Sonic X Shadow Generations

Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Playstation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 – Available Here

Overview

Sonic is back! Well…sort of. Remakes and remasters are a large part of the modern gaming philosophy. Sometimes they feel a bit forced, but there are other times they do enough to feel welcome. Sonic X Shadow Generations falls into that latter category by default. Adding in a new meaty campaign featuring Shadow, this title brings us one of the most popular Sonic celebrations to modern platforms. Is it enough to warrant a new purchase? Let’s find out.

Story

There are two narratives going on within Sonic X Shadow Generations, and to kind of understand just what you are getting, you should also know that this release treats this product like a bundled version of two separate releases. The first is the familiar Sonic Generations. This title features Sonic starting out by celebrating his Birthday party when the Time Eater appears and sucks his friends into a warp. He then has to save them all one by one, along with his “2D” self, who is also wrapped up in this journey. Outside of very minor changes, that’s really it when it comes to the plot here, as it’s just that base game story with a few additions. It’s enough, but the bonus game definitely adds to the content.

Shadow Generations takes place during the same time as Sonic Generations, explaining why Shadow was absent from the party, along with an entire origin story to add context to his own adventure. This origin story explains that Shadow was created in a lab and was beloved by a little girl and Gerald Robotnik before they were taken out by Black Doom, who is the antagonist of his story. It’s quite a bit of added substance to the franchise as a whole that not only makes sense but is done well enough to be entertaining. Sure, there is still a little cheese that this anti-hero has clinging to him, but I think that just kind of goes with his character as a plus.

Gameplay

I remember when Generations first came out over a decade ago. The game was fantastic, fluid, and mostly fun. That still remains true with this version. This title is packed with fan service and love from start to finish, even if it still includes some of the tedious elements from the original version. The latter levels that reflect on later games like Colors, Unleashed, and so on are still present, and still kind of slow down the gameplay with their gimmicks. I feel a bit more patient with these this time around, but the problems are still there mostly. The gameplay coming to a halt to introduce gimmickry over speed is still jarring as the stages just don’t seem to fit with a hedgehog built for speed.

Again, the good more than makes up for the bad, but that was just my take. The controls can be swapped with Frontiers‘ styled controls, and now we have a few new elements like collecting Chao (sorry, no Garden present), and the drop dash, which works quite well with this title. There are also all of the extra stages with collecting emeralds and races, which really pull out the experience, adding a ton of content to the main game. Not much else has changed, but the package still holds up and felt quite nice as a revisit.

Shadow Generations acts as the other half and has a six-hour campaign to trek through. Shadow plays a bit like 3D Sonic, but features his rocket skates, which allow the character to have his trademark speed. There are a surprisingly plump amount of extra techniques the player can learn as well -such as the chaos control that slows down time, chaos spear as a projectile, and new Doom powers that boost these attacks or offer a bend on the gameplay a bit. Its a bit gimmicky, but I really thought these stages were well-built and complimented the character consistently, even surpassing the latter part of Sonic’s story in terms of fluid gameplay. The overworld hub also is open and can be explored to a degree, being fully 3D instead of the standard 2D. While not the longest, it’s a pretty decent offering to have on top of Generations and one that makes sense in this universe.

Audio

This is the best part, right? Sonic Boom, City Escape, you name it, it’s more than likely here. This soundtrack is fantastic, and being able to swap between songs simply enhances the feeling of variety and enjoyment overall. The Shadow soundtrack is also outstanding for what it is and gives us a great way to trek through all of these added stages. The voice acting stood the test of time well, and the new performances match this without much issue. 

Visuals

Outside of Frontiers, this may be the best-looking Sonic game to date. Generations was already a great-looking game, but when you add in the enhanced framerate and the superb animations and fluid gameplay for both titles, you have one of Sega’s most polished platformers. Being now in 4K, it does look a little less vivid than it once did in certain stages, but that comes with an exchange in detail. It’s nice seeing Shadow detailed down to the quill, and Sonic Team’s efforts do not go unnoticed.

Overall

Sonic X Shadow Generations is a fantastic re-offering of a superb classic that adds enough new content to double-dip without guilt. Sonic has had so many ups and downs over the years, and it’s a great sight to see when Sega brings us one of the very fine highs from the past. Sure, some of the minor design issues are still present and those other Sonic games on display do bog it down a bit, but you still get a lot of great gameplay and tunes to really scratch that hedgehog itch with this release.

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