Sonic X Shadow Generations - Switch Review

I’d never played Sonic Generations since it launched back in 2011. In fact, while I’ve dabbled in the odd Sonic The Hedgehog game over the years, I can’t say I’m the biggest blue blur bluff. Although, when we got a review key and no one on the team showed interest, curiosity got the better of me. I mean, it’s generally considered to be the best 2D Sonic title, so I needed to give it a go to determine whether I’d just played the wrong entries and, as such, couldn’t really tell whether it was my taste or the games I had played, or if the series as a whole just isn’t my cup of tea.

And not only have I now played the entirety of one of the series’ best entries, but I’ve also dabbled in Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings, a brand-new addition following Shadow The Hedgehog as he dives into his tragic past. And thus, I have now played Sonic X Shadow Generations and I am now clearer in my opinion on the franchise and much more confused about what this darn name is actually called.

The Good

Sonic Generations as it stands, is generally considered to be one of the better Sonic The Hedgehog entries in recent memory. It originally launched at a particularly crucial time in the series’ history when the Sonic Team was struggling to churn out a game that garnered a review score above 6/10. Sonic Generations launched at a time where the series was particularly lacking, but its positive reviews at the time did not come as a result of fans desperately yearning for another quality Sonic game because all these years later, Sonic Generations is a marvelous game through and through. It stands up as a particularly high bar for the series, whilst not stepping on the toes of the recent retro reimagining like Sonic Mania. Its platforming and momentum-based gameplay is as fluent as ever, it blends both classic and modern Sonic styles together wonderfully and, above all, it’s fun.

Not only is it nice to have a game running well on Nintendo Switch in 2024, but it’s also nice when a Sonic The Hedgehog game runs without much of a hitch. Thankfully, Sonic X Shadow Generations runs quite well on Nintendo Switch; not as well as it does on current gen systems (so I’ve heard), but it’s a generally crisp 720p and a relatively stable 30 frames per second. In hindsight, it’s a little sad that praising 720p 30FPS is a necessity here in 2024 but, well, here we are.

Moving on to Shadow Generations portion, which can be best described as the Bowser's Fury for Sonic Generations. I had to do a bit of research on this one as it all directly harkens back to the events of Sonic Adventure 2 when Shadow The Hedgehog was first introduced. The add-on is arguably just as long as the base game is, practically doubling the length of this package. And boy howdy, Shadow Generations is phenomenal; it's everything I want Sonic The Hedgehog games to be. The base game features many of the issues I tend to have with these games, where it throws random hazards in moments of momentum, as well as Adventure Sonic levels going back and forth between 2D and 3D sections. Shadow's levels are either entirely 2D or entirely 3D, and the sense of flow with his new abilities feel absolutely incredible. If the game was just Shadow Generations, I'd be tempted to give it a perfect score.

TL;DR

• Great source material in the first place
• Stable performance
• Shadow Generations is phenomenal

The Bad

As alluded to in The Good section, while the base Sonic Generations is one of the better Sonic The Hedgehog games out there, the game tends to suffer from disrupting momentum segments. Also, the Adventure Sonic Act levels combine 2D and 3D in disrupting ways.

My only other complaint, which won't be a complaint to long-time Sonic fans (in fact, it'd probably be a pro), is the fact that you probably need to have played quite a few games in the series prior to this one in order to get the most out of it. I'd recommend having played, at the very least, some classic Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Sonic games, as well as both Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.

TL;DR

• Momentum issues in Adventure Sonic Acts
• Not ideal for Sonic newcomers

Final Score: 9/10

Speaking as someone who doesn't usually enjoy Sonic games, this game is phenomenal! It combines so much of what makes Sonic The Hedgehog great, with a wide range of classic Sonic, early 3D Sonic, and the franchise's future. Shadow Generations is so masterfully crafted that, with the recent successes of the Sonic The Hedgehog movies, the franchise truly is experiencing a renaissance era that suggests a bright future ahead of it.

Thank you for checking out our Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings Switch review, thank you to Sega (via Five Star Games) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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