Now that you've made it to the Modern Era (if you can call 2006 modern), you'll start playing through some levels of some more recent games. That's right, the first Modern Era stage comes from none other than 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog, or Sonic 06, which is what everyone calls it anyway. Don't worry, the Generations version of Crisis City is much more "stable" than it was in the game it came from, so you shouldn't encounter many glitches, if any at all.
Sonic Generations | Act Missions (S Rank)
Crisis City Zone
Both Acts of this Zone allow you to fall off to your death pretty easily; this is mostly due to the state of the city being in ruins, so it's not particularly out of place. Be careful in Act 1, especially when the fiery tornado (Iblis) starts causing a large amount of wind to push you backwards.
You'll have to be just as cautious in Act 2, but the end will instead be a dash straight towards Iblis. There's an achievement for not getting hit by any debris it throws at you; this is thankfully much easier than it is do in the original game, and all you have to do is sit it out at the start of the path and wait for the debris to despawn. You could also just run forwards as it's coming at you, as the game intended, but the former idea is obviously much safer and easier.
Rooftop Run Zone
This is the first level where things will definitely increase in difficulty, at least in terms of getting an S Rank. The majority of the stage is fairly easy to navigate once you get some practice with it, but the end is the most frustrating. As you climb the clock tower, you'll eventually reach its face, and will have to land in the very center of the clock. You'll have to avoid enemy fire AND bombs placed around the clock by jumping between pegs on the clock's hands. I suggest only making a break for the center once you're at 12 o' clock, and falling straight down into the middle.
Act 2 is about as difficult as Crisis City Zone, where the biggest hazard is falling off into the abyss. This means that practice makes perfect once again, so don't expect to get it down on your first try. Using the high paths save a lot more time than you'd think; the lower paths tend to be pretty long here.
Planet Wisp Zone
Planet Wisp's Act 1 isn't really that hard, but it's focused around a gimmick from Sonic Colors. It's quite likely that you're completely unfamiliar with Color Power, because Sonic Colors was only available for the Wii and DS. It's still a simple concept to learn. The Spikes power-up covers you in pink quills that allow you to stick to walls, and can be used to spin pink gears and break pink boxes. Most of the stage takes place in a factory centered around this power-up, so it's still possible to get an S Rank with over 6 minutes on the clock. If you're a bit over, you might want to hang onto your rings as a backup score bonus.
Act 2 isn't that bad either. The Rocket Color Power is the primary focus of the level, and it's only used to travel straight upwards. It's mainly used to break orange panels with the rocket symbol on them, but it can also be used to return to the high path if you fall off. Once again, the time limit has been drastically expanded to compensate for how long the level is.
Sonic Generations | Boss Battles (S Rank)
Now that the rest of the Chaotix team is free, it's time to finish up the last of the boss battles. You'll also get the Red Chaos Emerald just for clearing both Acts of Planet Wisp Zone.
Silver the Hedgehog
Silver will be hanging out above Crisis City Zone, waiting for you to fight him. The battle is so easy that you don't really need to boost until the very end, and I actually suggest that you do this. The main part of the battle mostly consists of homing in on objects Silver is carrying in order to reach him, running up a pile of cars, avoiding stuff coming down on you, or dodging psychokinetic attacks. As a final hurrah, he'll take all of the debris in the area and mash it all into a giant ball that crushes you if you slow down too much. The only way to speed up to Silver so you can hit him, as far as I can tell, is to boost towards him, so that's why you really need to preserve your boost power. If you're at this part of the fight and don't have any boost, don't bother continuing; it's no use.
Hard mode isn't different enough to warrant a lot of description on what changes. His attack where he takes three pieces of junk to throw onto the ground now has all three pieces falling down at once, so you need to stay between them in order to avoid taking damage. Silver is just overall harder to hit, and that's all that can be said for what makes this fight more challenging than before.
You'll earn the white Chaos Emerald for defeating Silver, and if you've beaten all the other bosses up to this point, there should only be one Chaos Emerald left to complete the collection.
Egg Dragoon
Somehow, Eggman will be piloting his Egg Dragoon, much to the confusion of the Sonic's. It's got a much more challenging attack pattern, ranging from launching drills, fire-laser beams, and an ice cannon. The points in which you attack him are very obvious, so there's no need to repeat that here. There's also a skydiving section of the fight where you have to rush down to the Egg Dragoon in order to land a hit, which is also self-explanatory. You should have a little over four minutes to use up if you want to get an S Rank.
Hard mode is the most difficult battle out of the six standard bosses you can fight. Sometimes your wall jumps will fail to work properly, which makes things even more frustrating. Not only does Eggman fire ice shots much faster in 2D than before, but the Egg Dragoon seemingly tanks tons of hits. The last attack you need to perform will be in the descending column, where you need to dive towards the Dragoon. This is where things get most annoying, just because victory is slightly out of reach. The drills that the Egg Dragoon launches arrive towards you much faster and in quick succession, and predicting where groups of rings will be is near impossible. Good luck if you want to get an S Rank, you're going to need it.
After defeating Eggman once again, the Sonic's and Tails's will meet up, very confused as to why Eggman was here in the first place. As soon as they mention that he was kidnapped much earlier, he's hoisted away by the Time Eater. Defeating Eggman grants you the cyan Chaos Emerald, and the fight against the Time Eater will open up. You won't be able to fight it until you have all seven Chaos Emeralds, though. Place all the Chaos Emeralds in the gears around the end of the White Space to open the fight.
Time Eater
Once the guilty part of this entire situation has revealed themselves, it won't be long until you have to fight the Time Eater. There's an achievement for finishing the fight without being hit even once, so the strategy for the Normal fight will explain this in detail, although there won't be too much to explain.
This fight lets you switch between dimensions, and the Time Eater will do the same. The easiest way out of almost every attack is to switch as soon as the attack almost connects, or when the attack starts to occur. Since both Sonic's are in a Super state, you need to continuously collect rings in order to retain that form, so keep an eye out for big clusters of rings. Getting hit once will void the achievement, but you can restart the fight whenever you get hit to try again. It costs you a life every time you do this, but that's not a problem thanks to Omochao selling them for 500pts a pop. Collecting 100 rings in this fight, like any other level, will also give you an extra life. The Can't Touch This achievement isn't as bad as it might seem at first; you might just need to keep practicing the fight until you finally pull it off.
The harder version of the battle isn't actually too bad. The homing attack now launches about three sets of five spears, as opposed to the usual one or two, but aside from that, there aren't really too many noticeable changes.
Now that everything is returned to normal, Sonic's birthday party can continue. Classic Sonic will show off what he's learned so far before the Classic duo return to their time period. The credits will roll shortly after, but if you wanted to make them run faster, you can hold S. After the credits, you'll be treated with a great cutscene with the two doctors.
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