Yup, those cutscenes are pretty cringe. Anyways, if Colors was my favorite take on the modern Boost gameplay, then Generations is my favorite take on the core Sonic experience: a platformer about being cooler than whatever platforming land you find yourself in. Generations achieves this not just with brilliant level design on its own, with layers of platforming lined with advanced shortcuts and fast track opportunities, but through the heart of its project. A celebratory title that doesn't just want to remind you about 20 years of Sonic, but to take its select highlights and remake them into the coolest versions of themselves possible.
This prospect of "remaking Sonic history" can be felt pretty much in every playable aspect of the game. Classic Sonic gets revamped with dynamic camerwork and setpieces and a powerful take on the spindash, but all the while renewing his original appeal of streetsmart platforming and momentum habits. Even the modern boost formula gets an excellent redux as a gameplay style where platforming and stopgaps are abundant, the boost feels like a hazardous powerup that won't always grant you an easy sprint through a level, but learning to channel both areas makes for some of the best skill ceilings you'll ever get from Sonic. Modern Sonic's action thriller vibes are carried over to Classic's gameplay while Classic Sonic's grounded and subversive sense of speed influences Modern's gameplay. Even the level selection has this initiative to think outside the box of their original concepts. What if Green Hill Zone was like a daytime continent from Unleashed? What if Chemical Plant was treated like a hazardous factory meltdown? What if Sky Sanctuary was an ACTUAL full level? You get all sorts of eye-opening revelations about places you once knew: the hotels in Speed Highway, the parks and downtown districts of City Escape, the once bottomless pit waters of Seaside Hill now being essential to advanced shortcuts, getting to visit the tornado carrying cars in Crisis City, going through the Werehog clocktower segment of Spagonia as a daytime Sonic, and getting a consolidation of Planet Wisps acts into one climb of a level. Every level feels like a complete zone - the ones that were already big layered zones feel even larger in scope and the more constrained modern levels get some much-needed depth to them. Entering a Generations zone now has a ton of gameplay attitudes to potentially approach them, paired with plenty of optional challenges that expand and get crazier with the ideas if you've had your fill with the base levels already.
This isn't one my favorite Sonic games because I necessarily think all the choices they picked for each era are pitch perfect. Nor is it my favorite because the gameplay is flawless. I don't really like the final boss. This is one of my all time favorites because it fires on all cylinders the sheer appeal of Sonic: to be cooler and cooler than the last place you start from. And whether it's doing a complete playthrough or just a marathon of every act on a whim, that sensation of being cooler is always prevalent in Generations. There are many cool Sonic games, but this one definitively tells the world that this character is, was, and always should be, about one-upping yourself.
This prospect of "remaking Sonic history" can be felt pretty much in every playable aspect of the game. Classic Sonic gets revamped with dynamic camerwork and setpieces and a powerful take on the spindash, but all the while renewing his original appeal of streetsmart platforming and momentum habits. Even the modern boost formula gets an excellent redux as a gameplay style where platforming and stopgaps are abundant, the boost feels like a hazardous powerup that won't always grant you an easy sprint through a level, but learning to channel both areas makes for some of the best skill ceilings you'll ever get from Sonic. Modern Sonic's action thriller vibes are carried over to Classic's gameplay while Classic Sonic's grounded and subversive sense of speed influences Modern's gameplay. Even the level selection has this initiative to think outside the box of their original concepts. What if Green Hill Zone was like a daytime continent from Unleashed? What if Chemical Plant was treated like a hazardous factory meltdown? What if Sky Sanctuary was an ACTUAL full level? You get all sorts of eye-opening revelations about places you once knew: the hotels in Speed Highway, the parks and downtown districts of City Escape, the once bottomless pit waters of Seaside Hill now being essential to advanced shortcuts, getting to visit the tornado carrying cars in Crisis City, going through the Werehog clocktower segment of Spagonia as a daytime Sonic, and getting a consolidation of Planet Wisps acts into one climb of a level. Every level feels like a complete zone - the ones that were already big layered zones feel even larger in scope and the more constrained modern levels get some much-needed depth to them. Entering a Generations zone now has a ton of gameplay attitudes to potentially approach them, paired with plenty of optional challenges that expand and get crazier with the ideas if you've had your fill with the base levels already.
This isn't one my favorite Sonic games because I necessarily think all the choices they picked for each era are pitch perfect. Nor is it my favorite because the gameplay is flawless. I don't really like the final boss. This is one of my all time favorites because it fires on all cylinders the sheer appeal of Sonic: to be cooler and cooler than the last place you start from. And whether it's doing a complete playthrough or just a marathon of every act on a whim, that sensation of being cooler is always prevalent in Generations. There are many cool Sonic games, but this one definitively tells the world that this character is, was, and always should be, about one-upping yourself.