Sonic X Shadow Generations Will Need More to Satisfy Hungry Fans [Hands-On Preview]

Sonic the Hedgehog has had his ups and downs. The next Sonic game, Sonic X Shadow Generations, which is a remaster of Sonic Generations and an all-new game called Shadow Generations, will look to right the ship. I got to play it at the Tokyo Game Show this week. 

I’ll admit up front I’ve been a Sonic enjoyer but never a Sonic fan, with my love of the series pretty much beginning with the Sonic Advance games and ending with Sonic Adventure 2, so I went into the all-new Shadow Generations full of skepticism. Instead, I came away pleasantly surprised, mostly because what I played reminded me a lot of the Radical Highway level from Sonic Adventure 2.

Taking control of the edgy Shadow, I darted around a sci-fi landscape reminiscent of a space station, slamming into enemies, bouncing off springs, and grinding on rails. For the most part, this was as exhilarating as ever, almost like playing a high-speed racing title. However, running into a wall and mistiming a jump still halts the action – a frustrating mainstay of the series since the beginning.

I could see plenty of alternate paths and out-of-reach rings that would definitely have prompted level replays if I had more time with the game, some of them possibly tied to Shadow’s Chaos Control ability, which slows down time. This ability allowed me to dodge massive pistons and slow platforms enough to make use of them.

It also came into play during a quick time event where I had to slow time as an unavailable missile flew toward me. Then, Shadow launched into a quick-time event where I mashed a button as he whacked the slowed missile until it flew off into the distance when time resumed, exploding and creating a new path. Simple? Sure. Fun? Definitely.

Related: All Pre-Order Bonuses & Editions For Sonic X Shadow Generations

However, slowing time also muted the awesome techno soundtrack that kept the action moving along. An odd choice – I would’ve much preferred to keep the beat but warp the music in some other way.

This stage concluded with a Cthulhu-like starfish monster appearing and warping reality into one with sprawling, twisted buildings far below. This sent Shadow off into a finale equal parts trippy and exhilarating. 

The remake of Sonic Generations, on the other hand, played pretty much exactly like you’d expect. I didn’t experience any of the “modern” Sonic stages, which are 3D, but I did play through Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant as “classic” Sonic, which is the 2D Sonic you know and love. There’s truly nothing more to expect here: it ran flawlessly on the high-end PC they had it running on and exactly like the Sonic games of yore.

This then begs the question: how long will the all-new Shadow sections be? Sonic Generations is rather short, clocking in at about 3 hours, and if Shadow Generations isn’t much longer, this is a collection that might leave Sonic fans hungry.

As such, if this was just a remaster of Sonic Generations, I think this wouldn’t be a collection worth checking out unless you’re really into speedrunning Sonic games. On the other hand, the addition of a whole new Shadow-led adventure makes this feel more like a love letter to fans and an enticing pickup for even the hedgehog-curious. It definitely revitalized my interest in the long-running series, and I’m looking forward to seeing how well it’s received – and how much content is here – when it releases on October 25.