Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

You’re telling me lmao, I’m literally about to be the father of my first child in a matter of weeks, this probably will be the last game I buy for good while haha

If they can implement this level of quality level design into a game with a bit more depth, they can really make something special next round. I think the secret sauce will be coming up with a really solid hub to explore, which they seem to have mostly done with this. Do that and spruce it up with quality gameplay opportunities throughout, and we’ll have something good.

 

We won't have to rely on fangames, as I don't doubt for a second that SEGA will keep Doom Powers around if they see they're popular among players and critics.

 

It includes “Animatic”, early look at its production, not sure if this was known, or it is the advertised “bonus content” exclusive for the PS4/PS5 version

 

So far from my 2 hours of playtime I gotta say this is absolutely worth the hype. It's been a long time since I felt really engaged by a Sonic game. Sure, I enjoyed Frontiers, but ultimately it kind of felt like I was just meandering about the islands, just heading to the next objective marker, I wasn't interested in the story since it would only give me an inch to work with, before throwing everything at you in Rhea. Shadow Generations makes me want to really take in everything, find every crevice, and savour every cutscene. And the levels are shockingly lengthy, taking 3 to 5 minutes for each one, and for a moment I thought to myself "No way they're that long" before realizing the only reason they passed by me so fast is because I was having so much fun. Definitely a 9/10. And I only deduct 1 point because I know by the end of it I'm gonna be so hungry for more...

 

Man, I didn't watch really any of the pre-release stuff and the shit that goes on in these Shadow levels is crazy. Not in the normal psychedelic way Sonic games are, more like bizarre mindfuck stuff, completely bonkers visual and level design. Killer game so far.

I love how Sonic Frontiers has seemingly finally fixed the adventure field issues that go all the way back to Sonic Adventure. 3D sonic games have struggled with an overworld map for a long time, but they've finally nailed it. If this is the template for Sonic games going forward, the series is in really good shape.

I really like all the small cinematic moments in the levels, and the lots and lots of unique animations they have for shadow in special circumstances. Like very early on when he comes out of chaos control and lands and they have that tumbling animation he does. This game feels more animated than just about any other Sonic game I've seen, they stepped up the animation quality a lot.

 

If Sonic Frontiers 2 is just a couple of Shadow Generationses stacked on top of each other, it will be the greatest 3D Sonic game ever made.

On a related note, where the fuck are the Chao in Chemical Plant 2. Collectables should not be this easy to miss in a game this fast.

 

I don't see anyone else mentioning it, but Classic sonic feels different and slightly better than he did in the original Generations. He feels lighter and less rigid. The original generations I felt he was very heavy, and his jump arc was very tight. His jump feels better to me. I also feel like the drop dash works extremely well in Generations as classic sonic. I'm actually really pleasantly surprised, I think this is actually a pretty big improvement over the original and yet I saw nobody ever mention it. Playing this back to back with the original Gens yesterday makes the difference much more noticeable.

Now, the drop dash as modern sonic? Kinda terrible because it's also mapped to the boost button, so you have to do that little weak air dash move before you use it which kills momentum. I wish I could just use X as the dedicated boost button and have drop dash mapped to solely A in the air.

 

Played through the Genesis era before I went to bed last night. Thoughts so far-
--The first thing I noticed was that the opening cutscenes must either be in-engine now or there's like no compression. They look a million times better than they used to
--I've seen folks reacting both positively and negatively to the new dialogue. It's very much "same shit, different words" and as something likely done for the sake of consistency with more recent entries, it's fine. I do like how Sonic responds to his friends after saving them now, instead of suddenly being a mime
--There is something different about Classic Sonic and I can't put my finger on it. He feels more responsive or something, or slightly more like you would expect Classic Sonic to. Before there was something kind of sticky/muddy about his movement, that doesn't seem as present here. Maybe it's a 60fps thing, but I dunno, I've played Generations on PC and on my Series X with Blast Processing or whatever they added. Something is different, but not in a bad way
--The Chao are a minor addition but make the areas feel a little more lively. It's just nice seeing them fly around the hub after you find them
--There have been instances where the Drop Dash was useful with Classic Sonic, but it's pretty useless as Modern Sonic
--I do like Boost being on the right trigger, but like someone else said, it's awkward when Quick Stepping. At the same time, I prefer using Square/X to Spin-Dash as Classic Sonic, so I wish there was a way to split the controls up. I dunno, I'll probably stick with "Legacy" controls and then just deal with Boost suddenly being R2 when I get to Shadow's game (not that I ever had an issue with it in Frontiers)

 

Between the adventure fields, multiple playable characters, and lots of action stages, I'd dare say this is probably the closest we've seen to something that could legitimately be called Sonic Adventure 3 since Sonic Unleashed. This ticks a lot of the boxes, and Shadow's levels feature a lot more big open areas than previous boost titles.

