Setting the standard: Sonic x Shadow Generations review

Shadow the Hedgehog has been thriving this year thanks to the 'Fearless' campaign. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will arrive this December, introducing the jet-black hedgehog into the cinematic universe.

To get us prepared for the big finale of Shadow's year, we have Sonic x Shadow Generations, a compilation title of a remastered Sonic Generations and a brand new title, Shadow Generations.

In this review, we will cover both games, starting with Sonic Generations, and then focusing heavily on Shadow Generations, as it is a brand-new title.

Sonic Generations review

In this review, we will not be focusing heavily on Sonic Generations as a whole as nothing substantial has been added that would make my opinion on the title change.

Sonic Generations has always been one of my favourite video games, and I am happy to say that SEGA and Sonic Team did not sour my taste in the title. It plays almost exactly as it did originally, and looks like it too.

The graphical upgrades do seem minimal, and at times non-existent. There have been some cases where shadows are extremely blocky and pixel-like, such as in Sky Sanctuary Act 2. It's not noticeable when doing a normal run, which is good, but stopping will have you noticing it sometimes.

It can be an odd look, especially when running on next-generation hardware like the PlayStation 5. Most of the graphic upgrades pertain to textures and an upgraded frame rate. Sonic Generations is a beautiful game already so these upgrades are appreciated.

Cutscenes have been updated, ranging from improved lighting to new dialogue. The cutscenes look more vibrant than the original versions, and camera angles have been adjusted on several cinematics. These improvements are minor and won't be noticeable unless compared side by side to the originals, but they are appreciated nonetheless.

As for the new dialogue changes by Ian Flynn, they are harmless and don't affect the story, They serve as Easter eggs and treats for hardcore fans, such as referencing locations from the Sonic series and dialogue for character interactions that were not present previously.

Not much content has been added to Sonic Generations, nor have there been any drastic changes to the gameplay.

One of the biggest additions has been the drop dash for both Sonics. Personally, I've found use for it with Classic Sonic very few times, but it is not obsolete. The same can't be said for Modern Sonic, however.

Adding the drop dash for Modern Sonic is an interesting choice... given that it clashes with the boost style gameplay. There is almost no benefit to rev a drop dash when the stages do not give much opportunity to do so. Not only this, but to activate the drop dash for Modern Sonic you must homing attack first and hold the jump button. There is no dedicated button for the drop dash to activate it without doing an attack.

Now, this addition is harmless as it doesn't get in the way of normal gameplay (unless you are intentionally trying to activate it.) I am just questioning the logistics of this addition if there is no empirical improvement in the gameplay, especially when it doesn't bring the player far or grant a huge speed boost.

On the flip side, Chao rescue missions are a neat addition to Sonic Generations. It gives players another reason to reexplore the stages. Once collected, the Chao from their respective stage will appear in the white world.

Sonic Generations remastered is still the game we all know and love through and through with some quality-of-life improvements. I do not mind replaying the game to see these changes since it is a short title.

A part of me wishes there were more content additions such as more missions, collectibles, or possibly new stages. The latter may be out of reach, but I am hopeful that SEGA will see the vision that Sonic Generations was the perfect game to do DLC for. There is still much of Sonic's history to be celebrated, and with an improved version of the game for modern platforms, it's the perfect time to start. However, I am not counting on it.

Shadow Generations review

The main attraction for this release is the latest Shadow title in nearly 20 years, Shadow Generations. The lead-up for this title has been one of the best in Sonic history, where many fans boomed with excitement with each trailer, track, and art.

Shadow Generations has blown me away in a way that other Sonic games haven’t, making this the most exciting adventure yet.

The story of Shadow Generations runs parallel to the events of Sonic Generations, linking several moments from the latter together. This is an interesting idea on paper and Sonic Team did a good job of letting both stories connect naturally.

Several moments in Shadow’s story allowed me to tap into my childish excitement, I am still in awe at how well-animated most of these cutscenes are.

Sonic series veteran; Ian Flynn returns to pen Shadow Generations, giving the players a tear-jerking story about Shadow confronting his past, literally. Including his reunion with Maria and Gerald Robotnik, many of Shadow's friends and foes return due to the Time Eater reawakening the past, namely Black Doom, Shadow's co-creator.

