Sonic generations is an OG Sonic classic, many fans have agreed to that statement. However, when the original Sonic generations released back in 2011, I was only 6…Years…Old… yeah. I am a hardcore Sonic fan, I watched my sister play generations, amongst the rest of the 3d Sonic games and as I got older I’ve played my own fair share of Sonic games. So when Sonic X Shadow Generations released I had to check it out. My whole time on the internet I’ve been told again and again that Sonic Generations is “one of the best Sonic Games out there.” And with the addition of Shadow, I mean wow! this collection has got be something. I had a feeling the Shadow story would be great but, my main concern with this collection was, does this remaster do the original justice?
Starting off with Sonic Generations, the game throws you into the fist level of game being the classic green hill zone with Classic Sonic. Once beating the level Classic Sonic begins running off when bah-bam a giant monster with gears and a ghastly figure pops out of a portal in the sky, known as ‘The Time Eater’. The cutscene then switches to Modern Sonic, just as the original game, Sonic’s friends set up a surprise birthday party! Once Sonic arrives the party begins! It is a cute scene I won’t lie! the cutscenes show a lot of character between everyone’s interactions and its very charming. However the celebrations don’t last for long as the Time Eater crashes the party, opening multiple portals and sucking in Sonic’s friend’s into different parts of time. Probably the funniest part of this scene is Sonic trying to save his friends, gets absolutely smacked down by Time Eater sending him unconscious. When waking up Sonic finds himself in an empty lifeless space. Zones of his past without color and his friends frozen in time along side them.
The story of Sonic Generations is nothing crazy; honestly I would say that its probably the simplest game story wise out of any 3D Sonic game. From the point Sonic wakes up the objective of the game is easy, complete levels as both modern and classic Sonic to free your friends from being frozen in time, and move on to the next zone doing the same until you’re done with the levels in that area. The Classic Sonic levels turn the levels into his known 2D platformer whilst Modern takes levels into 3D. Personally, and I KNOW IM NOT THE ONLY ONE, I do NOT like Classic’s 2D levels. Unfortunately for me, and others like me… those levels are mandatory to progress through the game as each Sonic only unlocks/ frees half of the level when finished. Once levels are completed they “regain their life and become full of color once again”!! But also what happens is that a friends becomes unfrozen in time and you unlock a cute little dialogue with one of Sonics friends. I like these and depending on which Sonic you last played to completely beat the level, you get 2 completely different dialogue cutscenes! My only grip with this remaster is that some of the dialogues were changed. Which all of these changes were completely unnecessary and in some instances made the animations confusing as the lines didn’t match the motions that the characters made.
Onto to the meat of the game and the reason most Sonic fans think this is one of the best Sonic games of all time, is the gameplay. Now, let me just start off with this, back in 2011, yes this games mechanics were great, smooth and one of the best feeling Sonic games during that era, however, the times have changed and it is no longer Sonics peak. Of course, it’s Sonic gameplay! There will never be complaints on the levels, and you will always know what to expect. I personally enjoy all of the 3D levels and I think Sega did a great job remastering the base levels into their own version for this game and bringing the quality up for this remaster. They’re all extremely fun levels and well designed with multiple paths. And although my enjoyment for the 2D levels will never be as high as the 3D, they can be really fun too!
To quickly cover progressing through the game, there are 3 levels in each area that need to be run through once for both Sonics. Once completed you need to choose between one challenge level in each of the 3 sections of the levels to get 3 keys. Once all 3 keys are collected you can go up against the boss!
As I didn’t play much of the original Generations, I do not remember how well movement felt however I will say I can tell Sega tried to stabilize the movements. Key word, “tried” the game definitely feels easier on the handling, especially the boost and maintaining momentum, but there are so many times that the game flipped on me. When talking about this with my sister, who has also beaten this remaster, she had no problems. So this could easily be a, “getting lucky with the copy you have” type of situation. The game feels good for a Sonic game, but it does not feel as good as it could’ve been as the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers; which is understandable it’s a remaster not a grounds up remake. BUT, the amount of glitches I experienced in an hours play was hilariously frustrating. Clipping through floors, flying off screen because of clipping through walls and obstacles, the camera getting stuck and therefor me clipping, practically A LOT OF CLIPPING. I won’t lie, I would burst out laughing every time but then soon after sigh in the realization I needed to start all over in some instances.
