Any reason to play original generations over this version?

[P0MK0NTHA1]

whats the difference? should I jump into this version right away or play original generations? thanks!

[NBOX21]

The differences aren't too drastic, but there are a few noteworthy changes:

1. This remaster provides 3 save slots; you only get 1 in the original game and selecting New Game erases your save file.
2. The controls have been updated to match the newer games like Sonic Frontiers (homing attack on X instead of A, boost on RT instead of X) but Legacy controls are available if you prefer to play with the original control scheme.
3. By default, the lives system is disabled (you have infinite lives) but by enabling the Challenge Tries setting in the Options menu you can play with the original lives system.
4. Red Rings now have a UI tracker indicating which red ring you picked up during the level which for some reason was absent in the original version even though every other Sonic game with red rings had this.
5.Each level has 3 Chao to find in addition to the red rings, though they don't unlock anything besides an achievement for finding them all.
6. The story has seen several re-writes from the original script, and is mostly an improvement over the incredibly barebones story of the 2011 version.

[The Spoon Slapper]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

The differences aren't too drastic, but there are a few noteworthy changes:

1. This remaster provides 3 save slots; you only get 1 in the original game and selecting New Game erases your save file.
2. The controls have been updated to match the newer games like Sonic Frontiers (homing attack on X instead of A, boost on RT instead of X) but Legacy controls are available if you prefer to play with the original control scheme.
3. By default, the lives system is disabled (you have infinite lives) but by enabling the Challenge Tries setting in the Options menu you can play with the original lives system.
4. Red Rings now have a UI tracker indicating which red ring you picked up during the level which for some reason was absent in the original version even though every other Sonic game with red rings had this.
5.Each level has 3 Chao to find in addition to the red rings, though they don't unlock anything besides an achievement for finding them all.
6. The story has seen several re-writes from the original script, and is mostly an improvement over the incredibly barebones story of the 2011 version.

However, you lose some of the slapstick comedy. For example, Amy hitting Knuckles in the face with one hand without paying attention and sending him into a tree. The simple fact that Amy put an absurd strength into her hand brought the comedy in the original version of that scene. In the remaster, that strength got reduced drastically.

And because of copyright issues, 'Right There, Ride On" from Sonic Rush is no longer there

[GrimAtrament]

Originally posted by The Spoon Slapper:

Originally posted by NBOX21:

The differences aren't too drastic, but there are a few noteworthy changes:

1. This remaster provides 3 save slots; you only get 1 in the original game and selecting New Game erases your save file.
2. The controls have been updated to match the newer games like Sonic Frontiers (homing attack on X instead of A, boost on RT instead of X) but Legacy controls are available if you prefer to play with the original control scheme.
3. By default, the lives system is disabled (you have infinite lives) but by enabling the Challenge Tries setting in the Options menu you can play with the original lives system.
4. Red Rings now have a UI tracker indicating which red ring you picked up during the level which for some reason was absent in the original version even though every other Sonic game with red rings had this.
5.Each level has 3 Chao to find in addition to the red rings, though they don't unlock anything besides an achievement for finding them all.
6. The story has seen several re-writes from the original script, and is mostly an improvement over the incredibly barebones story of the 2011 version.

However, you lose some of the slapstick comedy. For example, Amy hitting Knuckles in the face with one hand without paying attention and sending him into a tree. The simple fact that Amy put an absurd strength into her hand brought the comedy in the original version of that scene. In the remaster, that strength got reduced drastically.

And because of copyright issues, 'Right There, Ride On" from Sonic Rush is no longer there

Amy hitting knuckles was out of character. Also out of charscter for knuckles to get sent flying were talking about the guy that punched out super sonic. Sega needs to give this guy some respect already.

The last part I do agree with. Sega does need to handle their copyrights better. It honestly quite ridiculous.
The only company I've seen miss handle copyrights this badly is marvel. If you know you know.

[The Spoon Slapper]

Originally posted by GrimAtrament:

Amy hitting knuckles was out of character. Also out of charscter for knuckles to get sent flying were talking about the guy that punched out super sonic. Sega needs to give this guy some respect already.

The last part I do agree with. Sega does need to handle their copyrights better. It honestly quite ridiculous.
The only company I've seen miss handle copyrights this badly is marvel. If you know you know.

Do you mean it was out of character for Amy to hit someone because of her love for Sonic? I mean, in the original version of Sonic Generations, she was protrayed as clingy towards Sonic, like in Sonic Adventure. Of course that Amy would be at least disappointed that somebody underestimated Sonic in her opinion. But I do admit Knuckles could have easily avoided that hand as he seemed to be about to say "Wait, that's not what I meant" when Amy reacted.

As for companies that miss handled copyrights, there are also Id Software with one of the Commander Keen episodes, Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter, which is strangely missing in Commander Keen Complete Pack; and Namco and General Computer Corporation with Ms. Pac-man, the game as well as the character herself, forcing Namco to replace the character of Ms. Pac-man with another in Pac-Man Museum + and in Pac-Man World Re-Pac. Yep, Namco actually did worse than Sega

[Pz. Kpfw. VIII Maus]

The biggest reason is mods, OG generations has far more mods for it, and many iconic mods from that game likely aren’t getting any SxSG ports.

