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[Village]

Another nice part of Sonic Generations is the ability to play through Unleashed as Metal Sonic.



I just ignore that the Final Boss even exists. The game ends after Egg Dragoon.

Metal Sonic and Chaos were fun fights. Especially Chaos, since they basically recreated the original fight.


I don't know either. Especially since, for Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver, they had the assets already made for three potential full DLC stages.

Stardust Speedway (Bad Future)
Space Gadget
Crisis City (Alternate)

Modders also had a 100% full working Metal Sonic mod out within a year or so, so I imagine a real dev team could have pumped that out faster. Along with Tails, Shadow, Knuckles, Blaze and Silver, who also all have assets already in the game.

And whatever engine they working on seems easy to transfer work, because folks got shadow in lost world to a somewhat workable state with his unique animations within i believe it was a week.

Sega will complain about how sonic stages cost money and then dont do things, some of those things requiring minimum effort, that would make them money.

Like seriously.

 

[MrHoot]

By far my favourite 3d sonic game, no contest. Adventure 1 and 2 had their perks here and there but also ton of problems and never came close to that amount of polish.

I still replay it sometimes just for the sheer pleasure of speedrunning. And I can only hope we get a generations 2 because oh god there's so many levels i'd like to revisit, or just make new ones with the same attention to level design.

It's also the first time where I thought that modern sonic trumped the classic sonic levels and managed to pull off alternate routes in a good way

 

[Daingurse]

Sonic Generations is simply pure fun, and is one of my favorite Sonic titles ever. The "boost gameplay" was polished and refined, making it my favorite gameplay style outside of the original titles. I enjoyed classic Sonic as well, but wish they just straight copied the Genesis physics completely. They feel a bit off, making Modern Sonic the definitive Sonic of the game for me.

The PC port is fantastic, really bringing out the great visuals of the game, and it plays so well at 60fps. Add in mods and lordy do you have a definitive version of the game. Here are some screens I took!

There are only a few games that have lived up to my expectations and hype, Sonic Generations is one of them. I am still waiting for another Sonic game with this level of quality. Hear that Sega, I'm waiting.

 

[The Sum of Zero]

I definitely think one positive of the 3DS version is the music.

Especially the awesome remix used for the Big Arms boss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbMIgkbCzo

 

[TimmiT]

Because they just werent good at it.

Ignoring the warehog, I dont know how you can prefer modern generations stages to Unleashed day stages if you really know how to control Sonic at top speed.

This

https://youtu.be/p7IYdCwuog0

in no way compares for this

https://youtu.be/JVcKhKCALCg

For sheer white knuckle rush of speed.

Alot of the criticism of modern (boost) sonic in general boils down to "I dont have the reaction speed for this game design, therefore its not good".

The Unleashed speedrun you linked makes use of a glitch to go faster. I don't think anyone outside of incredibly talented speedrunners would play the game like that. :V

 

[RK128]

It's a great game, but it's still a disappointment to me after Unleashed. It fixes a lot of what IMO Colors bastardized, but it is still not quite back up to par. If Unleashed was an A+, and Colors was a C, Generations would be an A-... and I think that would be a fair assessment.

Like, why did they have to put homing on the same button? Why did the fuck up the rail grinding controls? And you can't crawl! They messed with success.

As a fan, it seriously pains me that people find this game to be better than Unleashed. I'm going like, what the actual fuck, in my mind.

I would understand wanting this if you were say, having a double jump mapped to the jump button, but as is? I had more issue with that element in Unleashed . Not often but I did air boost when trying to only homing attack.

Rail Grinding mapped to the sticks was fine and the crawl is such a minor move for Sonic that its exclusion isn't that much of a big deal.

I do agree that Unleashed's stages rock and they should of been in Generations somehow.....but thanks to the hacking community, we go the Unleashed Project for the PC version of Generations .

I definitely think one positive of the 3DS version is the music.

