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(http://www.damnlag.com/wp-content/uploads/sonic-cycle.png)

Why this is not sonic 4?

Cool sega is finishing sonic fan remix

So there probably will be some things that us die hard peeps will pick up on and not like, but overall this game gets a huge YES in terms of what's being brought to the table.

Everything I saw on the videos looked perfect. The physics looked much more accurate than the one from Sonic 4. Even if it's not exactly the same as the classics, I'm totally cool with it as long as it "feels" good.

We all know that there is an extreme unlikelihood that Classic Sonic's gameplay will 100% mimic the Genesis trilogy, but who fucking cares? Both parts of this game actually look legitimately fun, from what little I've seen so far.

the year is 2011. scientists work feverishly in laboratories coated in a permanent and ethereal green glow to keep constructing a supply of adult males who care about sonic the hedgehog for some reason.

Sonic is not "physics-based"

Btw The game design of sonic is what makes me a "fanboy", his tropes are underused and underdevelop. As a fine connoiseur of game design It's an interesting buffet for me. Grappling hook had their share of overdeveloping, any platformer are weak derivative of the mario formula, but the more physics based sonic is still something that the elite are trying to achieve.

Come on man, I like Sonic as much as the next guy who was ten years old when it came out, but it's not the most intricate of gems. You hold down -> on the D-pad and hit literally any button when there's spikes or a big hole or some insect-lookin' motherfucker, and then there's a boss. It's not "physics-based" beyond the fact that you jump a whole bunch and you need a bit of a run-up for some obstacles (something which the introduction of the Spin Dash pretty much eliminated). Oh, and there's a minimal exploration element, I suppose.

I posit that the reason Sonic's design is underdeveloped is because, really, there's fuck all to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU8F5RA_YzA
 :epileptic: i never ever seen that boss ever

What's even crazier about the whole microtile thing is that only sonic CD used 64 x 64 tiles. Sonic 2 used 128 x 128 tiles (made up of 64 x 64 tiles) and Sonic 1 used whopping 256 x 256 tiles - made up of 128 x 128 tiles mad up of 64 x 64 tiles made up of 8 x 8 tiles.

The smaller the LAO, the more detail the level has. Sega deliberately shrunk the size from 256 x 256 to 128 x 128 so Sonic 2 could have faster, more complex levels.

The 64 x 64 format of Sonic CD is unique, and part of the reason why Sonic CD's level design is so intricate and different from other sonic games.

Fucking YES, YES

I should have gone to bed hours ago, but I stayed up working on my code, and I finally got this to work.

That's being read from the Sonic the Hedgehog cart. Straight from the game code. Not from anything else. My program actually draws pictures in the same format as the genesis.

Fucking YES.

It might also simply be difficult for them to program into the game and make work?

Alright. lets get this shit out of the way:

Classic Sonic:

He's heavier than Modern Sonic. A lot heavier. This takes some getting use to but after a while you get a hang of it. Jumping is a lot better than its ever been since the Genesis days. It's not perfect but it's not Sonic Rush either. Bouncing off badniks functions more like a double jump than it did in the original game. No matter how high you bounce on them from you always jump back at a fixed height. I actually like this change because it was used extensively in the level design. Now my second biggest problem is the rolling.

Like I said before, it's completely useless. It shouldn't even be there if that's how its going to work. I tried numerous the demo numerous times to try and in numerous locations. I tried it the Genesis way and the Sonic 4 way (hold forward while rolling) and no matter what, Sonic would eventually slow down. I found a sweet ass steep hill with a loop there and tried rolling. Still nothing. It's worthless and you're better off spin-dash canceling than rolling if you want to go down those hills fast.

My biggest problem with the game is not the controls. It's the scripted events. I'm sure we've all seen numerous videos where Sonic goes down the S Tube, runs over a crumbling floor, hits a yellow spring and is launched back down into the pit to hit another spring. I'm sure a lot of us thought we could hit that but unfortunately its scripted and there is no way out of it. Another event happens at loop before the mountain. A lot of the springs in the game are fixed as well. Jumping on them causes your horizontal control to be locked until a certain point so you can't get that extra distance from the climb up that you normally would. This was very annoying in one section of the level where you hit a yellow spring to get to a swinging platform above you, but just to the right of you there's a breakable platform you can run on and use to get to another spring that will let you get past the platform section. These fixed events are annoying and just take control away along with the enjoyment.

