Video game retailer GAME held the first UK edition of their GAMEfest event last weekend and SEGA was in attendance with all 3 versions of Sonic Generations and both versions of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Community members TrueBlue471 and Hogfather attended and have shared footage and impressions of the games, which we have for you below.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642qlHKNWZ8[/youtube]
TrueBlue471 has sent in the above video, which contains footage of both Modern and Classic Sonic City Escape Acts in the console version of Sonic Generations and Classic Sonic’s Green Hill Zone Act in the Nintendo 3DS version.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK6QvzMmmlU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Hogfather has sent us his impressions of all versions of Sonic Generations and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, together with the above video of SEGA’s booth.
You can read all of Hogfather’s impressions below.
Sonic Generations (3DS)
We’ve all seen the early screenshots, we’ve all seen the early shaky cam footage of it in action and it didn’t impress at all. Unfortunately it still has a lot to prove.
Whilst visually the game has improved tremendously from the original build we saw, praise must go to Dimps for actually doing something that so many people have asked for a great many years… Re-create the classic stages exactly as before only with updated visuals.
Playing through Mushroom Hill zone you can’t help but at least admire Dimps for the effort that’s been put in to making the game look true to the original stages.
But… whilst the stages look nice, the build I played did have its fair share of problems, try doing a spin dash with the analogue stick thing on the 3DS, it can’t be done, you must use the d-pad to play. The build also had a few issues with actually rendering the level, at times during Mushroom Hill Act 1 the paths didn’t appear to load/render when you were moving through the level at speed.
With regards to the 3D effect. It’s dreadful, just turn it off. It looks terrible in every stage I played and offers utterly nothing to the game.
However, if you care about these kind of things, you will be happy to know that the game plays more like the classics and less like Sonic 4… … .. So if you don’t want to learn how to play a new game or want to moan about little things, this one’s for you!
Sonic Generations (PS3/Xbox 360)
I played on both the PS3/Xbox 360 version for both stages of Green hill and… City Escape.
The build I played of the Green Hill is a lot different to that of the demo we had on XBLA and the PSN. One tiny change which might make some people happy is that the issue of where sonic hit an enemy in relation to how high he bounces appears to have been fixed. Controls seem to be much more responsive, even when boosting as modern Sonic, you can make small precise movements when heading down a straight.
Whilst Green Hill Zone is a relatively easy stage to beat, mastering it is going to take some time. However due to the number of times you run into Omachoa who gives you… advice, one could claim that Green Hill is designed to be a tutorial kind of stage, it’s easy yes, there’s lots of advice given, but at no point do you think ‘this is a tutorial’ and to master the stage, it’s going to take a number of playthroughs.
City Escape.
For those who said ‘this looks easy’ or… you can just boost through it… I point at you and laugh, you are in for a shock! City Escape is a tricky stage which COMMANDS great platforming skill, you CANNOT boost through it as modern or classic sonic, there are open areas for modern sonic which means boosting is impossible, well it’s not impossible… you will boost, for 3 seconds, after which you crash into a wall.
As both classic and modern Sonic, relying on boosting or spin dashing through this stage will result in you completing the stage in a very long time, mastering this stage will not be an easy task, you have to time your jumps just right and be at a good enough speed to actually make them when they do.
The Gun Truck sequence… to quote Robin Williams from the movie Jumanji…
“A hunter from the darkest wild, makes you feel just like a child.”
“What is it?”
“The Gun Truck!”Ok maybe a bit too dramatic, but there’s just something about this sequence that gets the blood pumping, maybe it’s that the Gun Truck destroys homes to get you, it follows you relentlessly throughout the stage, if you have a 3D TV it even comes out at the screen to get you the player. Maybe I quoted the wrong movie; Terminator has a more appropriate line. “It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with! It doesn’t feel pity! Or remorse! Or fear! And it absolutely will not stop EVER! Until you are dead!”
Whilst the Gun Truck sequence is a relief from a demand of platforming, don’t let the trailers or the this sequence fool you. City escape is a tricky stage, it DEMANDS precision platforming and it’s a VERY impressive stage at that.
I played both the Xbox 360/PS3 versions of Generations, whilst I didn’t have any problems with lag input on the PSN demo I played back in the summer, if there was any truth to this claim back in the summer, it certainly doesn’t exist now, both versions play equally and look equally stunning. Maybe if you care enough to test them in near laboratory conditions you might find a difference, otherwise it’s only going to be something that 3 people might argue about enough to convince themselves that everybody else secretly does care… yet we’re too busy playing a very well made game.
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)
I only played the canoe game, and surprisingly… this was a lot of fun, the controls did indeed match up with a canoe motion, the game was responsive and I actually felt like I was playing it and making my characters move as they should. As with previous Mario & Sonic games the key was finding a rhythm and maintaining that only to go crazy near the end of the race.
As strange as it sounds for me to say, the game was actually enjoyable, but then again, maybe it’s because I was sat in a canoe whilst playing the game instead of sitting in my room with a flicker light?