Especially the awesome remix used for the Big Arms boss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbMIgkbCzo

Thank you for sharing this! Would you mind if I put this in the OP? Going to include this and the Biolizard Remix the 3DS version offered.

 

[RK128]

This has sure been a fun past two or so months XD! Consistantly talking about the Blue Blur's various adventures across the years with you all. It has been a lot of fun and I want to thank you all for supporting me making these threads.

NeoGaf has such a lovely community and it was great seeing so many come to talk about the Sonic series, good and bad.

Thank you all for being part of this retrospective with me. Yoshi and Village, cannot thank you both enough for helping me with a few of the threads, as I had a blast making them with you guys !

Want to share my top 10 Sonic games with you all, and while they might differ from other peoples top 10, I wanted to let you all know the games I really enjoy the most .

1. Sonic Generations
2. Sonic 2/Sonic CD
3. Sonic Colors
4. Sonic Adventure
5. Sonic 3&K
6. Sonic Heroes
7. Sonic Unleashed
8. Sonic Adventure 2
9. Sonic Rush
10. Sonic Advance 2

 

[Aaron Strife]

What grinds my nuts about the recycling level designs in Generations 3DS is when Mushroom Hill cuts the Act 1 boss, but there's still a checkpoint right before where it would be.

So it's checkpoint, five seconds, finish the level.

Also a Water Palace Modern is ripped straight from Rush so the classic levels aren't the only ones they cheapened out on. Though given how awful some of the new level design was (Radical Highway Classic has to be the worst) maybe that's not the worst thing ever.

 

[Daingurse]

This has been a great series of threads.

 

[RK128]

This has been a great series of threads.

Thank you .

I've had a blast making them honestly .

 

[Glitchesarecool]

If Generations had Chao gardens it would be the actual best Sonic game ever made.

The Chaos redo was incredible and the music remixes were top notch. It's really one of the shining stars in the series, a game the managed to capture the play style of the original genesis collection and revamp it for the 3D movement engine. The modding scene is spectacular as well!

 

[RK128]

What grinds my nuts about the recycling level designs in Generations 3DS is when Mushroom Hill cuts the Act 1 boss, but there's still a checkpoint right before where it would be.

So it's checkpoint, five seconds, finish the level.

Also a Water Palace Modern is ripped straight from Rush so the classic levels aren't the only ones they cheapened out on. Though given how awful some of the new level design was (Radical Highway Classic has to be the worst) maybe that's not the worst thing ever.

Even Tropical Resort blantly rips Classic's act from the DS version of Colors :l.

 

[Ristifer]

I absolutely adore Generations. One of my all-time favourite games. Plus, it has a wonderful soundtrack.

Although, seeing a lot of reactions since its release, I'm wondering if I'm the only one who loves the Classic Sonic version of Planet Wisp. It had some serious platforming to it, which I enjoyed immensely.

I was begging for DLC back in the day, but had no idea it was such an expensive project for them to make. Still, I was always curious what they might do with some of the other levels.

No idea what their new anniversary game will be like, but I hope it's done with as much care as Generations was. I'm pretty excited to see what they have to offer.

 

[RK128]

I absolutely adore Generations. One of my all-time favourite games. Plus, it has a wonderful soundtrack.

Although, seeing a lot of reactions since its release, I'm wondering if I'm the only one who loves the Classic Sonic version of Planet Wisp. It had some serious platforming to it, which I enjoyed immensely.

I was begging for DLC back in the day, but had no idea it was such an expensive project for them to make. Still, I was always curious what they might do with some of the other levels.

No idea what their new anniversary game will be like, but I hope it's done with as much care as Generations was. I'm pretty excited to see what they have to offer.

Outside of over-usage of the Spike Wisp, it was a great level to me. It and the music remix it got, heavily reminded me of Sonic CD. It was fitting, considering how the level plays with Good/Bad Future ideas in Colors (If Sonic doesn't stop Eggman, the Planet will get a 'Bad Future').

I really loved the platforming here and while the Classic Remix isn't great, I like the effort to make it Sonic CD Bad Future-like honestly.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I would have preferred Starlight Carnival over Planet Wisp.

