Sonic X Shadow Generations is a Action-Platform game was released in 2024 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch 1 and PC, then it was later released in 2025 for Switch 2.
It was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA, and it is the second Sonic game to feature Shadow as the protagonist following the 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog.
It's been 11 or 12 years since I've reviewed Sonic Generations on both 3DS and PS3 which I described it as really good Sonic title that the Sonic Team just finally got the game right after they had learned the mistakes from the past two titles like Sonic 06 and Sonic Unleashed are utterly disastrous that damages the flagship brand...so I am glad that the Sonic Generations is the kind of platforming game that we adored it for its unique platforming design with the mix-style of 2D and 3D perspective gameplay, fast-paced stages based on previous Sonic titles that we all know and love, and of course tons of replayability thanks to various of collectables and challenge stages is what makes the game so great to play.
After enjoying the original game from long time ago, I've just discovered the most interesting announcement by SEGA had confirmed the title on Sony's State of Play 2024 which is Sonic X Generations, a platforming game bundled with two different games such as Sonic Generations act as a remastered title of 2011's original game and of course Shadow Generations as a 2024's original game serving as a paraquel.
It is really cool to see the game packs with twos which is the reason why I wanted to play this on my PS5 to revisit the 2011's original game, as well as looking forward to play 2024's original game.
Is this game worth a play after long years later? let's find out on this review to discuss the gameplay, visuals, sounds, performance, and content to see how it goes.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The story splits in two events depending on which any of these two games you're playing on, as Sonic Generations begins with the Sonic the Hedgehog celebrating his birthday party with his friends, until the Time Eater suddenly appears out of nowhere came to destroy the party and suck everyone into the time portal. Sonic awakens in the white space and meets his Classic counterpart agrees to help him on his journey to save his timeline by preventing the Time Eater from changes the past times.
Where as in Shadow Generations runs parallel to 2011's original game, as it focuses on Shadow the Hedgehog, an ultimate life form black hedgehog haunted by the painful memories of his past, discovers the return of his nemesis named Black Doom seeks to conquer the world.
As Shadow went on his mission, he then finds the fake chaos emerald but he is caught in a time anomaly created by Time Eater and pulled into the realm of white space where Black Doom's base known as Black Moon hovering in the air.
Shadow then proceed his mission is to confront his past, unlock new powers, and facing against his arch-nemesis to save the world.
The story on both sides are pretty decent for its simple plot, as the Sonic Generation's plot are still sounds good as today after 13 years which I've enjoyed the time traveling journey in the game where it had two Sonics joining forces together to save his friends as well as preventing the Time Eater from changing the timelines, where as the Shadow Generation's plot are totally something else because it's not just the main storyline where his mission is to stop the Black Doom from conquering the world, its also has the Shadow's backstory focuses on 50 years of his past explained on opening scenes or Professor Gerald's Journals which really delivers the importance of Shadow's story development that made the game quite interesting to play.
I really love various of the characters in the both games, so you have two Sonic the Hedgehogs as a protagonist of the 2011's original game which is really cool to have both the classic and modern variants of Sonic being in the same journey, where as Shadow the Hedgehog as a protagonist of the 2024's original game which I really liked his dark appearance and has his edgy persona really delivers the level of badassery throughout the game.
It also has various of NPCs characters in the game, such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Cream, Blaze, Vector, Espio, and Charmy who are being invited to Sonic's birthday party.
Finally the game has shares with villains such as Time Eater, an dark mass creature has ability to use time and space power that changes the timelines.
He was found by Dr. Eggman, a major antagonist of the series, which he uses the time eater to rewrite the history to his advantage, as he enlisted the help of his classic counterpart to technologically upgrade time eater and used them to scatter Sonic and his allies across different timelines.
Lastly in Shadow Generations, you have Black Doom, an antagonist from 2005's original game Shadow the Hedgehog, who is a sinister embodiment of the Black Arms and one of the individuals behind the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog.
He made the return after his defeat and plans to use a time anomaly to revive his forces and conquer the world.
