Sonic Generations: Two Years Later

[Jet Prower]

If they were to ever go back to this gameplay style, there would be three main things I think should be improved on though and then I would likely like this game more than I would. First would be they need to double or triple the number of levels. This game is just over so quick that I feel a bit gipped by it is all. While I like the game, when the game is over in no time because of how fast it is, it is really disappointing. Second would be the story needs to be expanded massively and be more similar to the new one, but with a little more than that. Having an expansive story is something Sonic could definitely have over Mario when it comes to mainstream platformers. And finally, the third thing would just be some gameplay variety. The missions help a bit here, but that is just it, they are missions and not parts of the main levels.

 

Overall, I did like the game, but it just felt like there was something missing since I was able to 100% the game in less than a week when I wasn't even trying that hard. ^^;

[KHCast]

It went down in 3 hits and had little to no chance of defeating you.

The fact that you didn't even have to boost into it to do damage was also kind of sad.(this is from someone that actually likes the boss!)

[Tani Coyote]

It's a good game despite its short story length, though I don't really play it that much. I rarely do collectibles and such, though.

It was a very nice way to give everyone a dose of nostalgia to say Sonic was back, while also quietly writing off the last twenty years so Sonic could try to rebuild itself.

I hope whatever game comes out in 2016 has the levels of hype Generations had behind it, definitely.

[Nepenthe]

It's a good game from the viewpoint that it's just a large-scale remake of different levels, and the attention to detail on that front is amazing. Graphics and music are also great. Modern Sonic is a few notches below his Unleashed counterpart and Classic Sonic several, but they were fun enough in their own right regardless. Taking end-game bosses and making them as easy as they were is a disappointment, not helped by the fact that the game is completely lacking context and agency for everything in it. Most depressing use of the extended cast yet. It was fun while it lasted but I have no desire to replay it.

[Diogenes]

Well, last year I said:

It's still lame. It's a game that survives off of nostalgia, spectacle, and basic competence.

And surprise, surprise, my thoughts haven't changed. Classic Sonic is still an embarrassment to its name. Modern Sonic is still cheap, shallow boost gameplay with a few clunky platforming sections thrown in to make it seem like they tried to fix it. And the story...isn't. The concept is wasted and it doesn't even manage to feel nostalgic.

I've got no love for the game and my remaining hopes for the series hinge on them not crawling back to it just because SLoW has problems.

[Wraith]

Awesome game from start to....planet wisp. A little on the short side but it has some awesome levels with the best set of bosses in the series. The music is incredible, especially the White World mixes. The story is crap, but that's really a minor thing to me compared to how great everything else is. 

[T-Min]

...Planet Wisp is one of my favorite levels, you poopy butts...

[Autosaver]

Modern Sonic is a few notches below his Unleashed counterpart

I disagree here. After trying the Unleashed mod for Generations, it feels like a huge step down. Sure it looks big, but the gameplay is far worse. The level design just eeks of a need of redesigning and there's so many twitch gameplay sections. Oops, you jumped at the wrong time? Here, have a death pit. Ha! You didn't move left at x section in x seconds, die!

 

At least Generations took the Modern Gameplay, gave pretty good level design, and severely reduced the amount of frustration. It was hard to go back to the more boring and frustrating gameplay of Unleashed. The platforming sections in Unleashed were 10x worse. Same with the controls. He feels a lot more slippery and some of the buttons are poorly mapped.

[Jimbo]

It's hard to believe that this game came out two years ago. I can still remember all of the hype surrounding it before its release and coming home every day to see if they released any new info about the game.

 

Sonic Generations is my personal favorite 3D Sonic game. I don't play it much anymore though, I just can't get back into it. After finishing everything it had to offer, I didn't really feel the need to continue playing it. Occasionally I'll pop the game in for a quick speedrun, but outside of that it's not a game I play often.

 

I actually really like Planet Wisp Modern, but I hate Planet Wisp Classic. Easily the worst classic level in the game.

[RK64]

...Planet Wisp is one of my favorite levels, you poopy butts...

 

You mean CLASSIC Planet Wisp; that was a fun level with a great remix (a very Sonic CD Bad Future-esc one) and (even if others wont agree with me here) good useage of the Spike Wisp. Modern Planet Wisp starts out great but once you head to the factor part of the stage it becomes a very boring 2-D blocky platforming level for a gameplay system bulit around always-running (unlike Sonic Colors; that game had controls made for platforming, so the 2-D platforming in that felt solid compared to Generations 2-D platforming for Modern Sonic).

