Sonic is back once again, this time with Shadow in his full glory! Once again, the game blends both classic and modern era depictions of Sonic and combines them into a neat, high-speed package. While it is a re-release of Sonic Generations, Sonic x Shadow Generations adds a new spin to the game by improving upon the original while adding new features onto it.

The main draw this time is the second name featured in the game’s title, the broody, edgy, Shadow, in all of himself. Previously unavailable in the original game, the Sonic Team went all out on making sure he gets all the screen and gameplay time he deserves, with a whole new campaign exclusive to him. Recently, we got a chance to have a hands-on sneak peak of the game for ourselves, and see what we can share with the world before its release.

In this demo, we only had the chance to try out 2 stages from each campaign. Similar to Sonic Generations, both stages have multiple routes to clear them, another classic Sonic gameplay trick for stage veterans and speedrunners.

In our playthrough, both stages took around 5 minutes to complete, typical of a Sonic game. The layout of the levels did not receive too many drastic changes either, with the retro stages remaining mostly 2D styled, leaving the bulk of the 3D maps to the modern stages.

Now onwards to the main star of the show, the dark side of the Sonic series, the all-new Shadow Generations! The stages in this campaign are an artful combination of both 2D and 3D styled maps, a great blend of both classic and modern styles. We even got to face off against the first boss of the campaign, the Biolizard.

Despite ditching his memeable gun, Shadow still slays in other ways, primarily through his kit of Chaos powers. We personally tried out the Chaos Spear, which shoots aptly named projectiles and Chaos Control, a time-stopping ability which becomes extremely handy in boss fights.

For some reason, the speed for traversing the stage did not feel as fast as Sonic Generations’, and we personally think that’s a good thing. Stage traversal in the Sonic stages was a little too speedy for us.

It Is (All of Shadow)

Despite the short playtime, Sonic x Shadow Generations has managed to leave a strong impression on us, especially with the new Shadow Generations campaign. It has a great combination of both classic and modern stages, and Shadow’s Chaos powers are able to affect the stages which are needed to access certain areas. Boss fights are insanely fun as well. With all that we have seen and experienced so far, it is shaping up to be a great game.

Sonic x Shadow Generations launches for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC via Steam and Epic Games on October 25, 2024.