In addition to the major stuff, many minor things from older Sonic games are featured in Sonic Generations in one way or another. For instance, the elemental shields can be bought in the skill shop, and there are some challenge missions where you have to keep the end-of-level signpost in the air (like everyone tries to do in Sonic 3.) But there's one awesome thing about the Genesis games that Sega hasn't even acknowledged: debug mode. It would have been awesome if this made a cameo in Generations. Perhaps if you pressed Up,Y,Down,Y,Left,Y,Right,Y at the menu that appears when you select a level, and then start it with Act 1 selected, it would do it. Obviously achievements and statistics would be disabled, but it would still be fun. Does anyone else think they missed an opportunity for something awesome?
Well, of course that would've been awesome. But the only reason debug mode existed in the first place was for testing purposes and whatnot, and I'm sure Generations was tested in a very different and more modern way. They were rushed at the end of development anyway, so it would've taken away from what we've got to be implemented. Really though, a case can be made that Generations is a bevy of missed opportunities. Don't get me wrong -- it's a glorious game, one of the best I've ever played. But it's riddled with loose ends and cut corners. The CGI videos of modern and classic running through levels, the less-than-stellar bosses, the downright badly-designed final boss. It's clear that Generations is missing some polish everywhere but its core -- the gameplay and level design.
Someone already beat me to it. Yep Generations is pretty much the king of missed opportunities. I would have gladly waited another year if it meant another stage from each game, but really when I first heard of Generations I pictured a whole lot of re-imagined stages from the Genesis era. I got my expectations too high and I think a lot of others have too. I blame Sega dammit. Planet Wisp classic was the most beautiful thing they've made in over a decade, finally they did something that resonates strongly with the Genesis games' aesthetics. I just hope to god they realize it.
I think that unless Generations remade every stage from the Genesis games, it'd be a missed opportunity somehow. + - The stage picks are pretty bad though.
Besides the fact that this game could have easily had 3 more games covered (Sonic 3, Shadow, Sonic and the Secret Rings) and should have given classic Sonic another rival (Knuckles) and another boss (This one I'm more stumped on, although I'd have taken the GHZ wrecking ball boss as the first boss for shits and giggles), this game missed lacked the amount of fan service I was hoping for. Now don't get me wrong, it had a lot of fan service, but after the first 3 cut scenes none of the other games are referenced at all and the only characters that had classic forms were Sonic, Tails, Robotnik, and Metal Sonic (who at the same time didn't have his modern form around). They could have had so many more opportunities to show off time travel lulz or whatever. They could have revisited old cutscenes and done things like make fun of Shadow or something. Every character should have had a classic form, even the ones that don't have any normally. I would have loved to see this game take on classic Shadow, Rouge, Cream, Blaze, and Silver (That and it would have meant more models to work with for hacking purposes). Also, this game made a mistake by making Planet Wisp the final level because they tried to transform it into Scrap Brain, which they did a pretty good job of, but they missed the ultimate opportunity here. The game was both Eggman's going through time trying to correct their past endeavors. This game could have so easily have had an ultimate final level that could have combined aspects of every final level into one. Because who wouldn't want to see Scrap Death Final Egg Carrier Ark Land zone. Also seeing as how this game lacked any Eggman level trope, it would have been the perfect way to end the game (another bad move on this games part. Too many cities and green zones, no snow, desert, space, or casino tropes). In fact if I could have the opportunity I would have done it like this Spoiler Sonic 1 - Green Hill Boss - Egg Wrecking Ball Sonic 2 - Chemical Plant Rival - Metal Sonic Sonic 3 - Carnival Night Sonic & Knuckles - Sky Sanctuary Rival - Knuckles Rival - Death Egg Robot (Making it not the first boss could have brought at least some of the challenge back to it) Sonic Adventure - Ice Cap (classic could have been Sonic 3's ice cap, modern's could have been Sonic Adventure's) Sonic Adventure 2 - City Escape Rival - Shadow Sonic Heroes - Bingo Highway Shadow the Hedgehog - Ark level Boss - Perfect Chaos Sonic 06 - Flame Core Rival - Silver (Same fight although instead fought in a modified Soleanna rather than lazily shoving the fight into Crisis City 2) Sonic and the Secret Rings - Sand Oasis Sonic Unleashed - Jungle Joyride Sonic Colors - Asteroid Coaster Boss - Egg Dragoon Collective Eggman final level Final Boss - a Much improved Time Eater No extra missons they were mediocre at best
They should've picked a better variety of levels. They should've put more effort in to making fun of, or paying tribute to, the story in other Sonic games. There should have been more DLC to fill in the gaps that they missed.
Look, I'm as upset as anyone that they didn't include Big and Ice Cap, but for some reason people actually like Speed Highway (no, I don't get it, it's like wanting Spring Yard to represent Sonic 1).