This is a killer package so far from top to bottom. One of the best remasters I've ever seen. Sega hit this out of the park, and once the Sonic 3 movie drops, this is going to sell like crazy. Kids are going to be able to go home and basically play the best hits cutscenes from the movie with exactly the same kind of cinematic flair. What a package.

 

I'm starting to get the impression this is a Mania-level event for 2000s era Sonic fans. Figured I get a read on the top Sonic games played before Shadow Gens gets on Steam officially. SA2 is consistently more played than any other Sonic game on Steam. 2000s fans want that edge and they're finally getting it. It's weird to think that post Dreamcast is retro now, but here we are. Enjoy, youngins.

 

Those brave 11 TSR hold outs.

 

Finished the game in one session, tool me 3 hours, of course only focusing on finishing the stages and leaving side content for later-which appears to be tons of-

Game is "obviously" good/great, keeping me engaged for one long session should speak for itself, even though levels are long there is this sense of speed and flow that makes levels go very fast without stopping, thinking back on it i don’t think i really ever “stopped” in any level

Could say more, but let's just drop some couple takes while i am at it

The gamed does get a bit janky at the end, last doom power in particular is just funky + - -Doom Morph, not wings-  
Also while the White World is densely packed and seems good, it just made me realize how much better sonic movement was in the open zones in Frontiers, places i would easily reach using terrain in Frontiers i could not replicate here, of course it's not the main focus like Frontiers , just funny how the situation is opposite here -speed levels re better controlling than open zone, while it's the opposite in Frontiers

Also pop-ins do exist in the White World, just not as notable, thanks to strong art direction and less objects in general

Still good time, if we can have a game like this every couple of years between main big releases, we should be in for a good time, of course we said similar things when Generations released...
Still feels more positive now than ever, there is more confidence in the brand more than ever, it reflects on the games in recent years

 

Oh, the Chao section in the collection room has hints to where they are. That helps.

 

Got to play it for about an hour last night, about 3 Sonic Generations levels and 4 Shadow levels.

Man, I gotta say, this really shocked me! The Shadow levels are awesome! It feels like between this game and Frontiers that the 3D Sonic Team developers are really honing in and learning what works, because this game feels millions of times better than the boost stuff in both Forces and Frontiers! The level design reminds me a lot more of Unleashed where the levels are basically rollercoasters and tests of reflexes over the more multiple-path style Generations went for, which is not really a bad thing at all. Can't wait to play more of it.

 

So, who was writing this game? Ian? Or did he just wrote dialogues?

The Shadow meets Sonic part, feels really like his sense of humour.

 

I played with it before jumping into Shadow Generations and I also noticed this. It's not classic physics by any means, but the dropdash integrates 'really' well into the game and feels like it was always meant to be there, allowing for better controls than the still absurdly powerful spindash. Overall, it's all just a bit tighter in terms of controls. I can't really notice any differences with the modern controls, but that's fine. Boost gameplay was already pretty mature when this game was made, so no surprise there.

As I said in the other thread, I suspect the sales of this game to be quite strong. It'll appeal strongly to both old and new fans, and the Shadow Generations portion has a surprising amount of depth to the experience, being something of a "generations 2" we never quite got.

 

Does Classic Sonic control any better than the OG game? I read that the controls are a bit tighter

 

Oh yeah, it goes without saying as we all expected it, but it feels really nice being able to boot up the game and not fuck around with a clunky launcher that uses comic sans. I hadn't expected dedicated save slots for Sonic Gens either, but still really nice. Looking forward to the modding scene to come.

 

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I have to wait until the 25th until I can actually play this game...