Sonic X Shadow Generations is a serviceable remaster of one of the franchise's best games that includes an entirely new story mode that makes the original game's design look worse in comparison. When the original Sonic Generations game released in 2011, its incredible music and expertly designed stages felt like a love letter to fans, new and old. While certain aspects have aged better than others in the remastered game, Sonic X Shadow Generations' new content should entice fans to pick up the franchise's latest release with haste.

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and also provided some forward momentum for the franchise with Sonic Frontiers, which saw the long-awaited return to wide-open 3D environments similar to the Sonic Adventure games. The original Generations' release stands as one of the most beloved games because of its appealing mix of traditional 2D and dynamic 3D stages. However, Sonic X Shadow Generations is now the best way to play the game, and it also includes a promising direction for future releases to hopefully build upon.

Sonic's Story Is A Tour Of Past Fun, While Shadow's Pushes Him To New Heights

Shadow Has Not Been The Protagonist In A Game Since Sonic 06

Sonic X Shadow Generations is a remastered release of the 2011 game. Its plot revolves around a mysterious time-manipulating monster that captures and transports Sonic, Tails, and the rest of the cast to a strange world filled with stages paying tribute to beloved levels from past games, ninety challenge stages, friends to be rescued, and colossally creative (for the most part) boss battles. However, the newly-added Shadow Generations content provides an entirely new story mode, setting, and dream come true for fans who've waited for a worthy return of Shadow the Hedgehog.

For years, many fans saw Mario and Sonic releases as competitors representing Sega and Nintendo's brands. Shadow Generations feels similar to the 2021 release of Bowser's Fury, which was part of the rerelease of Super Mario 3D World. Both feature a vast 3D environment stuffed with hidden collectibles and challenges. However, Shadow's adventure contains many more gameplay variations and stages that resemble something closer to a full game release.

The entirely new Shadow the Hedgehog storyline is a tribute to the anti-hero character with collectible references to his past and stages that feel more rewarding than precarious thanks to clever level design that feels optimized to avoid frustrating cheap deaths. Shadow's first standalone campaign ties him to the time-displacement events of Sonic Generations' plot and sees him once again confront his ultimate antagonist, the evil alien emperor Black Doom. It's a story filled with exciting, over-the-top action sequences, painfully excellent edgy presentation, and surprisingly emotional reunions, essentially everything fans of the Rodent of Darkness have waited for.

Shadow's Gameplay Shines Through The Blue Blur

The New Campaign Shows How Much Sonic Gameplay Has Evolved

Whenever the Sonic franchise tries to implement a new mechanic to reinvigorate interest, it often fails to adjust other parameters to match the changes. This led to lackluster installments like the clunky motion-controlled Sonic Storybook series on the Wii and the infamous gun-toting Shadow the Hedgehog game of the PlayStation 2 era. Sonic Generations excelled because it combined fan-favorite aspects from previous installments to create an experience that felt both classic and new. While Sonic X Shadow Generations helps make one of the franchise's best games even better, Shadow's story makes sections of Sonic's feel dated in comparison.

Nostalgia is a powerful concept when it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog games. Since the series has been around for over thirty years, many fans have widely different memories and opinions on which releases are preferable. However, revisiting most of the franchise's 3D games is a cruel reminder that their wonky physics, unforgivable controls, and jarring camera angles that seem tailor-made to cause frustration and the depletion of a player's stock of lives. These features still exist in newer Sonic games, but Shadow's newest stand-alone adventure feels more accommodating while also managing to feel challenging.

Generations' stages expertly transition between 2D & 3D set pieces that see Sonic speeding through colossal amounts of destruction. However, several can quickly go off the rails if players slightly nudge the controller's thumbstick, potentially shooting players off the stage, often making replicating the developers' intended result frustrating. The combination of fast-paced movements and slower platforming sections was often a clashing concept that punished players. Many stages in Sonic X Shadow Generations circumvent this issue by adding multiple pathways in each stage. However, some sections still feel challenging due to questionable design decisions instead of being difficult on purpose.

The remastered sections do little to improve the moments that feel like players are fighting against the game's mechanics instead of the objectives the developers crafted. However, many of the original stages in Shadow Generations feel less punishing, with more lenient physics and less slippery controls. Platforming now feels like it hugs the player more than shooting them in a fatal direction if a landing is slightly off. Players who enjoyed the challenges past games brought will not need to rely on questionable physics to scratch that itch because many of Sonic X Shadow Generations new challenge missions don't disappoint.

How Long It Takes To Beat Sonic X Shadow Generations

The Shadow Generations Story Mode Is Around 60% The Length Of Sonic's Campaign

If you decide to roll through Sonic X Shadow Generations' story-based stages at the speed of sound, then you can expect to complete both story modes in 12 to 15 hours. To accomplish 100% of what the game offers, including earning unlockable artwork, music tracks that newer and long-time fans can appreciate, and rescuing hidden Chao, should take around 18 to 20 hours. While there is no Chao Garden to play with the adorable rescued creatures, the game does feature several tools that help add replayability.

Sonic's unlockable skills can be bought using in-game points after completing challenges, which can help discover hidden areas or play a pivotal role in achieving faster completion times on online leaderboards. The new Shadow Generation's content lacks the numerous customizable skills Sonic's does, but its challenge stages help add its own type of thrills to his anticipated adventure.

Shadow's portion follows the franchise formula of having players complete exciting levels that blend 2D & 3D environments. Brand-new abilities increase Shadow's maneuverability options and offensive capabilities that, more importantly, allow the developers of the Shadow Generation's section to execute creative platforming puzzles and thrilling boss battles, especially with Shadow's iconic time-stopping Chaos Control mechanic that can freeze enemies and platforms in place. Near the end of Shadow's story mode, Hard Mode challenges will test even the most skilled players with trials built to be challenging instead of accidentally difficult because of poor design choices.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Sonic X Shadow Generations 8/10

Although it may only take around twenty hours for a long-time Sonic player to collect and experience everything Sonic X Shadow Generations has to offer, its level designs, gameplay mechanics, and incredible music reach a fantastic balance that makes replaying several stages over and over again a joy. Sonic X Shadow Generations is the best way to play one of the series' most enjoyable games that celebrates its past, and with the new Shadow content being a cut above the rest, it's a hopeful tease of where the franchise will go in the future.

A PlayStation 5 code for Sonic X Shadow Generations was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.