After years of his franchise largely remaining dormant, Sonic the Hedgehog seems to be in the midst of a full-blown renaissance. The surprise announcement ofSonic X Shadow Generationsduring Sony’s January 2024 State of Play event meant that fans were getting a third newSonicgame in as many years, a far cry from the 5-year gap betweenSonic ManiaandSonic Frontiers. But while 2022’sSonic Frontiersintroduced some new ideas to the 3DSonictemplate and 2023’sSonic Superstarsbrought players back to a game reminiscent of the character’s classic adventures, neither really set the world on fire, leading players to wonder whereSonic X Shadow Generationswould fit in the new crop of titles featuring the “Blue Blur”.
While it might not reach the heights of the greatest games in the franchise,Sonic X Shadow Generationsis a loving homage to all eras of Sonic’s past that, for the most part, ticks all the boxes that players would want from aSonicgame.Generationsstrikes an interesting dichotomy between its two competing halves, pulling in elements from acrosstheSonicfranchiseto deliver an experience that feels like a “greatest hits” cherry-picked fromSonic’s nearly 35-year history. Though it’s not without its occasional minor frustrations,Sonic X Shadow Generationsis perhaps the greatest entry in the modern trio ofSonicgames and a must-play for fans of the franchise.
Sonic X Shadow Generations' Twin Halves Take Characters on a Time-Traveling Adventure
Booting upSonic X Shadow Generationspresents players with a choice between the game’s two disparate halves,Sonic GenerationsandShadow Generations. Despite their place as separate games, though, the two titles do share a story concerning time travel that functions as both a plot device and a justification for why bothSonic and Shadow the Hedgehogare traipsing through a veritable “Hall of Fame” of stages from across theSonicfranchise. Players can choose either half of the package to start with and freely jump fromSonictoShadowGenerationswith just a few button presses. For what it’s worth, though, theSonic Generationshalf does a good job of setting up the larger plot elements that helpShadow’s story make a lot more sense.
Choosing theSonichalf ofGenerationsgreets players with a scene in which Sonic and his friends from across the franchise are celebrating the character’s birthday. Of course, the celebration is short-lived as a new villain called the “Time Eater” shows up and whisks Sonic and his friends away to a temporal anomaly. In this timeless void, Sonic has access to locations from across multipleSonicgames, with each Zone split into two Acts. However, unlike the traditionalSonicsetup, each Act adheres to a specific era ofSonic the Hedgehoggameplay. Act 1 stages are classically styled side-scrolling stages, while each Act 2 is a full-3D level akin to what players experienced in theSonic Adventuregames (including some iconic stages from both of those Dreamcast classics).
Connecting these stages is a stark-white hub world which Sonic restores life and color to by completing zones and rescuing his friends. The hub is set up like a traditional2DSonicstage, complete with loops and dash panels, and players can open up more of it by defeating a series of well-designed boss battles. To unlock the gates to each boss, players must first complete Challenge Gates for each Zone that put the player to task through specific objectives.
Between the different collectibles available in each Zone (three hiddenChaoin each Act as well as 5 Red Star Rings) and the ability to chase higher rankings in both Acts and Challenge Gates, there’s a lot to dig into beyond just belining it to the bosses and clearing the main story. Completing any stage with a high rank earns players points, which they can spend in the new Skill Shop to unlock helpful in-game abilities. Sonic has 5 different loadouts he can customize, rename, equip, and even specify for Act 1 or Act 2 stages, creating a lot of flexibility in how players approach the levels in theSonichalf ofGenerations.
TheShadowhalf ofGenerationsabides by practically the same basic framework, with just a few notable exceptions. There are fewer Zones in theShadowportion ofGenerations, but each (excluding the final Zone) is still split into two Acts. However, these Acts flip the design of stages in theSonichalf to have Act 1 be morereminiscent ofSonic Adventureand Act 2 take on a more side-scrolling perspective.
Further,Shadow’s hub area takes a page fromSonic Frontiersand delivers an open world playground for players to explore. It’s still necessary to complete Challenge Gates and earn Boss Keys to open up more of the world for exploration, but this is done through acquiring new abilities that recontextualize how Shadow traverses the main hub area. It’s surprising to see aSonicgame incorporateMetroidvania elementslike ability-gating, but it works to make the simple act of getting from one stage to another more exciting than it would be otherwise and also opens up access to hidden collectibles and new challenges.
