It's a good game, but is waaay to short
The story goes that Sonic and his friends are sent back into a weird White Space by the Time Eater. This White Space contains places from the more iconic past games which have had the life and colour sucked out of them. Whilst there, Sonic meets his former self from the Mega Drive / Genesis era of games and the two team up to stop the Time Eater and restore order once and for all
Levels are spread across three generations. The 16bit traditional Mega Drive/Genesis era, the Adventure era and the modern era which uses the DS games. (Though in my opinion, this version should have had the 8bit classic Sonic titles and advanced series) There are only seven levels in the game which are reimagined versions of some of the more iconic Sonic levels such as Casino Night, Emerald Coast and of course Green Hill Zone.
There are two acts per zone - act 1 will have you playing as Classic Sonic and act 2 will have you playing as Modern Sonic
The Classic Sonic levels play like traditional Sonic levels of course! Infact the levels from the Classic era are literally a remake of the old levels just with new graphics. The physics are different though. Emerald Coast is like a 2D port of the original, but given that the gameplay style is different, it doesn't feel the same.
Anyway, Classic Sonic runs, jumps and spindashes through the stages. He does learn the homing attack half way through the game. The levels are fun, and I must say in terms of recreating the classic feel, both in terms of level design and physics, this 3DS version does a better job than the console version
Modern Sonic plays like Sonic Rush without the trick system. His stages (bar one which is a 2D reincarnation) are all original in terms of route layout. These stages are also all 2D, but with a much greater emphasis on speed. Sonic has his boost, homing attack, wall jumps etc. These stages are fast and furious and are a lot of fun to play. There isn't much differentiation between the stages and most of them feel the same.
The special stages make a come back and can just be accsessed after completeing both acts, you don't have to collect 50 rings or anything, you can just access them. The special stages are a remake of the Sonic Heores special stages. You take control of Modern Sonic and pick up power spehres to fill the boost gauge and chase after the emerald evading spike balls and try to catch it within the time limit. They're pretty easy.
The boss gates have two challenges. A race against a rival, and a recreation of some of the old bosses. The rival races are probably the most challenging part of the game. You have to memorise the tracks and jump at the rights moments to get onto the optimum paths and you do have to conserve your boost when racing as Modern Sonic
The game does offer little missions, but I haven't really took any time out to see what they are like.
The graphics are nice. And I do love the music. It is all remixes of the old tracks.
Aparently they only had 8 months to make this version of the game. It's a good game, the levels and gameplay style are fun. But it is a game which you could complete in one sitting if you really wanted to. It's about a 2 hour game if that. The best way to describe Sonic Generations (both versions) is a missed oppertunity. The game is fun, it's nice to see the old levels in a new way, it's more creative than just a remake, but as an anniversary special this game should have and could have been so much more.
At the moment, for what it is the game is still quite expensive, so unless you're a die hard Sonic fan, wait for the price to drop, or just ignore all together
Decent game, fun, but too short
milesprower2k9 original reviews