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| Sonic Generations; PS3/360 | |
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| Topic Started: Sunday Nov 6 2011, 11:26 PM (126 Views) | |
| whoozwah | Sunday Nov 6 2011, 11:26 PM Post #1 |
Is it live, or is it Dave-orex?
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This year marks 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog games. From the Golden era of the Genesis through the jump to 3D on the Dreamcast to the modern era after SEGA got out of the hardware business, Sonic hasn't slowed down for anything. SEGA decided to celebrate his 20th anniversary with a game called Sonic Generations. This game takes the absolute best parts from all the major games in the Sonic series and reimagines them with HD graphics. The story goes that Sonic's friends have thrown him a surprise birthday party and some demon called the Time eater comes from out of nowhere, sends all Sonic's friends into zones from his past and finally throws him back in time as well. The story conveniently sets up the main hook of the game: 2 Sonics. You have the classic Sonic who's short, pudgy and can use the spin dash and you have the current Sonic who's taller, skinner, has longer legs and can use the homing attack and speed boost. There are 9 main stages in the game, each from one of the major Sonic games: Sonic 1 - Green Hill Sonic 2 - Chemical Plant Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Sky Sanctuary Sonic Adventure - Speed Highway Sonic Adventure 2 - City Escape Sonic Heroes - Seaside Hill Sonic '06 - Crisis City Sonic Unleashed - Rooftop Run Sonic Colors - Planet Wisp These are the Genesis, Dreamcast and Modern eras. Each level has a 2D incarnation played with classic Sonic and a 3D incarnation played with modern Sonic. Each era has a boss battle (Death Egg Robot, Perfect Chaos, Egg Dragoon) and rival battle (Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver) you must complete before moving on to the next era. Each time you defeat a boss or rival you get a Chaos Emerald. You also get one for completing all 18 main stages for a total of 7 emeralds. You'll need these for the final boss battle. Each zone has 10 challenge acts to complete, 5 in 2D and 5 in 3D. Each zone also has 10 red rings scattered throughout them, 5 in the 2D act and 5 in the 3D act. Completing the challenge acts and collecting the red rings will earn you artwork and music unlocks. The music unlocks are particularly cool because once you have extra music available, you can choose the music you want to be played while playing any level. Also, collecting all 5 red rings in any level unlocks new abilities like higher top speed, faster acceleration, larger boost meter etc. That makes for a total of 18 new unlockable abilities, 50 unlockable pieces of music and 130 unlockable pieces of artwork. Speaking of abilities, your score is based on completion time and ring count. When you get to the end of the level you are ranked and you earn points. You can then use those points to buy even more abilities at a shop in the main level select screen. You can even buy a SEGA Genesis controller for the Genesis which is hidden in Green Hill zone. This lets you play the original Sonic the Hedgehog in full screen and at 60 frames per second. It's glorious. The gameplay itself cannot be faulted in any respect. The 2D levels are excellently designed. The physics feel just right. Sonic doesn't feel too heavy or too light. Everything just flows perfectly. It's so easy to pick up and play too. 2D sonic has 2 moves. He can jump and he can spin dash. It's platforming perfection. The 3D levels are fast and furious. There are LOTS of things to keep up with when playing the 3D levels though and unless you spend some time with the game learning the intricacies of the control scheme you aren't going to enjoy it very much. 3D Sonic can jump, boost, homing attack, dash along chains of rings, ground stomp, wall jump, slide under things, quick step left and right and drift around tight corners. That's a ton of things to keep up with for how fast the game moves but when you're playing the game the way it wants you to and you have full control over modern Sonic's arsenal of moves, it's a sight to behold and more than a bit of a rush. In both the 2D and 3D levels, there are multiple paths through each level. The easiest path (the one you'll probably go through the first time you play the level) is usually the slowest path. As you replay the levels though (and look for the red rings scattered throughout) you'll find shortcuts that take you to higher and higher paths. Finding these shortcuts and getting consistently good at hitting them is essential for shaving seconds off your completion time, which along with your ring count determines your final ranking at the end of the level, S being the highest. Each time you run through a level and pass a checkpoint it gives you a time differential from the last time you played the level. If you are doing better than last time it shows up the time difference in green and if you are doing worse it shows up the time difference in red. This is an excellent motivator to practice runs to get better at them for S ranks or for posting times to the online leaderboards. This is the kind of game that was made for ME. Seeing the levels redone in their native and alternate dimensions is a total blast. It's loaded with Sonic fan service. It's insanely replayable and it gets to the point in under 30 seconds. I bought this the day it came out and although it only took me about 6 hours to complete the main story mode, there's so much stuff to do, find, unlock and perfect in this game that I'll be playing this for a long, long LONG time. Is it worth your money? Yes, even if you've only had a casual interest in Sonic at any point. |
Realtime Last.fm feed. I have everything scrobbling to it. It is possible to not understand without being confused. It is possible to be inaccessible without hiding. It is possible to be aware without being awake. | |
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| moldonhold | Friday Nov 11 2011, 04:13 PM Post #2 |
FUCK THE JETS
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Very well said sir. |
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