I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas–if I like these things, why should I apologize. The same with having a beer with you…
Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase
Some rivalries are lopsided: Coke versus Pepsi. Globetrotters versus Generals. Roadrunner versus Coyote. And despite both bands’ critical and commercial successes, the Beatles versus The Rolling Stones can be included on that list as well.
A hundred years from now, the Fab Four will still be the quintessential rock band. “Ruby Tuesday” is charming, but “Yesterday” is legendary. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road are seminal works that define not only the rock genre but music as a medium.
But liking the Beatles is fairly meaningless. Their work has been absorbed by the popular culture. Enjoying the White Album says as much about you as eating at McDonald’s; you would sometimes prefer to listen to harmonious sounds than silence. As Stephen Hayden explains in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, “If I’m honest, I’ll admit to being a Stones guy because being a Stones guy just seems more interesting. Loving the Beatles is ordinary by comparison; it says nothing about you other than your unquestioning acceptance of inevitable truths. Siding with the Beatles is like siding with gravity.” I wish I was a Stones guy.
Where I do choose the underdog in a one-sided competition, however, is with Mario versus Sonic. The latter has notoriously struggled since the introduction of the third dimension in video games, whereas the Italian plumber has had a major success with virtually every 3D Nintendo console: Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey1. On the other hand, the Sonic series has been humiliated by releases such as Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) plus a general mediocrity that has plagued the franchise in the past few decades.
Nonetheless, I am still a Sonic guy. That preference, however, does not make me cooler like choosing the Rolling Stones over the Beatles would. Liking Sonic over Mario just means you are 23% more likely to be diagnosed with autism.
For the longest time though, I did not own a Sonic game. My relationship with the character was primarily through the UK Sonic the Comic issues my granddad would collect and send to me every few months. I loved those comics, and they did a great job expanding the world of Sonic beyond what the 2D games could convey. These stories captured the essence and appeal of Sonic—He is edgy but in a non-threatening way that appeals to pre-teens who think they are far cooler than they are.
I even went so far as to record myself voice acting some of these stories. With my high-pitched ten-year-old voice, limited dramatic ability, and nonexistent sound editing, these were certainly awful. Still, I thought this was a million dollar idea that people would eventually pay for, copyright infringement be damned. While this effort did not crack even the top five worst creative ideas from my childhood, I am truly grateful that these tapes have never been found. I pray they remain hidden away somewhere inside my parents’ house.
Sonic the Comic had an enthralling take on Chaos from the first Sonic Adventure (involving time travel and an ancient war between Knuckles’ echidna ancestors and alien fish robots), but the publication stopped producing new strips before they could get to the second Sonic Adventure game. This is especially disappointing for me as since I never owned a Genesis or Saturn, my first console Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on GameCube which famously introduces Shadow.
The narrative is the best in the series, but this is Shadow’s story, not Sonic’s. Shadow is created by Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of the classic antagonist, to be the ultimate lifeform, but he spends his days living idyllically aboard the Space Colony ARK with Maria, Gerald’s granddaughter. When Maria meets with a tragic fate, both the lives of Shadow and Gerald are ruined. Decades later, Shadow must learn to let go of his anger and reject his creator’s misanthropic plan to destroy the Earth and its inhabitants. The final fight with Super Sonic and Super Shadow battling the Biolizard as the banger “Live and Learn” plays is the culmination of this adventure and a peak of the franchise.
In the ensuing years, the Sonic series struggled, but Sonic Generations was an unexpected high point. Both the 2D and 3D levels of Generations are strong. Compared to Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (which was released around the same time), the 2D levels of Generations have a satisfying feel at both high and low speeds, whereas Sonic 4 feels like trash when moving slowly. On the 3D side, Sonic Team did a great job of making the variety of levels feel cohesive and fresh even though they are originally from a wide variety of games. Sonic Generations was a great reminder of why the series can be so great.
However, I do probably overrate this game. Originally I played the title as part of my GameFly subscription. However, the disc I received had a scratch which made the game freeze whenever I reached the latter third of the game. It would be years before I would buy my own copy and finish the game. By then though, my first opinion had already solidified. This is especially fortuitous for Sonic Generations because the last few levels truly show off its flaws though these are problems that can still be seen in earlier parts of the game.
