Sonic Generations was originally released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in early November. As there was not a version for the Wii, Sega did not want to leave Nintendo out of Sonic’s 25 birthday celebration so they released Sonic Generations for the Nintendo 3DS.
The 3DS version follows the same plot as its console brethren. An unknown being known as the Time Eater is messing with time and Sonic must team with his past self to stop the Time Eater from destroying time as we know it. Like in the console version of Sonic Generations, you play levels from past Sonic games from the Genesis Era all the way to the Modern Era as both Classic and Modern Sonic. Instead of just rehashing the same levels from the console version of Sonic Generation, the 3DS version of the game has six new levels for you to play. Most of these new levels are fun to play, but there are a couple levels such as the Water Palace that just did not engage enough to make me want to play it again. Along with the new levels, Dimps brought back the special stages (something that was not in the console games). These special stages in Sonic Generations are based on the special stages from Sonic Heroes as Sonic chases a chaos emerald down a long tube. Rather than the special stages be four to five minutes long like in Sonic Heroes, Dimps reduced the time to one to two minutes timed affairs in order to complement the portable nature of the game. Personally I really enjoyed the special stages in Sonic Generations due to the fast gameplay that really tests your hand-eye coordination. After completing a certain number of stages in each era, you unlock a boss gate. A boss gate contains two challenges for Sonic. The first challenge is a race against one of his three rivals (Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver). The second challenge is boss battle against a boss from a past Sonic game such as Big Arm, the final boss from Sonic 3. The boss gates like the majority of the game area lot of fun. Dimps even improved the boss battles for the Biolizard and the Time Eater, which were a mess in their respective games.
With all the fun that I had with Sonic Generations for the 3DS, there are quite a few drawbacks that keep this game from surpassing its console brethren. First off, the game’s presentation is great except for one thing, the cutscenes. Usually I am not up and arms about cutscenes in a game, but the talking models standing in white space cutscenes just don't do it for me. These cutscenes were acceptable on the Nintendo DS as it did not have a lot of power, but the 3DS is a new much more powerful handheld that can handle actual in-game cutscenes. Dimp’s efforts just look lazy and rushed. Secondly, having Classic Sonic learn both the Homing Attack and Boost might be cool, but it defeats the purpose of Sonic Generations as now there is not much of a difference between playing with Classic or Modern Sonic. Finally, the game is just a tad short. While the console version of Sonic Generations took me close to 8 hours to beat, Sonic Generations for the 3DS can be beaten in 3 to 4 hours. The missions will lengthen the time you spend with the game, but they are hard to unlock as the way to unlock them is not clearly defined.
At one point in time, handheld Sonic games were way much better than what Sega was releasing on the consoles. It seems right now the roles have reversed. While it is not by a landslide, Sonic Generations for the 3DS is not better than its console brethren. With fast, fun gameplay, good 3D graphics, excellent music and enjoyable and unique missions (when you finally unlock some), Sonic Generations for the 3DS serves as a really good companion game for those who own the console Sonic Generations game. Also if you are a 3DS owner looking for a portable platformer to play in short bursts, Sonic Generations is a great game for you.
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