Sonic X Shadow Generations announced, releases Autumn 2024

Really? I always thought Kingdom Valley had the best mach speed section tbh. Running on the waterfalls was really cool and I always felt it was relatively simple and easy compared to ones in Crisis City or even Wave Ocean where there's a lot of jank that can kill you. Although I will say the parts where you have to jump are pretty annoying on a first playthrough. Best 06 mach speed section isn't exactly a high honor.

 

I would actually argue that Sonic 06 was their first stab at this (sweeping orchestral music, more CG cutscenes, more flashy and expensive technology integration, overly complex and dramatic plot), but of course nearly all of it fell flat on its face.

additionally.......look, you're blowing through it at a million miles an hour. if the choice is between "hit 60 FPS" and "make the environments look nicer for the half second a player runs past it", the choice is obvious. additionally, my time in Generations was extremely taxing because the environments were so detailed that it took a bit of effort to quickly parse out what I was seeing as I was approaching it. I never felt so old before lol. So I do wonder if it's not just a performance concern but also if readability of the level itself came up in play testing.

 

That's how I felt playing Sonic Riders. The levels were pretty full and detailed and it was multiplied 4-fold because we played 4-player split screen. I just felt old playing it.

 

Kinda wondering if Emerl is going to be a boss fight in the game, given that we've now seen Metal Overlord. Between these two and Biolizard, there's a case for Shadow's bossfights following a theme of Ultimate life forms, and it'd make sense for Emerl to show up in Dark Beginnings as a reintroduction to set up for him returning in the game proper. At the same time, maybe Emerl is in the animation because he's not in the game, so there's that. I think Mephiles is still pretty much a lock as Shadow's most defining villain, but I don't think Infinite's a given - the moment he's added, the events of the game are consigned to being wiped from Shadow's memory at the end.

 

Eh, we're already showing Sunset Heights here, it will already be weird having Shadow know about the war and just not tell anyone. More information is needed before we can for sure understand what's going on.

We've got five stages that we can be sure have regular stage gates currently. There isn't enough information to tell what's going on with Radical Highway, but if we assume it has two acts like the rest (and that this is all the stages we're getting), then you could roughly cut those six stages into three "eras" like Sonic Generations does. I could see the game only having three bosses, one per set of two stages. If that's the case, then Doom himself is the only unrevealed boss. However, if we assume there are more than six stages, or that each stage representing a game also has a boss from the same game, then Infinite would have to be repping Forces, there's nobody else left who could.

 

Pretty sure Emerl being an Ultimate Lifeform was a localization-only thing. In the Japanese original he was referred to as "the Ultimate Being" instead. As a robot without an organic battery, it's debatable whether he even counts as a "lifeform".

 

Guys, this is not the same version of What I'm Made Of as in Sonic Heroes. If you listen closely, you can clearly hear they've recorded a new drum track (+ guitars etc?) for it! Sounds like their current drummer's (Akht.) style to me!

Anyway, this behind-closed-doors demo footage is just what my eyes needed to see. Kingdom Valley looks super fun to play. Still a bit sour about the thing with the water, though. Lol

 

Small little detail, but a new instrumentation of "It doesn't matter" can be heard on the game select screen.

 

I agree that it'll probably be a boss per era (two stages) as in original Generations, but Time Eater wasn't attached to an era and was additional to the Egg Dragoon for the modern era, much as I expect Doom to be. I just don't see them going for Infinite over Mephiles, who'd ordinarily be more difficult to write back into the story. Yes, it'd fudge the eras a bit, but 3DS Generations did that too by placing Egg Emperor in the modern era (seriously, why did that game only have two stages strictly representing handheld Sonic???), and 06 was of course classified as modern in original Generations.

Honestly, I think you're fooling yourself. The music really can't be heard clearly over all the other noise in the Metal Overlord fight, and it being reused tracks with the initial showings for the ARK and the Biolizard, which recycled tracks from Shadow the Hedgehog and 3DS Generations respectively. I think any remix of What I'm Made Of (and there will be one) will be much more obviously different to the original.