The presentation design on both games are excellent because it felt like it's a homage to the past Sonic's titles that we all know back then, so stuff like you have Sonic Generations had various of the stages based on previous entries of the whole series such as green hill zone from Sonic 1, chemical plant zone from Sonic 2, sky sanctuary zone from Sonic & Knuckles, speed highway from Sonic Adventure, city escape from Sonic Adventure 2, seaside hill from Sonic Heroes, crisis city from Sonic 06, Rooftop Run from Sonic Unleashed, and finally Planet Wisp from Sonic Colors which I described these settings of stages as colorful and bright that really fits the style of Sonic's past titles, where as in Shadow Generations had a cool stages like space colony ARK from Sonic Adventure 2, rail canyon from Sonic Heroes, Kingdom Valley from Sonic 06, sunset heights from Sonic Forces, chaos island from Sonic Frontiers, and radical highway from Sonic Adventure 2 are more of a darker tone of environments which we all know that the Shadow the Hedgehog was known for its level of edgyness to make it look wicked awesome.
Overall, it has decent story, iconic cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.
Gameplay
The game has two games on the main menu screen, one is Sonic Generations and other is Shadow Generations, so each of them will have own single-player campaign.
You get to control of Sonic or Shadow in the mix of 2D and 3D perspective view, as your main goal is to restore the whole hub world of white space and rescuing captured allies by beating the entire stages in two acts as well as aiming to defeat bosses to save the world.
You'll be exploring around the hub world of white space which filled with many main stages, bonus challenges, and time trials to access, so I will explain these for later on this review.
For classic Sonic, press the left and right d-pad button or push the left-stick controls to move, and tapping the square or right trigger button to perform spin dash allowing him to boost his manuvering speed, and you can also perform spin attack by pressing the circle button or d-pad down while moving which are used for breaking objects or killing enemies, and then lastly pressing the cross button is to jump which is used for jumping on the high platforms or enemies to kill off.
For modern Sonic, press the left-stick controls to move, and pressing the cross button is to not only for jump but uses the air dash and locked-on homing attack in midair.
Press the circle button which allowing him to perform various of moves such as duck, stomp in midair, and slide run.
Press the triangle button allowing him to use lightspeed dash which dashes through the lines of rings.
Modern Sonic has ability to use manuvering movements such as drift by holding the left trigger button then pushing with the left-stick controls and using the quick sidestep movement with the left and right shoulder button.
He can also use boost run by holding the right trigger button which traversing through the stage with his speed, but it also drains the boost meter which displays the bar on the right-side bottom of the screen, so you will need to collect plenty of rings to increase your boost meter.
For Shadow, it had similar controls as the modern Sonic but has different move set such as double tapping cross button to double jump in the air, fires the homing projectiles with the triangle button but holding it for longer will multiply targets up to 5 enemies or objects to shoot at, and finally you can use chaos control when you see the circle meter icon on the middle-bottom of the screen are fully ready to use with the left trigger button to slow-down time for a short duration for 6 seconds.
Aside with the controls, I wanted to talk about both of these games individually to discuss how are these single-player campaign plays out.
In Sonic Generations, You'll start off with the hub world of white space in the side-scrolling perspective where you get to explore and select any of stages to access, where as in Shadow Generations the hub world is in 3rd person perspective with large areas to explore around the white space.
Each stage has 2 acts to play, so in Sonic Generations you have classic Sonic in act 1 which plays on side-scrolling perspective only similar to early Genesis/MD Sonic games, where as in act 2 you take control of modern Sonic which not only it plays on side-scrolling but also a 3rd person perspective similar to 3D Sonic games, and lastly in Shadow Generations you'll play as Shadow in both of the acts in stage which plays exact the same as the Modern Sonic with both side-scrolling and 3rd-person perspective.
Your goal is to beat the whole level by racing through the stage, while avoiding many obstacles and enemies or falling off stage, till you've reached at finishing goal.
