Just played my way through Sonic X Shadow Generations! I’ve never played a Sonic game before and ended up having a pretty great time with this one (or two?).
- I thought it was interesting how they changed quite a few of the mechanics between the two games. The two sides ended up feeling pretty distinct from each other with just a few minor tweaks
Sonic Generations:
- On the Sonic side, I preferred the Act 1 (2D stages) but I liked both quite a bit
- Stating the obvious here but it’s really fun to go fast. For whatever the Sonic series has been through, it’s clear that the thesis is a strong one. Going for those S ranks was a lot of fun
- Love the music
- I like how creative the level concepts are. I know this is functionally a “greatest hits” collection but I’m just glad not to go through another game of basic biomes
- I was worried that it might be janky given that my only experience w/ Sonic is ~an hour of Sonic Adventure from years ago and I bounced off of it because it didn’t feel great. Generations is pretty polished
- The only time I ran into any jank was with the final level, Planet Wisp (both Act 1 and Act 2), which, combined with the fact that these levels are kinda bad even without the jank, made this the low point of the experience
- Oh also the Final Boss of Sonic Generations… what a complete mess. It’s sad that the end of the game is the worst part because it leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth after a great game
- The challenge stages are kinda fun but 90 of them is definitely overkill
- This is a bit of an odd place to start as a first Sonic game. I like that I got a taste of everything but it’s kinda like reading the Cliff’s Notes. I still don’t know any of the characters all that well. Does Sonic like Amy or is that one-sided? I’ve always really liked the Silver and Blaze designs from afar but I still don’t really know much about them. I’m not sure I even know all that much about Sonic, Tails or Knuckles either
Shadow Generations:
- I was initially a little turned off coming from Sonic Generations bc so many of the mechanics are similar but with minor tweaks, but after adjusting I think I prefer Shadow Generations
- And overall I preferred Shadow Generations because I found the level quality to be more consistent. Of the 12 acts there’s probably 9-10 bangers, 1 or 2 meh and 1 I disliked but didn’t hate (Radical Highway Act 2)
- In a reverse from Sonic Generations, I preferred the fully 3D levels here
- The Shadow-exclusive abilities like Chaos Control and the Doom abilities were a lot of fun to use and I love how high the skill ceiling is here with how creative you can be with the various new abilities
- I prefer the Challenge levels here. The narrower focus (20 OGs with collectables, 10 Hard Modes without) shows off a nice range of ideas without overstaying its welcome
- Bosses have fun mechanics but are a little easy/over before they really get going
- The Final Boss is infinitely better than Sonic Generations though
- The difficulty of the game is wildly all over the place. Some of the S ranks took me nearly an hour of trying and then I’d move onto the next level and get the S rank on the first attempt
- I didn’t love the hub world - I found it kinda annoying to get around from place to place and fast traveled as much as possible. The timed challenges and collection in the hub world are probably the low point of the game for me
- I’m sorry but I might be a 14-year-old edgelord. Shadow is cool as fuck. I love him. I am him. I’m so tortured and dark and edgy. I’m ready to make my prof pic Shadow the Hedgehog holding hands with Riku from Kingdom Hearts and post about MCR and Hot Topic and how nobody gets me. I love the mid 2000s. I’ll tell people that The Nightmare Before Christmas is my favorite movie. Give Shadow his gun back. The best character archetype is “comes-back-in-the-sequel-dressed-sluttier-with-a-gun” (see: Shadow the Hedgehog (2005); Final Fantasy X-2 (2003)) [I’m submitting this to violence island now]
- Wait better yet do a stealth remake of Final Fantasy X-2 but it’s Sonic, Shadow, and Silver