Review – Sonic Generations

I have avoided Sonic games for a good long time now. The last one I laid my hands on was Sonic Heroes, which was an overall broken experience. Since then I neglected to care about the blue hedgehog with attitude; the series had gone off the rails into being unimaginative and frustratingly flawed. I didn’t want my childhood memories to take any more hits, as I was one of the kids who held Sonic in high esteem and adopted the Genesis over the Super Nintendo. I still believe the four Sonics on the Genesis are some of the strongest platformers of that early generation. The years have not been kind to him however, and the third dimension has nearly destroyed the credibility of Sega’s mascot. The continued redevelopment of the franchise has only succeeded in hurting the franchise, and the new additions only proved to be a departure from what made it so damn fun in the first place. The Sonic franchise isn’t about riding around on skates and using guns, it isn’t about running around with a sword, it isn’t about turning into a werewolf, and it for damn sure isn’t about Sonic experiencing a blossoming social life with other random animals with attitude.

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Six Games That May Be Overlooked This Holiday Season (Yet Deserve Your Attention)

We are creeping up on November and have already seen the release of the first wave of big games released this holiday season with Rage, Dark Souls, and Batman Arkham City. As all gamers have been aware, the end of 2011 is going to be big. Really big. I have trouble remembering a year that had so many AAA titles being released all around the same time; it is going to be hell on our wallets. There are some other games creeping out during this time that deserve some attention, and attention I shall give them. Games that are going to be innocent bystanders in the FPS turf war between Call of Duty and Battlefield. Titles that may find themselves lost within the wilderness of Elder Scroll’s Tamriel and Zelda’s Hyrule. It’s interesting to me that there are so many smaller games that publishers are pushing out during a time when they are going to have to stand up against Batman’s rogues gallery and the witty action packed life of Nathan Drake. I feel that many of these titles would perform well on their own merit, but I fear that they will be overlooked standing aside these giants. It’s time to shed some light on these titles, and give them a small dose of the attention that they deserve.

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Sonic Generations Demo – Another Disappointment Approaches

SEGA has a beautiful way of announcing a new Sonic game just about every year and claiming that the newest title is going to be THE Sonic game that fans have been hoping for. And with each release, SEGA beautifully disappoints almost everybody. To their credit Sonic Unleashed, Sonic 4, and Sonic Colors all received marginally increasing review scores compared to the 2006 “Sonic the Hedgehog”. It is now time for Sonic Generations to step up to the plate.

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Toys in the Attic – Guardian Heroes

This week I’ve decided to show you all one of my favorite gems from the Sega Saturn. By now you’ve all played Castle Crashers or, at the very least, you’ve heard of it. Still, if you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of years, I’ll fill you in. Castle Crashers was a brawler with an RPG element in it, wherein you level up and get to put points into different stats, making your brawling that much more RPGing. Long before Castle Crashers was even a brainseed, there was already a game that delivered this amazing combo: Guardian Heroes.

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Second Dreamcast Revival Release Dated for November – CRRRAAAAAAZYYY TAXIIII!

SEGA Dreamcast’s arcade classic, Crazy Taxi, will be coming to a stop for its next fare when it’s released this November on the PSN and XBLA – great news for anyone that was hoping to see more Dreamcast revivals after Sonic Adventure was released.

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Sonic 4 Has the Shortest Demo Ever

So Sonic 4 is finally out for XBLA and maybe some other platforms like PSN and WiiWare. I haven’t played the full release, but I can tell you that it is the most ridiculously short demo I have ever experienced. And I don’t just mean on XBLA, I mean of anything, ever. The demo consists solely of only the first level of the first stage. The time it took me to finish the level was just a hair over 1:30. If I figure in the time it took to launch the game, load the level, and then go back to my dashboard, I spent all of 3 minutes with it.

You should really just go download the demo if you are remotely interested in the game. Now that I think about it, it probably took you longer to get on your computer, go to our website, and read this post than it would to take to just go and play it. You should probably just stop reading this. Also, the best part of the demo was definitely the old school “SEGA” opening in the nice soft voice and its two note tune.

Rachel! New Vanquish Gameplay!

Sega released new screens and video of Platinum Games‘ upcoming release, Vanquish. Despite the terrifyingly bad Christian Bale voice acting, seeing this game in action has seriously given me hope for the future of innovative game design. Platinum Games appears to have, once again, made bullet ballet a smooth flowing work of art. New screen shots after the jump. Continue reading…