We won't dive into spoiler territory here but Black Doom plays the main villain and is the reason why Shadow receives 'Doom Powers.'

Friends and memories

Many of Shadow's past companions and friends make a return, residing in the white world, some of which play a major part in the story. While exploring the white world, Shadow can interact with his friends and whoever he has met in the past.

Interacting with each character allows insight into their relationship with Shadow, or droplets of lore, making it valuable to interact with each character. These are great for Gerald and Maria considering we don't often see their bond with Shadow.

There's a lot to explore with these characters between the cutscenes, character bios, and Gerald's journal, which can all be viewed in the collection room.

The collection room has an amazing vibe to it, with a chill beat too! It's the same one we hear during the credits for the Dark Beginnings promotion animation.

The centerpiece of the room is Shadow's Dark Rider, the signature bike we've been seeing all year. Unfortunately, interacting with the bike doesn't do anything. Shadow just sits on it.

Also included in are many of the unlocked collectibles from normal gameplay in the stages and white world. There are a lot of goodies, including material from Sonic X! Though, they avoid saying the name of the anime.

Gerald's journal provides a plethora of lore about life on the ARK and Shadow's creation. It is highly recommended to check this out if you are a Sonic lore junkie, or just like Shadow as much as I do. Evan Stanley did an amazing job putting this together!

Gameplay

Shadow Generations is a balanced mix of the boost gameplay we've seen since Sonic Unleashed with the open zone formula we saw in Sonic Frontiers.

The white world is an open zone, and traveling to a destination includes platforming and using the game's mechanics much like Sonic Frontiers.

Challenges and collectibles are spread across the hub world for players too.

Shadow Generations' white world feels like a natural evolution to the open zone formula, where there is architecture to explore and routes that lead to a reward or stage and feel justified in their placement.

One of the main criticisms of Sonic Frontiers was the abundance of platforms or rails that seemed out of place. Shadow Generations' platforming routes often do not feel out of place and are sometimes themed after the stages they are located near.

Each stage has Act 1 and Act 2, with Act 1 being the 3D boost stage and Act 2 being a 2D stage. One of the exceptional traits of the stages are the number of routes to take, which makes the player engage with the stage differently.

Some routes can be achieved with a well-timed jump, while others are out-of-the-way or normal routes and require exploration. And, of course, some paths require the usage of doom power or chaos control.

Many of the acts have cinematic pieces, including the 2D acts. For example, in Rail Canyon Act 2, the camera takes advantage of the fact it is still a 3D game and turns to a ¾ view of Shadow boosting away from the armored train. Turning the camera to a different point of view can do a lot for 2D sections, making them visually interesting.

Music is different in each act, and each has a different rendition of the stage on which they're based. Some tracks in this game are different from what we usually get with Sonic games, such as Chaos Island Act 1, which is not my cup of tea. But there are absolute bangers in this title! Chaos Island Act 2 has been in my head for a while now and the new 'Supporting Me' remix is top-tier.

So far all of the stages have been fun to master. While I have my favourites, I always switch between various acts and stages, never avoiding a specific one. It makes me want to run a gauntlet, or something similar to the Egg Shuttle from Sonic Colors.

Doom powers

Doom powers are the abilities Shadow acquires through his influence from Black Doom, more are unlocked as the campaign progresses. It is encouraged that players go back to previous stages to explore new paths using the doom powers.

The Doom powers all play smoothly. Abilities that change Shadow's mobility may have a learning curve, but once mastered, they pair nicely with the rest of the gameplay.

There haven't been any instances where the abilities interrupted the flow, unlike similar games like Sonic Colours' wisp powers. This means you don't have to stop gameplay to traverse with the Doom powers.

The only exception to this are the Doom wings, which serve as this game's "Super" form. Doom wings have a toggle before entering a stage, and the game records ranks using Doom wings separate from normal runs.

As for Shadow, he controls very well in this title. The only complaint would be that turning while boosting feels stiff, making perfect turns nearly impossible.

