All the way back to the 1960s and the villains Silver Age origins. Spider-Man and Green Goblin go back a long way. Classic Sonic suffers the most: his presence in Forces seems like an afterthought since he appears in only a handful of levels that are over far too quickly.
But the short levels have a downside: a lot of potential for interesting stage design goes unrealized because everything’s over so fast. One thing they do have in common, though, is that all of the stages are on the shorter side (relative to most Sonic games) and there’s no limited number of lives to worry about, so a lousy death due to questionable design every so often is a lot less rage-inducing than it could be – plus, it makes the stages easier to go back and replay to try and earn loot. Overall, the stages feel inconsistent: you’ll have a few fun runs with a lot of cool gimmicks like high-speed rail chases and sliding down a giant tube of water followed by one with a focus on finicky platforming and bad hazards. It’s nowhere near as unfair as in games like the notorious Sonic 2006, at least, but it definitely doesn’t go out of its way to avoid these unfair-feeling traps.
The Wispons you equip can greatly affect the way you go through stages, and it’s fun to go back to previous levels to find hidden secrets and earn more gear by using a new loadout to access hidden routes.Īll three stage types have a persistent Sonic problem: they don’t do a great job of foreshadowing danger, so when you’re moving at high speed through hazard-laden stages you’re going to find yourself taking hits or falling into pits you couldn’t possibly have reacted to. Lightning, for instance, gives you a supercharged electric whip and lets you zoom through strings of rings and enemies when powered up, while the drill sends you charging in a straight line to attack and lets you burrow into the ground. The third type of stage has you controlling your custom character with a unique playstyle based around a special gun called a “Wispon” that harnesses different kinds of wisp energy. Both types can be fun, though the overall lack of speed in Classic Sonic’s stages compared to Modern Sonic’s feels a bit odd.
Modern Sonic’s stages are generally more linear and focused on high-speed boosting through whenever the opportunity arises, while Classic Sonic’s levels offer more in the way of branching paths and alternate routes. If you’re coming off of Sonic Mania, as I was, the physics here will take a bit of getting used to, as they don’t feel anywhere near as smooth – Classic Sonic, in particular, feels odd, as he speeds up a lot faster than in the old Genesis games but doesn’t get strong momentum when running up hills. “Modern and Classic Sonic stage types have you controlling those respective versions of Sonic, using their distinct playstyles to run through a mix of 2D and 3D levels.