Initial thoughts on Generations, it's fun.
The physics feel good and the skills customization is actually decent, just a shame the games charm and nostalgia value fall flat in the last third of the game, the '06/Unleashed/Colours era. Fuck knows why they bothered putting the stages in there, it seems they brought the broken controls, camera and mechanics for '06 and Unleashed with them. While the first 2 sets of stages from Classic and Adventure era Sonic are really fun to go back and get the challenges for, the last 3 stages just leave a bad taste in your mouth, reminding you (me, not you) of the months of self-discipline it took to bare to play '06. I don't know who enjoyed seeing these stages put into this game, these were meant to be Sonic's forgotten years. Ugh.

But yeah, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Guess I'm just gonna be playing CD a lot more.

EDIT: Ooh some DLC classic stages would be nice. Quartz Quadrant or Wacky Workbench, simply for the mechanics of each stage, I'd pay for that. Intrigued to see how they'd tackle a proper underwater level too.

I felt rooftop run was the best out of the last three in general. for modern sonic, it was very speedy. there was really no point where you have to slow down like with the lava platforms in crisis city or using the rockets in planet wisp, though i still enjoyed most of each level really, just not as much as rooftop run. for classic sonic, it was the one worth replaying the most. crisis city's level is ok until you get to the part with the city torn up by a tornado. planet wisp is just annoying throughout because of the wisp power.

i don't know what you mean by your complaint about broken camera/controls/mechanics, though. the levels didn't feel any worse then the other levels, and the only camera problem i really had was the tornado in classic sonic's crisis city level making it a little harder to make things out. really, the whole game has a lot of glitchy moments that you have to put up with. for instance, it rarely happens, but there's always a random chance that modern sonic, upon landing after some big jump, will continually quick step to the left for 10 seconds or so. it's really annoying and the only way to stop it from continuing to happen in that level/challenge is to exit to the main world (restarting won't work). also, classic sonic can get stuck on the edge of platforms for a couple seconds if you jump at them, which gets frustrating if you're trying to speed run.

there's a few other glitches i've ran into too (some even easily repeatable) but it comes with the territory. the game's still fun to speed run/replay, but most of the glitches i could do without (some's actually fun/helpful though).

also i'm playing on PC so I dunno if that makes a difference or not.

Rooftop Run is probably the least glitched out of them, but it seems to me that things such as falling through solid ground, outrunning the screen (as Classic Sonic) and missteps seem to bloom in the last third of the game, City Crisis is the main offender, but oh god, Classic Sonic's Colours stage is horrendous. Not only is it one of those new-era Sonic stages that is mind-numbingly long, taking up to and over 10 minutes on a first try, as if they tried to cram the whole game into one level, but also has the worst damn glitch where the Wisp spike power sent me through a wall, stuck in limbo about 10+ minutes into the level, unable to restart at the last checkpoint. I'm pretty sure you had the ability to do that in the pause menu of previous Sonic games... I mean, yeah it takes a life off you, but it's better than replaying the whole stretch.

Still probably the best next-gen game since Heroes.

Also heard that the PC version is meant to be superior by far. Either way I'm still happy with the game.
In fact, I found something much more muddled, broken, rushed and overall painful: VGA's playthrough of the game.

This gets pretty bad. It's just aggravating to hear Fraser sound so cocky in himself that riffing on obsessive Sonic fanboys as if its still cool or even relevant (I see this post is dripping with irony). But still, to be doing all that at the same time as ignoring every instruction in the game, trying to speedrun through every stage using 2 buttons, thinking that's all there is to it? Man, I know you guys like to dick around and have fun with a game, but this is just... really cringey to watch.

But yeah, I'm gonna stop laying so much into this game, because I will find myself coming back to it regularly over the next few months. Still a solid title. They're getting better, no disputing that.

oh man, i remember the inside wall glitch now. it happened to me as well, though i haven't run into it since

PC version is nice, and runs well if your PC is up to it. the only problem is you can't really optimize the graphics much. there are various points where the framerate will drop for me because my compy can't handle it, but i've learned to live with it.

also here's something coo', a 35 minute documentary on the history of sonic:



(rest of the parts should be in the related videos/on the same channel)

I really wish Sega announced the price of Sonic CD earlier, because I could have bought that instead of Sonic 1 last month on PSN. And I really want to play Generations. Might rent it some time.