They finally came up with a true 3D successor on the Dreamcast, with Sonic Adventure featuring a new behind-the-back gameplay style that looked great at the time and had a real feeling of speed. For one thing by the mid-90s everyone had decided that 2D games were dead on consoles forever, so the classic gameplay wasn't going to work anymore, and they completely failed to produce anything to succeed it on the Saturn. It was a legitimate rival to the Mario games and it helped make the Mega Drive into a serious contender, but after Sonic 3 it started to struggle a bit, for a number of reasons. The Sonic the Hedgehog series used to be one of the most highly-acclaimed and best-selling game series in the world.

I guess this means I really do have to turn the game off now. Oh damn, it was the next song to get unlocked! That was fast. That's a point, where's the giant fish in Sonic Generations? I know Green Hill Zone didn't have one back in the day, but Sonic Adventure and Sonic 06 both have one on the first stage and it seems weird for an anniversary game to not call back to that. Suddenly the camera would switch around and I'd be chased by a fish that's smashing through the pier I was racing down.ĭo I keep pressing 'up', or do I press 'down' now? What happens if I let go of 'up' for a moment, do the controls reverse to match the new angle? I don't know!!! I remember Sonic Adventure used to confuse me as well. Sure it keeps asking me to reassess which direction to hold to make Sonic go forward, but I usually seem to pick the right one. It's a great idea I reckon, and really well implemented. The Sonic games started playing with the camera like this back in Sonic Unleashed, I think, seamlessly switching perspective to incorporate sections of 2D gameplay into 3D levels. Hang on, the level's gone side-view all of a sudden. There's Sonic Adventure-style grinding as well, even though Sonic left his Soap shoes behind a long time ago.

Sonic generations trick ramp model