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.