SC feels like a more impressive final stage for this game, given how visually awesome it looks

 

[RK128]

I would have preferred Starlight Carnival over Planet Wisp.

SC feels like a more impressive final stage for this game, given how visually awesome it looks

I wonder if Sonic Team thought that too, allowing Sumo Digital to make a race course for Starlight Carnival in Racing Transformed to compensate picking Planet Wisp for Generations .

I think Planet Wisp is a decent final level for the machine vs. nature element being a major theme for the Sonic series over the years. The machine sections in Planet Wisp feel very Metropolis/Scrap Brain like, so I can see why they picked the zone to close the game.

 

[Easy_D]

I'm not even that invested in the Sonic series outside of liking the Mega Drive games, Rush and Generations but I enjoyed these threads a lot. I really hope SEGA gives us a sequel to Generations for the anniversary, it deserves a sequel so bad. They should also let their racing team handle the fast speedy sections, imagine if Sonic controlled more like a racecar, that'd be pretty fun.

 

[RK128]

I'm not even that invested in the Sonic series outside of liking the Mega Drive games, Rush and Generations but I enjoyed these threads a lot. I really hope SEGA gives us a sequel to Generations for the anniversary, it deserves a sequel so bad. They should also let their racing team handle the fast speedy sections, imagine if Sonic controlled more like a racecar, that'd be pretty fun.

Well, he kinda controls like a Race care already in Unleashed/Generations XD!

But I agree, giving a racing studio level design duties might be an experiment that turns out well .

Happy you enjoyed my threads .

 

[Nocturnowl]

To think the journey is at its end, you were getting through these games at such a pace I must've missed a few of the threads.
Good work RK128, I should've posted in these more but my mind has been sorta blank as of late.
Even right now I just feel like saying "yeah, Generations was great...." and then not much else.

 

[RK128]

To think the journey is at its end, you were getting through these games at such a pace I must've missed a few of the threads.
Good work RK128, I should've posted in these more but my mind has been sorta blank as of late.
Even right now I just feel like saying "yeah, Generations was great...." and then not much else.

Its fine man ! Like Sonic, I flew through these games as I was writing about them XD!

Generations is a great game, so I'm happy you enjoyed it .

This retrospective may be over, but I have large plans in mind for future Retrospectives . Ratchet and Clank Retrospective will resume sometime next week, some extra threads will be made for the sonic one (Freedom Planet for example) and going to make a Retrospective on Mega Man Legends 2 once I get far enough in the game.

 

[OmegaDL50]

Probably going to reinstall a few of my Sonic games over the next few days on Steam and do a replay through some of them.

I remember I bought some Sonic bundle a few years ago that had absolutely every Sonic game released thus far for Steam, the only one I don't have is Lost World.

So I guess I'll start with Sonic All-Stars Racing and the Transformed Sequel, as well as Generations.

I wonder if they is any fixes to the PC versions of Adventure 1 and 2, that fixes the widescreen issues. Someone probably modded it by now, I'll have to check.

But yeah this entire series you wrote, RK128 definitely is making me want to go back and play Generations again.

 

[RK128]

Probably going to reinstall a few of my Sonic games over the next few days on Steam and do a replay through some of them.

I remember I bought some Sonic bundle a few years ago that had absolutely every Sonic game released thus far for Steam, the only one I don't have is Lost World.

So I guess I'll start with Sonic All-Stars Racing and the Transformed Sequel, as well as Generations.

I wonder if they is any fixes to the PC versions of Adventure 1 and 2, that fixes the widescreen issues. Someone probably modded it by now, I'll have to check.

But yeah this entire series you wrote, RK128 definitely is making me want to go back and play Generations again.

Thank you man ! Go play through those Sonic games buddy XD!

You are going to have a blast with most of them for sure . The PC versions of Adventure and Adventure 2 are based on the PS3/360 HD Versions, so the former has a few issues. Mainly, its a big more buggy compared to the USA/EU Dreamcast & GC DX version (at least, I found it to be).

