Sonic the Hedgehog… every prepubescent gamer’s favorite series about a blue cartoon hedgehog who can run really fast. I haven’t touched this series in a long time, mostly because for every good Sonic game there’s about 2 to 3 bad ones so it’s not exactly a safe investment. I was instantly intrigued, however, when it was announced that the next big sonic game would focus on a member of Sonic’s often neglected supporting cast. That’s right folks, everyone’s favorite edgelord Shadow the Hedgehog is once again the main protagonist for the first time since 2005. Furthermore, this new title would be bundled with a remastered version of one of the series’ most acclaimed titles of the last decade. Strap yourselves in because we’re accelerating into this review of Sonic X Shadow Generations at supersonic speed!

Shadow Generations

Shadow Generations begins with the titular hero investigating a mysterious anomaly aboard the Space Colony ARK before being sucked into a timeless “white void” by the same monster that crashed Sonic’s birthday party in 2011’s Sonic Generations, which this game’s plot runs parallel to. Shadow comes face to face with his long dead archnemesis, Black Doom, within that void and sets out to destroy the alien warlord once again. Along the way he’ll be reunited with other familiar faces, including his long lost best friend Maria. Watching Shadow interact with characters that could never come back outside of these specific circumstances is what makes Shadow Generation’s story fun, but it doesn’t get much time to breathe before it’s all over due to how short the main campaign is. Overall the story is pretty solid despite its limited scope.

Visually the game builds upon the foundations set in Sonic Generations and the results look great. The vibrant worlds and expressive characters are precisely what’s needed in a game about an anthropomorphic cartoon hedgehog fighting aliens. But if there’s one thing every Sonic game gets right without fail, no matter how good or bad the rest of the game is, it’s the soundtrack. Shadow Generations largely consists of rearrangements of previous songs in the series due to the time travel premise and it’s all fantastic stuff from start to finish. Some of my personal favorite songs were Space Colony ARK, Kingdom Valley, and What I’m Made Of among many others.

The core gameplay of Shadow Generations follows Sonic Generations’ formula very closely. Each level has two acts, a side-scrolling level akin to the series roots and a three dimensional level in line with what the series became over time. Shadow does everything Sonic can, but stands apart from him with an arsenal of unique abilities like stopping time using chaos control or stunning enemies from afar with chaos spear. Levels are designed to take advantage of these extra abilities in ways Sonic wouldn’t be able to traverse so making good use of them is crucial to getting a higher score.

Shadow’s moveset expands even further as the game progresses, gaining new powers from his connection to Black Doom. However, these new powers are very situational so it feels more like the gameplay becomes wider rather than deeper over time. This is an issue because it makes later levels harder due to the fact that the player is still figuring out how to use their new skills rather than testing what they already know to the limit, which would make for a much better finale. This criticism will probably be remedied somewhat on repeat playthroughs as the player becomes more familiar with each level, but I still felt it was worth mentioning regardless.

The game’s levels are connected by a hub world which offers an opportunity for exploration. Unlike the hub world in Sonic Generations, which was a two dimensional space, Shadow Generations provides a three dimensional environment which in my opinion is much more fun to traverse. You can talk with Shadow’s friends, collect concept art and music from treasure chests, tackle bonus missions connected to the main levels, or just goof around and experiment with Shadow’s abilities. When you put it all together, these side activities will add a few extra hours of playtime to the otherwise short campaign.

From a Catholic perspective there’s no shortage of talking points surrounding Shadow the Hedgehog, but I am most interested in the question of Shadow’s heroism. Shadow has played many different roles in the Sonic the Hedgehog series over the years from a revenge driven villain to an anti-hero suffering from amnesia to a dependable ally to Sonic and friends. Shadow Generations plays with this idea as well, having Shadow become more vengeful the closer he gets to his confrontation with Black Doom. With the support of Shadow’s friends like Maria, however, this vengefulness is largely kept in check. Personally I subscribe to the idea that deep down Shadow is fundamentally a hero in spite of his flaws, much like how in reality humans are fundamentally good despite our brokenness.

This principle of Shadow’s character is best demonstrated in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 during his final encounter with the villain Mephiles, who returns as boss fight in Shadow Generations. By the end of Shadow’s story in Sonic 06, Mephiles reveals to Shadow that in the future humanity will ultimately betray him and seal him away forever despite everything Shadow has done to save them. Even when faced with this unjust fate, Shadow rejects Mephiles’s temptations and vows to keep protecting the world till the bitter end. Directly comparing fictional characters to Jesus is an exercise I try not to do lightly, but if Shadow being tempted in a desert location by a Luciferian figure to abandon the path of righteousness in order to save his own life doesn’t strike you as at least a little Christ-like then I don’t know what will. Even if Shadow Generations doesn’t recreate this scenario beat for beat, the fact that it’s referenced here at all means the developers clearly understand how pivotal this moment is for Shadow’s story.

