shields, magnets and other.

Modern Sonic
Modern Sonic is played in both 2D and 3D levels. Similar to classic Sonic he is jumping with X. The hero is also capable of boosting by pressing Square, Boosting on enemies will instatly kill them. The boost meter is built by collecting coins and by defeating foes. The last function of the X button is to wall bounce when jumping on a certain wall. As sonic is moving in the speed of sound, the player can use L1 and R1 to swap between lanes fast. This is known as the Quick step. However in maps where there are bigger circular turns Modern Sonic can drift with L2 and R2. Moreover, Sonic can Crouch with circle in order to slide through obstacles or attack enemies. At the same time Circle whilst on air is used to stomp attack. Can be used to stomp enemies and break surfaces. Further more Triangle is known as Light speed dash, and allows sonic to dash towards certain shiny coins. Last but not least modern Sonic has a homing attack. Enemies, bounce pads and hoods will be marked with a green circle that indicates that the player can press X in order for Sonic to attack its target by dashing towards it. The ability is not to be abused as certain enemies have spikes on them and they will punish the player. Whilst on a wire or in a straight 3D road (mainly Boss), L1 and R1 one are used to change left to right.
Super Sonic is the ability of Sonic turning golden. Super Sonic for those unaware is Sonic absorbing the power of chaos emeralds and gainning super abilities. He turns gold, he is invisible to any enemy attack and had infinite dash . Hitting them will kill them and will magnetise all the coins. Sonic turns Super by, equiping the skill (unlocked from main story) ,collecting 50 Coins in an Act and holding down Triangle. Once Sonic turns super his power will remain active as long as Sonic has rings. The moment he turns gold the ring counter will began to subtrack, when the counter reaches zero he turns back to normal. Rings gathered whilst in the form will extend it's timer.

Collectables

The game has three type of collectables and can be found in every level. The first type of collectables are the notorious red coins found in every act. The other type of collectable are player skills. Player skills are unlocked from the store, and the more red coins a player unlocks the more skills become available to be purchased. Some skills are made for one Sonic out of the two and others for both. For examble certain skills might be equipable to Classic Sonic Such as Blaze shield, some to ModernSonic such as quick step on skateboard and others to both of them such as the previously mentioned Super Sonic transformation. The last type of collectables are the things found in the Gallery room. This include Sonic art such as Maps, Heroes, concept ideas, promotional art etc, Music found through out the lvls and ofcourse the games cutscenes.

Music and Level

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First things first the music of the game similar to every sonic game is really good. Plenty of memorable songs. Every level has unique songs that escort the levels, whether it's the famous green Hills or City escape, there is always a match. It should be mentioned that when playing modern Sonic and use Dash, there is a special effe used in the background music that indicates Sonic's speed of Light. The level themselves are large and some have various of mechanicks. Some levels are straight forward, some have the player running from a death trap, some have the water level risings and some either use the Wisps introduce at colors. Sonic levels are made for both 3D and 2D depending on the Sonic currently in used. It should also be stated that the levels played are chosen by Sega's Sonic team based on all the past entries. World one is the green hills Zone found in Level 1, City escaped was taken from Sonic Adventure two and plenty of ohters. The songs taken from the respective games have been remade and even receive a remix version.

Final Thoughts

Overall Sonic Generation was a game that came with plenty of possitive impressions. As the game aged, the mass agreed that the game might be one of the best games out there that are highly replayable. The story of the game is simple to follow, very original as a concept and hilarious with every dialogue given by the characters. For example, having the two Eggmans debating where their plans gone wrong , whose fault was it and counting who had the most defeats. Furthermore, Sonic generations is considered by the fandom as one of the fastest games currently available , as Sonics dash is extremely fast and in some occasions breaks the Game. The ammount of levels found within the game is sufficient, and as mentioned there's plenty of replayability found in all acts. Each of the Acts are enormous and theres plenty of alternative paths foe the hero to take to reach the end.

There are not plenty of negative things to be found in Sonic Generations but there are a few. In terms of framerate the game runs smooth on the ps3(Unaware of the Ps4 Streamming(Ps now)) however there are two times where Sonic is grinding on a rail while plenty of destructions take place in the background. These destruction cause enviromental damage such as wall crashing that might drop the frame rate as more particles appear on screen. The one major flaw, is the ammount of glitches that can be triggered in game. From a personal prospective, I only came across two minor glitches that did not break the game and only acted as a break on a speedy part. However there's plenty of small bugs left in the game that require a certain process to be made in order to glitch Sonic or the enemies. As the game was made in 2011 it should go with out a saying that Sega will not fix the glitches as it has been a decade since.

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