Game review

Release date	2023-10-17
Publisher	SEGA
Developer	Sonic Team
Platform	PlayStation 5
Playtime	10 hours
Progress	Completed

Modern Sonic games is always a hit or miss. This time, they brought back Classic Sonic from Sonic Generations and put him in the era of the original Sonic The Hedgehog 2. This comes with some bad game design choices but also expands upon the experience by adding more playable characters with their own specific power. In this game Classic Sonic has a limited moveset which is a big downgrade from Generations.

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I take notes as I play the game for things that I think deserve a mention. If something was not mentioned, it is considered "fine" and not noteworthy in any sense.

Pros

• Cartoony
  The 90s FoxKids cartoon style cutscenes and animation is fantastic
  
  
• Menu graphics
  I liked the new menu graphics, it was a lot more dynamic
  
  
• New Zones
  There was several new zones in this game that was very fun to play. Example the new Water slide stage is so much better executed and such a fun stage than it ever was in Sonic Forces where it was a disaster.
  
  
• Dual paths
  Like in Sonic generations, we have Sonic to be on multiple lanes using foregrouna and background tracks.
  
  
• Unlimited continues
  Like with the Crash Bandicoot remake years ago, this also brought unlimited continues to the game making it far easier but also way less frustrating because some of the stages can be very long.
  
  
• Playable credits
  A very fun little extra thing.
  
  
• Amy
  Once u get to play as Amy, she plays way better because she has double jump which is always a good thing in platformers.
  
  
• LEGO Sonic
  Some of the DLC costumes such as Lego Sonic was very neat.

Neutral

• Graphics
  Graphics is very PS3 with rough edges. Several times worse than Sonic Generations in terms of AA and asset work. Example things like a light shade that should be round, instead has 12 edges.
  
  
• Old-school
  The stages it self is more designed like the original games rather than modern sonic games where the stages has a lot of vertical movements and more static in the design as you run trough it. Example you could compare railing on vines in this game to grinding the rails in sonic generation as a comparision how much more living some of the stages is in Generations. This game also has same old transitioning between stages/acts/bosses as well relasing animals.

Cons

• Underwater
  Because of it's designed with the old-school sonic in mind, it also suffers from some of the bad elements of those games such as vertical underwater stages and a underwater boss.
  
  
• No combos
  In the old games, u could jump on a boss multiple times in a row in one move. In this game they have limited this so you always need to wait for the boss to make his move before you can do another. This makes some stages very slow and boring to beat and time gets very inflated.
  
  
• Not clear hitboxes
  Several times I noticed that you need to hit enemies very specificlly else u get hit. Example the cyber city boss with the minion. Sometimes u can hit it when it's in rocket mode, other times not.
  
  
• Instadeath
  Also a flaw in old game design. When you get hit and there's a pitfall nearby, it's very likely you will end up in it and it's a instadeath. This is just frustrating bad NES game design. I thought we had moved passed this.
  
  
• Bad power up system
  Instead of Sonic Generations where u could change and add power-ups dpeending on your need. This game has locked moveset based on the characters which sucks. So Sonic has no power-ups which made it quite boring and limited, technically he should have homing attack/drop but I never got that to work ever. Once u unlock Amy the game becomes a lot more fun because she has double jump and after that, there's no real reason to play as anyone else.
  
  
• Swings
  Swings does not take momentum in mind, so where u jump off, is the fixed direction Sonic will move while the camera is moving forward, very disorienting as well. However the Swing-loops on the pinball stages keep momentum which makes it inconsistent.
• Overworld
  Downgrade from Generations. This was plain map with a shop for costumes i never used. Would had been nicer with a power-up store like Generations.

Other

• 1 ring bug?
  I've died several times when I've had 1 ring left. I believe it has to be a bug.

Overall

Overall it feels like a old-school version of Sonic Generations but with some major downgrades. It's not as amazing as Generations but it's a good and fun game.

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