Note: This review mainly covers the title “Shadow Generations”. If you want to see a detailed review of “Sonic Generations”, please click here. 

While I still have my fair share of criticisms toward the Sonic IP, I’d be flat-out lying if I said that his reputations isn’t the best it’s been since the Sega Genesis era. Ever since Sonic had his comeback (of sorts) with Sonic Frontiers and his live-action movies, I had a feeling that Shadow would get his day as well. In most cases, he’s right there in popularity with the Blue Blur himself, sometimes even surpassing him. Despite the popularity, Sega has avoided giving Shadow a starring role for quite some time—19 years to be exact.

I just didn’t expect Shadow’s return into the spotlight to be in a package like this! Sonic x Shadow Generations is a two-in-one package, containing the 2011 Sonic Generations, as well as a new title, Shadow Generations. While Sonic Frontiers was in ways “fixing the mistakes of Sonic”, Shadow Generations is an attempt to do the same thing, mainly targeting the infamous 2005 title, Shadow the Hedghog.

Shadow Generations is what many would call a “gaiden game”; taking place during the same time as Sonic Generations. Shadow Generations explains what and where Shadow was during the events of Sonic’s birthday party. Shadow is investigating a distress signal that appeared on the Space Colony Arc. Due to a time anomaly, Shadow ends up in a white void, similar to the one the two Sonics are in during the plot of Generations. Allies and enemies from Shadow’s past reappear, namely Maria, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, and leader of the Black Arms, Black Doom. Black Doom is the DNA contributor to the Project Shadow experiment, so in a way, Black Doom is Shadow’s “father”. In the 2005 title, his plan was to get Shadow to ally with him through manipulation to take over Earth. This time, Black Doom empowers Shadow with various abilities, but directly tells Shadow this because he plans to bring Shadow to complete subjugation.

Shadow Generations uses Sonic Generations as its base, but also takes parts of Frontiers too. Like Sonic Generations (and most sonic games), Shadow’s levels have the two-act structure. This time, Sega pulls an inverse, and has you go through the 3D sections for Act 1, and 2D segments for Act 2. While the choices for the stages in a thematic sense are rather strange (in fact, I wouldn’t have chosen any of the levels except for the last one), the level design of them are some of the best I’ve encountered in the series. Was a level based on Sonic Frontiers necessary? Shadow had absolutely nothing to do with the events of the game and it being a title after Generations in the first place. Despite me not fully embracing the selection of level, It is almost like Sega took the best parts of the 2D Genesis games and the Adventure titles, and used them as the inspiration for the level design and structure. They have the multiple branching pathways designed like the 2D titles, and the solid structure of the 3D Adventure titles that encourage you to play with the physics and “go out of bounds”. Controlling Shadow does take some time getting used to, especially after playing Frontiers, but once you do, he feels so smooth and reactive in his levels.

On an even better note, S ranks are finally challenging to get again! While I achieved more B-ranks than I’d like to admit, S ranks aren’t just simply “beat the level without dying” like many of the previous titles were. I found myself replaying levels quite often after the first time, especially with the fact that you can choose any song from the selection you unlock. Many of the tracks are from Shadow’s appearances from Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog game, but there are some tracks from titles such as Sonic Heroes. I don’t think I have to mention at this point that the music in Shadow Generations is great. It’s the one consistent thing across the Sonic franchise that everyone can agree on. Even so, the remixes to tracks that play on stages like Final Rush, Radical Highway, and Kingdom Valley are so well done, that I even have difficulty determining if I enjoy them more than the original. They take on more techno inspirations, with some heavier emphasis on the bass and guitars in some of the remixes. In other cases, they remaster the instrumentals.

Outside of the acts, Shadow gets to navigate a hub world that takes inspiration from Frontiers. It is effectively a bite-sized version on any one of those five Islands. It has the similar amusement park, obstacle course-like structure, with paths looping back to each other. It has a bunch of collectibles scattered everywhere containing music tracks, concept art, and various other stuff. Shadow in the overworld feels more similar to Sonic in Sonic Frontiers. Because of the more condensed hub area and increasing Shadow’s general movement speed in comparison, a player doesn’t feel like they have to boost everywhere to get places. But that still didn’t stop me—gotta go fast, after all!