I didn't get to try out Modern Sonic too much but it felt like a much more refined version of Unleashed and that's a good thing.

If they can reduce the number of scripted events and make rolling on its own actually useful then Classic Sonic would be absolutely perfect. It may not be Genesis Perfect but it's damn close and damn well enjoyable. Pre-ordering the shit out of it.

I've played this demo 10 times already, so I guess it's time to talk about it in more detail. First things first - I'm not playing with a playstation pad. I'm playing with a Sega Saturn USB controller, and good god is it amazing. I can't recommend the pad enough, it is by far the most used controller I've bought this gen. But enough about that, let's talk about sonic.

First, rolling - it is indeed true that rolling doesn't unlock hyperfast mode like it basically used to do in the old games, I think many (myself included) got the impression that rolling was broken to the point where it fucked up the game. It doesn't. See, when you roll, you don't gain speed... but you don't really lose it immediately either. It's not like when you roll you come to screeching halt or anything. Rather, rolling feels a lot like running now. And in fact, just when you'd expect that you'd start slowing down, if you continue to hold forward, you'll actually come out of the roll and continue running.

Now before everyone shits themselves with anger, it's not really bad. It's hard to explain but it doesn't really feel unnatural. Overall rolling isn't as great as it should be, but it's not an all mighty sin. If this winds up being the game's biggest flaw, then we're in for a great game.

Now then, momentum - the physics feel different from the classics, but familiar. That is to say it's not 1:1 (it's DEFINITELY not 1:1 in fact, no where near) but what you're playing evokes memories of the old games. It takes a few jumps to get used to, but I got the hang of it extremely quickly. The quirk with this game seems to be the exact opposite from the physics quirks of Sonic 4 - you have to completely commit to every movement you make because momentum will keep you going. Jumping is basically the exact opposite of what it was in Sonic 4 - if you try to move around in the air and really correct your jump, you're just gonna screw yourself up. The best way to play, I've found, is to just let yourself go and completely give in to your momentum. So like, you're running full speed and you jump at a buzz bomber - don't try to adjust yourself to make the attack connect perfectly, just go with the flow and accept that the momentum is gonna throw you into the badnik.

My first run, I found myself constantly trying to correct my jumps, and coupled with the fixed bounce height, it doomed me to the lower path. But on subsequent runs, as I adjusted my playstyle, I found that I didn't need to correct myself, nor did I need to worry about what angle I hit the badnik from specifically because of the fixed bounce height. It just all sorta works.

Now, realistically, the most annoying aspect I've found is how springs behave. Others have touched on it, but springs really sort of lock you in place as you're propelled upwards until you're near the apex. It feels weird because it's not at all like the old games where you had a lot of flexibility when you were springed upward, yet it's NOT automated so you get this feeling like the spring segment you see before you might not work. But... it kinda does. I dunno, it's very hard to explain. As more people play maybe they'll expand on what I'm talking about.

Now, despite my length at describing these... sorta-kinda faults, don't mistake what I'm saying as bashing the game. This feels extremely solid. Easily the best feeling sonic game I've played in decades, literally. As a successor to the genesis games, it gets a whole hearted thumbs up from me. I can't stop playing green hill zone, it's a ton of fun. And the physics make it even more fun.

Oh and one other quick note - the instant spindash? Those of you who worried that you could spam it like in sonic adventure? You can shut those fears down right now, trying to use it like you used in SA will fuck your speed run up. When you hit the spindash button, what the game does is basically stop you dead in your tracks, makes you duck, and start revving. You instantly lose all inertia. The button is basically a macro. It's impossible to use in conjunction with running.

All in all, this game is a hell of a lot of fun. I cannot wait for the full version. I give the demo a solid A. Fix the issues with the springs, and maybe work on rolling a bit, and this will easily be an A+.

This is my biggest complaint that isn't technical. I had fun with the demo, and I liked the stage, but it felt way to forward. Like, we have the different paths sure, but they all feel like minor and ultimately only take you off the main path for a few seconds. The classics had much more of an exploration theme, there were several completely different paths to explore in most of the classic levels from Green Hill to Hydrocity. There isn't really any hidden areas to explore and the alternate paths feel more like shortcuts than alternate paths. This is only the first level, but it feels like it's suffering from being to small without much in the way of exploration and a style that kind of forces you forward and doesn't support exploration to much. See how it all develops in future stages, but I hope SEGA remembers that classic Sonic was more to many that just speed and platforming, but also exploration. I have said that for a while, it's good to see they have a good mixture of platforming and speed but it's missing the exploration element quite a bit, at least in this stage.

