Sonic Generations is the next game set for release in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It brings together the three eras of level design (classic, Dreamcast, and modern) and the two Sonics of the series: the old Sonic with 2D gameplay and the new Sonic with 3D gameplay. The game is being developed by Sonic Team (Dimps is developing the 3DS version) and will be published by Sega on November 22, 2011. I played the PlayStation 3 demo and thought the game looked and sounded great, but didn’t jive on the gameplay, although I never really have loved the 2D Sonic games.

Sonic Generations looks really cool. The demo for the game only allowed me to play as old Sonic, so the game played like the 2D Sonic games, side-scrolling platforming, and fast. The backgrounds had well-defined depth, which looked good as I ran by, so good it halfway distracted me. The game looks really sharp and crisp, and looks to be full of bright colors, just what I’d expect out of a Sonic game.

But I thought the demo moved too fast. I blew past the environment, never feeling like I had that split second opportunity to make a decision. It didn’t help that Sonic wasn’t that responsive to my button presses. It seemed like it took a second for Sonic to begin moving once I began pressing right on the d-pad. And after pressing the jump button, it appeared to take a split second for Sonic to jump. I just didn’t like the way the demo felt, but I’ve never been that big a fan of the 2D Sonic games either.

The soundtrack was really good. The track that played over the Green Hill stage sounded awfully familiar, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s from an older Sonic game. The demo lasted only one stage and while I didn’t like the responsiveness of Sonic, I did make an improvement after playing a few more times. I’m interested to see what the new Sonic portions of the game look like, but so far the old Sonic portion of the game seems pretty good, if that’s your thing.