Sonic Generations demo...

[journeyman2x]

Is great! If you love old school sonic then you'll love this new demo. I'm getting pretty excited for this now.

[mdsrocker]

Downloading now, ths looks to FINALLY be the exception to the sonic cycle.

Although thinking that is PART of the Sonic cycle, so you never know.

[MaulerX]

Played it a few times today and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised! Old school chubby Sonic gameplay at it's best.

[nacthenud]

My biggest problem with the demo is that the physics in any given spot feel somewhat scripted, rather than freeform.

For instance - in Sonic games of old, if you wanted to use a vertical bumper to go up and left (backwards), you would set up your momentum so that you were already travelling left as you hit the bumper. The bumper would launch you up without affecting your horizontal momentum. There was one spot in the Generations demo where I was trying to do this and could not because hitting the bumper automatically ceased all horizontal momentum and made me face the right. The game assumed that anyone using that bumper would be doing so in order to continue the level forward - not to explore backwards, so it is a scripted vertical launch facing you towards the way forward on a bumper sitting out in the open.

This annoyed me greatly.

Similar sorts of things occur in places like tunnels. Rather than the gravity pulling your character down and speeding you up as you go, it's like you're going full speed the second you enter the tunnel. This was jarring when I would enter at barely a crawl and then boom, I'm going full speed.

Another example is how in the classic games, when you hit a downhill slope you're running down, the best strategy was often to hold down and roll into a ball. You would stay in the ball until you came to a stop or you hopped to put yourself back into a run. Here, getting into a roll worked some of the time in some sections, but not all of the time in all sections. In several instances, my roll would suddenly revert to a run at a specific part of the level where the game decided that at this spot, I should be running, not rolling.

I generally liked the level design. Lots of branching paths to try out within the single level, although mobility between them and the ability to backtrack is often more limited than I would like.

The jumping of Sonic felt better, but still not as good as the old Genesis games.

The speed is too fast. At top speed, you lose the sense of control. The old Sonic games were fast, but the knew the limit of how fast was too fast to play well.

In short, this is a good step towards a great Sonic game, but it's not there yet. It seems like it will be "good" though.

[Manny-Calavera]

I still have to download the demo, but after reading your impressions, i don't know if i'm gonna like it. Started Sonic 4 some days ago, and that game... oh that game gets me to a RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE level that i can't explain.

[nacthenud]

I actually really enjoyed Sonic 4 once I got past the initial distaste of being different. There is surprising depth to the controls. Differences between holding down vs down forward when rolling, etc. Holding forward after jumping vs not, etc. They gave you more control, provided you learn how to control it. It requires a bit of a change in old habits.

Sonic 4 controls great once you adapt to it and starts to feel pretty good when given a fair chance. I initially was put off by it feeling different from Sonic 1-3, but in the end I concluded it wasn't bad - just different.

[Setharion]

Devs try so hard with Sonic anymore but ill give it a download for sure!

[mdsrocker]

Meh, I was disappointed, not with the game (I really have nothing about the game to take out of the demo other than some fair sidescrolling), but with the demo itself; I'm a Sonic Adventured guy myself, and while most of the Sonic games after that were terrible, I found Adventured to have fantastic gameplay, and was hoping to get a 3D Sonic portion in the demo... didn't happen.