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (3DS)
The 3DS version is… a little disappointing, there were a series of minigames to play ranging from Judo to the ‘walking race.’ Judo was amazingly poor, it’s basically a QTE minigame, whilst I don’t mind QTE’s this one is let down by the design of the 3DS itself, holding the D-pad button and one of the normal buttons is not the easiest thing to do in the speed that the game demands, as crazy as that sounds. But it does look quite cool when the game borrows Marvel Vs Capcoms hyper combo screens as Mario or Luigi did a leg sweep… and another… and another… and another… I guess nobody told the devs that in Judo you can do more moves than leg Sweep?
Maybe they designed this section after watching the Karate Kid?
The walking race, just a case of sliding the stylus from left to right in a set speed for the entire minigame… … boring.
The 3D effect… as with Generations 3DS, terrible and pointless. Turn it off.
Big thanks to TrueBlue471 and Hogfather for the gameplay footage and previews!
Got a news tip? Send it in to thesonicstadium@googlemail.com, shadzter@sonicstadium.org or via Twitter at @Shadzter and we’ll credit you for the find.
Hurrah! The ramblings of a madman have finally been put on TSS for all to see… Now… where are my fangirls…
*waits for an hour before going to order chinese food*
Il join ya for the Chinese ;D (Even tho ive never tried it xD)
I’ll join ya for the fangirls.
I doubt the 3DS version is so “dreadful.” This preview seems a bit biased to me, and I’ll wait to play it myself because I believe the 3D effect is probably really awesome especially in modern mushroom hill with the multi-layered stage. I’ll take previews like these with a grain of salt, since a lot of people like to hate on the 3DS. this could just be another piece of troll bait.
Regardless, I appreciate the time you guys took to post these videos. Thank you for your contribution.
Not being a fan on the 3DS I’m quite glad I gave mine away and spend the money towards preordering the collector’s edition for Xbox 360. I’m soo excited for Sonic Gen Now!
Sucks to be you when the new Pokémon/Marios come out. Or a competent Sonic game that you might find enjoyable.
Totally agree with HeatPhoenix.
Besides Mario he won’t be missing much xD
Sonic Rush 3 BITCHEZ!!!
POKEMON GRAY BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCHEZ!!!!
super mario 3d land………………bitch…
No he won’t… Sonic Generations HD isn’t coming out on the 3DS.
Why would it suck to be him when he’s getting the better game?
God not more 3ds rants… why do you think the game is delayed untill November 29th for maintnence ? Half of you havent even played the Demo. I mean look at Green Hill zone its build was shit untill now so think about Mushroom hill,Casino Night ,Emerald Coast months later Lol.
Well it’s a good thing that I have played the demo.
Otherwise I would have looked prety stupid when I said that it wasn’t that great wouldn’t I?
it’s still crap
from what i’ve read and seen in ONM the 3ds version of sonic generations looks good.even ONM are excited about it.and they even said the 3d adds extra depth to the loop-the-loops.
^ Exactly
There hasn’t been one bad review for Generations yet! My hopes are still high. Please be good, I reaaaallly can’t wait.
I can’t really tell from the video, but do you guys know if the rolling for Classic Sonic has been fixed yet?
Well when I played it, he got into a ball and rolled along the ground when I told him too. So I assume it has been fixed.
Judging from the level, it looks like its still an early build (Note that there weren’t any red rings and barely any spikes)
Huh, wasn’t expecting City Escape to be “difficult” to say the least. But then again, it isn’t gonna be the first stage of the game like SA2. Still good to know =P
I think my gameplay proves Hogfurthers point of boosting into a wall :L but overall it’s not that hard, shame the A button wasten responding during that trick jumps in the beginning but i think that was the controller (or me) xD
If City Escape and Green Hill Zone are anything to go by, I suspect that every stage will be beatable by anyone who picks up this game, from someone who is used to Sonic games, to someone who is not.
However, the difficulty is a combination of the challenges in each stage and the ability of the player to overcome them to beat the game in the fastest possible time.
In the demos I played almost everybody was getting an S Rank, however I suspect/was told that this would be changed come retail release, if this is the case then getting an S Rank is going to be a challenge for a lot of people.
if S rankings are going to be changed to harder S ranks the hard mode is going to be hell 🙂
In Colours, everyone was ranking E3 build easily but in the retail version, it was’nt that easy.
So I suspect this is the same case.
retail colors goes by score not time. which stinks
just spam the wisps and you score an S rank no problem
Well yea the Graphics are getting fixed soo (1 month later) cool.
I still haven’t let myself watch a full video of City Escape. You can spoil what levels are in the game, you can spoil what characters are in the game, you can even spoil what enemies are in the game. But I want to discover these levels for the first time when playing them. I don’t want to know exactly what’s coming on my first playthrough. I want to discover just how menacing this truck is for myself!
Wow, I stopped reading after Gen 3DS. Your such a critic man. Btw, in the future, you should try using “whilst” a bit less.
I used the word “whilst” twice in the 3DS section…
If you stopped reading there… how can you possibly know what else I wrote?
