Remastered games are everywhere these days, but some remasters are better than others. Sonic X Shadow GenerationsSega’s remake of 2011’s Sonic Generations was originally intended as a broad celebration of the swift hedgehog’s 20th birthday. Sonic is now 33 years old; in video game terms, the game itself is a posthumous title.
However, this is not a derogatory term. oldBut it’s still one of the best modern Sonic titles outside of the impeccable Sonic Mania. It’s still brilliant – it still has a lot of charm in its mashup of levels from the first two decades of Sonic Adventure, split into two distinct play styles.
But if you want to feel real Age, look at this: Shadow the Hedgehog is now as old as Sonic was when Generations was first released. To me, who is slightly older than Sonic, Shadow is still one of the “new” characters, on a different level than the true “classic” characters. But to an entire generation of kids and He is an adult now. always Just like Sonic, he’d been there – so it seemed only right that this new album pay homage to him, too.
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Sonic X Shadow Generations is structured in isolation; during a summer preview of the game, I was taken directly to the title menu, which had two options: Sonic Generations (essentially the old game, but with some tweaks and additions) and Shadow Generations (all-new content starring Shadow). These stories are meant to be intertwined — just as Sonic’s Generations narrative has seen the “classic” and “modern” versions of the character stumble through the highlights of their own histories, so too does Shadow’s story, starting with his debut in Sonic Adventure 2.
Honestly, as someone who was 12 when SA2 was first released – Very goodThere’s only one linear level – this one recreates the first act of Space Colony Ark from that game. It’s a memorable stage in which Shadow hurtles from platform to platform through space, crashing into rails and weaving between meteors and stars. It’s cool, with the ease of a Dreamcast-era Sonic game. The same can be said of the demo’s boss, which recreates SA2’s penultimate battle against the evil genetically modified reptile Biolizard. The combat has been beefed up, but it’s also familiar enough that the basic rhythm of the battle matches my old, broken memories of the fight.
I feel like over time, these remixes of tunes have become classics, and I keep slapping the beat as I play them. Somehow, with each new version I come across, I find myself actually getting a little nostalgic for the relatively bland war robot badnik designs from SA2. I’m transported back to the 2000s, and I think: This is peakWe’re back. That’s what kids say nowadays, right? I guess in those days I would have said it was “sweet.” Yeah – it was indeed sweet.
The thing is, while I still feel like Generations is probably one of the “best” games in the modern Sonic experience, Sonic Team has really gotten better at making Sonic games in the decade since that game was first released. You can feel it in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which still has some of the rough edges of 3D Sonic but is still pretty smooth and exciting. Playing this game, I began to long for remakes of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 – something I previously thought was just the wish of a lunatic.
In addition to the limited demo content, the new version will also include complete remasters of the original Sonic Generations content – although the game’s only misstep would have been limiting it to levels from the console versions of Sonic Generations, as the 3DS version included a series of exclusive levels that could have been gorgeously remastered in this “definitive” edition – but Sega has sadly decided not to do so.
That fact makes Shadow’s story the game’s main selling point, beyond nostalgia – and honestly, despite my disappointment, I’m here for it. Shadow’s story will surely be told throughout all of his major outings – including Shadow’s own slightly ill-advised 2005 game, in which the anti-hero eventually picked up a gun and killed a cop. I’m curious to see how Sonic Team remakes this game – but I was impressed enough by just one stage that I’d go there on day one regardless.
Sonic X Shadow Generations will be released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on October 25.
