Finally a Half Decent Sonic Game
Sonic, now there is a franchise that has had ups and downs in the last decade. Sega has tried to do there best to make sure Sonic can do as good as the Genesis/Mega Drive days but repeatedly has failed. On the 20 anniversary they hope to set the old hedgehog back on track and they succeed. Sort of.
We start off in the Green Hill Zone completely in 2D and the whole nostalgia takes off, the music, the enemies and the overall feel. Sonic feels just what he should be, fast and fun. The next act takes place again on the Green Hill Zone, except this time you play as 3D Sonic with all the extras you’d expect like the homing attack but again it is fast and fun.
The next levels have you whizzing round loads of classic and not so classic Sonic levels, the classics including Chemical Plant to City Escape and the not so classic being Crisis City (from Sonic 2006) and Rooftop Run (from Sonic Unleashed) and then for some strange reason they have thrown in a level from the Wii-exclusive Sonic Colours/Colors.
The story is one of the bizarre things included in the game overall. There is a big baddy called “The Time Eater” and he shows up and erases the whole world of classic Sonic and then has intent to do this to the present Sonic too. Of course this isn’t going to happen if Sonic(s) have anything to do to it!
The storyline overall isn’t really captivating at all and is really an excuse to link all these levels together, but it’s better then nothing. The real reason to go through it isn’t to experience a load of gripping story beats but to see the strange little nods to the differences in the Sonic universe (i.e. Eggman being called Robotnik).
As I said before the game is fun, the only exception to this is the very odd side-missions which Sonic’s friends dish out, fortunately you only have to complete some of these now and then to advance to the next few levels which is good because it isn’t very fast or fun in some cases.
Overall as a game I think it does what it sets out to do which is trigger nostalgia and to make a half decent Sonic game again. This isn’t exactly Sonic’s finest hour or him getting back on top form but it is a step in the right direction for the series and after about seven years of flops that’s what Sonic deserves right? Right!