Confirming whole stage list.

Green Hill Zone
Chemical Plant Zone
Sky Sanctuary Zone
Speed Highway
City Escape
Seaside Hill
Crisis City
Rooftop Run
Planet Wisp

DLC
Casino Night Zone


Boss fights
Metal Sonic
Shadow
Silver
"Death Egg"
Perfect Chaos
Egg Dragoon
Boss LastBoss(TimeEater) (That's just what the file calls it.)


Each stage has about 5 acts, they are those stupid shitty ones from Unleashed were you just rescue Chao and such.


Oh and there's going to be a Genesis emulator in the game as well.

The demo was compiled around mid May this year. Also Super Sonic for both Classic and Modern Sonic confirmed by looking at the music files.

I'll send out the raw data for the music from this demo soon.

Here are the tracks:
Title Screen
a new mix of the menu from Sonic Heroes (probably the actual real game's menu theme)
Green Hill Classic
Invincible Classic
Green Hill Modern
Green Hill Modern/Boosting
Invincible Modern
Level Clear
Drowning
1-Up

320kbps CBR MP3 in a zip. Enjoy!

So the list of characters there are:

Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Rouge, Espio, Charmy, Vector and Blaze.

My translation of the list. It seems there are versus character and co-op character missions, Sonic Ghost is most likely a time attack, and most of the missions sound like they are stages with a theme in them, like a certain enemy or stage gimmick. Also, go to the end for list of CG Cutscenes.

CLASSIC GREEN HILL ZONE
Mission 1: Sonic Ghost (beat the time attack ghost)
Mission 2: Beaton (that's the fish badniks)
Mission 3: Vs Knuckles
Mission 4: Swings (likely involving the Green Hill swings)
Mission 5: High Speed (*shrugs*)

MODERN GREEN HILL ZONE:
Mission 1: Ordered Dash Ring
Mission 2: VS Tails (....wut)
Mission 3: Sonic ghost
Mission 4: Jump Jump Jump! (...)
Mission 5: 300% Boost

CLASSIC CHEMICAL PLANT ZONE
Mission 1: Co-Op Tails (tails co-op partner?)
Mission 2: Recue the Animals
Mission 3: Aqua Barrier (Bubble shield~)
Mission 4: Sonic Ghost
Mission 5: Invincibility

MODERN CHEMICAL PLANT ZONE
Mission 1: One Ring
Mission 2: Sonic Ghost
Mission 3: Co-Op Amy
Mission 4: Grabber (those spider robots from Chemical Plant)
Mission 5: Sprinkler in Water

CLASSIC SKY SANCTUARY ZONE
Mission 1: Sonic Ghost
Mission 2: Eggrobo
Mission 3: Round Platform
Mission 4: Enemy Rings (WHAT!? Likely has to do with Motobug monitor)
Mission 5: VS. Amy

MODERN SKY SANCTUARY ZONE
Mission 1: VS Knuckles
Mission 2: 200% Boost
Mission 3: Balloon
Mission 4: Sonic Ghost
Mission 5: Fast Tempo

CLASSICSPEED HIGHWAY
Mission 1: VS Cream (...)
Mission 2: Keep Moving!
Mission 3: High Speed
Mission 4: Many Copspeeders (those race-car robot monkies from Adventure)
Mission 5: Sonic Ghost

MODERN SPEED HIGHWAY
Mission 1: Drift
Mission 2: Keep Moving!
Mission 3: Sonic ghost
Mission 4: Driller (?)
Mission 5: VS Espio

CLASSIC CITY ESCAPE
Mission 1: Sk8Board
Mission 2: Thunder Barrier
Mission 3: VS Rouge
Mission 4: Sonic ghost
Mission 5: Half a Spring (oui?)

