Sonic Generations Review

I don't enjoy Sonic. I've made an effort to play every Sonic game that isn't a spin-off, and a recent Humble Bundle made for a great opportunity to try Sonic Generations. After everything I'd heard I was expecting something excellent. What I found was disappointing.

PROS:

-Sonic Generations has great graphic and sound design. I'm combining both topics in one section because they're what you expect from a Sonic game that doesn't have "Adventure" in the title. The music of almost every Sonic game will compete with most pop singers, and the graphics in Sonic Generations do a good job blending the various level's art into one cohesive game. The art tends to be on the realistic side of the spectrum, but not to the point of Sonic 06.

-The game tends to be fair. Sonic games will either be stupidly easy or unfairly difficult. Sonic Generations doesn't ever get super hard, but it will leave you feeling like there were challenging parts. Your mileage may vary on this part, especially if you're a Sonic fan who has a lot of experience with Sonic's level design.

CONS:

-There's a lot of input lag. I don't know if the PlayStation 3 version is particularly bad with input lag, but I noticed that jumping felt incredibly delayed and imprecise. Sonic also felt annoyingly stiff as both classic Sonic and modern Sonic.

-Level design can still be annoying. With level design from the Genesis era you can expect some level of annoyance with the level design. Sometimes enemies will be placed where they attack you unfairly, sometimes you won't make a jump because Sonic feels annoyingly stiff, sometimes the camera decides to go on strike.

-The game is very short. Let me be clear that I did the minimum to beat the game. I did very few challenges, I didn't go for higher ranks, I didn't play this game as long as die hard Sonic fans will. Playing every level from start to finish was required, and doing just that, I found the game to be over far quicker than I expected.

-The level design is uninspired. Each level is from a previous Sonic game. Levels from a 3D Sonic game have a 2D version made where you play as classic Sonic. 2D levels have a 3D version made where you play as modern Sonic. Annoyingly they also put a bunch of 2D sections in the 3D levels, which often interrupts the flow of the level. The only 3D level I found particularly enjoyable was City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2, largely because Adventure 1 and 2 have level design I prefer compared to the rest of the series.

I guess my annoyance with the level design largely comes from how shoehorned level gimmicks are. City Escape has a truck in the original so the 2D version needs to have a truck chasing you at all times, which is fine I guess, but sometimes the truck isn't even racing you, and is instead just an obstacle that moves around in circles for you to avoid while doing imprecise platforming.

Overall Opinion:

This game left me disappointed. I expected a fun Sonic game that takes levels from previous Sonic games and makes a fun and cohesive romp. What I played was a game with some of the least interesting level design I've seen from a Sonic game. The levels are slow and full of platforming, with very little speed involved. Platforming is also made incredibly frustrating by how laggy the controls are and how stiff Sonic feels.