Sonic Generations Impressions, Help, & Discussion Topic

[Komodin]

That "VS. Vector" mission... what a unique and oddly exhilarating mission. It was kinda like playing a rhythm game, except... more actiony. I still don't want a mission like that to appear in any future Sonic games, though.

[JezMM]

I think it would have been a lot more tolerable if the music had been a bangin' remix of Team Chaotix instead of that boring tuneless thing.

[Your Vest Friend]

Did you S-rank them as well? I've only got mission left to S-rank, and it's the Modern Planet Wisp doppelganger race. Good god, it's hard. Five minutes!? Five thirty would've been taxing enough.

[Sean]

I S-ranked Planet Wisp classic's doppelganger mission on my first try... Dunno how I did it considering my sheer animosity toward this act, but I'm thankful that that's over with now.

[Sami]

How do the lever things work, anyway? Half the time they launch me up in the air and half the time they don't.

[Sean]

Spin dash on them while in spike form. If you're talking about those things in the classic act.

[Blue Blood]

The Spike Wisp does seem to be a litter temperamental. If you spindash, sometimes you'll cling to walls/floors/ceilings and other times you'll fly right off.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I S-ranked Planet Wisp classic's doppelganger mission on my first try... Dunno how I did it considering my sheer animosity toward this act, but I'm thankful that that's over with now.

[Sean]

I feel like the modern doppelganger race is manageable once I figure out how to stop wasting so much time in the third act of the stage. I'm still working on it though.

[DaBatGuy]

Did you S-rank them as well? I've only got mission left to S-rank, and it's the Modern Planet Wisp doppelganger race. Good god, it's hard. Five minutes!? Five thirty would've been taxing enough.

I found that if you place Sonic at the right distance near Vector you can chain multiple HA's off the note without hitting the ground, this cuts down on your overall time and avoids navigating the environment to catch up with the note. The only time you'll have to chase it is when he sends it flying high in the air but it always goes to the same spot (depending on what color it is) and moves in a relatively slow curve so it's easier to hit.

As for the doppelganger race it all come down to finding the optimal route through the factory and using rocket at the right moments.

Edited November 6, 2011 by BatGuy

[Your Vest Friend]

Improving times on the Chaotix VS missions, currently. Vector's stands at 1:10:58, Espio's at 1:13:30 and Charmy's at 1:17:79.

I think I should give Charmy more focus, that's a pretty shit time.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I FINALLLY DID IT!!!!! 4:41 clear time on Planet Wisp Modern doppelganger mission. And that was the last one, so I now have S-ranked acts, bosses, hard mode bosses, and all missions.

AND THE REWARD IS...

Nothing, as far as I can tell. I half expected a text box to tell me about the trophy room and how to get codes. Oh well. Satisfaction counts.

[Blue Blood]

Yeah, what is all this nonsense about the place you've mentioned there in that spoiler tag, Ol' Grumpy? I've seens lot of people mention it.

[Emmett L. Brown]

It's a secret room you get to by holding down the back button on your controller for a few seconds in the gallery room. Inside you can enter codes to unlock trophies. Somebody posted all the codes earlier in this thread, but I still have no idea how people are supposed to learn them outside of hacking.

[Sean]

Finally got that S-rank. 4:47:27. I see that Grumpy still beat me though.

[Carbo]

So, Sonic Generations.

Been replaying pretty much to see how much I actually like this game. I'll just split this into segments of what I enjoy about the game and what I don't enjoy about the game.

What I don't like

- The writing. When I was reading reviews about the game calling the plot incredibly silly or intrepid, I sort of brushed it aside on the presumption that they weren't particular fans with the way any Sonic game conveyed it's writing. I expected only two things, that the writers would deliver with a good slew of cutscenes and fun, and also a fuckton of fanservice and self-referential jokes. Colors managed to deliver a fair amount of cutscenes that were fun and enjoyable to watch, and I couldn't imagine it would be unreasonable to expect the same for this game. Sadly that doesn't happen. Half of all of this consists of merely Tails and Modern Sonic being captain obvious to the situations while Classic, the real attention grabber, is kind of just in the sidelines nodding along like a misplaced sidekick. Only two cutscenes had anything resembling to what I expected far more of, the cutscenes of Sonic collecting the sixth Emerald, and the ending, since this is when Classic Sonic's motions were the stars of the show, and when the game really got around to exploiting the possible antics of having two Sonic's from different eras stuck in time. The ending in particular gave off a "that's it?" impression. Wasted ideas lead up to a wasted opportunity for a grand ending, and when all is said and done, it's like nothing ever happened. For what could have been an Epic Mickey-scale story of nostalgia and lost memories, Sonic Team merely settled with giving the writers one page to doodle on.

- The graphics, at least on console. A lot of the levels are subject to a good deal of jaggies in textures and inconsistencies in framerate. The compression artefacts that are had in some of the cutscenes are rather laughable considering how Unleashed did a rather good job in handling these, and considering what Sega readied up for trailer releases, it makes you wonder just why they didn't resort to using fancy CG cutscenes like they always do. In graphically busy stages like Green Hill Zone, everything kind of blends together and it's hard to distinguish Sonic from the backdrops.

