Shadow Generations Review
It's finally here! Wow! I'm so excited!!!! I even bought the digital deluxe version so I could play it early!!! And what did that get me? A grand total of like one hour played pre-release because I was so dead tired from working 12 hour shifts. Fucked up, I know.
Shadow Generations is such a beautiful evolution of what was started in Sonic Frontiers. Personally, I really loved that game and I think that Shadow Gens capitalizes off of that game's "step in the right direction" that many were clamoring for. Shadow controls like a dream, boost is a little less powerful that I would have liked it to be, but it makes him handle very smoothly and precise. The doom powers make for an excellent expanded moveset that will honestly make it difficult to go back to Sonic in the future if he doesn't have the same depth in his for whenever the next Sonic focused title drops. Chaos spear, chaos control and all the doom powers make Shadow feel like the coolest handling Sonic character we've had in YEARS. It adds that depth to his stages that brings to mind Sonic Adventue 2 in the way that it's all about using your full arsenal at all times with a focus on going for time instead of huge scores which hits this perfect balance that I think they've been trying to get right since the original release of Sonic Generations. The focus on the doom powers did lead to a weird lack of the slide being used in game which is more of a personal problem since I was always looking out for little gaps with the thought (surely THIS is the stage where they throw one at me) but I honestly just thought it was funny.
The hub is open zone similar to frontiers with stylings similar to that of the cutscene pre-Death Egg Robot from the orginal Gens which is FUCKING AWESOME. I really liked the ornate look of the objects in that cutscene and am very happy that we finally have a white space with more of an identity that "literally just a white void". Getting to have actually fun dialogue with Shadow's friends (especially getting to see the little smile he throws Big), collet all sorts of little skittles across the map and just screw around with the doom powers is a lot of fun. I'm still collecting junk at the time of writing but it feels like they took what was good about the Frontiers open zone, condensed it down to it's best bits and made it actually look good in context (also they actually used the power of the device you're running the game on instead of forcing Nintendo Switch pop-in for everyone).
Now in regards to the bosses, I don't think they were terrible. They were all incredibly cool to watch and fight. I just wish they were a tad bit stronger. But other than that, incredibly cool to see Sonic Team take the spectacle of the Titan fights in Frontiers and go all in on bosses that can actually banter back at you. Metal Overlord calling you a bitch for using Chaos Control was absurdly cool.
The central conflict forcing Shadow to stare Maria right in the face and let her return to the past after resolving to live on in her memory is such a sick moment for Shadow. The IDW comics have been where Shadow has most recently had the spotlight where he plays a sort of two bit Vegeta, so getting to see him express weakness and apprehension is a welcome change. I think this game reveals a promising future for the franchise that was hinted at in Frontiers. By making a true return to form with Shadow, a character mocked for being edgy and over the top, and putting him in a seriously presented story revolving around his resolve to be a force for good, I think we're seeing Sonic Team putting a lot more stock into the elements of the franchise that made many people, myself included fall in love with the series in the first place.
Sonic Generations Remastered Review
Yeah this was literally just Sonic Generations again, which I think is a good thing! Sonic Generations is a beautiful game that honestly doesn't have a lot wrong with it. The changes they did make like Amy's animation in the intro cutscene and Rouge's design are such miniscule changes that even if I hated them (I honestly think they're fine changes) I would find it really difficult to care about them. The rewrite is good for the most part, Sonic Generations never had much of a plot anyway but my god, it feels like they told Roger to just get in the booth and do one take for every line. It almost feels like they wanted him to channel the Saturday Morning Cartoon style of voice he did back then but he just totally forgot how to make it sound natural so almost of of Sonic's lines just sound awkward. Where this game COULD use some changes is the FUCKING TIME EATER BOSS FIGHT FUCK YOU TIME EATER YOUR BOSS FIGHT IS EASY AND IT STILL ANNOYS ME. In addition to some performance boosts. The game being locked to 60 FPS feels a little silly considering that Shadow Gens can go up to 120 FPS and just makes Generations feel like it was shoehorned in as a "remaster" when it reality it's more like a repackaging. But it's still Sonic Generations at the end of the day so combined with the phenomenal Shadow Generations, this is a fantastic double pack that I'm very happy has made it's way to modern consoles.