Preview: Sonic x Shadow Generations Set to Be a Great Encore Performance to the Blue Blur's Celebration

Let's just get it out of the way: Sonic Generations is the best game in the series, and if you disagree, you're a coward (or just have a different opinion than us, either works). The 2011 entry into the series was a celebration of the blue blur's best and worst adventures across nine recreations of the most iconic stages from the series. Of course, you had classics like Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and City Escape, but the game really shined in its adaptations of some of the weaker entries, like the stages based on Sonic Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Unleashed — the latter being the best stage in the game.

We went hands on with SEGA's recently announced Sonic X Shadow Generations, which — despite the title making it sound like a game about our secret fanfiction — is a remaster of the original game with a wholly original campaign attached to it featuring your favourite star of countless 2006 Papa Roach AMVs on YouTube: Shadow the Hedgehog.

The Gamescom demo for Sonic X Shadow Generations featured everything we saw at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, with a few new stages added to the mix for Gamescom. For housekeeping, we were able to check out Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Act 1 and 2 stages (classic Sonic and modern Sonic, respectively).

It feels like how we remember the game playing back on the PS3 (sans framerate dips). The only changes we did notice were the inclusion of the Drop Dash from Sonic Mania, and that the default control scheme has been changed to be in line with Sonic Frontiers, so Boost is now on R2 and Homing Attack is Square mid-jump. Given the game has customisable controls, though, we’re sure the original playstyle will be an option too.

But really, the main event of Sonic X Shadow Generations is the new Shadow the Hedgehog-focused campaign, which seems to be a separate mode accessed from the main menu (ala Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury) based on the demo. We weren’t shown the hub area, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be woven into the pre-existing game.

As Shadow, we were able to play through two stages: Sonic Adventure 2’s Space Colony Ark and Sonic 06’s Kingdom Valley, and two boss fights: Sonic Adventure 2’s Biolizard and Sonic Heroes’ Metal Overlord.

The first thing that really stands out with Shadow’s segments is that he doesn’t feel like a clone of Sonic. Obviously, both are pretty similar in terms of movement (he does that goofy skating animation, as you would expect), but Shadow has access to a number of abilities that the fake hedgehog doesn’t. His main ability is — unsurprisingly — Chaos Control, which allows him to freeze the world and take advantage. This is obviously useful in combat and can save you from eating it when taking on a large group of enemies, but where it really shines is its utility during platforming. Space Colony Ark, for example, has sections where missiles are being fired through the air, and should Shadow smash that Chaos button at the right time, they’ll create a handy platform for you to run across to reach higher ground.

During the Space Colony level, Shadow is paid a visit from Black Doom from 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog, who promptly turns the stage into a bizarre trip for Shadow, taking him out of the space colony into a stage that resembles Radical Highway. We’re not sure if this is something that’s going to happen in every level, given that he manages to get through Kingdom Valley without issue, but given Shadow has another one of his new abilities in that level, we’d have to assume Space Colony is fairly early into the adventure.

Kingdom Valley is undoubtedly the highlight of the whole demo. It’s a well-designed stage with lots of variety and alternate pathways, plus it has phenomenal music to go alongside it (something you have to give Sonic 06 is its soundtrack). And it also introduced us to Shadow’s new Doom abilities, wherein he can harness the power of Black Doom for various uses. The Doom Spears are useful for quickly dispatching groups of enemies, while the Doom Blast is a combo move that throws the enemies away into the void, or in specific situations can be used to open up new paths through the level.

Sonic Generations boss fights were never the highlight, and truth be told, it doesn’t seem like that trend will be stopped in the new Shadow campaign either. Biolizard is a pretty simple fight in which you have to dodge attacks until you can homing attack onto its back a few times. There’s no real challenge, and it feels super quick to beat. The new boss for this demo, Metal Overlord, makes use of another Doom Power: Doom Surf, which allows Shadow to surf, shockingly. During this fight, you’ll surf around dodging projectiles and knocking into debris to throw Metal Sonic’s powered-up form onto the backfoot. It has the opposite issue from Biolizard where — due to the semi on-rails fight — it kind of drags as it goes on. However, at the very least, it does play the Crush 40 banger What I’m Made Of the whole time, so the long fight is a bit more manageable.

Overall, Sonic x Shadow Generations seems to be a pretty faithful update to a series highlight, with some control, fidelity, and performance changes to make things feel a bit crisper than the 2011 original. And the limited time we’ve had with the Shadow campaign does show promise to be an enjoyable romp with one of the series’ most popular (and unintentionally hilarious) characters. Considering Sega could’ve just re-released the original title and we’d be happy, a whole extra campaign is a bonus on its own.

Are you looking forward to the remastered and expanded Sonic Generations on PS5, PS4? Let us know in the comments below.