When I played through Sonic Generations from start to finish, I realised that Sonic had taken me for a run down memory lane. The game is broken down into three main eras – Genesis, Dreamcast & Modern. Each era held significant memories for me. I turned on the game and I was taken back in time in the comfort of my living room. 

Genesis Era

The sights and sounds of Sonic Generations' Green Hill Zone brought me back to my earliest  video gaming memory.I was four years old then. I was holding the 2nd player controller and my two elder brother would take turns to be player 1 in Sonic 1. Both of them told me that I would be controlling  the jumps. Of course, there wasn't such a feature in Sonic 1, much less a Co-Op mode. 

However, I vividly remembered being mesmerised by the colorful graphics and how my brothers would do not press any buttons so that we could see Sonic's idle animations. Starlight Zone was my favourite zone and I would pester my brothers to do the stage select code so that I can play that stage over and over again. As a result, Starlight Zone's theme became my naptime lullaby.

As I played the Genesis Era, my mother walked past  and saw the cutscene with both era Sonic and Tails. She said: "Since when did Sonic learn how to speak?" I told her that was the taller grown up version of the silent and tubby Sonic. I pointed out to the that the silent and tubby version was on screen too. She laughed it off and remarked that was the Sonic she remembered. 

Dreamcast Era

When I got to the Dreamcast Era, I recalled how we got the Dreamcast. It was 2001 and I was 12. My brothers got a used Dreamcast from a friend who wanted money to buy a Playstation 2. We didn't played much of the Dreamcast initially because we were spending a lot of time on the Playstation, especially Smackdown 2. Unfortunately, our Playstation became faulty.

To get our gaming fix, we turned to the Dreamcast. We bought Sonic Adventure 2 without any prior knowledge on how good the game was. This uneasiness was put to rest by the opening stage.I was wowed by the sheer frentic pace of City Escape and how much Sonic had changed from the 2D times. I was just getting into rock music and the City Escape theme was just the perfect tune for an imperssionable boy on the cusp of teenagehood. Still, the Knuckles and Rouge treasure hunting sections were kind of a drag. 

When I finished the Dreamcast Era, it dawned on me that the early 2000s were SEGA's creative peak. At that time, SEGA developed great games such as Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio and Samba De Amigo. Those games were fresh and to me, were ahead of their time and paved the way for many games today. Plus, I went on to complete Sonic Adventure after Sonic Adventure 2. I thoroughly enjoyed the Dreamcast games and it was the reason why we held back from buying the Playstation 2 during the launch period. 

Modern Era

Then, I reached the Modern Era. This was the era that Sonic went multiplatform and I turned 18. This was the period in my life I was juggling between hanging out, working and a diploma. Also, it was the time when my father passed away. Thus, I didn't have the luxury of time to just sit down and play video games all weekend.

I was rather unfamiliar with this era. At most, I played the original Sonic 2006 and Sonic Unleashed only at their first few stages. The main reason because I felt the game controls were clunky especially in Sonic Unleashed's Werehog segments. Moreover, I didn't play Sonic Colors before. 

The Modern Era of the game was a new experience for me. Still, I enjoyed Sonic Generations intepratations of the Modern Era and I thought I should get the original Sonic Colors. If I had more time, I would give Sonic 2006 and Sonic Unleashed another go.

Final Stage

The final stage of Sonic Generations summed up what I feel about the Sonic franchise. It was a great game that celebrated the different facets of a gaming icon.

Seeing both versions of Sonic teaming up to fight their nemesis was a fitting conclusion to the game. The meeting of the past and the present in Sonic Generations showed that sometimes one has to remember to look into his or her past so that they can look ahead into the future. 

To me, Sonic Generations was a welcomed comeback. It was as though Sonic had gotten back his rings after stepping on numerous spikes. Now, with this positive turnaround, I hope that Sonic continues to spin dash into the future and be a memorable figure to gamers all over the world.