If you check out my Sonic Superstars review or even top five Sega Mega Drive games list, you will know I love Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega has been on an absolute roll with Sonic over the last few years. Although, I am someone who has enjoyed Sonic games since the originals and I have never understood the “no good Sonic games since the Mega Drive/Genesis” people as there have been good Sonic games released on a regular basis. Granted, there have been some less than great ones too, but Sonic Generations, originally released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and a different game with the same name on the 3DS was certainly one of the good ones.
Thanks to the amazing two Sonic movies, the Knuckles TV show, and games like Sonic Colors Ultimate, Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, and the tons of merch, Sonic is arguably as big as he has ever been, and in 2004, we have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hitting theatres in December. Shadow the Hedgehog is going to be a huge part of this and Sega and Sonic Team have dubbed 2024, Fearless: Year of Shadow and as a huge fan of Shadow, I think that this is awesome stuff indeed!
Sega unveiled a life size version of Shadow’s classic motorbike (that I loved to use in the first Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing game) and they have said more stuff is coming in 2024 as part of this event. However, it is the remaster of Sonic Generations that has me and many other Sonic fans really excited. Rather than just re-releasing the game with better visuals like they did with Sonic Colors not that long ago, Sega has changed things up a bit here as the game is going to be called Sonic X Shadow Generations. You will still get to play through that awesome story as both modern and classic Sonic. However, there is a new Shadow mode where we get to play through a story as Shadow.
To be honest, the Shadow the Hedgehog game was nowhere near as bad as people made out. It was not great by any means, but it was not horrible. Sonic 06 and the Shadow stuff there on the other hand was really rough. Although that epic roundhouse kick that Shadow gives Silver is still one of the greatest scenes to happen in a Sonic game! The whole game is so rough and unpolished, but that roundhouse kick looks so badass, is so cinematic, and looks like it is motion-captured! I have always wondered why that one little scene looked so good!
I am so excited to play this game as Shadow. From what I have seen, it does look like we are going to be playing through Shadow’s story which makes me think the story may be similar to what we got in Sonic Adventure 2 on the Sega Dreamcast. Hey, if it is that, I would be more than cool with it as that game is over 20 years old at this point so I am sure there is a whole generation of people who have not experienced how The Ultimate Lifeform came to be.
As well as the Shadow stuff, Sonic X Shadow Generations has remastered visuals which is interesting as I have this on the Xbox One, and the game still looks great so I am interested to see how much better they could have made it look. Also, Sega has said that there will be bonus content, but as of me writing this, what that bonus content is I do not know. I for one would love to see a “classic” Shadow done in the style of classic Sonic, that would be hilarious and a lot of fun.
No release date has been given for Sonic X Shadow yet, but this is one of my most anticipated games of the year! Sonic Generations was already a great game and this looks like it is going to make it even better! I would love to know what your thoughts on this are in the comments section.