[Solkia]

spike to win

[Nepenthe]

...Planet Wisp is one of my favorite levels, you poopy butts...

 

It's way too long and tedious, padded out unnecessarily by mandatory Wisps that manage the feat of controlling worse, and also what I assume was someone going "oshit, this is the last level! Quick! Make it longer!"

 

I disagree here. After trying the Unleashed mod for Generations, it feels like a huge step down. Sure it looks big, but the gameplay is far worse. The level design just eeks of a need of redesigning and there's so many twitch gameplay sections. Oops, you jumped at the wrong time? Here, have a death pit. Ha! You didn't move left at x section in x seconds, die!

 

At least Generations took the Modern Gameplay, gave pretty good level design, and severely reduced the amount of frustration. It was hard to go back to the more boring and frustrating gameplay of Unleashed. The platforming sections in Unleashed were 10x worse. Same with the controls. He feels a lot more slippery and some of the buttons are poorly mapped.

My general thought at this point is that I see little difference between Rayman Origins and Unleashed. I simply have little problem with a platformer that relies on twitch reflexes or punishes you harshly for a mistake; As I said before, Daytime gameplay knows exactly what it is- a speed-running focused platformer- and has level design tailored specifically for it, so it feels more complete. Modern Sonic in Generations is a slightly toned down version of this, feeling jam-packed into a game he wasn't meant for- featuring less opportunities to rip loose as a result of weird decisions (why can't I wall jump anywhere anymore?), unnecessary tweaks to the feel of the boost, and a mishmash of level design characteristics from older and newer games that doesn't really serve to make great use of either's strengths. I also don't care about alternate paths if there's very little rhyme or reason for their existence other than "you can go here." Forced exploration like in, say, the Zelda games feels more satisfying to me. Overall, I feel Generations Sonic is just a paler imitation of the original.

[Jet Prower]

From the way things seem to be going lately, imagine if some of these elements were all mixed now. I feel platforming elements are alot better in lost world due to the slower speed yes. Yet, people seem to want the high speed elements as well. Where is the medium of giving a Sonic game that feels fast but you feel in control of your platforming. Modern Sonic sometimes in this game and other boost games seems like he wants to go so fast even when going slow that he seems slippery sometimes when trying to do platforming.

 

People want to go fast, but when you need to be more precise with jumps and such, because he is designed to go so fast, platforming becomes more difficult to do. Hitting your mark seems a bit easier in the new game due to the slower speed, but yes, he is a bit too slow there now as a result.

[Narukami07]

I still think it's a really good Sonic game and a nice love letter to the fans. How bout you?

 

It sure is, given the amount of crap that Wii & PS3/360 owners got before Colors arrived.

[Frogging101]

Back in October 2012, before joining here, I bought this game on Steam. It was the first Sonic game I had ever played, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I liked both the Modern and Classic Sonic gameplay, and this combined with the lovely music and beautiful visuals made for a nice, immersive experience.

My main gripes with it are its length (it's too short, honestly), and the story was extremely lacklustre. There is so much history in this series, and this game presented a huge opportunity to capitalize on this with subtle continuity nods and references, but this potential was utterly squandered.

I think I'm going to replay it again once I'm done with Lost World. Despite its shortcomings (heh), it's still a fun game and a great experience.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Frogging101

[mikeblastdude]

I absolutely loved the hell out of Sonic Generations when it first came out, and still do. I've put many hours into it, and still play it regularly. I'd go as far as to say that it's my favorite video game made since the '90s.

 

The game definitely has a few flaws, the biggest being that it's way too short. To me though, it's a major case of quality over quantity, and everything they did, they completely nailed in my opinion.

 

Also, yeah the story is definitely lackluster, but I've never cared too much about story when it comes to Sonic.

[azoo]

Generations was a good game for the 3 or 4 hours it lasted.

Nah, it was good fun. I personally liked both classic and modern's gameplay, the visuals were really really fantastic and the music was all nice throwbacks. The game itself was so underwhelmingly short though, and the story to glue it all together was nonexistent.

I occasionally want to replay it now and then, but I also just can't find myself wanting to usually. And if I do, its usually the classic levels. Don't even know why I like playing those over the modern stages its the level design / spindash.

[Cyalume]

Its a much better experience on PC than on consoles, I'll say that much. I love the game, but 30 FPS is too slow for it... It was a very noticeable jump for me once I was finally able to purchase the game on Steam after having beaten the 360 version already.