The bottom line is, Shadow Generations is a fun, fast-paced platformer with great music and a fair amount of replay value. It was also a great reminder why Shadow the Hedgehog is many players’ favorite Sonic character (he’s certainly fighting with Blaze the Cat and Dr. Eggman for the top spot on my list). If you’re familiar with the Sonic series I would definitely recommend playing Shadow Generations. Guess you could say the so-called “ultimate life form” managed to live up to his namesake this time.

Sonic Generations

Shadow Generations might be the main event this year for the Sonic series, but let’s not forget that it also comes bundled with a remastered version of 2011’s Sonic Generations. I remember playing this game a long time ago while I was visiting my cousins, but I’ll try to keep my family nostalgia in check while analyzing this re-release. So does it hold up? Has anything been changed? Make sure your shoes are still tied because we’re about to run a second lap in this review.

Starting off with my quickest point, my previous statement about Sonic music still stands because this soundtrack hasn’t aged a day. What has aged however, is the visuals. In comparison to Shadow Generations, Sonic Generations is starting to look a little crusty. Not saying it doesn’t have pleasant aesthetics, but for a game marketing itself as a “remaster” I would have expected them to put more work into polishing the  graphics.

The gameplay hasn’t been tampered with much either, for better and for worse. The 2D classic Sonic stages are still great, even if they don’t quite match the highs of the old Sega Genesis games they admirably emulate. The 3D modern Sonic stages on the other hand felt a lot more slippery to control, at least in comparison to Shadow Generations. Maybe I’m just going crazy, but the fact that modern Sonic stages will switch back to 2D side-scrolling mid-level tells me even the developers knew something was off about the way Sonic controls in the 3rd dimension. There’s also the addition of hidden chao to collect in each stage which adds a bit more replay value, but that’s about it in terms of new additions.

Then there’s the changes made to the game’s story and characters which is where this remaster starts to get really spicy. Sonic Generations originally had a pretty bare bones story whose only concern was to get the player back into the gameplay as fast as possible. To remedy this the remaster has rewritten and re-recorded most of the original script. Unfortunately this new script is arguably worse than the original for several reasons.

Firstly, none of the game’s cutscenes have been re-animated to accommodate the new dialogue so the pacing of each scene is all over the place. Lines that were extended are now crammed into very brief moments and lines that have been shortened now come with awkward pauses. Second, the new script is absolutely bursting with gratuitous references to past games that only the most diehard Sonic fans will be able to understand. This might seem like a weird complaint in a game that’s all about celebrating the history of the franchise by revisiting iconic levels from previous games, but when I have to stop playing and look up what a Time Stone is I think it’s fair to say they’ve gone too far.

Thirdly, the game imposes a few retcons and some censorship in scenes regarding Rouge, Knuckles, and Amy. Sonic’s resident femme fatale Rouge the Bat has had her outfit altered to cover up more of her chest and back than before. While I’m not inherently against making characters more modest, Rouge’s open back was clearly meant to accommodate the fact that she has wings and now it looks as if they’ve been detached from the rest of her body by her clothes. Then there’s Knuckles who in the original game comments about Sonic having gained weight when he meets classic Sonic for the first time. In the new script Knuckle’s reference to classic Sonic’s weight is completely removed, but the animation of Sonic looking down at his belly has not changed so the entire scene makes no sense.

Finally there’s Amy who has had her comedic schoolgirl crush on Sonic removed almost entirely from the game, going so far as to reanimate cutscenes to make her less affectionate towards him. Considering Amy’s love for Sonic has been her defining character trait for decades, this change comes off as incredibly ill-advised and makes Amy a far less distinctive character among the cast. These changes seem small at first, but over time they accumulate to the point ultimately where they ultimately makes this remaster an inferior experience to the original.

It seems we’ve finally reached the finish line for Sonic X Shadow Generations. I enjoyed the time I spent with it despite my criticisms and I imagine many readers would as well. Shadow Generations is easily the better half of the collection so I would recommend waiting for a sale if you already own the original Sonic Generations. This review wasn’t as quick and easy as I was expecting, but it feels good to kick off the running shoes and relax before the next adventure.

Scoring: 80%

Gameplay: 4/5

Visuals: 4/5

Sound: 5/5

Story: 3/5

Replayability: 4/5

Morality/Parental Warnings

Violence: Sonic X Shadow Generations has the player fight robots and aliens as they run through each level. The violence is very cartoony and slapstick with blood and gore being completely absent.

Magic/Occult: Amy’s bio mentions fortune cards as one of her primary tools and although these cards are never seen in-game, it’s safe to assume they’re probably based on tarot cards. Many characters among the cast have supernatural powers, though what’s magic and what’s not is debatable.

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