Both Sonic Generations and Shadow generations are short games, both about 5 to 6 hours to beat. So you wont be spending much time playing these games if you choose to play them once. Which leads us into a great aspect of Sonic games that is included in these ones too! Replayability, it’s fantastic! I mean the game has multiple different challenge modes within levels and completely different challenges as well. Its a Sonic game so you can always go faster and find different routes through your run.
Another good note for Sonic X Shadow generations its accessibility. You do have the ability to change your controllers button layout to have it to your liking, they also have presets for players to choose from. They game also provides subtitles, hints, and sensitivity settings, along with a few other options to choose from. And these settings are the same for both Sonic and Shadows story.
Before completely diving into Shadows story, I wanted to cover the sounds of Sonic X Shadow Generations. The music of Sonic games have always been one of the strongest elements of these games experience, and it is no different here. The majority of songs are reprised, and remastered for both stories and all of them are still fantastic to jam to while speeding your way through levels; along with the new tracks which are just as enjoyable to listen to! the voice acting in this game is fantastic between the two stories and of course Sonic Generations is corny per 2011 dialogue. However Shadows VA, besides the occasional edgy interactions, has a tremendous upgrade in dialogue and quality compared to the one-liner back in the original 2011 “you’ve got this Sonic”, during the final boss fight. Which has now been changed to “on your feet!”, which sounds way less awkward.
Loading up Shadow Generations you can see and feel an immediate difference from Sonic Generations. Shadow Generations is a grounds up game created in the same engine as the franchise’s latest game ‘Sonic Frontiers’ Vs Sonic Generations being its simple remaster.
While still keeping in the style of Sonic Generations, Shadow Generations is much higher graphical quality, the textures, sharpness, models all look fantastic and an upgrade compared to its counterpart game. On top of that the cutscene animations are just really beautiful and pleasing to watch. I especially enjoy the UI stylization the developers went with with for shadow making it distinctly for his characterization while still maintaining the “generations” look.
The story for Shadow was definitely a needed one, for far too long Shadow felt like he was in the “shadow”. Since this is a new experience, I don’t want to delve into the story much and how great Shadow generations is, I feel like if you care to try it out you should! Shadow needing to face his past encountering old foes and allies with a fresh face of paint. It develops Shadows along with Maria and Dr. Gerald Robotnik characters in a way that hasn’t been done in years, although Shadow being the primary focus.
I don’t think I would have even needed to say anything for someone to know that Shadow Generations was built in a different engine either because my goodness the gameplay feels way smoother. It doesn’t feel like I’m fighting against the drift and boost anymore! From the time I played, I didn’t experience any clipping or flying off the edge when I ran into an obstacle the wrong way. The handling of Shadow feels much more aligned with your inputs. It feels the same way the 3D levels felt in Sonic Frontiers, so if you enjoyed playing through those then you’ll have the same fun in Shadows game!
The difference in progressing is that instead of choosing between a few challenges for one key, its required you beat three level challenges for a key. So rather than beating one challenge level out of how many different offered for one key in Sonic Generations its now three challenge levels for one key. And Shadow Generations still requiring 3 keys to unlock a boss. Honestly when my sister told me this I got a little put off but once going through these challenges they’re all a breeze to run through. I actually found a lot of them to be fun.
These games are fun I cant lie! I feel like Shadow generations is the real selling point for buying this bundle though. Sega definitely could have done a better job remastering Sonic Generations however if you’ve never played the original Generations then for accessibility its a good deal to get this remaster to experience both games as its on modern consoles! I don’t think this remaster of Sonic Generations did the original justice though with handful of unnecessary changes and the amount of issues I came across during gameplay. So I definitely feel as though Shadow is the better playthrough than Sonic in this instance. Either way both of these games are an easy and fun play and they’re always easy to get into for some short fun with all of these charming characters!