Sonic X Shadow Generations
It’s the early 00s.
I’m wearing my emo baggy jeans.
Linkin Park plays in the background.
Within seconds it all comes flooding back to me.
“This is sick,” I write simply enough in my notes like a horrible millennial.
After playing the demo, I was able to put questions to head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka.
I had to ask: as in his 2005 standalone game, will Shadow wield a gun?
That’s not the case forSonic X Shadow Generations, though, with gameplay fitting the typical Generations template.
All the while electro rock music pounds in the background.
This is 00s cool through and through, and Sonic at its best.
Of course, narratively Shadow is a foil to Sonic too.
Beyond Shadow’s moveset, what really impresses is the uninterrupted flow of the level design.
I ask Iizuka how Shadow’s abilities impact that typical Sonic sense of speed and flow.
Another part of that is the hub world for Shadow.
In that sense, Sonic X Shadow Generations is blending together Sonic past and future.
Unfortunately, the boss battle of this preview brought back less favourable elements from the past.
Bosses have long been a weakness of 3D Sonic games and that won’t change here.
And, well, it’s just as you remember, just a little sharper visually.
For most fans, though, it’s the Shadow campaign that provides the main draw here.
I guess fans just love a bad boy.
