Sonic X Shadow Generations announced, releases Autumn 2024

This covers the set dressing and environmental design perfectly. Is the epitome of this bad, production-line for hmm both in cyberspace and in the open zone where asset spam of floating platforms makes up all of the level design. Colours is designed the same way, as is Forces outside of some very difficult areas (like the opening 3D segment of Sunset Heights). I hate how uninteresting these levels are visually. Everything that you interact with feels artificial.

That thread neglects to mention the negative effect that this approach to environmental design has on the layouts themselves though. There's little to no variation in the terrain. You end up reducing entire levels to a series corridors because they're easiest to model.

 

Here's Fadel gameplay if anyone have any interest:
https://x.com/SSF1991/status/1799601135399133323

This show even more how good the level design is. Also, a 5-6 minutes act.

 

Gameplay and level layouts looks basic. Northing stellar.
But I was only ever here for Shadow anyways, and they're nailing his coolness with the bombastic presentation. Yeah, that's a buy.

 

I'm reserving full judgement until we see more gameplay and the open-zone but all I'll say is that this three-lane boostfest design has gotta permanently go away for the next mainline game. To me it's a bigger sin than 2D sections because eventually it all leads to an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Sonic Team have to learn to break their bad habits and start innovating more.

 

The console version of Shadow Generations is looking great, but I wonder where the footage of the 3ds version is?

 

I hope they fix the “sticking to wall jump surfaces” bug from the PC version.

 

Seven minute levels? We are so back 06 bros.

 

So umm… I’m completely sold. This looks great, especially for a first level! I’m a big fan of the ramps, multiple paths, and the dual level themes. It really feels like Sega has taken our feedback to heart given the increased use of momentum, new assets, and combination of level themes (which I recall many folks said they wanted in Frontiers’ cyberspace stages).

I’ll never buy a sonic game on launch day due to denuvo (I only have a mid tier laptop and a Switch so I hafta wait and see which has better performance) but I’ll def be picking this up.

 

My hopes are that the Shadow content is as plentiful as the Generations content.

 

It won't be.

 

Yeah, this game is looking competent, like it has something substantial to offer. So far it's properly locked in, offers no middling parodies of a gaming trend, wholly submersed with itself and what it's trying to accomplish... I'll see you guys 13 years later for Sonic x Shadow x Silver Generations when the series gets another good title again, and where all the physics puzzles needs Source 2 to function.

Things of general note: I'm happy Fadel knows to properly mess with zones and take those diverging paths, gives us a good enough display of what we'd be dealing with - this level is long and I couldn't be happier, hope we get some solid clips of skips once speedrunners get their hands on it. Secondly, the side to side dash is still in use, I can't wait for the day Sonic Team finally ditch their boost-centric roads and use open spaces properly. Thirdly, I'm concerned by what Iizuka considers "a chunk" to be - I watched the interview, and I was not struck with confidence. I just hope this new material is filling enough.

 

I am fucking shocked at how good the controls look in this. Fadel's fight with the Biolizard sealed the deal. It looks like they learned all the right lessons from Frontiers.

Jury's still out on the level design, but so far I'm completely on board.

 

Besides the arbitrary definition of “not big original enough to be considered it’s own new game” -which can be applied to the likes of Forces, which was even sold at half the price- , or the fact that lots of games can come bundled with other things -like what would you call Astro Playroom that comes with any PS5 and can’t be sold alone, DLC to what, the PS5 console?- , the part about Nintendo not considering Bowsers Fury to be its own game isn’t even true lol



Damn i guess Nintendo doesn’t know the game they made isn’t even in fact a game

Also the fact that the marketing and description makes the Generations remaster feels like an extra, not the other way around

Keywords here are “collection”, term used to refer as collection of games, you don’t add an extra mode and call it new collection.
And “also” refers to the whole of Generations remaster, not the other way around , as if the Generations portion is the real extra addition here lol -wouldn’t be the first or second Sonic game that come bundled with old games-

 

I'm happy with the footage. Not blown away, but happy. I understand people's complaints about level design, and I don't totally disagree with the comparison to Forces, but one of the key differences between Forces and Cyberspace is that, frustrating as the controls were, Cyberspace allowed for a ton more freedom and control in player movement. I may smack my head against the wall that they fucked up the boost turning, but either way, I could use the air boost and double jump to fling Sonic around in ways Mortar Canyon could only dream of, and the overall broadness simply let you carve a path better in one game than another. I think that's coming through a lot better here, and while I agree aggressive linearity is a problem for replay value, I think that stages long and fun enough to support their core mechanics are more important, which this game is clearly shooting for. If Forces' stages had all been as long as Generations I don't think nearly as many people would have been upset with them. It's been style over substance for a while now, but it's hard to be stylish with that little substance. Shadow doesn't have that problem, unless the fact that most of what we saw in the trailer was all one level was indicative of how short the overall game is going to be.

Also, if Fadel's Biolizard fight is anything to judge by, they totally did fix the boost turning, so I'm happy.

 

I want a downloadable demo lol

 

For better or worse, most companies stopped doing this pre-release because it's actually very, very difficult to remove materials that they don't want people having access to AND ensure that the game still fully works as intended. A single file removal can famously render a game unplayable, due to how the code is structured. It's extremely unlikely we'll get such a thing until the game comes out, if at all, mostly to prevent leaks

 

I sure hope we get one, considering how demos are starting to make a comeback.

 

Surely removing assets from a functioning game was technically more of a problem in the PS1 era where demo discs were plenty anyway? I think they don't do it now mainly because they don't want the customer potentially feeling satisfied with the demo experience in lieu of buying the full thing. I had a PS1 demo of Puzzle Fighter that was pretty much the full game as far as the two-player experience went lol. Gameplay videos on Youtube are your demo now as far as they're concerned.

 

No, what I said is definitely still a thing. Does anybody remember how S4 got leaked? That was well after PS1... And there was stuff leaked from GENERATIONS' demo, actually! They aren't going to repeat the SAME mistake they made before lol

 

Also, demos make it harder to dupe people who won't actually enjoy them into buying. There's a reason games with demos tend to sell less, and its because you can learn a lot about whether it might actually be shit.

I honestly don't think we're getting game samples passed out like that ever again without some sort of legislation.