In honor of Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th anniversary Sega created Sonic Generations. It took some of the series most iconic levels, and presented them in an undeniable love letter to the series. It was about as perfect of a tribute that one could expect. Years later Sega decided to remaster this, with additional content centering on Shadow the Hedgehog. Given how impactful the original experience was, will Sonic X Shadow Generations find the same success, or was it lightning in the bottle?
Since most players likely care more about the Shadow side of Sonic X Shadow Generations, this review will focus more on that. But before we get there let’s briefly talk about Sonic Generations.
Excellent Vision
As a long standing fan of Sonic the Hedgehog the team did an amazing job selecting levels to represent the series up to that point. Even if some preference comes into play, like I’ve always been partial to Oil Ocean Zone, their choices make total and complete sense. You’d be hard pressed to find a long standing gamer that didn’t immediately recognize Chemical Plant Zone’s iconic beat.
Much of what made the original a success was a great understanding of what players loved about these experiences. It wasn’t just Green Hill Zone with better graphics, it was modernizing it for one version, and adapting it to completely different version that tried to capture the original vision. Something where playing through four or more times would still have new secrets, and references to uncover.
Where Sonic Generations shows its age the most is honestly things related to time itself. One of the easiest to see are minor dialogue changes, and slight altering of a couple cutscenes. As a whole I think these are changes are better, though some people are understandably nostalgic to the original version, or depiction of certain characters. The other is how newer fans might not have the same multigenerational excitement that the original offered, which Shadow Generations tries to correct.
Similar to how Sonic Generations highlights experiences from the ’90s, and ’00 periods; Shadow Generations attempts the same with ’00, and later. These include some from his debut, Sonic Adventures 2, all the way to Sonic Frontiers from 2022. There is also a DLC pack that will be available later this year that relates to the third Sonic movie.
In a lot of ways I think this is a fantastic way to continue the original’s legacy. Even if Sonic is a multi-generational character, it allows those who grew up with Shadows’ original games, and the most recent to recapture the same magic. That being said, it features some limitations as well.
On a basic level a lot of newer Sonic games don’t seamlessly integrate with this experience, such as the short lived Sonic Boom series, coupled with Shadow skipping a couple recent releases. Still, it’s great to see Shadow’s history acknowledged, with even questionable entries like Shadow the Hedgehog (yes, the one with the guns) getting a sizable reference.
The content itself is rather mixed. On one hand the team did a great job recapturing the original spirit, and molding it to Shadow’s journey. Even the inclusion of Maria, and Gerald Robotnik show the care that went into his unique story. Some of the levels are also extremely well done, to the point where I immediately understood why they were selected.
What ultimately makes it mixed is the adventure itself is rather short. I’d wager Shadow Generations can be completed in roughly 2 hours. This amount will increase, or decrease, depending on skill, and time spent looking for collectibles. Even without a guide I don’t think it would take more than 4 hours to find most, if not every, hidden collectible. Most of these are down easily missed paths, or utilize specific timing like using Chaos Control to slow hazards down to used as a platform to reach a certain platform.
That being said, it’s a lot of fun playing through the various challenge stages. These are less about figuring out the optimal path, and centered more on finishing an objective really fast. For better or worse they also have fairly doable times to achieve S rank. Not so easy you can’t possibly fail, though lenient enough where one, or two mistakes won’t force a restart.
Sonic X Shadow Generations Review Verdict
Sonic X Shadow Generations: Even if I would've liked to see more in Shadow Generations, the core experience is still one of the best in Sonic's recent history. Both experiences work because the team involved are obviously passionate about the franchise, and their love resonates in fans who appreciate its long history. So for these reasons I think it's an obvious choice for anyone who hasn't played Sonic Generations, and absolutely worth considering if you're curious about Shadow Generations. – Mark
Editor’s Note: Sonic X Shadow Generations was reviewed on PlayStation 5, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.
