Sonic Generations Speedrunning: City Escape

Sonic Generations Speedrunning

Stage: Modern City Escape

For my third blog post, I'm going to speedrun City Escape. This is one of my favorite stages in the game, mostly due to the amazing music playing in the background. However, I am a bit cautious going in, as if the last blog taught me anything, going through the stage on the second attempt might be a very difficult time.

Attempt #1

Even without taking any shortcuts, the first attempt was a bit challenging, but manageable. There are a lot more platforming sections in the bottom section, which means I had to slow down in order to make precise jumps onto platforms. Additionally, there was once instance in particular where the stage tried to push Sonic to the higher level, so I had to pay attention to prevent that from happening. In the end, I finished the stage with a time of 2 minutes 57.62 seconds.

Attempt #2

Left rail and higher street level

In the second attempt, I ran through the stage once more using the alternate paths mentioned in the book, same as always. Like in Chemical Plant, the first shortcut ended up being the most difficult one to perform. The book states that "As you approach the next left turn [:32 mark], steer toward the left side to find the edge of a rail. Jump and land on the rail to begin grinding. Stay on this rail and it will carry you to a street one level above which ends with three Trick Jump Panels" (Birlew 108).

Power line

I wish I were exaggerating when I say this, but trying to get this right took almost three hours long. The problem is when Sonic goes off the Trick Jump Panels on the top level, he is supposed to land and grind on a power cable in the air. Unfortunately, the chance of landing on the rail seems to be completely random. Sonic would either shoot over the rail, or fall short of it. Sometimes he would land on the rail, but the times that this did happen were extremely rare. It's because of this, that I did what I thought I would never do. I decided to give up on trying to use the first shortcut.
Thankfully, the alternate paths from here on out were much easier to go through, so the rest of the speedrun progressed through without any major issues.

At the :44 mark in the video, there is a big ramp near the bottom of the hill. Using the ramp propelled Sonic onto a power cable at the :46 mark, where I had to "Grind on this cable all the way through a shortcut to the steep drop of a high hill" (Birlew 109). Doing this allowed me to save a couple of seconds by skipping more turning sections.

The next alternate path taken was at the 1:00 mark. "For the shortcut, you must jump and hit the Mono Beatle with a Homing Attack. Immediately hit the Mono Beetle with a Homing Attack, and then Boost midair to hit the Dash Rings on the right" (Birlew 110). By doing this, Sonic was flung over the bridge and for a split second had an opportunity to Homing Attack more Mono Beetles at the 1:03 mark. "Afterward, Boost to the right to hit Dash Rings that put Sonic on scaffolding [1:05 mark], ending in a Trick Jump Panel" (Birlew 110). Doing all these steps was a bit tricky. While I had no problem performing the first set of Homing Attacks, doing the ones past the bridge was a little difficult, as there's only an extremely brief window of time where Sonic can homing attack the enemies in the air. If performed too late, Sonic while target the enemies on the ground instead.

The third shortcut I took required me to take the high ground once again. At the 1:16 mark, "Another Dash [Correction: Rainbow] Ring hangs suspended just off the edge of the hilltop, and this leads to a shortcut over the next treacherous area. The shortcut requires you to Homing Attack three Mono Beetles [1:18 mark] in a row in order to get past without falling, anyhow" (Birlew 110). This alternate path took a few attempts to get right. Thanks to Sonic's quick momentum, I would either run underneath the Rainbow Ring, or miss it by jumping to the side of it. Either way, it wasn't too difficult to get correctly, unlike the first shortcut.

Taking the previous shortcut led Sonic into a park. Exiting the park leads to the next path into a 2D section. "Hitting a Jump Panel [1:34 mark], Sonic flies right onto a Horizontal Bar across the street" (Birlew 111). The Horizontal Bar allowed me to swing Sonic onto the higher path where I was able to skip the lengthy platforming section on the bottom path. After going through Dash Rings, I was required to "Jump immediately and Homing Attack balloons hanging midair and bounce from the resulting pop . . ." (Birlew 111). I was barely able to achieve this, as instead of Homing Attacking the balloon, Sonic sort of crashed through them at the 1:39 mark due to his high momentum. However, the end result was still the same as what the book stated, so it all worked out in the end.

The last set of shortcuts I performed were at the 1:41 mark, and the 1:51 mark. The first of the three required me to "Jump and Homing Attack two Mono Beetles in succession,and then spin dash after the second to reach a rooftop. From there, you can jump to a balcony on the next building, which has a Jump Panel at the right end [occurred at the 1:45 mark]" (Birlew 112). The Jump Panel was able to propel Sonic into another Horizontal Bar, which led to the second shortcut I mentioned earlier. This shortcut occurs after a small platforming section, where I had to "Spin Jump onto the grind rail while midair. Jump before reaching the end of the first rail and spin jump onto the next . . ." (Birlew 112).

After the last shortcut, I did make a little mistake at the 1:59 mark where I ended up boosting into the wall instead of through the small opening, but it didn't severely impact my time. The final section of the stage is a set piece where Sonic is being chased by a truck, so there are no more shortcuts. My ending time for the stage was 2 minutes 35.15 seconds. So taking most of the shortcuts that the book mentioned saved a total of 22.47 seconds.

Conclusion

To end this blog post, doing the shortcuts in City Escape was overall was a little bit easier than Chemical Plant. While I did end up giving up on doing the first shortcut, the rest were more focused on platforming and making sure I stayed on the high path rather than the reflexes Chemical Plant required when taking certain alternate pathways.

What did you feel about the speedrun on this stage? Do you think I should've given up on the first shortcut, or do you think I should've persisted? Let me know down in the comments below along with any other statements or questions you have!

Birlew, Dan. “City Escape: Act 2.” Sonic Generations, DK/BradyGames, 2011, pp. 108–112.