Published , by Lucas White
Published , by Lucas White
Remasters are a dime a dozen at this point, but a few years ago Nintendo did something novel with the concept: Bowser’s Fury. An experimental, brand-new game albeit on a smaller scale than a “full” title, Bowser’s Fury was packed in with Super Mario 3D World’s Nintendo Switch port. It was so good and unexpected, it ended up getting more attention than the supposed main attraction. It seems like Sega saw that and took notes, because this new re-release of 2011’s Sonic Generations has its own show-stealing side attraction. Sonic x Shadow Generations ups the ante though, as it has pulled out all the stops to present the “bonus” game as the true main event. And it just so happens to be some of the best 3D Sonic action to date.
In Sonic Generations, the Blue Blur and all his homies are having a party, which is shortly crashed by a demon that can manipulate time and space. Working in cahoots with Eggman, who was definitely not invited to the cookout, the Time Eater sucks everyone into spooky portals. Sonic himself is spit out into a White Space, in which he has to visit key moments in his past to restore the timeline. White Space is also connected to an alternate universe, in which the “classic” versions of all the Sonic characters do their thing. Working together, the modern and classic Sonics go through remixed levels from throughout the series to patch everything up.
Shadow is largely missing for some reason, which is where Shadow Generations comes in. He was late to the party, and by late I mean probably wasn’t going to bother showing up. He ends up in White Space separately anyway, where he is confronted with his tragic past being used against him. There’s no “classic” Shadow, but Sega found a new way to give the darker hedgehog some assistance. DOOM powers. Hell yeah.
Darn near everything about Shadow Generations is awesome, unironically and pseudo-ironically. Shadow as a character has long been seen as the tipping point of the “Sonic Cycle,” in which the series’ lore and multiplying cast of characters started to get out of hand. That said, Shadow is also where the goofy Sonic lore had its biggest attempt at pathos, an edgy anti-hero with an over the top tragic backstory full of early 2000s angst. A backstory that writer Ian Flynn has expertly expanded on and added to here, even if I respectfully hate him for it a little. The graph of “is Shadow actually cool or not” has been a wavy line for decades, and Shadow Generations feels like a wholehearted “yes he absolutely is, and haters can kick rocks” moment from Sega and Sonic Team. And the whole Year of Shadow marketing campaign, complete with a globetrotting motorcycle, is proof that there’s no room for cowardice in this endeavor.
From a pure gameplay perspective, this is some of the tightest, most polished action from Sonic Team yet in the 3D Sonic camp. I replayed Sonic Adventure 2 just a few weeks ago, and it’s incredible how much progress has been made from that point. The overall sense of speed has been toned down slightly, but the trade-off is in controls and mechanics that simply work as advertised. Through the years gimmicks like homing attacks, rail-grinding, boosting, and more have landed with varying degrees of success. In Shadow Generations, it feels like everything works and when something goes poorly, it’s a genuine mistake on my end. At times the action can feel fumbly, especially as new powers are added into the mix, but overall that’s more of a matter of adjustment to a complex toolbox than it is anything else. And when it comes to the basics, zipping along levels and loops, that stuff has never hit better. The first level in particular is a face-punch of cool stuff happening every five seconds.
Everything about Shadow’s presence in this game is so gleefully, unapologetically edgy. Shadow is basically Dracula in a fursuit, and everything about his surroundings in and out of the game’s story is built to amplify that. The music is full of depressing, haunting melodies when it isn’t pumping goth club synth beats at you, and even then you can feel the sadness dripping from each note like eyeliner running down a pale, sobbing face. Every single one of Shadow’s new powers has DOOM in the name, so you know they're all powered by hatred and despair. Hedgehogs can’t swim, but Shadow can use DOOM Surf, with which he conjures a giant manta ray made of black, gooey tendrils from (probably) literal, Christian Hell, to skate across the water on and jump through fun, video gamey boost hoops. From the top down, Shadow Generations fully embraces Shadow’s schlocky goth royalty energy, completely unburdened by the boundaries of shame. It rules.
Speaking of irony, it’s almost a shame Shadow Generations is paired with Sonic Generations. I know a lot of people on the fence about 3D Sonic actually enjoyed that game back in 2011, but it isn’t one of my favorites for reasons the remaster kind of highlights. The 2D levels are especially a bummer, with lots of annoying death traps the series has since moved on from, and so much visual noise it’s hard to tell what’s going on at times. The 3D levels are a lot better, and do feel great running at 60 fps. But they’re still from a time when Sonic Team was actively figuring 3D Sonic out and often getting in its own way. The music is chock full of banger after banger though, and the levels themselves are spectacular in a way that’s emblematic of Sega’s past in arcade games. Sonic Forces does that even better, but y’all aren’t ready for that conversation yet. I’m not either. Yet.
White Space is also much cooler and fun to explore with Shadow, compared to the side-scrolling hub in Sonic Generations. It borrows heavily from Sonic Frontiers, the previous main entry in Sonic’s 3D adventures. The “Open Zone” format is really a winner, which is once again proven here as Shadow has a large space to explore, with Sonic-style platforming puzzles strewn throughout the environment. Solving each little puzzle leads to some kind of reward, be it a piece of art, music, or chunk of lore from the series to date. And each reward is a locked chest, the keys being found in the levels themselves (replacing the red rings from previous games). So exploring pays off doubly, with the secrets found in stages feeding into the secrets out in the White Space. It’s a great loop, especially if you already played and liked what Frontiers was trying.
While I’d love to live in a world of Shadow Generations being the whole thing, there’s fun to be had with Sonic Generations as well. It’s just like putting a $200 collectible figure on the table next to an action figure you picked up at Walmart for a fraction of the price. The action figure is fun to play with, but you can just sit and stare at the collectible in admiration every time you walk past it. While it’s relatively short, Shadow Generations feels like someone took Sonic Frontiers and retroactively applied its secret sauce to an older 3D Sonic platformer, elevating it to heights previously unseen. Sonic Generations is a respectable remaster of a decent game, but pales in comparison. Thus, Sonic x Shadow Generations is definitely a masterpiece in the eyes of someone already on board with the series, but might feel noticeably uneven to newcomers or folks aiming to cautiously dip their toes back in feeding off hype for the latest movie. It’s over for everyone when that Keanu Reeves DLC drops, though.
Sonic x Shadow Generations is available on October 25, 2024 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S. Early access (excluding the Switch) starts October 22. A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for this review.