In the settings, there is customization only for deceleration, which is odd! Frontiers had many control optimizations for players to tinker with to personalize the Sonic experience. It's an amazing idea to let fans have more control over how Sonic feels in-game, it would have worked even better for a game like Shadow Generations, where there is a focus on finishing the stages as fast as possible.

Bosses

As stated, several of Shadow's enemies appear in the form of boss battles. All of the bosses challenge the player's abilities very well. It's especially the case when more doom powers are unlocked, making the battles more engaging.

The interactions between Shadow and his enemies bring lots of joy to me, especially given that they are now visualized in high-quality graphics and animations.

But, my small gripe is that they don't feel as integrated into the story, especially when enemies like Mephiles are shown to be eager to be alive.

Considering how story-driven Shadow Generations is, I was hoping that each boss would have some story cutscene re-familiarizing players with who these characters are, and why they want to fight Shadow.

During the duration of the campaign, there was time spent re-contextualizing who Black Doom is, making it so that players don't need to play the original Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) to know who he is.

This same treatment is not done for the other bosses... when it really should've been. Especially when games like Sonic Heroes and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) are not widely accessible to make the presence of these villains fresh in player's heads.

An argument could be made that players can read through the game summaries in the collection room to gain a better understanding of the beef between them and Shadow. However, I would argue that it is an inappropriate way to reintroduce who the villains are for new players. Considering they do not play a major part in Black Doom's plans, another cutscene (or more dialogue about the villain's past) would have sufficed.

But, major kudos to Sonic Team for doing a better job at handling the boss fights as they did though, as they were handled a lot better than Sonic Generations', where most of the bosses did not have much dialogue interaction with Sonic. These new fights are very engaging and cinematic, upping the standard for future Sonic bosses.

Spectacle

Animation in the Sonic series has been a hot topic in recent years. Sonic Frontiers showed glimpses of how cinematic and fluid cutscenes can be, but it could never truly achieve it's truest level of quality. It's felt that Sonic as a series was not meeting the standards that its peers achieved long ago. Shadow Generations changes that, setting a new standard in the quality of stories and visuals for the franchise.

So many of the cutscenes in Shadow Generations showcase a new level of action and cinematography that the series has not seen, with all of the cutscenes rendered in-game.

Every cutscene was enticing, watching what Shadow would do next, or how he would interact with characters around him.

Unlike Frontiers, characters do not feel stiff in their movements, and the animation is fluid. The lighting and colours in many of the cutscenes pop, making the scenes look pre-rendered at times.

Shadow Generations looks amazing on PS5, with graphic options prioritizing performance or image quality. The majority of the initial playthrough was done using performance priority, which still looked phenomenal.

Our copy of Shadow Generations is the Digital Deluxe edition, which includes the Terios skin. Having this skin is an awesome treat for hardcore Sonic fans.

Terios plays no differently than normal Shadow, and the only criticism is that Shadow's skating animations carry over to Terios... which looks awkward since Terios wears regular boots.

Verdict

All of the hype and leadup toward Sonic x Shadow Generations has paid off.

While there isn't a huge focus on the Sonic Generations portion, we can celebrate the small victories, with it being a decent port to modern consoles. More content could have been added to Sonic Generations to make the revisit worth the $50 bundle package.

Shadow Generations is the main focus for this release, as it is a brand new Shadow the Hedgehog title, with decent length, and a fair amount of content to sink teeth into such as extra challenges and hard mode bosses. The gameplay between the stages and the open zone white world feels like an evolution of Sonic Frontiers' islands and cyberspace stages. The story was heartfelt and gave us fans a new take on Shadow facing his past.

Shadow's latest adventure set the standard for Sonic games moving forward. Sonic as a video game franchise has the potential to rival its peers in story, cinematics, and scope. No longer is the franchise in the "step in the right direction", it is in the right direction.

SEGA and Sonic Team, all you need to do is to keep pushing that momentum you are carrying.

Do not slow down.

Sonic x Shadow Generations was evaluated on the PlayStation 5, with accommodation signed off by SEGA of America. Article written by Syn, co-owner of IDWSonicNews and network team member; and edited by Scarlett, departing editor-in-chief.