In Sonic Generations when beating on both of acts in each stage, you will be awarded with the bonus stuffs such as spending points which is a currencies are used for unlocking stuffs at shop such as new skill items which allows you to use these types of skills such as power brake which stop on a dime in regardless of your speed, sure-footed which land on your feet after getting damaged, athleticism loses less speed moving uphill and in water, flame shield enables midair dashes, aqua shield enables a bound jump to help get some air, thunder shield enables double-jumping, twin-spin attack allows you to attack in mid-jump, power sneakers makes you run faster, speed up increase Sonic's speed, power stomp create a shockwave when stomping on the ground, and all others skills, so these are the stuffs will enhance Sonic's playability that became quite useful for some stages.
In Shadow Generations, the skills can be unlocked by defeating bosses and obtain the doom powers which allows Shadow to perform various of his power abilities such as doom spears allows him to fire multiple of chaos spears using lock-on targeting, doom blast enables him to use chaos snap to launch enemies and teleport to their new location, doom surf allows him to surf on water using a manta-ray like construct and perform spin attacks, doom morph lets him transform into a squid-like form to traverse corruption slime and grapple with morph balls, and lastly doom wing gives him ability to use pair of wings that allow him to burst through enemies and fly around in the air for a limited time when activated with 50 rings.
The challenge stage will be also unlocked after beating stages, so it can be found above the white space area.
In Sonic Generations, you'll be tasked to complete various of objectives such as facing off against Sonic's double in race, reach the goal before the time runs out, beat the stage without losing set of rings, avoid getting hit by the enemies and get to the goal in time, watch out for bombs drops, save a set number of captured animals from capsules, and of course skim the water's surface and try not to get chomped by a giant chopper.
In Shadow Generations, not only you have a challenge stage, but you do also participate with the time trials challenge where you had to complete one or two tasks such as collect the rings as possible and chase the clock before timer runs out.
Beating the challenge stage as well as time trial will award you with collectables such as music, artwork, and character's bios, but if its not enough you may want to obtain stuffs that also unlocks collectables such as collect all 5 red rings in Sonic Generations and collect all tokens to open up treasures in Shadow Generations which can be located in every stages.
The control scheme is fine on both games, as you probably notice it had two control options such as default settings which is a standard control button layout designed for Shadow Generations, where as the legacy settings are based on the same settings as the original PS3/X360 version of Sonic Generations.
For Shadow Generations, I rather much preferred using the standard controls over the legacy is because when you play in Shadow Generations with the standard controls you can able to hold the right trigger button for boost and rotating the camera with the right-stick controls at the same time makes it easier to play, where as the legacy controls it's really pain to move your thumbs in between the right-stick and square button makes it really difficult to use boost and camera rotation during the gameplay.
I say the legacy controls are suit better on Sonic Generations which is totally fine for those who rather much preferred this control option where as the standard controls option is also plays fine too, so you can choose any of these settings that suits your playstyle.
What I've liked about the Sonic X Shadow Generations is the entire campaign on both games, so in Sonic Generations it packs with amazing stages to play such as you have iconic green hill zone from Sonic 1, chemical plant zone from Sonic 2, and Sky Sanctuary from Sonic & Knuckles are really known for its simplistic and straightforward stage design that made early Sonic games on Genesis/MD so recognisable to play, where as the others like speed highway and city escape from Sonic Adventures titles are known for its action-packed wackiness with tons of platforming segments like grinding on rails, riding on skateboard through the road, being chased after by the heavy truck, and of course running through the skyscrapers that made 3D Sonic games quite amazing on Dreamcast era.
Even though Sonic 06 and Sonic Unleashed are both quite bad Sonic games, but still we had to give the game credit for the stages that are actually decent to play like crisis city and rooftop run aren't the bad choice to pick for Sonic Generations, and lastly I do actually enjoyed planet wisp from Sonic Colors thanks to wisp abilities like pink dig in act 1 and orange rocket in act 2.
They did a wonderful job of recreating the levels for both classic and modern Sonic with great overall stage design and has multiples of routes from top to bottom of the stage that leads to the different paths of the levels starting from underground water to uphill area in classic Sonic stage and from rooftop building to city street road in modern Sonic stage just works really well.