Racing Transformed and the original All Stars Racing are fantastic racing games too. Have fun revisiting the series and feel free to post back in any of the older threads I made! They have links in the main Retrospective page, which I have linked in the OP of this thread .

 

[TakumiTrueno]

I agree, reading this makes me want to play through generations again. if only they would make a sequel.

 

[Ristifer]

I wonder if Sonic Team thought that too, allowing Sumo Digital to make a race course for Starlight Carnival in Racing Transformed to compensate picking Planet Wisp for Generations .

I think Planet Wisp is a decent final level for the machine vs. nature element being a major theme for the Sonic series over the years. The machine sections in Planet Wisp feel very Metropolis/Scrap Brain like, so I can see why they picked the zone to close the game.

This is how I felt about it too. It had that industrial vibe that was used frequently in the latter stages of past Sonic games.

I agree that the spike Wisp was used a little too much at times, but the rest of the platforming was top-tier Sonic goodness.

 

[RK128]

This is how I felt about it too. It had that industrial vibe that was used frequently in the latter stages of past Sonic games.

I agree that the spike Wisp was used a little too much at times, but the rest of the platforming was top-tier Sonic goodness.

I've always thought having a long epic Eggman Base level at the end of Generations would of been a nice way to close the game. Replace Planet Wisp with a Eggmanland that consistently changes between Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Death Egg, Egg Carrier, Final Fortress and Eggmanland with both Sonics being playable at once.

In 2D you 'warp' to Classic Sonic while in 3D your 'warp' to Modern Sonic. Long, epic level that celebrates more of the darker zones in the series .

I personally would of loved Night Palace from Secret Rings to be one of the final levels .

 

[I am Christina Aguilera]

Thanks so much for your work on these, RK128!

 

[Maedhros]

One of my favorite in the series too. Second only behind 3 & Knuckles.

Shit is FUCKING BANANAS. It gets better and better the more you play.

Of course, the last boss could be ditched. It was really, REALLY BAD after all the other great fights through the game. They should have made a 2D version of most battles too.

The only problem was that they never made DLC for this game... which was a shame.

Because they just werent good at it.

Ignoring the warehog, I dont know how you can prefer modern generations stages to Unleashed day stages if you really know how to control Sonic at top speed.

This

https://youtu.be/p7IYdCwuog0

in no way compares for this

https://youtu.be/JVcKhKCALCg

For sheer white knuckle rush of speed.

Alot of the criticism of modern (boost) sonic in general boils down to "I dont have the reaction speed for this game design, therefore its not good".

lol, these videos makes me think that Generations looks a lot better. The guys is just glitching in both of the videos, but in the first one, Sonic don't really skips that many frames like the second one. Playing both of them normally, they look really similar.

BTW, the levels being longer don't mean they are better at all.

 

[Lumination]

Hands down my favorite in the series.

They nailed both sides of the world, with that classic 3 path approach people have mentioned. At first, I thought it was nostalgia, but as I got into the worlds from games I haven't played, it only got better and better. (Rooftop Run was phenomenal.)

I don't replay games often, but I definitely replayed this multiple times to hit better times or just to experience the speed, music, and graphics all over again. I desperately want another Sonic game like this. Please Sega.

 

[Zomba13]

Best 3D Sonic game by miles and maaaaybe my favourite Sonic game, including the Mega Drive ones. Looks great, plays great, sounds great. I really hope they go back to this style in the future. I'm all for experimenting but when you have a formula that works that you could milk, maybe go back to milking it instead of Lost World... (and if it costs too much to make miles of 3D level, then just make a new 2D game with the Classic Sonic style).

 

[Joey Ravn]

Sonic Generations is the only Sonic game that I actively enjoy playing!

 

[Mr-Joker]

I loved Sonic Generations and I was impressed that Sonic was finally getting back on track.

I do have a few complaints about the game though.

-Planet Wisp, should have not been the final level and the level just drags on forever. I don't like those levels when I replay the game.

