As a life-long fan of Sonic The Hedgehog, I was immensely hyped to see the announcement for Sonic X Shadow Generations, and after playing it for myself I’m not even slightly disappointed.
Sonic Adventure 2 is my favourite Sonic game of all time, and I played it repeatedly as a kid on my Nintendo GameCube. It was actually my first venture into the blue blur’s world and I was completely enamoured by the characters and gameplay, with Shadow The Hedgehog remaining one of my favourite video game characters ever.
Check out the latest trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations below
As I grew older I obviously played more and more titles, past and present, which is probably why when Sonic Generations released I was overjoyed to see some of my favourite stages remade and revitalised.
Sonic X Shadow Generations pushes that idea even further, not only touching up the visuals and gameplay as any good remaster should, but ensuring there’s plenty of new content to enjoy as well.
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The Sonic Generations portion of the game has been left largely unchanged, but a new collectable has been added, Chaos. The loveable little critters are scattered throughout the levels, and while it was unclear what their purpose will be in the wider game, it’s great to see them return in a mainline game.
However the real bread and butter is obviously Shadow Generations. This is essentially a brand-new game housed within an existing one, and of course stars Shadow in the lead role.
The demo I played covered two levels, the first being a high-speed jaunt across Space Colony Ark from Sonic Adventure 2, which eventually morphed into Radical Highway from the same title. The second level I played was a boss fight against the Biolizard, the Last Story boss also from Sonic Adventure 2.
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Now these aren’t just Modern Sonic stages reskinned to look like Shadow ones, they’re built from the ground-up and play differently to Sonic’s part of the game.
Shadow uses Chaos Control instead of the Homing Dash to destroy enemies, can freeze time for easier combat and platforming, and even lob chaos spears for ranged attacks. It’s said after a stage Shadow will have his own hub world to explore similar to the White Space from the main game.
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Sonic X Shadow Generations was a lot of fun, but more importantly it seems to be an example of what a remaster or re-release should be, more of what fans loved about the original release.
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Sometimes a touch-up to the graphics just isn’t enough to justify paying for a full-price game you already own, but if you add an entirely new, unique story mode as well as a new set of collectables? Now we’re talking.
Sonic X Shadow Generations will release for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC and Nintendo Switch on 25 October, and it could very quickly become my favourite game in the series if it’s as good as what I’ve played so far.