Classic Comeback - Games of 2011 | Sonic Generations and Discovering 30 Years of Speed
This year, Sonic Generations turns 10 years old. The blue blur has undoubtedly had a mixed history, especially in the last decade of his games, but Generations was one of the bright spots. In fact, it was one of the best games in the franchise. It was a celebration of Sonic’s 20th anniversary and to this day, it remains one of my favourite Sonic games ever made. It was so good that it encouraged me to go and explore the games it was celebrating, and it cemented my love of Sonic games in general.
This show is good but it could do with more Jaleel White in it.
Before Sonic Generations’ release, I had experienced a fair amount of the franchise, but wouldn’t have considered myself one of the hardcore fans of the series. My first game in the series was Sonic Advance, and as time went on I spent varying amounts of time with some other games such as Sonic Rush, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colours. I even had a brief stint of watching TV shows like Sonic X and Sonic Underground whenever I could. (I also played Sonic ‘06 and Shadow the Hedgehog, but I wouldn’t count those amongst my more cherished memories of the series). And while I knew of the other big titles, such as the classic Mega Drive games and the Adventure series, I never my experienced those games beyond watching the odd let’s plays on YouTube.
As a result, when Generations finally came out, I found myself drawn to the levels that were from the Mega Drive and Dreamcast eras. I had never really seen these worlds. Green Hill and Chemical Plant were familiar names to me and I’d heard about them being discussed, but seeing them in full HD glory was an amazing sight. I still remember being amazed by at landscape of Green Hill in HD, while seeing the enormity of the Chemical Plant for the first time was a fantastic sight.
Who do you think has destroyed more ancient structures: Sonic or Lara Croft?
However, the stage that stood out the most to me in the Mega Drive chapter was Sky Sanctuary. I had never heard of this stage before, and yet as I sped my way through, I was captivated by everything. The level was filled with ancient architecture, and the stage made use of the fact that the temples were old and fragile for some extremely fun and precarious platforming. There were other little details that I picked up on later playthroughs as well. Small things like how in the hub world area for Sky Sanctuary, there are grapes growing on the trees because they are Knuckles’ favourite food.
The Dreamcast levels were equally entertaining to discover. Generations was the first time I’d played through Speed Highway and City Escape, which I’d heard a lot of praise in the years before. I loved speeding along rooftops and streets whilst smashing into traffic in City Escape, and travelling along the roads of Speed Highway felt like one of the best in-game representations of just how fast Sonic is.
GUN, you know, The Guardian Units of Nations…
All the set pieces were very memorable as well, especially running down the skyscraper in Speed Highway and outrunning the GUN truck in City Escape. I knew the GUN truck was going to show up thanks to all those let’s plays but I didn’t expect it to explode behind me with giant saw blades and rocket boosters. Perhaps not surprisingly, this chase sequence became my favourite moment from the entire game because of how outrageous it was.
Good storytelling is all about appropriate escalation. Anyway here’s a truck with sawblades and rockets strapped to it.
I loved Generations so much that it spurred me on to seek out the other games, specifically the original 2D games and the Adventure series. I wanted to see just how much the series had changed over the years, and I was excited by the idea of seeing the Generations levels in their original context.
Time play my favourite game Knuckles 3 &Knuckles &Knuckles &Knuckles.
I started my journey with the older 2D games because I wanted to see where the franchise all began, (including Sonic 3 & Knuckles). It took me a while to get to grips with how to play them because Unleashed, Colours and Generations allowed for instant high speed and constant boosting. Not so with the 2D games. Here, I had to learn that speed was something you were rewarded with for good gameplay, and you had to keep momentum in mind. Even with the addition of the spin dash from Sonic 2 onwards, I couldn’t just simply rev up and dash away because I’d end up missing important paths to the upper sections of the stages. However, once I finally wrapped my head around the concept, more deliberate momentum became my favourite mechanic from the whole series, and I was able to appreciate all these stages in a whole new way.
Speaking of the stages, playing the original versions of Green Hill, Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary Zones was a pretty significant moment. I now had the full context of their inclusion in Generations, and to my delight, I enjoyed them just as much in 2D as I had in 3D. And it wasn’t just the stages I’d already seen that I enjoyed. Casino Night and Carnival Night from Sonic 2 and 3 were wonderfully colourful, Mystic Cave and the Death Egg Zones were foreboding, and even the water levels managed to excite me. Practically all of the stages from these three games now hold fond memories. I remember when I first played through Hydrocity Zone from Sonic 3, and I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying a water level in a Sonic game. Labyrinth and Aquatic Ruin Zones from Sonic 1 and 2 were also really enjoyable (well, Aquatic Ruin Zone more specifically), but Hydrocity Zone became one of my favourite levels from Sonic 3. It manages to keep the speed inherent to Sonic within its design despite being a water level, while the music for Act 2 of Hydrocity is still one of my favourite tracks from any of the games.
Honestly, I’m 90% sure that Sonic Adventure is just the level with the whale.
The Adventure series also turned out to be similarly enjoyable, for many of the same reasons as the 2D games. Admittedly, I was initially put off by Adventure 1’s graphics because whilst I can imagine they looked good in 1998, they were a bit of an eyesore when playing the game in 2013. (Adventure 2 was better but the cutscene animations were still janky at times.). Thankfully, the gameplay for the Adventure series has definitely aged much better. Despite having never played these games before, both of them felt as natural to control as any of the 2D games. Sonic’s weight and momentum were still important factors and the levels were designed around them. I spent a lot of time discovering tricks and shortcuts thanks to a satisfying mix of skill and luck. And once again, the levels themselves were all really fun to discover for the first time (except Mad Space). The novelty of snowboarding down the streets of City Escape and platforming my way across skyscrapers in Speed Highway still felt fresh despite the games being almost 15 years old, the treasure hunting levels with Rouge and Knuckles were really enjoyable, and the glee I felt when I realised I could play as Dr. Eggman is something I wish I could recapture.
Playing through the first Adventure title was also a surprisingly nostalgic affair because, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up watching Sonic X, and I vividly remembered the arc involving the events of the first Adventure game. So for me, it felt like I was playing a slightly different version of my childhood memories, a version that (thankfully) didn’t involve Chris Thorndyke.
How about Sonic Forces 2 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Sonic?
Looking back, I’m very thankful for Sonic Generations. It helped me understand just why this blue hedgehog that ran very fast was so popular. It helped me truly discover one of my favourite gaming franchises rather than just be aware of it. And it also introduced me to some of the best music I’ve listened to in gaming. While I have no idea what SEGA will do for Sonic’s 30th anniversary, I certainly hope we get something that gives Sonic another chance at speeding through the spotlight.