 

@Starduster 1:50 to 1:55 (Heroes) vs. 0:13 to 0:18 (Sonic Stadium's video) -> more toms
2:06 to 2:08 (Heroes) vs. 0:29 to 0:31 (Sonic Stadium's video) -> different snare fill

When the song restarts at 1:23 you can hear a new kick pattern.

They've re-recorded it, I'm sure of it.

@Sonic5993 Where did you hear that? Is it possible you mean Throw It All Away?

 

There's something about the level design and movement in this game that continues to rub me the wrong way. There's a lot of depth to layout in Kingdom Valley, but it doesn't like like Shadow is much fun to control. In fact, it looks like the player has hardly any option for ingenuity outside of the surfing sections. The gameplay looks pretty rigid! I really want to control Sonic/Shadow/whoever moving in multiple directions, and experience the thrill of navigating these levels.

ShGens is just another boost game, and it's definitely taking most of its lessons from Colours and Forces. It's got a hell of a lot more depth to its layouts than either of those games, but it still looks like it takes inspiration from the lane-runner school of level design. There's hardly a reason to touch the analogue when you're moving him. Every time Shadow needs to change direction however subtly or significantly, he does so with conveniently placed homing targets. You just tell him when to run between them.

There's really no coherence to this post. Just more whiny ramblings. Everyone else seems to love what they're seeing.

 

I like what I'm seeing but man the Ark and Kingdom Valley's visuals are too offputting. One of my friends described it as "being lit like an MCU movie". Everything looks too flat.

 

I love Sonic Generations but unfortunately I reluctantly agree. It's been rubbing me the wrong way too. As a fan of the Boost gameplay, it really shouldn't be a big ask for them to improve it in at least some substantial way. Boost needs more depth. It doesn't need to be non-linear or platforming. It just needs to be more than pressing 'X' and a direction on the thumbstick or holding 'Square'. So far, all the new gameplay additions either fit into these two options or are glorified QTEs. At the very least could they put some challenge into it? Planet Wisp challenges on Generations at least had some difficulty. So much of Boost gameplay nowadays is basically playing on God mode and watching nice aesthetics.

I will say that this looks a lot more visually interesting than anything since Generations. Credit where it's due, they really nailed it visually. But they haven't matched the gameplay or improved it. Generations is almost fifteen years old. It's bewildering that they haven't improved the mechanics of Boost gameplay at all.

To be honest, it might still be fun if you don't think and want to play as Shadow. But as a huge fan of Generations I am pretty lukewarm on it.

 

Think the boost games really needed to utilize drifting and tight turns more. Just lean in on the corridor track design, but make me start thinking like a racer if the only thing you have to offer is going forward and going fast.

I don't want drifting gone, I want up to 11.

 

The removal of drifting in practice has just removed one binary action out of very few binary options in Boost gameplay. With nothing added in its place except the game literally taking the turn for you. I agree, it was a bad decision to remove it.

 

For me, personally, everything so far has been much more than I expected in terms of scope and ambition for "Shadow Generations" when I expected 2 or 3 levels and a couple boss fights AT MOST.

Instead they produced a neat little mini sequel to Generations and Frontiers that shows a clear level of growth and understanding of level design that was lacking in Forces and parts of Frontiers (very fun game but it is not consistent in quality).

I still don't see it or treat this as anything but a side option to make buying Sonic Generations again on PS5 more appealing, and from that perspective this is much more than I could have ever asked for. They might still have some room to grow in terms of level design and game control but considering what this is, an extra mode added to a rerelease, I think they're doing a fantastic job and I can't wait to play it.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd hate to interrupt this conversation but I have urgent news.

A new Whopper just dropped

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I don't know when it's out yet, but I will be reporting my bowel movements after I've consumed this burg. Stay tuned.

 

Is this what we're falling for nowadays?

 

Jaxer, I know we value Sonic here, but the IP is not a highly valued one to be featured burger in Gordon Ramsey Burger Las Vegas. We take what we can get.