Sonic Generations

The fans will absolutely love this, allthough it has a couple of flaws, especially in the overall too-easy experience, in the lame use of the touch screen and in the repetitiviness of it all.

Sonic Generations offers exactly what fans want: the classic speed of the Genesis games.

Sonic Generations for the 3DS is by no means a bad game, it is just a disappointing one. Being able to play as both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic in an assortment of old and new stages is a great idea, but everything is over very quickly.

Whereas the console version of Sonic Generations is a blending of old and new mentality in a fast-paced speed fest, the 3DS version is mostly just a Sonic Rush game where both playable characters happen to be Sonic.

Most of all, it never quite recaptures the original's vibrant spirit that made it stand out 20 years ago.

The new levels are just too unambitious and end up playing like Sonic's recent DS outings, only with polygonal visuals and 3D depth. That's still a worthy experience, but when Dreamcast's 12-years-old Emerald Coast blows its 3DS counterpart out of the water, there's something not quite right here.

It has potential to be way better, but you can have some fun.

In the end, Sonic Generations is not the worst Sonic game I've played, but it's far from the best either. I'm glad that I was forced to play through the whole thing, as there are definitely some clever design choices and cool moments in later levels. It's just a shame that I had to wade through so many cheap speed-blocking hits and uneventful levels to get to them.

On 3DS, Sonic Generations is a more half-hearted anniversary affair which somehow misses the point of the whole exercise.

Sonic has yet so settle in properly on the handhelds, and Sonic Generations sadly doesn't change that, despite including to versions of the blue hedgehog.

The worst thing about the game, believe it or not, is that it's occasionally good - great, even.

Sonic Generations doesn't have enough meat on its bones to stand alongside the best handheld Sonics on the market, but it's still worth a look.

I didn't hate every second I spent with this platformer. The music is great, the early Genesis-era stages are plain and simple fun, and the Sonic 2-style special stages make good use of the handheld's 3D to gauge depth. However, the lack of worthwhile new content and sloppy level design makes the whole product feel like a rushed tie-in to the superior console version.

This portable version is considerably worse than the console versions and messes up the design originally planned.

A short, disappointing downhill slide through clumsy and frustrating renditions of more modern, characterless stages. Drooping from joyous classic to dissatisfying mediocrity in just a few hours of gameplay, Generations on the 3DS provides a surprisingly handy microcosm of Sonic's decline over the years. Not the best anniversary present, then.

With awful level design and just two hours of gameplay, Sonic Generations is not the return to form that we were hoping for.