A missed opportunity to walk away and build something entirely different. Such as something which played to the modern Sonic Team's strengths, rather than relentlessly trying to recapture the past (without a clear understanding of what "the past" is) Sonic Generations was always going to "miss" something. But hey dude Crisis City from Sonic 2006 because you needed to remember that game existed cough cough
I dunno, I think Generations is the one time the 'modern' (I.e., SA2-onward) formula has really worked properly. I actually have some idea of what's coming up ahead of me and how to react to it most of the time. The controls are, as always, a bit too touchy, but at least the level isn't throwing a bunch of blind reaction-time tests at me, one-after-the-other like in Unleashed (ugh)
I mean I kinda get it. It was a level heavily focused on speed and loops and stuff, and given modern Sonic's gameplay that level cater's perfectly towards using it (The one part that wasn't fast just wasn't included for obvious reasons). What I found funny about Speed Highway in Generations was that it almost got the same amount of design transformation as the Genesis levels did given just how outdated it looked, because even compared to the other SA1 levels, it just could not be done properly to stand the test of time like Emerald Coast or even Final Egg could. Come to think of it Lost World would have been a cool level to use. This game also lacked a ruins level (unless you count Sky Sanctuary). That's this game's greatest achievement and failure IMO. It was super impressive how they managed to reuse level tropes while still making each level feel fresh and different, but the fact that there are 4 city levels in this game and 2 Green Hills, even though they did make Seaside hill more of a Hydrocity zone and Crisis City more of a lava reef for Classic Sonic, is simply inexcusable. I find it especially funny because of the fact that the classic era had no city levels save for whatever the hell Spring Yard was and sorta Starlight, so 4/6 levels from the Dreamcast and Modern era were in cities. Just so much wut. They should have given this game a Sonic R level and had it play living in the city just to troll everyone, although that level would have looked nearly identical to Speed Highway.
Modern Sonic Team, I.e. Takashi Iizuka wasting his time trying to figure out what made the older games tick rather than making his own mark on the world
Say what you will about Heroes, I do feel that game did a better job generally of making it clear what was coming up ahead in most levels (if, granted, one of the reasons was because of the way it reused setpieces) than Generations did. I'm still bitter about Jungle Joyride.
That list is seriously a hundred times better, and even feasible for production. Only exception is Asteroid Coaster. No way, Planet Wisp was the best choice, I'm very happy they went with that. Oh, and I'd prefer Launch Base over Carnival Night; better music, would be more interesting to see re-imagined, and you covered the trope later anyway with Bingo Highway. I liked the extra missions, because I do like optional curveball challenges in a game and at least they messed with the stage appearances as a bonus. Green Hill during sunset looked beautiful.
Launch Base would be thrown into the Final level collective, and only reason I chose Asteroid Coaster is because it makes sense being closer towards the end of the game. Planet Wisp was my favorite colors level, but it doesn't work as the last/second to last level (although in many ways Planet Wisp is Launch Base + Azure lake, so it kinda works as the final level).
Honestly, my idea (which I'm pretty sure I've said somewhere here before) was that at the end, the levels themselves changed. So once you beat Planet Wisp and the Boss, the Time Eater would come along and screw up all of the stages and make them into different stages. So Seaside Hill would become Hang Castle or another later stage. Once you finish the redone stages, you would go into a final stage in which you must switch between Modern and Classic Sonic in-stage to do puzzles etc. The stage would be a mix of every stage you've been through so far. When the stage has finished, you are taken to the final boss, which is a better version of the Time Eater.
Well I always thought it'd be cool if instead of having just single remade stages, instead each stage would be a trope, and as you play through them it'd be a mix up of the levels that display said trope. The first level would be a mix of all the Hill named levels in the series, with the final level being some kinda super mega Eggman lair, starting you off in a Scrap brain zone, progressing forward as you infiltrate the Death egg before it launches. Perhaps due to the Time Eater's powers, the levels are literally spliced together, with lines oozing dark purple showing how parts of different stages have mixed up together. I dunno, perhaps I'm too ambitious. Either way, what they did for Generations was great, but not perfection.
I thought for what it is, Sonic Generations was spectacular. Yeah, it is it has all the problems "modern" Sonic has from a story and design paradigm, but at least as far as 3D sonic games go, it may be my favorite.
Eh. I liked Generations. I can't complain. Sure, it would have been nice to have DLC that included other fan favorite levels. I don't see how it could be that hard to do. The level designs made it VERY clear that many levels in Generations borrowed elements from other Sonic levels, making it look like all the levels in Sonic's world were melding together (I think I remember seeing Eggman's airship in the background of Rooftop Run, the very same one that held the classic level Flying Battery Zone. And I forget if it was part of the main mission or a side mission, but there is an underwater section in Classic Sonic's Seaside Hill that made me think heavily of Sonic 1's Labyrinth Zone). Yeah, I really don't think it should have been too hard to recreate more classic and iconic levels from Sonic's history and main canon. I don't blame Sega or Sonic Team of Japan. I blame Japan in general. It's just kind of a weird thing Japan does. They have an aversion to "extras". They don't often like to put much bonus material on their DVDs/BluRays. They don't like to make or release a lot of DLC for their games. That's more of an American or Western thing. I guess they think, if it isn't part of the main experience, then it's kind of an inconvenience to those who don't have time for it or can't be bothered with it. I really have no idea.