In Shadow Generations, we had wicked stages to play such as space colony ARK and radical highway from Sonic Adventure 2, rail canyon from Sonic Heroes, sunset heights from Sonic Forces, and chaos island from Sonic Frontiers which I really liked the platforming design of the stages filled with grind rails to ride on, using the mantis-ray surf on water, swinging around on purple orbs, and of course using the chaos control to slow-down time allowing shadow to traverse platforming just plays out really cool. I also wanted to praise the exploration of hub world in Shadow Generations which are quite massive with the open-world area as opposed to Sonic Generations are smaller with the side-scrolling area, so I really liked exploring around the Shadow's hub area filled with big environments and has several of discoveries just adds-up a game's detail.
The boss battle is incredibly entertaining to play on both games, so you have various of bosses to encounter such as Metal Sonic in stardust speedway from Sonic CD, Death Egg Robot from Sonic 2, Perfect Chaos in station square from Sonic Adventure, Biolizard in cannon's core from Sonic Adventure 2, and metal overlord in final fortress from Sonic Heroes which these are the bosses that are actually good to fight against.
As the bosses are considered decent, but I kinda got really disappointed with the Time Eater in End of Time which is by far the worst final boss entirely which I really hated to keep boosting forward until you're managed to reach at them just feels painfully awful to play, so thankfully in Shadow Generations I did not had an issue with the Black Doom in doom zone stage which is way more better to play because I rather much preferred dodging the bosses attacking pattern and attack them in the right spot than having to boost forward to go through such painfully long-distance like the final boss in Sonic Generations.
I also forgot to mention my thoughts on various of bonus challenges on both Sonic and Shadow Generations because I actually enjoyed doing the tasks of objectives like collecting all 5 red rings, obtaining all tokens to open up treasures, participating all time trials, and beating out various of challenging stages in order to unlock all collectables is what really keeps up my overall progress with the single-player campaign just adds up a game's replayablity.
Overall, it has fine controls, amazing platforming stages, and great bonus and time trial challenges.
Graphics
The graphics in Sonic X Shadow is quite solid for its visuals style and design that has the nice mix of side-scrolling and 3rd-person perspective.
I just loved the landscape details of the background layouts and various of foreground structures in classic Sonic stages that are considered bold and vibrant with nice use of colors and textures that made the presentation looks appealing for the modern gaming standards, and I also loved the 3D stages of modern Sonic are just as good with large detail of environments and terrain of objects just looked stellar with the 3rd-person perspective.
As Sonic Generations described as light-hearted sort of setting, Shadow Generations on other hand are much of the darker side filled with gritty looking level design and sinister special effects that makes the entire things feel edgy and badass throughout the stages.
I just loved the hellish feel of the hub world that turns into blackened doomsday really fits the level of being the god damn edgelord.
The character's animation on both games are certainly great for both major characters, many NPCs, and of course the enemies and bosses are perfectly looked good for their overall design.
As the Sonic X Shadow Generations got it released for the PCs and the later ones like the 8th and 9th-gen consoles, I wanted to compare with the 2011's original game that was originally made on PS3 and X360 which is quite impressive for the 7th-gen system when HD became the thing back in the days of early 2010s, so going forward to todays what does this version of the game has to offer for later systems? the difference is that the performance of the game on both 8th and 9th-gen consoles ran so smoothly in comparison with the 7th-gen consoles.
In Sonic Generations, The PS5 and XSX/S had managed to run on 60fps with 4K resolution, where as the PS4 and XBONE capped 60fps with 1080p resolution, so these versions runs smoothly which really improves upon with the visual quality are much cleaner and looked sharper on the display and it plays really fast and fluid throughout the stages without any sign of frame-dips which I am happy to say it plays really great with 60fps with responsive input and feels much easier to play.
Nintendo Switch systems on other hand has it's own advantages depending on which two of these consoles performs better.
Switch 2 had managed to run on full 60fps with 1440p on docked mode just looks so good on the TV screen where as the undocked mode capped on 60fps with 1080p is also looked quite as nice, as opposed to Switch 1 which sadly runs pretty poorly with 30fps with 1080p docked and 720p undocked making it look blurry and unclean in comparison, so it's better to stick with the Switch 2 version instead.
