Since the end of the Dreamcast era, Sonic titles have somewhat taken a downward spiral in overall fun. The games tried to expand Sonic’s horizons and abilities, but the only thing that was improved was how Sonic looked. The Sonic Adventure series, I thought, was one of the best transitions from a 2D game to 3D of any game. From then on Sega has tried to bring the same magic, but has failed to do so with the last few installments, except for Sonic Colors for the Nintendo Wii. Sonic Colors received high review scores, bringing Sonic back to what fans had been asking.

For Sonic’s 20th birthday, Sega decided to try a new route with Sonic Generations, a game that takes two different styles of already existing Sonic games and mashing them together. The game starts off as if you were at the start of the first Sonic The Hedgehog game, in the infamous Green Hill Zone. With the “Classic” Sonic, you race through one of the most nostalgic stages in a game ever. From start to finish, the stage has been redesigned in 3D, but it still plays in the classic style with the familiar finish.

“Modern” Sonic is celebrating his birthday and all of his friends, familiar characters spanning the Sonic series such as Team Chaotix (who appeared in the lesser known Sega 32x game Knuckles Chaotix and more recently, Sonic Heroes), Blaze the Cat, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prowler, Cream the rabbit and Cheese the Chao, are all in attendance. Suddenly, a strange large creature mysteriously sends everyone into weird vortexes. Sonic gives chase and takes on Green Hill Zone, now in a more 3D, wide-opened stage. The stage requires Sonic to speed through with multiple routes and different view perspectives.

The game focuses on the two different styles of Sonic games. Classic Sonic uses the old-school Genesis style, which uses the 3rd-person free exploration, and modern Sonic uses a 3D style that has been used since the Sonic Adventure series, which is in third-person view. Certain stages allow Sonic to use moves like the Wall Jump, Jump slam and light speed dash. All of these moves will help Sonic save both worlds from a mysterious evil.


All the stages in the game were taken from nearly every Sonic console game, including my favorite level of any Sonic game, City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2. Even the soundtrack from earlier Sonic games are back and are re-done for the different stages.

Sonic Generations is fun. I finally have a Sonic game that I can sit down and enjoy. Sonic Colors was enjoyable, but after beating the game, I didn’t find a reason to want to play it again. Sonic Generations, however, has various mini games that have both Sonics racing and working with Modern Sonic’s friends. Performing the challenges allow for extra hours of gameplay. Tie that in with boss challenges and re-doing all the stages as Super Sonic, I approve of this Sonic game and think Sega did a great job with gameplay, style, action, replay and overall fun.

Grade: A

Chris Del Castillo

Growing up Chris watched a lot of the original Saturday morning cartoons and developed a love for arts and animation. Growing up he tried his hand at animation and eventually script writing, but even more his love of video games, anime and technology grew.

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