MODERN CITY ESCAPE
Mission 1: Vs Cream (...wut, Cream doesn't seem to want to be your friend, why fight her twice?)
Mission 2: Ordered Dash Ring
Mission 3: Truck
Mission 4: Fast Tempo
Mission 5: Sonic Ghost

CLASSIC SEASIDE HILL
Mission 1: Rescue Animals
Mission 2: Sonic Ghost
Mission 3: Co-op Espio
Mission 4: Fast Tempo
Mission 5: In Water

MODERN SEASIDE HILL
Mission 1: Co-Op Rouge
Mission 2: Sonic ghost
Mission 3: Rainbow rings
Mission 4: Sea Turtle in the Sky (...)
Mission 5: Giant Batabata

CLASSIC CRISIS CITY
Mission 1: Sonic Ghost
Mission 2: Goal Plate Juggling
Mission 3: Co-Op Vector
Mission 4: Flame Barrier
Mission 5: Enemy Rings

MODERN CRISIS CITY
Mission 1: Stomping
Mission 2: Sonic ghost
Mission 3: Switch
Mission 4: Co-Op Blaze
Mission 5: Select Canon

CLASSIC ROOFTOP RUN
Mission 1: Sonic Ghost
Mission 2: Egg Fighter
Mission 3: Ordered Dash Ring
Mission 4: VS Charmy
Mission 5: High Speed

MODERN ROOFTOP RUN
Mission 1: Rolling Barrel
Mission 2: Sonic Ghost
Mission 3: Sk8Board (so it returns in this stage?)
Mission 4: Endless Boost
Mission 5: VS Vector

CLASSIC PLANET WISP
Mission 1: Fast Temp Pink Spike
Mission 2: Sonic Ghost
Mission 3: Goal Plate Juggling
Mission 4: Vs Blaze
Mission 5: Sprinkler (those were the things in Planet wisp that spewed either spikes or rings)

MODERN PLANET WISP
Mission 1: Sonic Ghost
Mission 2: Tram
Mission 3: Co-Op Charmy
Mission 4- Every Skill
Mission 5: Orange Rocket

Rival Boss: Metal Sonic
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Rival Boss: Shadow
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Rival Boss Silver
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Boss: Death Egg
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Boss: Perfect Chaos
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Boss: Egg Dragoon
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

Boss: Last Boss "Time Eater"
Extra Mission: Difficult Mode

CG Cutscenes:
-SEGA Logo
-Opening Movie
-Store Begin
-After Green Hill Zone
-After Area 1
-After Death Egg
-After Area 2
-After Perfect Chaos
-After Area 3
-After New Eggrobo
-Before time Eater
-Credits
-Story End

Sonic gameplay resumed in one sentence:
Run faster and faster, jump over shit, gain momentum,  enter hyperspeed, land on some spiky shit and lose all your rings, get hit a second time on the same obstacle and die, start again.

So looking through the assets, it seems cutscene events are numbered as such:

1 SEGA Logo Cutscene (lol)
11 CG Cutscenes
1 Credits (lol)
19 Story Cutscenes [In-Game]
17 NPC Character Cutscenes (likely mini cutscenes before VS or co-op stages)
11 Rival Cutscenes (Oui? There's only three rivals though. However, it could be that miniature in-game cutscenes initiate during the battle, there's an idea)
14 Viewer Cutscenes (I have no idea what this is)

Yeah I replayed Sonic 2 a few days ago and got stuck between two horizontally moving blocks in CNZ. Then it turned out that the blocks didn't actually meet together. =P

Spikes are barely a threat in the zone. I don't remember encountering them at all on that most recent playthrough, and looking at level maps (http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic2/casinonight/) I counted 4 sets of spikes in the entire zone. All of them were in Act 1. The main gripe I have with the zone is that everything feels like it's made to delay you for no reason at all, and even then it's not that hard to get through.

But really, IMO the entirety of Sonic 2 seems to be littered with bad level design moments, like the small pits with springs on each end that keep appearing after Hill Top Zone, or the cannons in Oil Ocean Zone that basically just took control from you for 10 seconds, or the peek-a-boo enemies in Metropolis Zone (who also don't activate at all on the screw things if I just run and don't jump at them), or the infamous Pit of Death (http://soniczone0.com/games/sonic2/mysticcave/s2-mcz-point4img2.png) in Mystic Cave Zone (especially if you're Super Sonic), or Complete Filler Zone (Sky Chase). There are some cool setpieces (e.g. the earthquake in Hill Top Zone) but they're all a bit too underdeveloped (though most of the ideas are followed up in Sonic 3, and more awesomely at that). Many of the level gimmick objects aren't controllable (e.g. pipes in CPZ, cannons in OOZ), and sometimes their use is even counterintuitive (e.g. having to face the opposite direction on the speed booster things in Wing Fortress Zone to get across pits), which can be annoying. And boss battles have become much less threatening and interesting now that I'm older (with the exception of the Wing Fortress Zone boss and the final one, which are still great).