In Shadow Generations, The PS5 and XSX/S has two graphical options such as image quality which ran 30fps with 4K resolution and the performance mode ran on 1440p with 60fps, so I wouldn't recommend playing it on image quality just feels kinda rough which is not the best way to play fast-paced platforming game...please stick it to performance mode instead.
The PS4 and XBONE on other hand plays it on 30fps with 1080p but not quite bad as the Switch 1 which ran even worse in comparison capped on 30fps with 720p on both docked and undocked, but thankfully the Switch 2 are slightly better running on 60fps with 720p both docked and undocked on performance mode, where as the quality mode runs on 30fps with 1080p docked and 720p undocked, so then again stick it to performance mode instead.
Overall, it has solid visuals style and design, great character's animation, and smooth performance mode.
Music and Sounds
I say the soundtrack on both games are awesome as we all know the Sonic series has shares with the various of best video game music libraries.
I love the classic remix of early 16-bit Sonic games like the green hill zone, chemical plant zone, and sky sanctuary in classic Sonic stage, as well as the full-on remixed version of these original music in modern Sonic stage just sounds so iconic to listen, where as the others which shared with the amazing soundtrack from the previous 3D Sonic games such as radical highway, city escape, seaside hill, kingdom valley, chaos island and many more great music that really suits for high-speed platforming action.
It was composed by Jun Senoue and the SEGA internal staff, as well as external contributors such as TeddyLoid, TORIENA, Audissi Studios, Circuit Freq, The Qemists, and RichaadEB did a fabulous job with the scores.
The sound design is wonderful for its signature jingles effects like most Sonic games, and I also wanted to praise the use of environmental sounds for some stages, and the character's voice overs is quite acceptable at best, so no problem whatsoever.
Overall, it has awesome soundtrack, wonderful sound effects, and acceptable voice overs.
Special Features
The game has unlockable contents such as collectables including artwork, musics, character's bios, and Gerald's journals, as well as DLCs such as movie pack which unlocks additional level based on scenes from the 2024's Sonic 3 film featuring the voice of Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog.
You will also get a free DLCs skins which changes Sonic's appearance based on Sonic Adventure and Sonic Jam.
Then finally Dark Beginnings Pack which is a free DLCs which uncovers never-seen-before deleted scenes and an extended animatic storyboard.
I also wanted to mention the physical copy's day 1 edition which included a booklet containing the pages from Gerald's journal and a reversible cover art based on the Japanese cover.
Overall, a very good content.
Advantages
Excellent presentation settings
Amazing platforming stages
Great bonus and time trial challenge
Large hub world to explore in Shadow Generations
Solid visuals and smooth performance mode
Awesome soundtrack from previous Sonic games
Disadvantages
Time Eater final boss battle is awful.
Image quality mode is kinda rough.
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - decent story, iconic cast of characters, and excellent presentation settings.
Gameplay 7.5/10 - fine controls, amazing platforming stages, and great bonus and time trial challenges.
Graphics 7.5/10 - solid visuals style and design, great character's animation, and smooth performance mode.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - awesome soundtrack, wonderful sound effects, and acceptable voice overs.
Special Features 8/10 - has collectables, DLCs pack, and physical copy's bonus stuffs.
Overall 7.5/10 - Sonic X Shadow Generations is a surprisingly a good platforming game which I did not feel regret picking this up and play it on my system which proves how good the Sonic games really plays out so well on the modern console platform.
The Sonic Generations is still a decent title as today thanks to full 60fps performance and clean visuals just plays it really smooth which really helped the entire gameplay, so that I can able to enjoy the whole campaign of main stages and challenges, where as the Shadow Generations are the solid new entry to this bundle featuring amazing platforming stages, the large exploration of hub world to explore, and boss battles to encounter is just makes the whole game quite fun to play.
The physical copy for all console platforms cost around between £20 and £25, where as the digital storefront including PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam cost about £45, so I think it's a definite recommendation for casuals players who are a big massive fan of Sonic franchise or platforming genre in general will likely gonna give this title a worth of shot.
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