Each Zone in both halves ofSonic X ShadowGenerationsis an iconic locale from across theSonic the Hedgehogfranchise, and they’re beautifully recreated here using 3D visuals that dynamically switch between a 2D and 3D plane of perspective. These revisits to past locations aren’t simple rehashes of their original layout either, with even the classic Green Hill andChemical Plant Zones fromSonic 2delivering all-new thrills to the most seasonedSonicfan.
And it wouldn’t be aSonicgamewithout a tremendous sense of speed, whichSonic X Shadow Generationsdutifully delivers in both halves of the experience. That said, there were times in the more classically-styled side-scrolling stages where the sense of speed was so overwhelming that it was common for the camera to lose sight of Sonic and result in an unfair death or off-screen hit and loss of rings. Ultimately, though, the sense of speed and velocity in theShadowstages serves as a reminder that few studios understand how to create seamless lightning-fast arcade-style thrills in the way that Sega does.
Controls and Physics Are an Unfortunate Speed Bump on Sonic X Shadow Generations' Thrill Ride
Both halves ofSonic X Shadow Generationsare chock-full ofpeakSonicgameplay, but that also means they’re unfortunately subject to the same minor frustrations that have plagued the series for years. For a franchise built on speed and momentum versus precision platforming, it’s a shame to report thatSonic X Shadow Generationshas some floaty physics and minor control issues that hinder an otherwise excellent experience. The biggest offender in this regard is the somewhat wonky target detection, which results in a non-trivial number of unfair deaths when trying to jump from one lock-on to the next at blisteringly fast speeds.
The same gripe applies to boss battles as well. BothSonic and Shadow’s halves ofGenerationsfeature some excellent boss fights that rank as perhaps the best in the series, but the wonky hit detection and floaty physics often result in these encounters boiling down to trial and error. In these instances, what should feel like a triumphant victory over a fun and challenging boss battle instead feels like a relief that you’ll never need to attempt it again. Factor in the need to complete some truly difficult Challenge Gates to even attempt fighting the bosses, and it’s obvious that some more fine-tuning on how both Sonic and Shadow move and control would have gone a long way toward smoothing out some of the few weak points in an otherwise top-notchSonicgame.
Sonic X Shadow Generations Offers Plenty of Bang for the Buck
Minor mechanical gripes aside,Sonic X Shadow Generationsoffers one of the greatest value propositions of any majorAAA release in 2024. With two full games in one single package, there are hundreds of collectibles to seek out and obtain, optional Challenge Gates to complete outside what’s needed to obtain the necessary Boss Keys, S-rankings to chase in each stage and Challenge Gate, and additional secrets and activities to keep players busy in both games' hub worlds long after rolling credits on the main story. Further, each stage is so well-designed and enjoyable that they merit playing and replaying well beyond what’s necessary to beat each half of the game.
After completingboth halves ofSonic X Shadow Generations, my total playtime clocked in at 19 hours according to the PlayStation 5’s “Hours Played” tracker, and that’s with a fair amount of time spent trying to chase down collectibles and S Ranks on some of my favorite stages. TheShadowhalf ofGenerationsis somewhat shorter than theSonichalf and took roughly 8 hours to complete, with theSonichalf taking up a bit more time thanks to featuring more stages and more bosses to challenge, including some excellent surprise cameo bosses necessary to collect all the Chaos Emeralds.
Sega could have easily releasedeach half ofSonic X Shadow Generationsas its own standalone title, but that both experiences are contained within a single product makes it a no-brainer forSonicfans. An initial playthrough will take anyone 15-20 hours, and that’s without factoring in the potential for dozens of additional hours necessary to obtain all collectibles and reach the highest rank on each stage, Challenge Gate, and boss battle.
Last year’sSonic Superstarshad the unfortunate luck ofreleasing the same week asSuper Mario Wonder, the franchise’s latest entry quickly becoming overshadowed by its oldest competitor.Sonic X Shadow Generationshas a similarly unfavorable position of releasing in the wake of Team Asobi’sAstro Bot, begging the question of how the year’s two biggest platformers stack up against one another. Even in a post-Astro Botworld,Sonic X Shadow Generationsserves as an epic reminder of how untouchable both Sonic and Sega can be when they’re firing on all cylinders, and its treasure trove of content and top-notch presentation make it an easy recommendation, regardless of it not being a blemish-free experience.