The second reason would be if you preferred the original writing of Pontac & Graff over Flynn’s writing. But frankly Generations has such a nothing story that I could go either way with the one.

[DaxiraxJr]

Originally posted by GrimAtrament:

Originally posted by The Spoon Slapper:

However, you lose some of the slapstick comedy. For example, Amy hitting Knuckles in the face with one hand without paying attention and sending him into a tree. The simple fact that Amy put an absurd strength into her hand brought the comedy in the original version of that scene. In the remaster, that strength got reduced drastically.

And because of copyright issues, 'Right There, Ride On" from Sonic Rush is no longer there

Amy hitting knuckles was out of character. Also out of charscter for knuckles to get sent flying were talking about the guy that punched out super sonic. Sega needs to give this guy some respect already.

The last part I do agree with. Sega does need to handle their copyrights better. It honestly quite ridiculous.
The only company I've seen miss handle copyrights this badly is marvel. If you know you know.

It's a Sonic game, who cares about "out of character"? Who honestly plays these games for the story?

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by DaxiraxJr:

Originally posted by GrimAtrament:

Amy hitting knuckles was out of character. Also out of charscter for knuckles to get sent flying were talking about the guy that punched out super sonic. Sega needs to give this guy some respect already.

It's a Sonic game, who cares about "out of character"? Who honestly plays these games for the story?

Games like Sonic Adventure 1&2, as well as Sonic Unleashed had great stories to compliment their fun gameplay experiences. Even without the narratives, they would still be fun games to play through, but they would be far worse off without them. It's the icing on top of an already delicious cake.

This is why I enjoy Tails' character arc he goes through in both Adventure games, and why I despise how he was handled in Forces. (Tails is scared of Chaos 0?! He fought Chaos 4 back in Adventure 1 and had the courage to take on Eggman in Adventure 2!)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3137240048
I also appreciate Tails remembering the hero he once was in Frontiers for that reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3bz2l7VLmk

[K2niarDneK]

Aside from the obvious draw of the impressive modding community[gamebanana.com] Gens 2011 has, arguably being nearly on par with Bethesda games in many respects, the differences are exclusively in Gens 2024's favor or are fairly minimal.

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Overall Gens 2024 is a far more consistent port than the 2011 original. Most people forget, but (like most of SEGA's PC Sonic ports) unmodded Gens 2011 on PC was incredibly rough. Poor performance, lots of bugs (most of which stem from the poor performance), the like.

Gens 2024 has a few of its own bugs, but it's hardly a Colors Ultimate situation, and is mostly a direct upgrade in terms of stability compared to Gens 2011.

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The original lacks multiple save files, meaning you need to either know how to back them up if you want to restart the game (for whatever reason), or commit to replaying the entire game. There really isn't a point to restarting the game, admittedly; the plot of the game is so short and barebones as it is, and you can already just rewatch the cutscenes in the collection room if you really want to; so this is a fairly minimal change.

I'd argue the unintentional main audience of this change are mod authors, since they can easily make and re-make a 'mod testing' save file just in case something they do breaks it.

There is a mod for the original[gamebanana.com] that does this as well, but the save swapping is done from the HedgeModManager instead in-game, so it's not nearly as cleanly integrated as well as in the remaster.

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The original has the antiquated Lives system, which I wholeheartedly believe was a relic of the Arcade Era of gaming and has no place in modern game design, but your mileage on that may vary. Generations was already incredibly generous with its Lives and Game-Overs meant so little that this change is effectively nonexistent.

Like with the save files, there are codes in the HedgeModManager that disable the Lives system in the original, which just further renders the change nonexistent.

---

The 2024 version adds the Drop Dash to both Classic and Modern Sonic. For Classic Sonic, it is an equippable skill in the skill shop, equipped by default when you start the game and integrated into Super Classic Sonic; and for Modern Sonic it is integrated into his moveset if you hold the Air Dash/Homing Attack button after Air-Dashing.

It's not very useful for either Sonic. Classic's is incredibly under-powered compared to his Spin-Dash (you're going to go farther at higher speeds with the Spin-Dash after coming to a complete stop than you would by Drop-Dashing), and Modern's is rendered completely obsolete by the Boost (which is faster, easier to control and is actually invincible unlike in Frontiers).

Like the change to the Lives system, this addition effectively means so little that it is functionally nonexistent.

Similarly to the Save Files, there is a also mod for the original[gamebanana.com] that adds the Drop-Dash to Classic Sonic, but that mod also makes several large changes to the physics and controls of Classic Sonic to make him feel closer to the Genesis games, so if you like how Gens Classic Sonic controls you may prefer the less heavy-handed approach of Gens 2024's integration of the move.

---

The new rewritten story is the main point of contention among the community. On one hand, the characters are in Gens 2024 are WRITTEN to be treated with far more respect than in the original's script. On the other hand, SEGA and/or Sonic Team didn't commit to that, meaning the game comes off as having an identity crisis as to what it wants to be.

