4/5 ★ – Dima064's review of Sonic x Shadow Generations.

Completed as of writing this review: All Achievements Sonic Generations Remaster: A very barebones remaster but it's better to have this instead of what we got in Colors Ultimate. The content of the original is pretty much intact, though, maybe it's a Mandela effect but I think Classic controls better and is way more responsive here. They have also added Chao as hidden items and those feel completely unnecessary and sometimes annoying to look for, especially in 2D stages. The refined controls placement doesn't fit here and while the re-rendered cutscenes are a good improvement, the rewritten dialogues mostly were not necessary as well. I, like many others, don't like the rewrite as an idea, because it's like rewriting history. And it still doesn't answer some questions, like where is Silver from, Rivals or 06? Also some of the redone voices are worse than the original, probably due to no direction. You can't really call this a remaster, due to the graphics and everything being basically the same. Even the cutscenes are still in 30 FPS! And weirdly some of the achievements from the original were not added. But if you have never tried Sonic Generations before, this is the perfect way to do so! Everything plays like it used to and that's all that matters! Shadow Generations: Is it safe to say that this game is only to print money due to the release of the Sonic 3 movie? Well, since it's not a bad game by any means, it doesn't matter, right? It just feels like they wouldn't have done a Shadow game otherwise, because we all know that Sonic is the mascot. The idea of Shadow's side story is interesting anyway. The result here is a great game! It tries to be something of an evolution after Frontiers, or at least a spin-off. What I mean by this, is that the physics engine and the gameplay loop in general feels more like Frontiers than Generations. That's pretty weird, as I prefer more of Generations' fast-paced gameplay, rather than what Forces and Frontiers had. And their design is actually pretty unique. Now we got not only two but way more paths that eventually connect together. That means that you can basically make your own route as you go, if you want to speedrun for example. Though as much as this level design is great, I don't think it fits Sonic completely because it's more platforming-based. But the stages themselves are long enough, which fixes my main problem with Forces and Frontiers' Cyberspace. There are also going to be occasional moments where the stage won't let you backtrack for keys and that is bad for exploration, as there are a lot of hands off segments that force you to go further. Shadow has new abilities exclusive to this game and they are fine, except for Doom Morph and Doom Wings. Both have the same problem - they turn like a tank. While for Wings it's tolerable, for Morph it's highly annoying sometimes. The game also doesn't give you a hint at all about how to zap through blobs as Morph. Moreover, Shadow also has Chaos Control and Chaos Spear. Those are obvious additions and are fine too but the stages sometimes will require your fingers to dance around the buttons, making you confused. The selection of remade stages is confusing to say the least. First three stages fit without complaints but the inclusion of the games after Generations is confusing to say the least. While I don't mind those, it makes it hypocritical to Sonic's portion, which only had stages older than itself. Also Black Doom seems to really like Radical Highway! The number of stages also falls kinda short, making me say the same as I did with Sonic - I'd prefer less Challenge Missions for one more stage. It's very obvious that I and the majority are confused as to why there are no stages from Shadow's own game? Digital Circuit would be an interesting one to remake here. At least the level design is kinda different in missions and they don't overstay their welcome. The characters chosen for bosses are cool to have, especially Mephiles'. He was the most surprising and I'm glad he didn't add a plothole as Shadow doesn't remember him. Gameplay-wise all of them are not that special though. The game also features QTE but those don't appear much and barely even do an impact, as you can fail some of them without any consequence. Lastly the music has fine remixes but some of those are very weak and even sound silly. Now for the hub world - it's good but doesn't play better than Frontiers' open-zone, as Shadow is very slow. Exploring here is nothing short of tedious, as the map is not helpful at all. It doesn't let you zoom in and doesn't show items correctly or doesn't show them at all! That made it a slog to open chests and collect bolts. There could've at least been a radar like in Frontiers. And those aren't even worth to collect at all, since the concept art was already seen in the internet and the recap of previous games should've been in video form instead of just text. The Gerald's Journal pages is a nice touch for lore enthusiasts though. By the way, the little challenges were not interesting to do at all. However, it's all still better than the hub world from Sonic's portion, which was just a glorified stage select. And the best for last - story and presentation. The plot here is simple as well but the interactions between characters are very well-written and are the main highlight here. The presentation though is top-notch, as the cutscenes and level transitions feature a really great cinematography. I would even dare to say it's the best in the series! (if we're not counting Unleashed's opening of course). What's weird though is that 2 of the cutscenes were stretched. Nothing is perfect of course, the stages didn't impress me like in Sonic's portion. Feels as though the art-style didn't even change and the developers just copy-pasted the textures and background geometry. And in the cutscene where Shadow's backstory is told, Shadow is just as tall as he is today. That would've been fine if other characters didn't grow in the past games. But they did, so that just seems lazy here. The final verdict: It's amazing how we got all that just because of the movie's release! Even this PC port is better optimized than Frontiers! This was a good marketing move but even now I still don't feel like the price is justified. They could've at least made a discount for previous owners of the original Generations. So if we're judging just Shadow's game for this full price outside of the US, this is not enough for my country and probably many others. The game is not completely new, it's a rehash of old things mixed into a new one. I know why the price is like this but that's the 3rd time around when the publisher puts the high price just because of the brand. This is worth to get on sale only. Besides that, highly recommended for fans!