Shadow has new abilities at his disposal, known within the game as Doom Powers. While it is a mainly an excuse to have a “thematically appropriate” version of the Wisp abilities for Shadow Generations, how they incorporate it into Shadow’s Black Arms DNA is the correct choice in the end. Visually, I think the abilities look pretty silly on Shadow with the contrast between Shadow’s cartoonish aesthetics and the gangly, wormy appendages sprouting out of Shadow’s body. However, they are rather cool to see in action. Shadow even gains an ability toward the end that is similar in gameplay function as the playable appearances of Super Sonic in normal stages in other titles, with it also taking 50 rings to activate. Overall, they are all fun to use in their context-sensitive situations.

When it comes to boss battles in the Sonic series, I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of most of them. Even most of the bosses on the Sonic Generations portion I find to be lackluster. I’m not sure what happened with Shadow Generations, but I enjoy all of them. For me, it’s the near-perfect mix of spectacle while incorporating into what makes Sonic games so much fun in the first place: the obstacle course-like nature with “branching paths” to complete them faster. I always thought Sonic’s best boss battles are when they are treated more like a race to an objective, instead of a traditional back and forth. I’m not saying all of them are literal races. Half of them take place in an arena, but more about the way they are structured. They may not have the pure bombastic adrenaline rush that Frontier’s boss battles are, but they are from a gameplay perspective, much more mechanically sound. Most of you may know who the bosses are from promotional material, but I went in without knowing who was in, and the choices and dialogue between them and Shadow is surprisingly entertaining.

I chose the Switch version as I was curious to see how this ever-so-struggling console could handle it. While it can’t run either Sonic or Shadow Generations at 60FPS, it does run at a consistent 30FPS, and the visuals are perfectly acceptable. No crazy pop in of objects or poor draw distance of the environment. Although, to me, 30FPS just doesn’t feel “right” for a Sonic title. Hopefully the Switch successor can brute force an FPS increase. Other than that, the game itself runs fine. No crashes or major bugs encountered during my hours of play time.

While I did say that this review is mostly about Shadow Generations, Sonic Generations did have some minor changes to it, namely adding collectible Chao to the levels—and some rather strange changes to dialogue and cutscenes. They did alter the one scene where Sonic was comedically holding Amy away, to her holding out cupcakes. One sentence referencing Sonic’s weight by Knuckles was changed to a more general greeting. Not all the changes to dialogue are strange, as there were changes made to make certain plots more consistent with the events of future titles, or solidifying characterization. Other than that, everything else remains the same from the original 2011 release, and that includes its morality concerns. Check out the Sonic Generations review for further details.

The Shadow Generations side of the game doesn’t have much concerning morality either as it shares much of its DNA with Sonic Generations and older titles in the first place, but since it is about Shadow’s past, the plot does briefly touch upon some of the darker aspects of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog’s plot, such as Maria’s unfortunate death by the hands of GUN agents, and Gerald Robotnik’s attempted plans of genocide. While Rouge the Bat is still… Rouge, compared to her first appearance and mannerisms (which were really pushing the boundaries of an Everyone-rated game) is heavily toned down. They even touched up her model in her prominent Sonic Generations scenes as she no longer displays cleavage, or even an exposed back, in them. As she is one of Shadow’s closest friends, she still often shows up in the cutscenes of Shadow Generations and retains most of her suggestive nature.

Going in blind, and with very few expectations, I greatly enjoyed my time with Shadow Generations, and it was great to see Shadow display emotions outside of “dark and brooding” all the time. While Sonic Frontiers had me cautiously optimistic about the future of the series, their work with Shadow Generations convinces me that the people currently in charge of Sonic Team know what they are doing. I have faith in the future of the series if they are the ones handling it. Shadow Generations is simply put, an engaging ride for anyone who enjoyed any previous 3D Sonic entry whether your last one played was Frontiers or Adventure 2. It’s not a perfect game, no game is obviously as it does have some minor flaws scattered throughout, but whether a 3-and-a-half hour, to up to 8-hour adventure is worth $50—that’s up to you and your financial situation in the end. Keep in mind it is two games after all, and the Sonic Generations half of the package is still regarded by many to be the best 3D Sonic either before or after the Sonic Adventure series/Sonic Frontiers. There is also a good reason that new Sonic entries tend to be released around the holidays—take advantage of those holiday sales!