Sonic X Shadow Generations Review: A Whole New World

Sonic X Shadow Generations Review

Sonic games can be incredibly cheesy. To be clear, this is absolutely a compliment. There's something about these characters that lends itself perfectly to cheesy lines and ridiculous plots. The shadow represents the peak of this phenomenon. As dumb as Sonic may be, he has nothing on Shadow. Therefore, the new Sonic X Shadow Generations content is cheesy at its best. Plus, the actual gameplay is pretty good!

Like the original release, Shadow Generations is a hodgepodge of excellent stages from previous games. Everything is built within a slowly expanding world that you eventually conquer. Moving around the white space is a challenge in itself, albeit a minor one. The regular stages are also pretty simple. It's the challenge stages and bosses that really tripped me up. Although not as much as I expected. Sonic Generations might actually be harder.

Almost too powerful

Maybe it's all your cool skills, maybe I've improved since 2010. But isn't Shadow Generations as hard as the original game? I encountered many difficult points throughout the game. But then I threw them in with a little patience. If you're aiming for S rank, well, that's a different story. Then you will definitely have a lot of work ahead of you.

Shadow is different from Sonic because of all his new abilities. Chaos Control (what a name!) lets you stop time for a moment, while Doom Spears gives you some ranged power. Other abilities allow you to transform or even fly, which is the rule. Your powers feel incredibly cool, although the stages are still on some tight lanes. You don't exactly feel more powerful, you just have more ways to get through each level. Which is still great! It just feels a bit restricted by the set design.

More like Edgehog (free)

I won't go into the finer details of the story, but I'm fascinated by the cheesy appeal of this game. Shadow is both edgy and painfully sincere, but somehow it worked on me. I found myself moved by this ridiculous narrative even as my eyes rolled back in my head. All Sonic has this mysterious power. On the other hand, the actual plot is a bit poor. While the vibes are downright immaculate, it's still a Generations title. We're here for the greatest hits tour more than the finer points of the story. Which is fine! Fine plot aside, this is a great 3D sound game.

You see, the Sonic games (at least for me) occupy their own strange critical space. It's pretty hard for me to judge a Sonic game unless I compare it to other titles in the franchise. It doesn't seem like just the opposite. By that narrow metric, Shadow Generations is a great game. The mechanics and level design are rock solid, although most of them are quite familiar. Although if you've played the original version, the entire Sonic section is largely unchanged.

He's still the same Sonic

This is pretty much what I expected, to be honest. Although the visuals have been cleaned up and a couple of mechanical tweaks have been made, it's pretty much the same game. If you missed it in 2010, now is the perfect time to catch up. Sonic Generations is a fantastic time capsule full of cool stages. Once again, the story is pretty basic, but that's okay! We are here for action, and there is a lot of it.

But what are the controls like? I face this in more or less every 3D Sonic game. How slippery and fast they should be, you know? In this case, I think the developers have struck a relatively clean balance. Yes, you can still bumper into the abyss, but this is not as common anymore. I was able to time my inputs quite well and most of the dense sequences went smoothly. I'm not skilled enough to master those S-rank routes, but I never felt like that was the game's fault. On the other hand, the Sonic section still controls (more or less) like a Sonic game from 2010. Not bad! But the Shadow section feels much better.

Fast but not frustrating

Shadow Generations feels like a sequel. This is a pretty cool trick for an add-on included with a remaster. The controls are better, the graphics are sharp, and the level design is excellent. While the Sonic section looks amazing, it still feels like the original release. Which is usually fine for a remaster. But it pales a bit in comparison to the new content. On the other hand, both halves have this amazing cheesy energy that I love. Sonic (and Shadow) are synonymous with edgy silliness to me, and this game really delivers in that regard. Whether you've played the original or not, Sonic X Shadow Generations is a delicious double dose of high-speed fun.

***The publisher provided a PS5 code***