Featured Image Credit: SEGA
Topics: Sonic, Sega, Xbox, PlayStation, PC
After recently playing and reviewing Sonic X Shadow Generations, I was blown away that this game even existed.
How did the character of Shadow, one who has been butchered and misunderstood for years, find his way onto the front cover of one of 2024's biggest releases?
Check out the trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations below
Advert
It was lovely to revisit Sonic Generations and see some of the changes made to its levels and dialogue, after all it’s one of my favourite Sonic games, but Shadow Generations was what I was there for and my God it didn’t disappoint.
Every level was a banger, arguably some of the best we’ve seen from a modern Sonic title so far, and the addition of Shadow’s Chaos and Doom powers did well to distinguish his playstyle from Sonic’s. Space Colony Ark, Rail Canyon, Sunset Heights, all fantastic, though it was only when I got to Chaos Island that I realised something was missing.
Chaos Island is an area in Sonic Frontiers, a game Shadow had no part in. Sunset Heights is also a bit of a weird addition, since Sonic Forces is set after Sonic Generations. Both great levels, but not ones I'd have expected to appear in the line-up.
It made me realise the game had omitted one of the biggest parts of Shadow’s history, stages from his spin-off Shadow The Hedgehog (2005). The wasn’t forgotten about completely, after all Black Doom makes his return as the villain but there were no remastered levels from the character's previous time in the spotlight. It certainly wasn’t a deal breaker but it was weird nonetheless.
Does Sonic Team consider them to be bad levels? Or did Shadow The Hedgehog underperform that badly they thought no one would notice? Who knows, but personally I think they missed a trick not including at least one of them.
You could kind of argue Shadow The Hedgehog’s first mission, Westopolis, makes a return as when Black Doom is warping the stages there are skyscrapers present, but it feels like more of an extension to Radical Highway than a different stage entirely, and it’s never name-dropped.
While I wouldn’t consider Shadow The Hedgehog to have peak level design, there are quite a few that I’d at least consider to be good on a replay, and fit the overall theme of Shadow travelling through his past. Glyphic Canyon, Cryptic Castle, Circus Park, even Lava Shelter are decent levels from that game that could have made a comeback. I’m not saying Chaos Island is a bad level and needs replacing, far from it, but its inclusion feels bizarre compared to the rest of the selection.
It feels safe to assume the Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers levels were chosen because they’re simply games that came out after Sonic Generations, so in a way they had to be included, but even so there’s an argument to be made they should have been bonus levels in Sonic’s part of the game rather than shoved into Shadow’s.
Who knows, perhaps the success of Sonic X Shadow Generations will push SEGA into giving Shadow his own game separate from the blue blur. Maybe then we’ll get to revisit some of the locations from Shadow The Hedgehog, perhaps through a remake?..