This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog arriving on the Sega Genesis, and Sega is celebrating Sonic’s 20th birthday by bringing us Sonic Generations. Sonic Generations is the a tribute to the franchise that allows fans to relive the high-points of the blue hedgehog’s career via level design and gameplay.
With respect to the franchise, I’m not as much of a bandwagon jumper (if you can say that) as I am just late to the party. I’ve just finished the three original Sonic games sometime during the last two years on XBLA, and I’m in an on-again, off-again, love/hate relationship with Sonic and Knuckles.
I’m a series tourist. I’m may not live in Sonic-ville, but I sure like to visit when the weather’s right, and Sonic Generations looks to offer sunny days, blue skies, and two kinds of hedgehogs.
Sonic Generations producer Takashi Iizuka joined us in the Sega’s E3 conference room to show off City Escape, a level that wasn’t available on the show floor. Sonic Generations showcases 20 stages, fan and developer favorites, from the past 20 years of Sonic’s history; City Escape is the San Fransisco-based level that Sonic Adventure 2 opens up with.
Each stage in Sonic Generations contains two acts. The first act of each stage features the stop-and-go, momentum-based gameplay that fans of the classic Sonic games (like me) are familiar with. The second act features contemporary gameplay, based Sonic Unleashed (minus the Were-hog stuff, presumably) and of Sonic Colors.
The gameplay is also governed with this in mind as the classic acts limit the players to two-button controls for jumping and spin-dashing. Modern Sonic loses the spin dash but gains the homing attack and is able to slide beneath small gaps.
Iizuka assured that Sonic Generations is “inspired by level design.” This realization is important because it puts gimmicks aside and puts the speed and the platforming mechanic at the center of it all. And just because it’s a tribute to previous Sonic titles, it doesn’t mean that there’s no room for new content. These acts are influenced by the previous levels, and are not just remakes.
City Escape’s modern act is based heavily off of the Sonic Adventure 2 stage, but Sonic can now jump on top of buildings and take shortcuts that weren’t there in the original version of the level. The allure here is that players are being presented with “new experiences on top of familiar experiences.” The truck in City Escape looks more menacing, wields circular saws, and even changes the level geometry. Based on when the player decides to destroy the truck, the player will be play through slightly different stages. Finishing the truck off later means that the truck will be attacking Sonic from the sides during the 2D portion of the modern City Escape, providing different routes and danger from various angles.
After the presentation in the Sega’s conference room, I hit the show floor to take the game for a spin. I played through both classic and modern Green Hill Zone acts a few times in 3D (which absolutely didn’t hurt), and I really enjoyed what I tried. I don’t have the original Green Hill Zone tattooed into my brain as much as World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros., but the gameplay is absolutely reminiscent of the original Sonic trilogy that I chugged through in recent years. The modern stages really let me experience the speed that I crave from a Sonic game, and they’re user friendly. While grinding, doing monkey flips to switch from pole-to-pole only required one button press, and QTE-like prompts pop up when you need to slide through a low ceiling. The best part is that the punishment for messing these up wasn’t brutal. I was able to get up to speed rather quickly, when I did. This made the game easy to pick up for a series tourist like me.
Bringing back old environments won’t be the only thing there to remind players of better times. Each stage comes with its own remixed version of the original stage theme. City Escape’s music in Sonic Generations is as much of a toe-tapper as the original version of the song.
If this anniversary’s got you feeling nostalgic about our blue friend, I’d keep an eye out for Sonic Generations because it might be on the fast track to success. This formula of luring players in with familiar level design and presenting them with new level structure might be the key to success in making Sonic’s 20th birthday a good one. The remixed music and 3D are great touches that only sweeten the deal might do a good job of reeling in nostalgia-philes and techies. Sonic Generations has been billed like a “greatest hits” title, and I’m confident that highlighting the sunniest days from the blue hedgehog’s past will bring some more for the future too.
Sonic Generations comes to Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo 3DS this November. We were not shown nor did we play the 3DS version, its content will be different than the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
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