There have been hints that Sonic could still work as a character, such as the 2D games that were released on the Nintendo DS system, but everyone's favorite hedgehog has been in trouble for longer than he's been a viable mascot. We kept hearing that this next game would be the good one, and that we had nothing to worry about. We kept crawling back to the same disappointment, hoping against hope that the latest game would be more like the classic releases and wouldn't feature any goofy sidekicks or weird relationships with human girls.

Sonic Generations is out now on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and it is not a perfect game—we'll go over some of the areas where things fall apart—but it comes the closest to bringing back everything we loved about Sonic, while getting rid of the things that continued to annoy us. I was impressed with Sonic 4: Episode 1, but this is even better.

Why is this all happening?

There is the skeleton of a story that involves a scary, smokey-black monster that brings the old and new Sonic together, and this means that each level must be played twice. Once as a classical 2D level; the kind we remember from our days with the Sega Genesis. Then you must repeat the level as a 3D action-fest that's more scripted and features Sonic's homing lock-on attack and other tricks he picked up in later games. The 2D levels are more fun to play overall, but the 3D sections are more cinematic and feature some very impressive moments.

The same tension from past games can be found here; in order for Sonic to take part in the cool, scripted moments, the game has to take control from the player. There will be sections where you're simply holding the forward button while asking your friends if they saw that great thing that just happened. Each level is a tunnel that funnels you from point A to point B, but there are different paths to take and different surprises to discover. While you can scream through most of the sections on your first or second chance, it will take you many more times before you see everything there is to see.

Each level is a newly designed take on the areas we're used to, and there are references to games, characters, and even bad guys from past games. The game assumes you know a good amount of Sonic lore, although you won't miss anything by simply ignoring the references and playing. To move forward you need to finish each section in both the 2D and 3D views—and it's neat how the two paths often intersect and criss-cross each other, so you can see hints of what's to come on your first time through—and then you'll need to finish a selection of discrete challenges to grab keys to open the door to the boss battles. The bosses themselves are pretty standard affairs, even though the graphics are a step above what we're used to from Sonic games. If you're good at pattern recognition, you won't have any problem with the bad guys. If anything, I found myself wishing for more boss battles.

Still, the addition of numerous challenge levels that mix in the secondary characters and give you different ways to interact with the levels are a welcome way to mix up the action, and they'll test your abilities to the fullest. While those who need to finish everything may be frustrated, the game gives you a choice of different challenges to tackle to move ahead, so things never become too frustrating.

Heck, you can even gain points to buy skills that augment your abilities in the game, and you can save different loadouts for your character in order to do better on certain levels. Having just finished a few hours of Battlefield 3 before playing this game, that was a fairly surreal thing to discover. Sonic has perks!

I did have a few quibbles with level design, as sometimes things can fly at you a little too quickly and some of the stages felt more like memorization than skill. The game also stutters to a halt whenever you find yourself outside of the expected path, and it can be a boring and frustrating job to get back to where you need to be. These are problems that have always plagued Sonic, however, and in a counterintuitive way these frustrations are comforting. They're the right problems for the game to have, and they don't involve a big fishing cat.

If anything, the game is too reliant on the past, and it trusts that you already love the character and are willing to overlook the problems that come with creating a game that's this fast. If you grew up with a Sega Genesis, this is a fine game that will remind you of the best parts of the series, with a few modern twists and unexpected challenges. The bar may have been set low, but this is a fun and exciting entry in the Sonic universe. This was the first Sonic title my son sat down and played for an extended amount of time, and it makes me very happy that he came to the series on a such a fine return to form.