Oh, and mods. Mods.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Cyalume

[Semi-colon e]

I still really like this game a lot. I'm just surprised it's been two years already. True, it's in some ways disappointing, true, in some ways it wasn't worth the hype, and true, it was really short, but I still pop it in to play for a little bit here and there and I still love the levels and the level design.

[Stritix]

Honestly, it's still a good game. They could have done a lot more with the concept and the story is very disappointing, but overall it's still a solid Sonic game. I actually enjoy it more now than I did when it was first released.

[thatguyfrom03]

I got Generations my senior year of college. I was initially afraid to play it in my dorm because Sonic was considered "kiddy." But most people were like "oh is that Sonic? Awesome!" I would play it and  small crowds of people would gather and watch me play. Something I learned is that  watching Modern Sonic speedruns made Sonic cool again for some 20+ year olds. My first playthrough in Modern Speed Highway with my friends  freaking out with me was one of my favorite Sonic memories ever. Some guys in my would suite would challenge me to Classic time attacks(Modern was too complicated for them lol), and hold their own. Good times.

 

I played the hell out of Generations. So much so, that I gave it to a friend, as I knew I couldn't play it any more. Its flawed, and as a whole I preferred Colors by a long shot. But it made more memories with my favorite franchise.

[Tenko]

Two years later I still think its a huge missed opportunity for Sega in regards to DLC. If any game besides All-Stars Racing cried out for it, it was Generations. It sold reasonably well, and the fans generally ate it up. They could have scanned the forums a bit, see what levels had a majority voice, make em, sell em for a decent but not unfair price and profit.

Casino Night was nice and all, but rather lackluster, after a quick play or two it became a throw away to me personally. Post launch there was nothing, it still boggles my mind. The White World layout even have some paths that led to dead ends, the manual in some territories when mentioning extras like Sonic 1 and Casino Night made it sound like there could be more. But nope, nothing.

Heck, the my knowledge they never even officially released all the statue codes for the not so secret as it was in the manual Statue Room.

Much like All-Stars Racing on console really, launch DLC which was free for preorders or first print buyers, one gift DLC then poof nothing. Still waiting on that "approved" DLC they mentioned almost half a year ago. But that's a rant for another topic I guess >.<

Edited November 5, 2013 by Tenko

[Emmett L. Brown]

It's still one of the best Sonic games I've played in ages, and even at its weakest it's still head and shoulders above the bar set by the modern generation of Sonic titles. Yes, Time Eater was an awful boss, but that doesn't diminish that Generations was the first 3D Sonic game to have every single boss fight be unique and fun, with none of that recycling the same boss with slightly increased difficulty (Egg Albatros, did we really have to fight you eight times - egad!). And as undeniably tedious as Planet Wisp was, the rest of the game provided superb level design that complimented two different playstyles while playing to the strengths of both.

[Sean]

I saw the dates of the old posts and thought to myself "has it really been three years since this game came out jfc" since I didn't realize the topic title had been edited yet, oops

 

It's my favorite 3D Sonic game which sadly isn't saying a lot. Of the 3D games in the series that I can still stand to enjoy, the only other one is Colors, and that's barely a Sonic game in itself. I either hate everything else or they're just terribly aged (or in Unleashed's case with the daytime stages, I've struck a middle ground mentality in which I don't personally like what it was trying to do but I can respect it for being a fun romp while speedrunning).

 

Generations has its flaws and it was too damn short, but at least I still feel that it was a good game with none of the gimmicky bullshit of past (and later) games.

[TheOcelot]

Has it really been two years since Generations was released.........wow time flies. 

 

It was a damn good nostalgia trip. The music remixs were lovely and the option to play whatever music track you wanted in each stage was inspired. The missions were fun for the most part, although I would have preferred more normal stages instead (where was my Sonic 3 level?!).

 

Generations gave us the best version of the boost gameplay and the level design was so much better. The classic Sonic physics were nothing like Genesis gameplay. You didn't pick up speed rolling down hill and the spindash was ridiculously overpowered. I preferred the modern boost gameplay. The overall structure of the game really does come across as rather boring and admittedly I don't replay Generations much.

 

The story is lame and the final boss was pathetic. The main thing though was that Generations was a celebration of the last 20 years of Sonic, and it delivered a nice game.

Edited November 5, 2013 by -Bender-