When Sonic Generations launched back in 2011, it was considered one of the blue blur’s best 3d outings as well as a great celebration of the character’s history as it came in the year of his 20th anniversary. 13 years later, Sonic Generations is still a great game in its own right, but Shadow Generations is perhaps the strongest 3d outing the franchise has seen and serves as an excellent redemption for Shadow after his own game in 2005 left a lot to be desired. The package features 2 parallel stories, one which sees Sonic team up with his past self to combat a creature that is causing distortions in time in space. While this is going on Shadow is on his own mission to destroy Black Doom, his old nemesis long thought to be dead and is unexpectedly reunited with figures from his past.

Sega has delivered 2 good games in quite a strong package packed with a lot of replay value, great call backs to the franchise’s history, a glimpse at the direction they may take the franchise going forward, although one game may overshadow the other (no pun intended).

Pros

I won’t speak as much on Sonic Generations as the game still plays as well as it did before. It’s a game that both pushed the franchise forward as well as went back to its roots as you play as both the modern 3D Sonic with the boost focused gameplay as well as the classic 2D side scrolling Sonic. It was one of the 3D Sonic games along with Colors and Unleashed that best captured the sense of raw speed when played well like the 2D games did. For those unfamiliar with how Sonic games typically play, levels have various paths which determine how fast you can plow through them or paths with slower platforming. This sort of design was somewhat less prevalent in some of the other 3D games.

The game always looked good, though it now looks better than ever on modern platforms. Sega also did add a couple things outside of a graphical update. The drop dash introduced in Sonic Mania, was added to both modern and classic Sonic gameplay. It helps more with classic Sonic than modern, though it’s still a nice addition overall and I’m sure some speed runners may find more use for it than I did. Also added were additional challenges such as 3 lost Chao in each level for both classic and modern. The game already had great replay value due to the various challenge levels and Red ring collectables, this just adds a little bit more. Voice lines have also been re-recorded for the cutscenes adding some new dialogue in. These changes make an already great game even better and it’s still a joy to see the different eras of Sonic games adapted to both gameplay styles.

While Sonic Generations is still good in its own right, Shadow Generations is definitely the superior part of the Sonic X Shadow Generations package and in my opinion is the best 3D game in the franchise to date. Shadow Generations features an Open world hub similar to Sonic frontiers and while not as large, Sega has expanded on the open world gameplay aspects by giving shadow various powers that make traversing the open world feel even better than it did in frontiers and it could be a sign of how they plan on handling a follow up game to frontiers.

The game doesn’t make the same mistakes as 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog which featured level design similar to other Sonic games, but featured elements that disrupted the high speed gameplay too often. The boost focused gameplay of the modern levels in Generations are present with Shadow but, Shadow plays quite differently than Sonic does. One key thing is that Shadow has a double jump unlike Sonic and his homing attack functions differently as it’s a teleport which allows him to attack from further away as well as bypass certain obstacles. He also has the ability to throw energy daggers to stun enemies and combat options similar to what Sonic has in frontiers.

Shadow’s various powers also play a huge factor. Unlike the 2005 game, Sega made sure that Shadow’s powers blend in seamlessly with the high speed gameplay, most notably his chaos control ability which stops time. The way these powers are used made for some of the best level design Sega has done in modern Sonic games and is filled with epic set pieces that just make Shadow feel like a badass.

Shadow goes through levels from past Sonic games much like Sonic does in Generations, his levels however address one issue that Generations did have in that they’re overall more challenging. His levels are overall larger than Sonic and the optimal paths aren’t always as obvious to see, making it more challenging to get S rank on many of the levels. Occasionally, Black Doom will also appear in some levels and begin to distort them on the fly and these sections do well to keep you on your toes. It’s not a brutally hard game by any means but it offers a solid challenge for those going for 100% perfection. Outside the main levels there are various challenges sections much like Generations as well as a good amount of collectables within the open world. Although neither Sonic nor Shadow generations are very long in their main games, all the extra challenges make this a highly replayable bundle.

One more major highlight for the game is Shadow’s story in this, continuing the solid writing seen in Sonic frontiers. In his quest to hunt down black Doom, Shadow unexpectedly becomes reunited with Maria Robotnik, his closest friend and Gerald Robotnik his creator. Shadow begins to contemplate if he can avert their tragic fates and in comes an overarching theme of letting go of the past and negativity as the more powerful he becomes, Shadow becomes noticeably more violent and rage fueled.

One more major highlight of Sonic X Shadow Generations is the game’s boss fights. Both games revisit antagonists from previous games but with new twists added. The twists are designed to take advantage of the game’s new mechanics well but they also get rid of some of the more poorly designed parts of the bosses in some of the games.

I honestly replayed a couple of fights immediately after beating them the first time just due to how enjoyable they were.

Lastly, you can’t speak about a Sonic game of any kind without speaking about it’s legendary soundtrack, it’s just as stellar here as it is in the majority of Sonic’s games. There’s also a multitude of unlockable tracks that you can play in any level you choose which is always a nice touch.

Cons.

So the only real con Sonic X Shadow Generations truly has is that Shadow Generations (again no pun intended) kind of overshadows Sonic Generations. Generations is still a great game, but I think if Sega perhaps made it a bit harder to get the S ranks on levels or perhaps even added 1 or 2 more levels from more recent Sonic games such as mania or Sonic Superstars or a boss fight with someone like Dark Gaia it might’ve helped it not feel like Shadow Generations kind of steals its thunder. And there are still a couple of things in generations such as the homing attack not seeming to activate randomly that are present which can lead to a few weird moments.

Final thoughts

Small complaints aside, Sega did an excellent Job with Sonic X Shadow Generations overall. Although it would’ve been nice to see a bit more for Sonic Generations to help it stand out more next to Shadow, it’s still an excellent game overall and this is an excellent package with excellent replay value and a sign that the future of Sonic will continue to be great as it has been the past few years. And hey, it’s nice to see another platformer be so well made.

Reviewed on Xbox Series S, Sonic X Shadow Generations is also available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC releasing on October 22nd.