The biggest problem with Sonic Generations is that it alternates between easy and frustrating. The later levels such as Planet Wisp are far too gimmicky to the point where this does not feel like a true Sonic experience. Furthermore, bosses like the Egg Dragoon have too much rigmarole before you can hit them. Moments like these in Sonic Generations never feel challenging, just frustrating.
In fact, the majority of the game feels trivially easy. To facilitate the trademark felling of speed so much of a 3D Sonic level is on rails (either literal or figurative). But even the actual platforming comes across as far too simple. This is largely because the jump, double jump, and homing attack are all on the same button, so the player can just spam that single action to get across any area. Boost is another modern Sonic mechanic that allows players to plow through most threats with no concern. Like so many 3D Sonic games, Generations is just too easy.
Nonetheless, I loved that title enough to have been excited when Sonic x Shadow Generations was announced. Replaying the Sonic campaign only cemented my thoughts on a great but still flawed game. The Shadow campaign, however, felt like the best 3D Sonic game in years, maybe even ever.
A lot of this is due to the fact that movement in Shadow Generations is just a little bit tougher. Instead of having jump and homing attack on the same button, these actions have been mapped to two separate buttons. New powers like Doom Morph require a tiny bit of skill to use. The game never feels clunky, but these slight challenges are enough to make Shadow’s levels feel like a rhythm game instead of the game playing itself.
The Act 2 levels are especially interesting considering we have never had a 2D Shadow game. Nonetheless though, the camera shifts frequently enough that you will often forget you are primarily limited to two dimensions of movement in these second acts.
The inclusion of an open world between levels made me wary upon first discovery, but the White Space is one of the best parts of this game. Though the classic Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2D platformer, describing the game as a 1.5D platformer is probably more accurate. Sonic’s game-defining speed means that horizontal movement has a far greater precedence than vertical movement. A similar limitation occurs in 3D Sonic games which could be described as closer to 2.5D. Though both Mario and Sonic are platformer mascots, Super Mario games embrace verticality far more. Jumping onto multiple floating platforms can be frustrating in a 2D Sonic game even though it is still technically a platformer.
Shadow Generations embraces these limitations though to create an experience that is virtually a puzzle platformer. This is especially true when getting collectibles in the White Space. Shadow’s jump height is constrained, so the player may have to grind a rail, swing with Doom Morph, or launch an enemy into the air to reach the required heights. The game that Shadow Generations most reminds me of in these sections is not a platformer but rather Burnout Paradise—a game where you can only steer on a 2D plane but still frequently have to find some way to reach higher up. Shadow Generations forces the player to think about platforming beyond just a split-second decision as you speed by.
This game though saves its best for the end: Radical Highway, the first Shadow level from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. From the first level on the Space Colony ARK, the audience has received obvious hints that this is where we would face the final challenge against Black Doom. Radical Highway is a thrilling ride with or without the overpowered Doom Wing move, but most importantly, this final level is a blast of nostalgia. This conclusion confirms that Shadow Generations is the best that the Sonic franchise has been in the modern era.
But playing this game made me realize that I am always going to love Sonic, regardless of the quality. Shadow’s story in this game is about rejecting perfection. Black Doom empowers Shadow to become the ultimate lifeform, so he can steal his body. Shadow ultimately rejects Black Doom’s influence and lives with imperfection. All he wants to do is protect Maria and Gerald even though his efforts will ultimately be futile; their future deaths are still guaranteed. But Shadow fights to give them a few more moments of happiness. Perfection is overrated.
And that’s a good metaphor for the Sonic franchise as a whole. Deep down, I am still the same kid who would read Sonic the Comic with a flashlight in bed. I like the frustrating pinball section in Sonic CD. I like the janky Tails/Eggman mech sections and Knuckles/Rouge treasure hunts in Sonic Adventure 2. I like there is still a 50% chance that the next Sonic game is bad. And I love that Sonic Team is so wildly inconsistent that the best 2D Sonic game of the 21th century, Sonic Mania, was effectively outsourced to a true fan.
The critics are correct: Mario is better than Sonic. But I don’t care. I will always pick the blue hedgehog first. Sometimes your opinions go against the popular thought and make you an exile on Main Street. And maybe that’s the appeal.
- One of the few exceptions is the GameCube and Super Mario Sunshine which is good but not a classic. And we will ignore the Wii U just like Nintendo did. ↩︎
