Genre: 3d Platformer
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega

Even optimistic Sonic fans could not have imagined a more exciting re-actualization of some of the series' most famous stages; the lushness of Green Hill Zone has only been augmented by this transition to the third dimension. Art assets and texture resolutions are wonderful, and the engine's output looks crisp and runs wonderfully, even if the menu aesthetics and general presentation-- outside of the stage art of course-- is a bit budget-like and cheap looking.

Jun Senoue hasn't lost much of the touch since his stunning work on Sonic Adventure. Under his direction, this title has pretty fantastic remixes of some of the series' best songs, although they are maybe a bit too up-beat and lacking in mood. The voice acting features an array of talent that sounds like it was recruited straight from Nickelodean Studios-- painful. Fortunately, the voice acting is relegated to the game's short and infrequent cut-scenes, unlike in most of Nintendo's contemporary games, which are stained such during actual gameplay as well.

Interestingly, Sonic Generation's levels-- which are essentially just remixes of the same motifs as the stages they are attempting to emulate-- manage to reflect the quality of their original source material. Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, and Speed Highway are all wonderful, while Crisis City and Rooftop Run are hilariously awful. Boss fights are a similarly mixed bag. And between the engine's heavy-handed input filtering and the PS3 controllers' analog buttons, there is a very noticeable control latency that never really feels natural even with a great deal of practice.

Sonic Generations doesn't contain mere tokens of fan service; rather, the whole title is saturated in it. From its presentation to its sense of style to its stage designs, the title is so heavily set on paying homage to the series' roots that the entire package comes off as somewhat disturbing and tragic. And even though there are plenty of fun stages to enjoy, element-by-element the title is nowhere near as evocative as Saturn's "Sonic Jam". Why can't Sonic Team find a way to take the series forward rather instead of endlessly dwelling on the past?