As great as Sonic the Hedgehog was when he first debuted, Sega’s blue hedgehog has, over the past decade, more or less settled comfortably into being just “decent.” This isn’t to say that the speedy critterdoesn’thave his standout releases, with 2017’s Sonic Mania being a particularly exceptional one. Recently, though, it’s become betternotto expect the moon from new Sonic games. All that said, though, it was revealed that the series' best seventh generation release, Sonic Generations, is at last making a return later this year as SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS: a remaster packed with more than just some new quality-of-life features.
Starting with what’s new in SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS, this new release of the 2011 classic is getting a brand-new story campaign for Sonic’s longtime rival: Shadow the Hedgehog. The self-proclaimed “ultimate life form” will be confronting his old enemy, Black Doom, while the latter does its best to take over the world once again. The last time fans saw Black Doom was in 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog, an otherwise average title that will likely nevertheless be forever infamous for giving Shadow a gun.
New features and old foes come together in SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS.
Black Doom, leader of an alien force, tried to take over the world in that game too, but unfortunately its plan hinged largely on manipulating Shadow into doing most of the dirty work. As one might imagine, that didn’t exactly work out in the canon series of events. He’s making a return soon, though, and has likely learned from that particular mistake. Going by what’s shown in the trailer, it looks like his plan this time around involves making use of the same holes in time that Sonic and his younger counterpart are dealing with in the main game. If the viewer pays close attention, they can catch re-imagined moments from Sonic Adventure 2 and possibly other games like Sonic Heroes or even Shadow the Hedgehog. It also looks like he’s getting entirely new stages to skate through as well.
As for the Sonic Generations portion of SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS, the old game is getting the kind of visual upgrade one would expect of a modern remaster. There’s actually more to it, though. Both new challenges and bonus content await those who decide to take another run through the now-classic adventure. Finally, those who’ve purchased Sonic Superstars will be able to unlock a new Shadow Costume for Sonic. Sega will be adding the costume to the game for free on February 15.
There’s no hard release date yet, but fans can expect to find SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS both physically and digitally some time this fall for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