I skimmed through, and found 4 of em lol. Btw, the 3D Effect on both Gen and Mario+Sonic is awsome. The fact that you had to stand up, and move your head a bit, made it all blurry and stuff, however, if your sitting on your couch, and sitting still, the 3D effect is really good! Though the 3D effect does feel like a gimmick :/ Still, as long your sitting on your couch still, you can enjoy the game, and the 3D effect at the same time ! 😛
whilst he said whilst i didn’t notice he said whilst at all. also earlier i watched a 3d video on youtube whilst using 3d glasses. 😀 (ps it actually works! it’s awesome whilst wearing 3d glasses!)
each new word i hear of this game gets me more pumped for the final game as it crawls slowly to everyone’s doorsteps in November, who will be the very FIRST to upload a new score for the leaderboards, DIBS!!! oh nevermind, i called dibs
who’s gonna be the first one to post a walkthrough on youtube?
Who will be the first to get the Sonic Generations platinum trophy (or 100% Xbox score if theres a way to check that)?
Tjere’s no way to check it, as far as I know for Xbox users. You can only check to see how much gamescore your friends have, and you can compare them 🙂 Though I’m not sure about PS3 users..
xD I’m trying to.
Btw TrueBlue471/Hogfather, how did the Modern Version of City Escape sound? Ive been wondering since Ive only heard the small preview.
This is quite a difficult question to answer. GameFest was a very noisy environment and it wasn’t easy to hear the music, but the SFX was alright, Omachao is annoying as ever.
Is Omochao optional? I really hope he is because by the looks of the preview, it seems that Omochao follows you for a good chunk of the stage. =/
Damn straight HogFurther! I did plan to record the modern music frOm the speakers from the big TV but I dot think it would have worked lol
Robin Williams quote FTW!
…Chao Garden…?
Yeah. Me too man, me too.
Can’t have a 20th anniversary Sonic game without the Chao Garden returning… Right? Each character you save can be playable in the chao garden right? It would look awesome to have next gen chao garden graphics…
xD There isn’t a Chao Garden in the game. Maybe as DLC though! Although I doubt that…
Idk why they wouldn’t have a chao garden…I’m sure people would buy the game solely for the chao garden too haha. O well, I hope if it’s not included, that they release an entire chao pack dlc
Amazing. One of my fears in this game was that Modern Sonic would be all about Boosting, but it looks as though it isn’t. I have no major complaints about this game now.
Off Topic:
Has anyone noticed that they like to put groups of 3 rings everywhere a lot? They’ve been doing this in sonic games for awhile. I first noticed it in Sonic 4, and when I played Sonic Advance again I noticed they did it in that game too. I’m also seeing it in Classic Sonic’s stages in this game as well, it seems kind of lazy.
but in sonic unleashed rings are EVERYWHERE instead of just 3 rings in a row
Unleashed had a crapload of rings to charge up your boost…. Which in turn made abusing the boost even easier. I’m glad that Generations fixes that.
@sonichedgehog the harder the sonic games get the better BESIDES EGG MAN LAND that stage was a bitch but easy to S rank
I’m still trying to beat the hot dog missions for that one. It’s terribly hard to do, but not in a cheap, unfair way. The level is actually one of my favorites because it’s hard, but for all the right reasons.
I’m talking about 2D Sonic
have you played sonic 1?
I’m also not talking about the classic Mega Drive series.
still has groups of three no matter what. yes there are some groups of five. and others but hte main is 3
I think I’m going to pass on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games, but that 3DS cartridge will be in my 3DS in no time!!!!
I went to gamefest and played Sonic Generations (PS3 & 3DS) and M&S@TL2012OG (Wii & 3DS) and I say that City Escape was awesome and I had A go at The Uneven Bars in M&S@T2012OG which were grate fun. XD
If they fixed the rolling i’ll be satisfied that threw me during the demo.
man not only the G.U.N Truck is more meanacing than the original, but it chases Modern Sonic along build walls this time around, It made my heart race with excitement. I can’t wait for November!
Haven’t watched the videos (have seen some gameplay of City Escape), but I’m really excited regardless. A bit worried to hear City Escape is difficult…But then again, I’m the type who completely forgets about the Spin Dash and spams the Homing Attack in the final boss fight against Shadow/Sonic. Which, of course, let to many suicides…
And the GUN Truck. YES. Although attacking the player? It wants your soul, apparently XD
QUESTION:
Tell me, does (Modern) Sonic get any sort of Spin Dash like he had in SA1 and SA2? I’ve seen him apparently roll into a ball when boosting on tight curves…And I debate if this was initiated by the player or automatically. A new way of drifting, methinks?
Spin Drift is the fan name
Confusing the player into thinking Modern Sonic has the spin dash again is my game.
Still don’t know if it’s player controlled or not :/
But, regardless…”Curse you SEGAAAAA!”
*Cough* But thanks for the game 😀
@Hogfather and @Trueblue471 What is the 360 version framerate!!! I need to know! lol
does any1 know if Sonic Generations 360 version is 60fps!!!
I don’t know why, but the houses in city escape remind me of the movie UP for some reason.