Gens 2011 was released during that awkward phase where SEGA was too afraid of making semi-serious stories for Sonic games for fear of being 'cringe' and had Sonic Team write their games more like a SatAM cartoon than a Shonen anime. Gens 2011, therefore, didn't have a story; it only had a plot. The characters reacted to the plot, but it was incredibly barebones and was usually only a means to tell jokes. For Generations specifically, this was perfectly fine; it was entirely focused on being a gameplay-first anniversary celebration. Gens 2024 tried to improve on the original by having Ian Flynn rewrite the dialogue and cutscenes to create a story more in-line with the established universe set by the previous games.

In theory, this would give players the best of both worlds: the polished gameplay experience set by Gens 2011, and a cohesive story written by a writer with nearly two decades of experience writing for these characters. While Flynn did his job admirably enough, as I mentioned before SEGA/Sonic Team skimped out on committing to the project by not re-animating the cutscenes Flynn rewrote dialogue for, meaning you still have (most) of the slapstick and physical reactions to immature jokes (e.i. Classic Sonic rubbing his tummy in response to Knuckles calling him fat) from the original game clashing with Flynn's quasi-serious (albeit not nearly as serious as the Adventure Titles, Frontiers or the Archie or IDW Comics) dialogue and story.

So the dialogue is actually pretty good in most respects. It still treats itself like an anniversary celebration, with constant references to previous titles; but it also treats the characters with more respect, with Knuckles not being an idiot, Amy arguably being less creepily obsessed with Sonic, and Shadow not being... whatever it was they were trying to do with Shadow in the early 2010s.

The story presentation, on the other hand, is... exactly as it was back in 2011, for the most part. Select bits of slapstick were cut (For instance, Knuckles isn't bodily tossed into a tree by Amy being a fangirl now), and there were some very arbitrary changes (Silver is now randomly holding a chili-dog when they return to the present, despite them not changing that hand to be clearly a closed fist); but they also left most of it completely unchanged (e.i. the rescue cutscene dialogue all being fast-forwarded to fit in the timing of the original animations, or the physical reactions to the old jokes like Classic Sonic rubbing his tummy in reponse to Knuckles calling him fat). Which arguably makes it worse than in the original since the remaining SatAM-style physical humor now clashes with with Flynn's quasi-serious style (albeit not nearly as serious as the Adventure Titles, his own work in Frontiers or the Archie or IDW Comics) of dialogue and story.

---

But yeah, that's my two dollars. In terms of gameplay, it's nearly identical, so if you don't care about the story or plot of 2010s Sonic games (which, why would you?) then you can just skip the original version and head right into the SxSG port. The story and its presentation is a mixed bag, so if you care about that then I could see you wanting to play the original just so you can see what was changed and make up your own mind about which is better.

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HOWEVER, there is a mod for SxSG[gamebanana.com] that completely overrides the Sonic Generations selection in the game select screen to open Gens 2011 instead of Gens 2024. This means you have access to the mods available to the original (with a number[gamebanana.com] of them being[gamebanana.com] made relatively recently[gamebanana.com] for parity with[gamebanana.com] Sonic's newer titles[gamebanana.com]), all conveniently available from the SxSG launcher.

That alone is reason enough IMO to pick up the original 2011 version. Combine that with the mods and codes I mentioned above, as well as some other mods like this[gamebanana.com] to improve performance and stability, this one[gamebanana.com] to fix some broken materials found around the original port, this one[gamebanana.com] for the best in-game character models in the franchise, or this one[gamebanana.com] for a lovely Mandela Effect, and you arguably have the best possible Sonic Generations experience all in the convenient confines of the SxSG Launcher, so long as you install them on Gens 2011's HMM before booting up SxSG.

[Sono]

id argue the rewrite is worse than the original. It replaces mid with mid with worse voice deliveries and they were too cheap to update the animations (Sonic eating angel island meme). Id say just play it for achievements then go back to the original

[K2niarDneK]

Originally posted by Sono:

id argue the rewrite is worse than the original. It replaces mid with mid with worse voice deliveries and they were too cheap to update the animations (Sonic eating angel island meme). Id say just play it for achievements then go back to the original

Eh, the writing itself is mostly pretty good. It's not great, and it's easily the weakest script Ian's made for the franchise since the Archie comics died, but even at its absolute worst it's arguably still on par with the scripts from the games released in the 2010's. It still doesn't take itself very seriously, but at least the characters are treated with a little bit of respect in the written dialogue, which is more than can be said for most games from that 'era' of Sonic stories.

I put most of the blame on SEGA and/or Sonic Team not wanting to financially commit to the rewrite. It's almost as if they so hyper-focused on the Shadow Generations portion of the game that they were unwilling to actually put real work into the rewrite of Sonic Generations. I honestly would've preferred if they pushed the release to Christmas if it meant we got better vocal deliveries and properly reanimated cutscenes.

[Bro Videogaming]

Honestly, OG Gens has mods but disregarding that, I'd say there's actually little reason to go back (unless you're one of those clowns, you know who you are). Only differences are the cutscenes being different and the physics being a little tinkered with.
Example being a loop you can't boost through properly on one of the loops on the Chemical Plant one ring challenge. Not sure if it's patched though.