This is fuckin late, but you know what?  Meh.  Anyway, a few weeks ago, Sonic Generations was confirmed by a few sources to be coming out for the 3DS due to some leaked scans from the next issue of Nintendo Power.  I won't be showing the scans, but I will discuss some of the information that was revealed and my thoughts on it.

First of all, Neo Sonic's gameplay is going to be that of the Sonic Rush games and the DS version of Sonic Colors.  To me, I'm actually mixed on that.  Sonic Rush was okay and would be better if not for cheap item placement, and I really enjoyed Sonic Rush Adventure, but while I loved the Wii version of Sonic Colors, I hated the DS version mainly as I thought the level design and some of the wisp controls were not that good, though I at least like that the DS version of Colors tried to have more platforming over speed, but I didn't like how the levels and obstacles were designed.  Not to mention, the game is being co-developed by Dimps, and I don't really trust them with Sonic games much these days due to the recent installments that they've helped Sonic Team with.  Hopefully a better job can be done for this one so I'm not going to shun it yet, but I'm going to remain cautious.  I was actually hoping that Sonic could have a 3D adventure on a handheld for once since I've actually enjoyed Sonic Colors a lot, and considering the 3DS's technology and analog capabilities, it would have been cool to see.  Though I suppose at the same time, it is appropriate to show off both styles of 2D gameplay that exist now as well if you're celebrating Sonic's 20th anniversary on handhelds as well.

As for Retro Sonic's gameplay, it's going to basically be the same as the classic gameplay that they're giving him on the HD consoles.  You know, good ole Mega Drive style controls and such.  From what I've read, the demo players said that the physics and controls were quite faithful to the original Mega Drive games, and more so then Sonic 4: Episode 1.  Even more so, I've read that the physics and controls were rebuilt from scratch for the 3DS.  Now I'm happy that Sonic Team and I guess Dimps are paying close attention to the original titles so to keep the gameplay as faithful as possible to the Sega Mega Drive, but considering that both Sonic Team and Dimps were working on Sonic 4: Episode 1 before, I can help but wonder why the physics had to be those of Sonic Rush for that title.  I guess maybe part of it is that Sega learned their lesson after the complaints from Episode 1.  If that's the case, then good, and it will also show more hope for Episode 2.

The last thing I have some mixed feelings about (though the Retro gameplay I'm not mixed on, just mixed on why Sonic 4 Ep 1 didn't get the same treatment) is one of the zone selections; Casino Night Zone.  I'm probably going to anger a lot of Sonic fans by saying this, but I hated that zone in Sonic 2.  To me, it was the most beatable zone ever in the Sonic franchise during the Mega Drive era as it had only one badnik who wasn't even really a threat, and most of the traps and obstacles were non-fatal.  It's just a bunch of jumping and bumping with some boring pinball stuff thrown in.  And I'm not saying pinball stuff for Sonic is bad, because I actually liked Sonic Spinball, but that was actually more fun an exciting.  To me, the only appeal, and I'm also betting this was the appeal to many others as well were the slot machines and they're not really worth much to me.  However, there are two things that I should consider.  The first thing being that all the levels are getting new layouts, so maybe the zone can be much better in this game.  The second thing is that it's only a 3DS exclusive, so I can probably live with that.  If there is any zone I really want to see in HD, it would be Carnival Night Zone as to me, that was the most beautiful zone in the Mega Drive series of Sonic games, so to see it in HD would be amazing.

On the sides that I find completely positive, a Special Zone that is NOT entirely based on Sonic 2's for once is being used, and it's the Sonic Heroes Special Zone.  It is somewhat based on Sonic 2's half pipe zone, but with enough key differences to distinguish it like it being full pipe and the goal being an Emerald chase over collecting a set amount of rings or spheres to progress.  That's been my biggest gripe with most of the recent Sonic games; ALL of them require you to just collect a set amount of rings or spheres before a time limit runs out.  I liked the other ones more like the UFO Special Zone in Sonic CD where you had to avoid water and traps while trying to break all 6 UFOs as they attempted to dodge you.  Or how about the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Special Zone?  There was no time limit really, you just had to turn all the blue spheres into red ones or rings, and the longer you stay in the Special Zone, the faster and more challenging the gameplay gets.  The Sonic Heroes one, while it has a time limit, it at least not about collecting a set amount of rings or spheres, it's about gaining speed and chasing the emerald before it gets away.  That was actually a fun Special Zone with my only gripe being the controls when you were on the ceiling at times, but I'm expecting that glitch to be fixed for this release.

Another thing I'm happy about are the classic boss battles with Retro Eggman at the controls.  But what's even better is how many of them have upgrades to also help keep them fresh and challenging.  One (and currently only) in particular that showed up was the Big Arm boss from Launch Base Zone in Sonic 3 which was one of my favorite boss battles as it took a lot of careful jumps and dodging, so to see that one with some new abilities should be quite interesting.

Those are really all the new points I really need to mention.  Let's hope the 3DS version can hopefully be as good as the console versions when they are released later this year.

That is all, till next time Game and Toon fans!