- Content prioritization. While the level designs are fun and thought out, with a lot of it working, I still have gripes with the choice in levels, if only because of how it was a mission statement for Sonic Generations to split the game into three eras. I have not seen anyone who considers the Dreamcast era Sonic to be a vast segregation from the current Modern. The way I see it, Sonic Generations would have gotten a much fairer ride if the game was only seen as having two eras, and also represent the two games that failed to get proper representation; Sonic 3 and Sonic CD, and no, the Metal Sonic fight does not count. Classic would still have one zone less, but it'd at least let both Sonic's have plenty of content to go around. With the way Modern Sonic is always the focus of attention, it's almost like Classic Sonic was but a last minute addition.

- Unawakening Float is not an unlockable track.

What I liked

- The aesthetic design. It's important to note that Graphics =/= Aesthetics. Sonic Generations falls short on the former, but it totally excels on the latter. The contrast and eye-candy that goes into the imaginative zones is incredibly appealing, and with being one of the few games coming out this year with actual color, it's massively charming.

- The level design. Some of the most intuitive ones to be had in a Sonic game since very long makes both Sonics a joy to play. Sky Sanctuary for both hogs have the most unique designs to ever grace a Sonic game, and particularly for Modern Sonic I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It's neither fast-paced, or slow, but it's different and I like it. It's almost setting the new bar. The modern controls sometimes don't accommodate for that however, as he's still altogether unwieldy with rather poor traction, which is in no way more evident during Vector's challenge in Rooftop Run.

- Supplemental content. There is just so much to find, and hunting for all bonus aspects is so fun when you combine both the good level design with the awesome mechanic of being able to play alternate tracks to the levels. Every track works for every level, and it can make for something both serious or different, or just silly and goofy. It's all in good fun and it keeps me coming back to the game.

- Classic Sonic. He's way too charming and cute.

- I can play Super Sonic Racing on the Final Boss.

[Old dead account]

Some of these missions (like vector's note mission) are a beeeyitch that likes bananas to S-Rank. Does anything happen for S-Ranking everything including missions and bosses or am I just wasting time?

[Diz]

I finally got Sonic Generations to run properly, and so far I have played the first four acts. I have to go somewhere now. *Whimpers* ... but I want more!

I really enjoyed the game so far, and although I outright suck at playing, spend loads of time, run into every enemy there is etc. I still love it.

I am also finding the story exciting and fun so far. I more or less only played the older Sonic games, so seeing these nostalgic stages and having Sonic go like "oh hey, this feels nostalgic", and Tails wouldn't know what he was talking about since he's never been to Green Hill Zone afaik, hehehe awesome. Oh, and when Classic Sonic popped up right behind modern Tails before Zone Number Two, haha that just made me roll laughing! XD

Can't wait to play it more!

[Emmett L. Brown]

Some of these missions (like vector's note mission) are a beeeyitch that likes bananas to S-Rank. Does anything happen for S-Ranking everything including missions and bosses or am I just wasting time?

Scroll up to the first post on this page.

[Ferr]

Anyone know for the final boss achievement

crashing onto the scenery rocks count as hit too?

[SuperStingray]

Regarding planet wisp, I really HATE the controls for the Spike power-up. I can never tell which way I'm facing before I spindash and if I'm not spindashing I'm moving slow as hell. It just feels so off.

- The graphics, at least on console. A lot of the levels are subject to a good deal of jaggies in textures and inconsistencies in framerate. The compression artefacts that are had in some of the cutscenes are rather laughable considering how Unleashed did a rather good job in handling these, and considering what Sega readied up for trailer releases, it makes you wonder just why they didn't resort to using fancy CG cutscenes like they always do. In graphically busy stages like Green Hill Zone, everything kind of blends together and it's hard to distinguish Sonic from the backdrops.

Edited November 6, 2011 by SuperStingray

[Neon]

Full Statue Room if anyone wants to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RcZb7VCXc

[Gatestormer]

One thing I love about this game is the presentation of the menus, HUD, title cards, results screen etc. The whole design with the spinning stars, erratic symbols with bright, vibrant colours is absolutely gorgeous, reminiscent of the Japanese classic cover arts and fits the series wonderfully. We always end up having a different style in each new game, some better than others but I really hope that Sonic Team continue with this style, especially since they're going for consistency these days.

I hate to go to the cliche of this comparison but look at Mario. The games always have incredibly similar presentation styles (not really sure what to call it all), exactly the same typography and so on. I helps games like 64, Sunshine and Galaxy feel like their directly linked to each other and now it's instantly recognisble and linked to Mario, it's brand establishing.

Edited November 7, 2011 by ENVY

[Burnt Ash]

So far, the only things I hate are the character co-op missions...the only one I liked was the Classic Tails + Classic Sonic in Chemical Plant. As for the others...some were pointless/boring (Vector and his musical notes), others were tedious (Charmy and his tornado...thing in Planet Wisp).

[NiGHTS]

One thing I love about this game is the presentation of the menus, HUD, title cards, results screen etc. The whole design with the spinning stars, erratic symbols with bright, vibrant colours is absolutely gorgeous, reminiscent of the Japanese classic cover arts and fits the series wonderfully. We always end up having a different style in each new game, some better than others but I really hope that Sonic Team continue with this style, especially since they're going for consistency these days.

I hate to go to the cliche of this comparison but look at Mario. The games always have incredibly similar presentation styles (not really sure what to call it all), exactly the same typography and so on. I helps games like 64, Sunshine and Galaxy feel like their directly linked to each other and now it's instantly recognisble and linked to Mario, it's brand establishing.

Its true, it kind of looks like mario (if you added all the bright backrounds in the hub world) but the way its presented, its clean, pretty and easy to look at. I like how its presented instead of the way Unleashed did (god so boring and ugly) Colors reminded me of Mario Party layout.