No Witty Title Needed: Just Play SNOIC GENERATONS Immediately

I had an overly long, more-than-slightly verbose intro to this article written out and, right before hitting the publish button, scrapped it. Just completely deleted it. This is one of those situations in which the game just needs to speak for itself. Readers of the printed version of Space City Nerd probably at least know the basics of what this game’s about anyway; I wrote a brief preview of the demo over a year ago in Issue 3. The full game’s out now (has been for a few months, actually) and I’ve played it and it’s the best Sonic game I’ve played in years and just click the Read More link already okay pls

 

In late 2011 Sega tried to cash in on nostalgia for Sonic the Hedgehog with a game called Sonic Generations. It had remixed versions of levels from a lot Sonic games and it was pretty alright, I guess, save for the fact that they ignored a lot of the sketchier, yet better known parts of the blue blur’s history. I can’t blame them; I mean, everyone who played it probably wants to forget Sonic Jam on the Game.com exists and the only way things like Sonic Heroes or the 2006 reboot notable for that part where the human girl kisses Sonic can ever be palatable to most people is through major historical revisionism. Luckily, there exists a game that doesn’t ignore the the sketchy past of the franchise. Snoic Generatons not only embraces the bad parts of the Sonic legacy, it revels in it and embraces the franchise for what it really is.

 

This game has a boss fight in which Sonic has to fight Sonic OCs that fall to the screen in boxes with the DeviantArt logo on them. Remember Sonic the Werehog? The awkward rap songs during Knuckles’s levels in Sonic Adventure 2? The Shadow the Hedgehog spinoff game where he shot guns and said swear words a lot because Sega wasn’t printing money with Football Manager and the Total War series yet and figured pandering to edgy teenagers would allow them to stay open another year? Snoic Generatons not only remembers but has full levels dedicated to those things. There’s multiple levels based on Sonic’s Schoolhouse and another level themed after the multiple animated adaptations of the character. Another level has you fight the famous Harry Potter Obama backpack version of Sonic and even the canceled Sonic X-Treme is represented with two levels featuring a bastardized version of the famous fish-eye camera used to make the game look vaguely next-gen back in the mid 90’s. THIS is a true celebration of what Sega’s once flagship franchise has accomplished in its almost 25 years of existence and it should be played by everyone.

 

Also there’s a boss battle against Busby in which Ulillillia drones on endlessly about Busby 3D in the background. The soundtrack is just as demented as the art and gah, I could keep writing about this game but you need to play it yourself. The entire Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, creepy internet fandom and all, has been building up to this game for years and I’m glad it exists.

---

Full disclosure – Rex Nabours III has paid actual money to play most of the Sonic games that have been released since Sonic Adventure 1 but only actually likes Sonic CD. He also has logged a ridiculous amount of hours on Sonic & Sega Racing Transformed but that’s more of an Outrun 2 spinoff than anything else so it’s okay. Download Snoic Generatons here.