Sonic X Shadow Generations [Nintendo Switch]

Long time followers of the site have probably seen my previous reviews on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and are fully aware of my love of the series. Sure, it has had its ups and downs, but I’ve found myself enjoying most entries to at least some degree (barring a few exceptions). One of the games I adored back in the Xbox 360 era was Sonic Generations, which was a fantastic love letter to the series that revisited the series’ past whilst creating something entirely new. It really helped spark hope within the fanbase that things were going to be alright.

And things did turn out alright for the most part. We may have had some more mediocre games like Sonic Forces, but then we also got Sonic Mania, Sonic Frontiers, and Sonic Superstars: all amazing games that show off what the blue hedgehog is capable of.

But those games were also what made me worry about the remaster of Sonic Generations. Sure, it was a great game back in 2011, but with the recent games being so good, will it hold up?

Many thanks to the SEGA for the review code.

THE BLUR BLUR MEETS THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM
Sonic Generations starts, quite appropriately, with a birthday party. Sonic is another year older and all his friends are here to celebrate. It’s a shame then that the sky rips up and a huge beast pulls everyone (except Sonic) into various worlds. After leaping into action – and a modern version of Green Hill – you soon realise that the Time Eater has been feeding on Sonic’s history and only by revisiting his past can he save his future.

It’s not only his worlds that have been pulled from the past either, as a past version of Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik have also found themselves in White Space. Together, the heroes need to rescue their friends and stop the Time Eater before it’s too late.

Meanwhile, Shadow the Hedgehog is investigating the Space Colony Ark when the time anomaly occurs and finds himself also stranded in the same white void. However, there’s no time for him to deal with the Time Eater as he has his own problems to face: namely Black Doom, who seems to have survived their previous encounter and is intent on growing Shadow’s power to use it for his own purposes.

Both stories are pretty solid, although Sonic Generations lacks quite a fair bit of depth compared to the new Shadow Generations. Sure, it’s cute seeing the dynamic between the two Sonics and their friends, but there’s little more to it than that. I particularly found the Time Eater to be rather undeveloped as a villain, which is only really underlined by his awful final fight. Shadow’s story on the other hand uses the narrative to dive more into his troubled past, and manages to create a far more compelling story that is also far more engaging. As someone who never cared much for Shadow, I was surprised to find myself getting really invested in the character and his plight. It’s really well done, and the pacing ensures that it manages to get through quite a lot despite the game’s brevity.

Looking solely at the Sonic Generations part for now, the gameplay holds up quite well thirteen years later and has some welcome tweaks to help modernise it a little. Sonic’s dash now has now been simplified to allow for the right trigger to activate it, and the drop dash’s inclusion also helps you to keep moving fast despite the frequent need for platforming. Unfortunately this platforming is also what has held up the worst since it still feels rather floaty and imprecise, thus making it easy to mess up. Considering later stages often have death pits under platforming segments, this can prove frustrating – especially as the classic games had somewhat precise movement, making its omission here even more baffling.

Still, the platforming issues don’t take away from how good the levels are and how nostalgic it is to revisit classic level themes. Rather than simply trying to remake or remix the older stages, Sonic Generations instead opts to largely make new levels from scratch that use key elements from the original in order to create something new. There’s surfing in City Escape and the teleporting orbs and bouncy clouds in Sky Sanctuary, but you’ll also find whole new set-pieces too. The beauty of this approach is that it allows them to revisit weaker stages, such as Crisis City from Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, and make them into something genuinely good.

Each of the nine stages have two acts, with the first focusing on 3D segments for modern Sonic and the second having you do some old-school side-scrolling platforming as Classic Sonic. The shift in styles works rather well, although I found myself enjoying the modern acts more simply due to the aforementioned platforming problems. 18 acts may not seem like a lot, but they’re pretty beefy and also come accompanied with an assortment of side challenges for you to beat too. These activities could have you breaking open a set amount of crates, or perhaps it puts all the enemies and obstacles to double speed, but regardless they’re a nice way to revisit the areas. You will need to beat at least one from each stage and the special rival match in order to beat the game, but they’re fun enough that you’ll probably want to play them all regardless.

The main issue with the game, and something I was sad to see wasn’t rectified in the remaster, was the boss fights. They’re not terrible by any means, but they’re more than a little underwhelming. They mostly have a good degree of spectacle, but the first two bosses are just mind-numbingly easy whilst the final two are just tedious and long-winded.

Thankfully these issues are all completely absent in Shadow Generations. It does follow the same general idea as Sonic Generations in that it revisits stages from Shadow’s past in completely new ways, but everything just feels like it was made by a far more seasoned team.

Of course the visuals are far more spectacular in Shadow Generations and feel like a modern Sonic release, but the level design and controls are also far more superior too. Shadow controls largely like Sonic, but with some key differences: as well as being able to utilise Chaos Control, which can freeze time for a brief period, he will also gain access to special Doom powers that aid his traversal. There’s a spike attack that can stun multiple enemies from a distance, a powerful punch that can launch enemies, and multiple transformations. It makes moving around feel so fluid, especially with all the different pathways you can traverse, and when combined with his much tighter jumping controls you almost never feel frustrated when moving through his stages.

The biggest difference with Shadow Generations though is with the White Space that you navigate between stages. In Sonic Generations you merely walk from left to right as you go to each new stage, with exploration being limited to some minor platforming to reach the challenge stages; however, with Shadow Generations there’s a whole open world for you to explore. It feels like a fusion between Sonic Frontiers and Bowser’s Fury, with more being open to you after beating each boss (which, by the way, are also consistently fantastic in Shadow Generations). It feels so good to explore, and there are loads of secret chests for you to find and open to help fill out your gallery. It’s such a fantastic area and feels far more refined than in Sonic Frontiers, promising a strong future for Open World Sonic.

And that’s the beauty of this package: it manages to bring back a beloved classic whilst also showing what potentially showing off a potential future for the series. Frontiers was great, but its open-world felt far too chaotic and many elements felt out of place. In Shadow Generations though, we have a far more carefully designed world full of areas to explore and is complemented by some fantastic stages and challenge missions to keep you busy.

I don’t say this lightly, but not only did Shadow Generations make me finally click with the edge-hog, but it also ended up being my favourite 3D Sonic game to date. It really is that damn good.

VERDICT
Sonic Generations is a classic for a reason, even if some elements don’t quite hold up as well as they used to; however, it’s Shadow Generations that really sells this package. With a fantastic open world, engaging story, and some of the best stages I’ve played in the franchise, it really is a must play for Sonic fans.