Sonic Generations, let's talk about it! (Thoughts on Sonic X Shadow Generations)

     Hey there, friends! A while ago, Sega announced Sonic X Shadow Generations during a Sony State of Play presentation and I don't think I paid it the proper respect and attention that it deserved at the time. Today I would love to discuss why I like the original game, and maybe talking about a few quality of life tweaks that could be enjoyable when it comes to this remade version. It's crazy to me that it's been more than 10 years since the original game came out, but I'm glad that we're receiving a new version with some added content! It's time we go fast and cover some of Sonic's history, and see what the future holds for everyone's favorite speedy rodent, and his much edgier friend.

Blast from the Past!

    Sonic Generations was originally created as a celebration of the Blue Blur's 25th anniversary, and pulled levels from his most famous titles from Sega Genesis through the modern era (at that time, meaning Xbox 360 and PS3), the most recent of them being Sonic Unleashed. You play as both versions of Sonic, the genesis version who plays in an entirely 2D style, and the modern version, which plays every level like one of the day levels from Unleashed, in a mix of side scrolling and behind the back 3D levels. The game's layout and structure is a little weird, because you begin with the three genesis levels, Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2, and Sky Sanctuary from Sonic 3. You play all three of these levels as both versions of Sonic, and then it unlocks your first boss. Once you defeat that boss, it unlocks the second group of three levels, covering the next era of Sonic's history, you fight the next boss, and then you unlock the final three levels, based on the "Modern" era. There are only 9 main levels in this game, and then they are padded out by a bunch of side challenges to unlock keys which let you unlock the doors to the bosses along with getting various bonuses that you can look through in the game's gallery. In my opinion (as well as the opinions of the reviewers at the time, I think it's fair to say) that these side missions are the game's weakest point, but even then they're not too offensive I don't think. They're just fine little side missions that sometimes give another of Sonic's friends a chance to shine even though they're not playable this time around. They're fine enough, but I would have loved a few more stages to make an appearance. The coolest thing that I think this game does really well is definitely how it reimagines the stages in different ways for the different playstyles. 

    Green Hill Zone looks completely different to Modern Sonic than it does to the classic version, just as City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 looks very different to Classic Sonic. Everything is different in these versions of the levels. The music in the classic versions of the classic stages will just play the music from the original levels, but the modern versions will play the song with a rock band covering it instead, which is a really cool touch, calling to mind the Crush 40 performances in the Sonic Adventure games. In the classic versions of the modern levels, the music takes on a much more techno motif to go along with the chiptune sounds of the Sega Genesis. The track that comes to mind the most often is definitely the classic version of "Escape from the City" because it just sounds crazy when the lyrics come in. The song is amazing to begin with, in my opinion one of the best songs in the whole Sonic franchise, but the almost dubstep sound of this classic version is pretty incredible. The gameplay is refined in different ways too, and I love the way that the game constantly keeps you guessing about how they'll remix little bits and pieces that are iconic to the original stage, like the GUN truck in City Escape now having buzzsaws and the ability to fly, instead of just being a big truck that you have to run from. There are little jokes and easter eggs for Sonic fans to find all throughout the game, and it's really great how the game relies on nostalgia even by making something new with it.

Chaos Control!

    With this new version coming out this year, Sonic is not the only playable character anymore, we also have a new mode called "Shadow Generations" (or at least it seems to be based on the title being what it is). It seems like this new game or mode will be based on Shadow's memories being relived after Black Hand (the villain from Shadow the Hedgehog) reappears. Not much is known about this mode yet, but it wouldn't really make sense to have a classic Shadow really, since he wasn't introduced until Sonic Adventure 2, but I can see some levels based off of Radical Highway, maybe a level from Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06 (Or Sonic the Hedgehog, as they called it at the time), Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Forces along with Shadow's own game of course. It's going to be curious to see how they do this exactly, would they just take one level from each of these games like Sonic had? Potentially they could just use the standard 2 act system that the base game uses, but it wouldn't be split into 2D and 3D sections evenly or anything like that, so it could be interesting to see how they cover Shadow's past. We do see in the trailer that we will fight the Biolizard, which is the final boss of Sonic Adventure 2, and is a major part of Shadow's story. I'm curious to see just how much emphasis is placed on that encounter, since in the trailer, it looks like it gets pretty intense.  I'm also interested to see just how the story works into the overall story of Sonic Generations, since Shadow is already in the game as a boss fight to get one of the Chaos Emeralds. Will there be a part where Shadow will have to fight Sonic for some reason? Or will this be a completely unrelated situation to the base game? We'll have to wait and see, but I'm just really excited for more!

    Sonic Generations has been a favorite of mine basically since it came out, and even though it's not a very long experience, it definitely leaves you wanting more, which is why this expansion to the original game is an exciting prospect for me. I hope it will be well executed, it could potentially be tough to recapture the charm of the original games that Shadow's section will be pulling from, and I have to imagine that Shadow won't get guns like he had in Shadow the Hedgehog, but I guess we'll have to see. Not a lot has been revealed about this game still, so most of what I'm discussing here is how I felt about the original game, but I hope that the new release here will be able to match the quality of the original piece. It has been a long time since that game came out, and I hope this new one will be able to last for a good while as well. Sonic games are not coming out as frequently as they once were, which is a good thing if it means that we don't get something like Sonic and the Secret Rings ever again, but it does mean we have to wait a good bit longer for the next title in the series. Truly though, Sonic Generations is a great game, and I've been waiting for a port onto modern consoles for a while, especially after Sonic Colors Ultimate came out a few years ago, and I'm really looking forward to diving into this title again!

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I'm a huge fan of Sonic Generations, so the announcement of it at the Sony State of Play was definitely the highlight for me. I hope you're looking forward to it as well! I hope you're all doing well and having a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Sonic fan, and I'll talk to you again soon!