Salt and Pepa lyrics in the title? Yeah, you know this might be good...or similar to all of my other entries.
God I love the platforming genre, especially two dimensional ones. Nothing against 3D games or 3D platformers, but I've always felt the golden age of the genre is grounded in 2D. The old Mario games, and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic Generations is a mix of 2D and 3D and it works pretty well. Blending the old school gameplay and levels of the original Sonic games and the new school gameplay and levels of the more modern games like Sonic Adventure, Generations does a good job bridging the gap between the 2 worlds.
When Sonic: Generations is great, it's really great. Speeding through old levels as Sonic is a nice touch of nostalgia. Sure, the ol' Hedgehog doesn't quite handle the same as he used to, but he's still got some fire burning down below. They made the game more floaty which bugs me a little and when Sonic really gets moving, it doesn't feel as fast as it used to. Not sure if the Xbox can't handle the BLAST PROCESSING or what, but it feels a little tame.
When Sonic Generations is not great, it's not great. Trudging through some of the lamer modern levels is an exercise in frustration and boredom. I understand the point of the title (Generations) was to combine the history of Sonic in one game but you'd think they would skip some of the more uninspired levels in favor of more kickass older levels but I guess it doesn't work that way. It's a game with a pretty smooth downward curve from the beginning to the end. You can really tell when the developers just got lazy and the quality of the games started tapering off, It's a slow decent into bleh.
The two gameplay styles are vastly different. 2D side-scrolling levels are reminiscent of the old days of Sonic, jumping on enemies, revving up a Sonic ball, spinning through loops, smashing through walls looking for secrets, it's all there and still fun as hell. 3D Sonic, which isn't true open 3D, but Sonic on rails, is really fun at times and really frustrating at times. Trying to aim some of the jumps at high speed is a pain in the ass, and the level design is at times horrendous. When you are flying at full speed, smashing through enemies, the 3D stuff is great but when they add platforming and timed jumps into the mix, the 3D starts to feel bogged down and boring, more frustrating than fun.
In the end, Sonic is a solid C+ title. an A+ for parts and an F for others is nestles nicely into an average score. A definite play for Sonic fans like myself, but if you've never been a big supporter of the spiky blue speedster, then Sonic Generations isn't going to do anything to change your mind.
As the other big platformer title to come out this year, Rayman: Origins is pretty much in direct competition with Sonic: Generations for my heart. Rayman's been around a long time, but he's never been anywhere near as iconic as Sonic so it's a good thing the game with his namesake is ridiculously amazing, since he doesn't have that whole fame thing to fall back on.
Rayman: Origins is fantastic, let me say that first. It's the best platformer I've played in a long time and deserves all of the praise I'm going to heap on it in the next couple of paragraphs. Michel Ancel's little limbless hero has reached the peak of his skills here. It's a lovingly crafted masterpiece and everyone should play it.
The graphics are, first of all, phenomenal. Bright, crisp colors blended with a sharp design add up to visual bliss. The levels are all varied and represented (desert, fire, jungle, ice, etc...) but are presented in a unique way so it doesn't just feel like more of been there dont that. Character design is solid, nothing to write home about here, but it's very functional for the game. Rayman still doesn't have limbs, which was originally a result of system limitations, but has since become a part of his charm. The other characters are all cartoony and fun.
The music...oh the music. It's wonderful and whimsical and absolutely perfect and I could expound on it's virtues for an entire paragraph but I won't. Instead I'll just leave this here for you to listen to and fall in love with.
I can sit here and talk about graphics and music all day and it doesn't mean much if the gameplay is garbage. Fortunately, Rayman's gameplay is as amazing as it's aesthetics. The game controls smooth, the level design is aces, the difficulty is basic enough for most players to enjoy, but challenging enough for veterans to get their fill as well. There is a ton of stuff to collect and hidden rooms to find on every level. Bonus levels add a whole new level of difficulty, requiring precise timing and memorization to pass. It's just a fantastic overall package.
There's nothing left to say about Rayman: Origins at this point. It's an amazing game and everyone owes it to themselves to play it unless you are some sort of soulless harpy or other evil, mythical beast.
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