The other main problem the game has with level design is that there's no need to actually maintain inertia. Half the challenge in the original came from maneuvering Sonic around the obstacles to pick up enough speed, but here you can basically just rev up a spin dash and get through any obstacle. Sonic CD had a similar move with the Super Peel Out, but the difference there was that you had to actually maintain your inertia in order to get fast enough to time travel (which would even justify things like those spring pits), and you also weren't invulnerable to enemies. Sonic 2's levels also don't seem to be designed particularly well around the Spin Dash compared to 3's; my theory on this is that the designers designed the levels thinking the recoil feature (http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_%28Nick_Arcade_prototype%29) they originally put in would balance it out, but then they removed it and it was too late to rebalance all of the levels since the game needed to be out by Christmas, no delays accepted.

Challenge is also reduced by Sonic 2's levels containing many more rings than the original, while the levels didn't get much longer. Data (http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_1/rings) for (http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_2/rings) comparison. (http://www.soniccenter.org/rankings/sonic_3/rings) As you can tell Sonic 3 had the same problem but it was partially offset by the levels being much bigger and the enemies posing more of a threat than in 2 (plus I think those records were achieved using the S3 special stages to get rings). The hardest zone in Sonic 2 was Wing Fortress Zone (which, not coincidentally, I also felt was the most well designed zone in the game), mainly because the ring problem was offset by the main focus of the level being on platforming. Speed wasn't diminished much there either as a consequence; the level was still a lot faster than something from SMW.

Really, the game is trying to be a bridge between the momentum-focused obstacle courses of the original game to the focus on setpieces and dynamic level design in Sonic 3, but the problem is that neither are really executed very well. The obstacle courses aren't very well designed, as I elaborated on above, and the setpieces aren't nearly extravagant enough or frequent enough to make up for that, especially when many of Sonic 2's ideas were redone in Sonic 3 (example: the earthquake setpiece in Hill Top Zone reappears again in Marble Garden) and better. All you're really left with are some awesome graphics and music. I personally blame the game's rushed development cycle for the quality; it's not that it's a horrible game (it's definitely better than the game I'm supposed to be calling "Sonic 4"), but it's easily the worst of the classic series IMO. (For reference, my personal quality hierarchy is: 3K > CD > 1 > 2.)

So yeah I think my opinion of Casino Night Zone just digressed to a mini-review of Sonic 2 in general, but whatever. Someday if I can find the time I want to do a more detailed level-by-level analysis of Sonic 2, with lots of screenshots and all included, since everyone seems to love the game and think it's the high point of the series but myself so the burden is on me to justify my opinions.

same problem as sonic 4. half assed attempt to "go back to the roots" squandered by too many concessions to new fans.

The rolling video doesn't look all that different. Can you elaborate on what changed about rolling?

(http://www.sonicretro.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SonicGenerations3DS.jpg)

Modern:
green hill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcvbSSIjlE
green hill boost http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cab0Xfn5Eg
city escape http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytfJih8-nto
invincible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEpQ4WS_ads

Round clear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BdZ6_4kRaA
drowning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvcYjHICSok

I wonder if the classic sonic stages are going to have decent arrangements of the original (good) sonic music or the lame-lame-lame Ass-rock that's plagued the sonic series since Sonic adventure on dreamcast circa year ~2000.

for what it was, I didn't think Knuckles' stuff was that bad. It could have been several miles better, of course, but they were good enough to me.

Heys guys, check out this sick boss battle from the 3DS version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX2sB7-7hGA&feature=related

looks better than cave story 3ds

Sega is supportive on Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead’s Retro Engine, calling it “a really good piece of technology.”

first time I see a sonic that has a genuine feeling of speed.
Too bad they kept the ring mechanism
5/gilbert

http://youtu.be/CSXhZaY-V7Y

you guys are going to be so disappointed

The 3DS version seems to defeat the purpose of having modern levels.

It's fine as an option, if we could switch between skills like the homing and the insta shield, or make the homing a shield (was the golden shield in 3D blast) It would be cool. In 3D it's a bit more needed to cope with aiming with a pad, on pc might be an option and have mouselook air dash. Homing leave you vulnerable once you bounce off but it is never exploited.

Soooo, this game is getting pretty good reviews. Finally Sega doesn't suck balls since Sonic 3&K. Let's hope they can stay on this good trend. I wish they'd dump the "new" sonic altogether, classic Sonic just has much more charm.