-No DLC was a missed opportunity as I wanted to run through Ice Cap Zone, Adabat Jungle Joyride, etc.

-The 3DS version should have been a celebration of Sonic handheld history, as during the GBA and DS days they where the better games.

-The Super Sonic boss fight is just terrible.

-Having both Eggman being the villain was not a good twist.

Like, why did they have to put homing on the same button?

Because Air Dash fucked players over, I have died on the final section of Adabat because the game thought I wanted to air dash when I wanted to do the homing attack.

Why did the fuck up the rail grinding controls?

They didn't grinding felt the same as unleashed.

And you can't crawl!

Are you actually being serous? Sonic crawling was incredibly pointless and had more use in the Wii version as crawling would prevent Sonic from reverting back into the Werehog in those mini dungeons.

It was not needed at all.

As a fan, it seriously pains me that people find this game to be better than Unleashed. I'm going like, what the actual fuck, in my mind.

Because Generation takes Unleashed formula, threw out what didn't work and refined on what did work.

Going over yellow ramps and doing tricks was much more fun than pausing the game memorizing the QTE and then inputting the commands in.

In Generation however the flow of the game is always kept moving forward, except for Planet Wisp they when a tad overboard with the Wisp power up and level design.

 

[dlauv]

Wheen will classic Sonic come back and stay back? Why don't they see how brilliant his design is?

It's a shame his controls were gimped and his levels lacked classic depth.

 

[Linkark07]

I still can't believe Sega didn't continue making Sonic games like Generations after proving everyone they can still make good Sonic games. Such a mistake from Sega.

Anyways, my favorite modern Sonic game. So much fun and entertaining. And thankfully, the PC version got some mods like the day Unleashed levels or user other characters like Shadow.

 

[Cheezus]

This game actually made me think SEGA finally got their shit together. Then Sonic Boom happened...

But anyway, nice post and I will probably check out your previous ones too.

 

[RK128]

Thanks so much for your work on these, RK128!

No problem ! It was a blast making them .

This game actually made me think SEGA finally got their shit together. Then Sonic Boom happened...

But anyway, nice post and I will probably check out your previous ones too.

Made a link in the OP under "Retrospective" that puts you in a NeoGaf thread containing hot-links to all the threads I covered .

 

[Fuu]

Love this game, playing it was such a blast that I got all achievements. Still have not played with the Unleashed mod, I really need to reinstall it one of these days.

 

[FreeMufasa]

Still makes me laugh that in the end, he became his own shitty friend

 

[RK128]

Hands down my favorite in the series.

They nailed both sides of the world, with that classic 3 path approach people have mentioned. At first, I thought it was nostalgia, but as I got into the worlds from games I haven't played, it only got better and better. (Rooftop Run was phenomenal.)

I don't replay games often, but I definitely replayed this multiple times to hit better times or just to experience the speed, music, and graphics all over again. I desperately want another Sonic game like this. Please Sega.

The bolded is why I really love Generations. Such strong level design for BOTH Sonic's, that I really have to give Sonic Team applause; they finally got the design of the Genesis games in 3D :').

 

[RK128]

Still makes me laugh that in the end, he became his own shitty friend

You mean Sonic became a side character ala the other playstyles in past games?

I never saw it like that to be honest :l. I mean, what you are playing is more or less two games in one:
-HD Classic Sonic Adventure
-HD Modern Sonic sequel following Unleashed and Colors core gameplay style

Both are strong and are well thought out, so I had no issue with the game being chopped in half like it was .

 

[Maedhros]

I loved Sonic Generations and I was impressed that Sonic was finally getting back on track.

I do have a few complaints about the game though.

-Planet Wisp, should have not been the final level and the level just drags on forever. I don't like those levels when I replay the game.

-No DLC was a missed opportunity as I wanted to run through Ice Cap Zone, Adabat Jungle Joyride, etc.

-The 3DS version should have been a celebration of Sonic handheld history, as during the GBA and DS days they where the better games.

