“Spin dash through a greatest-hits collection of 3D and 2D versions of iconic stages from past Sonic games, now with updated visuals and reworked cinematics and a new standalone campaign featuring Shadow“

If you read my previous review of Sonic Frontiers, you’ll know I didn’t particularly like the game, but I enjoyed the open-zone approach and just running around. And if you read my Sonic Colors Ultimate review, you’d see that on the replay I liked some things, and others were very meh culminating in a mixed bag. I didn’t see Sonic Heroes or Riders returning any time soon and wished Sonic Generations would be ported to modern consoles so I could finally try it and have what’s considered an all-around good Sonic game. In October 2024, my prayers had been answered…and more.

Sonix X Shadow Generations contains the original Generations plus a brand new side story focusing on Shadow the Hedgehog. Both packages run at 4K 60fps and feel fantastic. Classic and Modern Sonic play as they did the original release, while Shadow plays more reminiscent of Sonic Frontiers, which I definitely preferred.

The story is simple – some time-traveling shenanigans happen, and you need to play through levels of games throughout Sonic’s history in both his classic and modern form in order to defeat the “Time Eater” (newsflash: absolutely terrible boss fight). These go from Sonic the Hedgehog up to Sonic Colors. Funnily enough, I remember getting super pissed in the first hour of the game. The mechanics were not exactly like Frontiers which I had honed to a T, I think I died once or twice due to some jank, and overall was not having a good day at work. It was 100% because of work because I jumped back in 2 days later and was like “Man this game is fun idk what was going on the other day”.

I won’t deny that there is a little jank in terms of stopping or landing mechanics in a few levels, and I didn’t like Sonic Mania so I was expecting to not like Classic Sonic. That ended up not being true at all, I saw that gameplay as a nice refresher to Modern Sonic, plus Classic levels had remixed music to the Modern levels which were pretty nice. However, those Modern Sonic levels are chef’s kiss. I almost came to tears when I got to Seaside Hill, considering I grew up with Sonic Heroes it felt like a full-circle moment. The most disappointing aspect though is Planet Wisp in both versions, absolutely terrible level and is not a good representation of Colors.

Now comes Shadow Generations, and WOW. There’s a more legit story between Shadow and Black Doom, plus Maria and Gerald Robotnik. That gameplay feels exactly like what I expected and it’s incredible. The level design is sweet and the music is always top-tier. There are new abilities Shadow can unlock such as Doom Wing and Doom Surf, but I didn’t find any to be super engaging. The open hub world is also like the one from Bowser’s Fury in Super Mario 3D World on Switch where you can run around and find collectibles. There is one piece of DLC for Shadow Generations at this time: The Tokyo Level based on the Sonic 3 movie. It’s unfortunately a bit underwhelming.

I massively enjoyed Sonic x Shadow Generations and similar to Resident Evil 4, I can easily see a ton of replay value. Albeit skipping Planet Wisp and not doing all the challenges again. Highly recommend!