Game News One of the best Sonic games is about to get even tastier: I played Shadow’s brand new campaign and it might be a nice surprise!
Even if he’s a little worse than the mascot he’s long been an opponent of, a famous fireman in blue overalls and a red cap, Sonic keeps coming back, at a hundred miles an hour, to leave his mark on the world of video games. To mark the Year of the Shadow, we were able to try out the new campaign dedicated to the toughest black and red hedgehog of all time! Does Shadow deserve his place in this Sonic x Shadow Generations? We’ll tell you in this article!
Less than a year after the release of a new game sound, Sonic Superstars, Tested in our columns and rated 14/20the famous SEGA franchise is making a comeback. We understand that Sonic needs to train and swallow the miles, and so on Superstars he will not be alone! If you haven’t been paying attention: 2024 is the year of the shadowTo celebrate, we already knew that Sonic’s rival would have the right to appear in the next film adaptation, but what we didn’t know was that SEGA wanted to give him his own adventure in its next remaster. Sound generations ! In the aisles of the Summer Game Fest and especially at the SEGA booth, where we also discovered the next game from the makers of persona, Metaphor ReFantazio, We spent about thirty minutes exploring this port and Shadow’s unique adventure.
Shadow goes one step further: more adventure, more nostalgia for this Sonic game
Can we connect more than the presentation of a new game? sound in a living room where things are moving fast at a hundred miles an hour? Difficult, isn’t it? Still, we were in the bath when we got our hands on this Sonic x Shadow Generations. The first thing we can say about this game is that this year dedicated to Shadow, SEGA does not have the least appreciated episode of the series in its sights. More than twelve years after its publication, in May 2012, Sound generations remains one of the best-selling titles in the saga and was warmly received by the community, who considered it a great tribute to the licenseThe reason for this enthusiastic response was the way the game featured two Sonic variants that could be traversed simultaneously. Levels in 2D and others in 3D : in a way, the best of both licensing worlds.
However, something was wrong here Sound generationsand that concerned the many control problems and frame rate issues. During this test, which was divided into two parts, we were able to try out two levels – all of which appear in the game correspond to a selection of the most iconic levels of the franchise – from Sound generations. One in 2D and the other in 3D, and we must say that we had no problems with the frame rate. On the other hand, when it comes to gameplay approaches to controls, this is still a current problem. Apart from this small hiccup, we have to say that you can enjoy the different levels with as much nostalgia as ever and that the power of current PCs and machines can do justice to it without any problems. However, if we would like to make a detour through the famous Green Hill Zone, We were especially looking forward to experiencing part of Shadow’s adventure.
A campaign worthy of Shadow, but still the same frustrations associated with the Sonic license
For this campaign written in the shadow skin, the developers of Team Sonic followed the same idea, namely to continue as with their blue rival: a selection of the best levels (from a community perspective) to better understand Shadow’s story, while the threat of Black Doom looms over the entire adventure. Through his presence, the different levels are distorted, which allows bringing a unique side of the trials of this portage. The icing on the cake, to do justice to the current character of the franchise, the developers even thought about including a new central world inspired by the open-world gameplay of the episode Limits. Its exploration also depends on Shadow’s progress and the number of new powers he has acquired. In general, these All-new Doom abilities allow you to get rid of numerous enemies and progress through the platforming stages. Now that you have a good overview, we can tell you what we think of two levels dedicated to the Shadow that we were able to try out in situ!
First of all, we have to highlight the work of the developers because we really feel that The staging and gameplay do justice to the character of ShadowOverall, we think the gameplay is somewhat similar to Sonic, although with some significant differences. Shadow is fast and, above all, a bit more lively than his rival. This means that we don’t get the feeling of being at breakneck speed, although it is possible to achieve incredible bursts of speed. This makes traversing the levels more choppy than in the SEGA mascot, with a division that often fluctuates between crazy rushes and pseudo-fights. In terms of powers, we were able to observe how Shadow can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to slow down time at certain moments. In fact, it allowed us to build an alternative route or avoid a trap at the last minute. With these modulations we can hope for a rather fast-paced adventure with different phases that require attentionespecially those that require you to perform QTE (Quick Time Event, repeatedly pressing certain keys).
As far as the production is concerned, there are positive things to note from this first encounter Because if we generally have little time to get excited while we are deliberately rushing through the levels, there are passages in the form of cutscenes in the game that make you dizzy and have little impact. That’s what we can say about the first gear. The second part was to defeat a boss, and given the speed, the sensitivity of Shadow’s movements and the maneuverability, this was neither the most pleasant nor the most entertaining partThe problem is that this little issue was marred by a lack of instructions, a stubborn and poorly placed camera, as well as inaccuracies and small, slightly frustrating passages. Ultimately, such sections in Sonic games are not necessarily the most anticipated and memorable: We therefore prefer to stick with the first part of our review and hope that the final version will generally correspond to this part when it is released on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on October 25, 2024.