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When Shadow first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2, my first reaction was to hate him. I felt that Shadow was just Sonic, but with an inverted personality. While I’ve tempered my dislike to Shadow over the years (it’s now just a tepid apathy), I never thought that it’d be more than that forever. Cue Sonic X Shadow Generations.
You have to applaud SEGA for having an ingenious idea like this. How do you remaster one of the best Sonic games since Sonic Adventure 2 while still adding value to it to attract new and veteran players alike?
You add Shadow the Hedgehog.
Then you run all the way to the bank counting your money.
What is Sonic X Shadow Generations?
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a 2D/3D platformer developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA. It is available right now on every major gaming platform.
Our copy was provided by the super folks at SEGA! Thanks so much!
As a remaster of Sonic Generations, Sonic X Shadow Generations already has big shoes to fill. Sonic Generations broke the slump that Sonic was in for a good long while.
Seriously. No Sonic game turned out well after Sonic Adventure 2 until Sonic Generations hit. Its blend of old school and modern Sonic gameplay styles gave pretty much every fan what they wanted.
Whether its the platforming elements, the ludicrous speed or the campy story. It’s the Sonic (or rather Sonics) we all know and love.
Sonic X Shadow Generations has SEGA one-upping themselves. They’ve not only remastered Sonic Generations, but added in a whole new story (which happens concurrently with the events of Sonic Generations) starring Shadow.
While Shadow’s story interweaves with the plot of the original game, his stages are a bit more action oriented and difficult.
It’s much, much harder to get an S rank in Shadow’s stages than it was to get in Sonic Generations.
Shadow also has abilities that Sonic doesn’t, including the ability to stop time with Chaos Control. He also gains new abilities as you progress through the game, which actually keep you hooked. You never know what the next power is and what it’ll let Shadow do.
It’s also imperative that you get the hang of Shadow’s powers quick. They’re needed when you play through the stages to look for the hidden keys.
Keys are new collectibles to the Shadow campaign.
They don’t have any purpose gameplay-wise, but unlock all sorts of extras from summaries of past games, to artwork to music. They’re not required to finish the game, but finding them allows you to delve more into Shadow’s backstory. It’s great if you’re not really up with Shadow lore (like I am).
Hell, I’ll be the first to admit I have no idea which Sonic games are canon or what. The only Sonic game I played religiously were Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, so having lore dumps about Shadow really helped me understand who Black Doom and the other characters were.
Still, gathering the keys hidden in the stages is no easy feat.
Shadow’s stages, like Sonic’s, are meant to be blazed through. That means finding the keys can be an exercise in frustration if you missed one. Or more likely, aren’t on the path the key is on. Like Sonic, Shadow’s stages are filled with alternate routes and hidden shortcuts.
They’re cool if you’re planning to just speed on through, but a nightmare if you’re trying to collect stuff. You can easily miss a jump or get too far off-course without being able to backtrack. That usually means having to restart the whole stage all over again to retry where you screwed up.
I really think SEGA should’ve focused more on this issue.
Collectibles are awesome but when a game has so many different paths to take and so many of them depend on having enough speed or foreknowledge on where to go, it makes collecting stuff a pain in the ass instead of a treasure hunt.
Instead of hiding the keys in the stages, why didn’t SEGA just have set conditions for beating a stage?
Killing no enemies, coming under a certain time or with a certain amount of rings…those would be much more fun and preferred than what’s in right now. Less frustration, more fun!
That’s not saying the game isn’t fun! It really is! Both the remastered Sonic Generations and the Shadow campaign are filled with super fun stages. Focusing on speed has always been Sonic’s forte, and that focus shines brilliantly here. All of the stages are meant to be sped through, without a second thought on self-preservation. Reaction is all split-second, which adds in to the frenetic pacing.
This is pure Sonic (and Shadow) platforming, distilled to the series’ primal essence; running to the end of a stage.
Speed is essential to the game, and anything lower than 60FPS is a disservice for the game. That’s why it’s great that the ROG Ally X has zero issues running the game. I had everything on High and 1080p and had no problems other than the load times being a lengthier than on my desktop rig.
Other than that issue, the game is still the same experience. Incredibly fast framerates, coupled with tight controls for precise platforming. Zero lag, zero dropped frames, zero frame rate issues. It doesn’t matter f you’re playing the brand new Shadow stages or the remastered Sonic Generation ones; everything’s great! A gold ring all around!
The Bottom Line.
Sonic X Shadow Generations might seem like its too much of a good thing…but nah.
It’s an awesome thing in just the right moderation.
Sonic Generations being remastered is cool but the biggest draw here is of course the Shadow expansion. SEGA’s done great in that regards. Shadow plays just as great as Sonic, while his stages also feel significantly different enough so that both campaigns feel unique.
There are some issues inherent to the gameplay that should’ve been ironed out but overall, this is honestly the best game Shadow’s been playable in. Maybe that means we’ll finally see a standalone Shadow title again someday.
TLDR:
A great remaster and expansion with some annoying issues.
The Good:
- Sonic Generations remaster makes a great game even better.
- Shadow’s stages are fun and feel different to Sonic’s.
- Shadow’s skills are cool.
The Bad:
- Unable to backtrack in most stages.
- Hunt for collectibles needlessly slows things down.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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