Scrolling, Scrolling, Scrolling
Despite that, Generations packs enough retro cool to satisfy most players. Older fans will probably get more out of it, to be sure. Players who’ve followed Sonic over the years can pick out more of the visual cues and in-jokes. Long-time gamers in general are more likely to appreciate the collision between old-school gameplay and new-school graphics, especially if they remember the advent of parallax scroll.
“Parallax scroll,” for the young folks in the audience, is what happens when different layers of a 2D image move at different speeds. If more distant layers of the background move slower than the ones in front of them, the result is an illusion of depth. Filmed animation has done it for decades, and it was a big deal when 16-bit console games were first able to pull off the effect.
Generations re-creates a 2D game’s parallax scroll and goes one further. The way the camera positions itself over the 3D levels – and the way the 3DS manipulates bits of the image with its lenticular screen – gives it the feel of parallax scroll on steroids. The layers of the background don’t just move independently, they genuinely seem to be distant from each other, at least as far as the player’s sense of depth perception is concerned.
In practice, a lot of people may just find it a pain in the eyeballs. Many players will comfortably enjoy this game with the 3D switch on their handheld turned all the way to the bottom. In principle, though, it’s both visually interesting and very funny in a perverse kind of way. Sega’s harnessed the latest technology to riff on a graphical gimmick more than 20 years old.
That Was Then, This Is Now
Not all of the modern influence on Generations is so entertaining. For reasons only a Japanese production staff could fathom, a whole mess of dialogue and cut scenes appears between levels to explain why Sonic is running through these different worlds from his past. The cinematics spin a long story about time travel and dimension-hopping and some great big “Time Eater” thing and…never mind, we probably shouldn’t have even brought it up in the first place. Why does any of this need explanation, you might ask? Well, clearly you aren’t a Japanese video game producer.
Luckily it’s easy enough to skip all the cut scenes and get on with the good parts. If Sonic is more dedicated, obsessed, or unhinged fans feel like they might get something out of poring over the dialogue, well, they are welcome to it.
For the rest of us, there are better things to listen to. The Generations soundtrack was produced by Jun Senoue, Sonic’s signature composer since the franchise moved to the Dreamcast, and he does a neat Jekyll-and-Hyde act with the music. Most of the Classic Sonic levels sound like a 16-bit game, backed with tracks that mimic retro-style chip music. Meanwhile, the Modern Sonic levels have a contemporary feel – some rock ‘n’ roll, some uptempo hip-hop, some laid-back trance techno. It’s all very catchy, and it helps underline the different personality of the stages. It might have been even more interesting if Sega had found a second composer to do Modern Sonic – Hideki Naganuma, maybe, who gave such a funky sound to Jet Set Radio and the Sonic Rush games – but Senoue did a fine job on his own.
Back to the Future
The same goes for the rest of the Generations staff – even the writers behind those bizarre cut scenes, who, let’s be honest, were given a task that shouldn’t have been forced on anyone. If you think you can write a plot that explains a sentient blue hedgehog traveling through time and meeting himself while he battles a succession of robots crafted by a dude with a giant mustache, plus a supporting role for a talking fox, go ahead and try to do better. Or, on second thought, please don’t. The Internet is in bad enough shape already.
Just play the game, if you’d like a reminder of how good Sonic used to be. Some classic series have come a long way in the modern age – full-blown 3D did great things for the likes of Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros. Others were better off staying closer to their roots, and this proves that Sonic is one of them. Sonic Generations on the 3DS earns an 80 out of 100.