Happy 20th Birthday to Sonic the Hedgehog - Thoughts on Sonic Generations

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Team have recently announced a game that will pay tribute to the blue blur; Sonic Generations. The game will feature both 'classic' and 'modern' Sonic who must team up to defeat some sort of time traveling adversary.

Gameplay will be divided into classic Sonic's traditional 2D style of the Mega Drive/Genesis days and modern Sonic's 3D on-rails style of the past decade or so. It's a popular opinion among gamers, and especially Sonic fans, that while the 2D games of the 90s were the speedy hedgehog's finest hour, the shift to 3D was rocky at best. Focusing on the main characteristic of Sonic, speed, meant that shifting to a behind-the-character view made it a little more difficult to see what was ahead and react accordingly. As a result, levels had to be linear, and many of the platforming elements of the 2D games had to be left behind as they just wouldn't have worked in a 3D environment. What was left was a major example of style over substance that barely felt like a platform game anymore.

From the sound of it you'll be able to choose which style you want to play each level in, which begs the question, why would anyone pick modern Sonic? It's an interesting idea to include both approaches to the same level, but it's likely that the main draw of the game will be the chance to revisit the golden 2D days of the character that used to compete with the likes of Mario. What we may end up with here is half a good game and half a so-so game.

Of course, the main interest to Sonic fans will be the reworking of classic zones. Watching the trailer, Green Hill Zone looks fantastic and hopefully quite true to the original. Something I hope Sonic Team doesn't forget is that while the 2D Sonic games did contain sections of pure speed, there were plenty of sections that required more careful precision platforming like any other action game of its time. There are parts of the trailer that lead me to believe that Generations will include such sections.

I'm very much looking forward to more classic zones being announced for a makeover. I'm fairly certain iconic stages such as Chemical Plant and Casino Night will also be featured, but if anyone from Sonic Team happens to be reading this, I'm quite partial to Mushroom Hill and Flying Battery. Hint hint.

Apart from Sonic 4 (which I will get round to playing eventually), I haven't purchased a Sonic game since Heroes, but this is looking very interesting. For someone who's first console was a Sega Master System and who grew up on the 90s Sonic games, the opportunity to revisit this hedgehog's glory days will be much too tempting to pass up on. I'll be keeping an eye on this with cautious optimism.