Sonic the Hedgehog not only nibbles on the line of mediocrity, it chews out any taste and spits out this mess of a game.
Sonic on next-gen consoles controls bad, looks bad, sounds bad, plays bad, tells a bad story and almost everything about the game is flawed in one way or an other. The guys at Sega clearly put no effort into checking the game for game stopping bugs, a camera which can't keep up and buggy animations.
Sonic looks like it's Shadow the Hedgehog counterpart on last-gen consoles, and the quality of its graphics changes in each and every instance. The FMV sequences look OK, but the cutscenes which usually occur immediately afterwards, look crude and the characters look like they're made of plastic, and the in-game graphics range from basic (yet colourful) environments to last-gen and generic character models. It sounds generic but the soundtrack definately sounds like a Sega game.
The story is convoluted and confusing, as most games involving time travel are, and there are lots of little plot holes which conspire to make the story a confusing mess. Elise brings nothing to the story other than to cause the player constant grief when she gets captured, again and again and again.
Sonic games have always been about sharp control, and Sonic next-gen does not deliver, not by a longshot. The control is terrible, overly-sensitive and totally imprecise. The camera does not help at all, the camera gets up close and personal at times and the butterfingered control of the camera is enough to make you want to wish that the game was a 2D-platformer like it's predecessors.
Sonic the Hedgehog on the Xbox 360 and PS3 is a subpar attempt to remake the dying Sonic franchise. Note to Sega, don't let Sonic go the way of Alex Kidd. Please.