Sonic x Shadow Generations Preview - Crush 40 Intensifies

Sonic games can be hit or miss, especially when it comes to his 3D games. Sonic Generations was a solid entry into the canon, and Sonic x Shadow Generations is bringing it back to modern consoles with a few extras.

Part remaster and part expansion, Sonic x Shadow Generations adds some Shadow levels to the game, and I got the chance to play two of them at Summer Game Fest Play Days.

The Shadow content felt laser-focused to appeal to fans of the old Sonic Adventure games here, particularly Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's Team Dark campaign. It was accompanied by the kind of edgy butt rock you might expect, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The first level I played was Space Colony Ark, which came with a lot of gravity-defying rail grinds and high-speed platforming. Shadow can do a homing attack, though he teleports instead of zooming into an enemy. He can also launch projectiles, though that only really felt useful in a boss fight.

After all, a common platforming trick in 3D Sonic games is using the homing attack to defeat enemies and get across gaps. The projectile just didn't feel like a useful tool in a platforming-heavy level.

There are some big shifts though from how these games typically go that are unique to Shadow. He can use Chaos Control, which freezes the entire level for five seconds, and it's useful for avoiding large-scale hazards or to keep certain platforms in place.

At some point in the level, I ran into a giant tunnel where a missile was on the other end of it. In this moment, the game gave me a full charge of Chaos Control and prompted me to use it. Then it launched into an interactive cutscene, where I had to play out a quick-time event to make Shadow beat up the missile.

It's kind of silly, but it also fits the edgy nature that Shadow's become known and beloved(?) for. The same sort of QTEs came up during the boss battle stage, which was against the Biolizard from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.

The boss fight is pretty standard here; first, I played defense until an opportunity opened up, and then I homed in on the weak point to do some damage. It's nothing mind blowing, but it's serviceable and offers a good space for Shadow to say some edgy one-liners.

One last thing that stood out to me was the last quarter of the Space Colony Ark level, which got really psychedelic. The enemy, Doom's Eye from that old Shadow the Hedgehog game, transforms the stage into something straight out of Dr. Strange or Spider-Verse.

Mechanically, it shakes out to be a high-speed platforming section where you have to time your jumps right. But visually, it was a treat to see buildings and debris collapse, multiply, and defy the laws of time and space. If there's more weird stuff like that in the other Shadow levels, I'm excited to see more.

If you missed out on Sonic Generations or are looking for your next Shadow fix before the upcoming Paramount movie, Sonic x Shadow Generations is just around the corner. Keep an eye out for it when it launches on Oct. 25.

Sonic x Shadow Generations was previewed at Summer Game Fest Play Days courtesy of Sega.