Too bad, screw the younger generation, all they write is fanfics of sonic molesting tails anyways.

Haven't read topic so pardon me if this has been discussed already but what it is in Sonic which makes it spawn all that horrible fanfic? I mean sure, pretty much everything has some weird fanfic/art going on but with Sonic it seems to be over the top and so frequent that one tends to see it without even looking for it (just check Deviantart :P) unlike most other similar stuff from other series.

Haven't read topic so pardon me if this has been discussed already but what it is in Sonic which makes it spawn all that horrible fanfic? I mean sure, pretty much everything has some weird fanfic/art going on but with Sonic it seems to be over the top and so frequent that one tends to see it without even looking for it (just check Deviantart :P) unlike most other similar stuff from other series.

Weeaboos like shit like Disgaea, Persona, Monster Hunter and Dark Souls.

Even david caruso gotta love modern sonic!

Sonic CD is not a great game though.  It's below Sonic 1 (at least that had one rad level).

@david caruso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfj68jyDoF8&feature=player_embedded

also there is QTE in this game, you have some optional trick system whenever you go through rainbow items, but that's all (don't open path like before), Multiple path is no "precalc" like before, some are not obvious and you can "sequence break" between path by abusing the "physics".

The S2 boss is the first boss and there is a hard mode. But the game only unlock in 1 day on steam.

Looks decent. Still has the typical Modern Sonic Problems™: long stretches of empty enemy-less wasteland (platforming sections mostly w/out enemies too), QTEs, multiple paths seeming completely overt, etc. At least it's very very very pretty so it'll be nice to play in between the actual game (2D classic Sonic segments.)

also I swear Sega is trolling by not only making the S2 final boss the first one but also putting shittons of rings in the arena


man first you say that the ring mechanic is the best thing about Sonic and now you're saying that Sonic 1 only had "one" rad level (all of them were rad (Labyrinth and Scrap Brain were the raddest; you know it to be true)), next you're going to tell me 2 is your favorite classic game or smth

I like Sonic CD but my opinion of it kind of slips a little each time I play it. Right now my numbered series ranking goes like 3K > CD = 1 >>>> 2 >>>>>>>>>>> "4."

@david caruso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCdyOtiTKo&feature=related

2 is pretty easily the best.  It has problems, but they all do.

The ring system is awesome.

You like Battle Garegga. lol.

you can "sequence break" between path by abusing the "physics".

Come on hurry and make an open world sonic asap  :beg:

Somebody could make a great open world sonic.  That somebody is not the people currently making sonic.

Found a working fix
First of all, I want to thank everyone that gave me ideas, this is kind of a mashup of all fixes I've found that only worked partly. Unfortunately I don't remember where I read everything, so, thanks to everyone who tried to get the game running.
Second, this fix requires no extra screens or cables.

I cant guarantee it will work on every laptop, but if you have an Nvidia Optimus card, try it. Here's how to:

Begin with opening Nvidia control panel. In the "Manage 3D settings" tab, go to program settings and click add.
Navigate to your Steam installation path, and go to \steamapps\common\Sonic Generations\ and choose the sonicgenerations.exe file. Force it to use your Nvidia card. I don't know if it's necessary, but I also did this with the config exe.
After you have applied the settings, go to your desktop.

Right click and select screen resolution. In this window you should click detect. If you can see two displays that are grayed out and named after your video cards, you're probably good to go.
Choose your Nvidia card and select "Attempt to connect anyway on (VGA in my case)". Don't remember which drop down menu it is, just fool around a little. When you found it, click apply.
Then, choose extended desktop and apply again. This will force-activate your discrete GPU.
Now the fun starts.

The guide is edited from here

Open the Sonic Config tool and check if your Nvidia card is present. But instead, choose your Intel card and whatever other settings you want.
Now start Sonic, and it will propably work.

What's technically happening is that Sonic starts on the integrated GPU, But since the Nvidia card is active through the fake monitor, it will force itself to render Sonic thanks to the changes in the Nvidia control panel.

I really hopes this works for you, but leave a message if it doesn't, and I'll try to help you.

card?

However go there to have details if you can run the game:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/intro.aspx
even if it's below the game can be playable and fun and look like a slideshow :(
If you have console and your pc is subpar go console, else go PC for smooth 60 frames per second

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glfx6LBbbGY