Sonic Generations review

Commemorating its star’s 20th birthday, Sonic Generations is a reminder of both what you adore and abhor in a series that’s had its simple joys diluted by flash-in-the-plan iterations and ideas.

A number of stages from the series have been given a lick of current-gen paint – from Sonic The Hedgehog’s Emerald Hill Zone to more contemporary settings like Sonic Adventure’s Speed Highway – and progress requires you to tackle them as either Sonic’s past or present self. As retro Sonic, stages play out in a traditional side-on view, while contemporary Sonic goes on a slightly different route with the more aggressive, unpredictable camera and speed of recent titles.

It’s a game of two halves, then, and while you have autonomy over which Sonic you select, this freedom isn’t mirrored in your navigation of the levels themselves. With the exception of experiments like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Chronicles, the spiky one’s stages have always been linear, but in Generations the added detail and onscreen activity can make progress fatally disorienting and stuttering, as a barrage of foreand background detail clouds your vision. The razzledazzle of Sonic Team’s tech may add visual flair, but it comes at the cost of your sense of empowerment, too often feeling like a game of pinball as you hold the analogue stick and hope for the best, occasionally tapping a button (and even these moments tend to come with prompts). A further frustration is the requirement to use both Sonics to unlock new worlds.

While the levels are strict and narrow, their hub is confusing in its openness. Each entrance is a miniature platformer in itself, comprising challenge gates that are too often hidden in awkward places. The few boss battles add to the burden, and suffer from poor camera placement and cruel mid-fight difficulty spikes.

Still, beneath the technical failings – including some disappointing framerate fluctuations – Sonic Team’s passion shines through. Plenty of extras are on offer, from a music library to a playable classic (see ‘Take you back’), and some of the challenge gates provide short, sharp bursts of fun that capture the mischievous tone of the rogue runner’s finest adventures.

Generations at least offers a passing glimpse of Sonic’s early days, where sprinting and platforming offered a balanced, reaction-based gameplay rhythm. The rest, however, is best viewed as a document of how Sega has struggled to stay true to that original template, and toggling between the old and new is a painful reminder of where Sonic went wrong. Instead of the sweet chords of nostalgia, Green Hill Zone’s chirpy tunes sound like a fanfare for the departed. [5]

PS3 version tested