-The Super Sonic boss fight is just terrible.

-Having both Eggman being the villain was not a good twist.



Because Air Dash fucked players over, I have died on the final section of Adabat because the game thought I wanted to air dash when I wanted to do the homing attack.



They didn't grinding felt the same as unleashed.



Are you actually being serous? Sonic crawling was incredibly pointless and had more use in the Wii version as crawling would prevent Sonic from reverting back into the Werehog in those mini dungeons.

It was not needed at all.



Because Generation takes Unleashed formula, threw out what didn't work and refined on what did work.

Going over yellow ramps and doing tricks was much more fun than pausing the game memorizing the QTE and then inputting the commands in.

In Generation however the flow of the game is always kept moving forward, except for Planet Wisp they when a tad overboard with the Wisp power up and level design.

There's seriously no need to even reply this guy... he's fucking nuts.

 

[Lumination]

The bolded is why I really love Generations. Such strong level design for BOTH Sonic's, that I really have to give Sonic Team applause; they finally got the design of the Genesis games in 3D :').

I enjoyed Modern Green Hill Zone, but I think Modern Chemical Plant Zone was when it hit me that the 3D was fun. This entirely new way to play that Sega sort of flubbed for over a decade finally worked. I had the dumbest smile on my face the whole way through.

Btw, thanks for the retrospectives. It was a fun ride!

 

[balladofwindfishes]

-Having both Eggman being the villain was not a good twist.

Really? I thought it worked really well, the ending cutscene with the two of them was pretty cute, and Mike Pollock was as good as ever.

It was pretty obvious both Eggmen were going to work with each other as the main story of the game. It would have been weird if they didn't.

 

[Hasney]

Ignoring the warehog.

I mean, that's the problem. You can't. I finished Sonic 06 godammit but I could not slog through another werehog level.

You mentioned the Unleashed Generations mod though and that right there is the best 3D Sonic made. Beautiful.

 

[Eidan]

It still blows my mind that Sega decided to abandon the winning formula seen here and in Colors. Why do they hate success?

 

[Ogodei]

Still never played this because i'm Nintendo-only and didn't want the 3DS version.

 

[RK128]

I enjoyed Modern Green Hill Zone, but I think Modern Chemical Plant Zone was when it hit me that the 3D was fun. This entirely new way to play that Sega sort of flubbed for over a decade finally worked. I had the dumbest smile on my face the whole way through.

Btw, thanks for the retrospectives. It was a fun ride!

Glad you enjoyed them ! Modern Green Hill was a bit dull for me after a while.......as I played the demo hundreds of times before the game came out XD!

 

[BocoDragon]

This is the only Sonic game I've loved since 1994.... And I own nearly all of them as a collector.

 

[Blues1990]

I can't say or add much that has already been said, but it has the foundations set for taking Sonic to greener pastures.

Which makes it all the more baffling that a different development team had pulled a Paper Mario and innovated, when in reality there should've been refinement.

It still blows my mind that Sega decided to abandon the winning formula seen here and in Colors. Why do they hate success?

Wasn't it a different team that had development duties for 'Sonic: Lost World?'

 

[RK128]

Wasn't it a different team that had development duties for 'Sonic: Lost World?'

No, I had this confusion myself for a while but learned how Sonic Team makes games.

Since Sonic 06 and Secret Rings, we got two teams; HD Team and Wii Team. HD Team produced Sonic Unleashed and Generations, while Wii team produced Sonic & the Black Knight and Sonic Colors.

After Generations, they folded the studios into one unit and they started working together on projects. Sonic Team developed concepts/ideas for a Sonic title for all platforms while they pushed a head with most of the staff working on Lost World. After that released, they came back together to continue fully working on the multiplatform project (anniversary game) for 2016.

A smaller sector within Sonic Team worked on Sonic Runners under the request from SEGA Japan to release some mobile Sonic title.

 

[dlauv]

The "Wii Team" was straight up Dimps. They worked on Handheld Lost World.