Sonic X Shadow Generations thread, movie level out now

Time for an impromptu Doritos deal.

 

Not surprised tbh. I loved it but it really is basically an expansion on a 10+ year old game.

 

At least... Methapor got a indication?

 

TGA is a gigantic joke that only exists to advertise the VG industry. The amount of conflicts of interest on the jury alone is reason not to take any of it seriously.

 

You don't like it when people who've endured months or years of relentless crunch in order to bring something they're passionate about to life are told to shut up after 30 seconds, while Hideo Kojima gets to do a two hour advertisement block for a barely functional tech demo he and some random celebrity briefly glimpsed at?

 

Meh, it's pretty obvious the TGA is more rigged than wrestling and Shadow Gens seems to have been successful even without getting an approved stamp from Geoff and friends. It'll get even better sales during Holidays between the discounts and movie. That's more important to me because it means Sega will make more good shit like that.

 

I'm just here for the ads

 

Same, with E3 dead I'm moreso here for the trailers than the awards, lol.

 

The VGAs wouldn't exist without trailers and ads. Nobody would have the faintest interest otherwise.

 

The game Awards are a bit of a joke but that's the trouble when fans vote for their GOTY.

It's very sad to see Yakuza like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth not there

Don't like Geoff Keighley either. If that man had 2 pairs of lips he'll kiss himself to death.

 

So I managed to beat Sonic Generations' main story on my lunch break today, and my goodness I'd forgotten quite how terrible a final boss the Time Eater is. Barring a couple of the challenges (Rooftop Run's Vector challenge, I'm looking at you) the rest of the game is great fun throughout... and then you're left with that final boss as your last impression. Very little sense of whether you're progressing successfully, poorly explained (does the game ever actually tell you you can shoot the other Super Sonic forwards to destroy debris? It didn't on my playthrough, anyway), constant unnecessary repetitive dialogue from the other characters... It's actually somehow worse than I remembered, and I didn't exactly have glowing memories of it to begin with. I also never want to hear the words "homing shot" again, haha...!

Still, nearly done with the original game now, and final boss aside it's been great fun to revisit - especially the last few doppelganger races which were actually a bit of a challenge to S-Rank. Now all that's left to do before Shadow Generations is... *checks notes* ...S-Ranking the Time Eater fight on Hard Mode. Ugh, suddenly regretting my decision to do all other challenges/collectibles before beating the final boss...

 

GDC and DICE exist without trailers and ads.

Which is also why nobody watches them.

That's by design. TGA is the defacto new E3. Where else would Hideo Kojima shill his latest tech demo?

 

Just a fun little note for PlayStation owners. If you have the PlayStation app and PlayStation Stars (the shitty rewards program) you can start a Campaign to claim a Shadow the Hedgehog digital collectable (not an nft) just by starting Sonic X Shadow Generations.


While you're there, there's also a Venom 3 reward to be claimed by playing any game, so you can multitask.

I wish there was some virtual space I could decorate with these, and that the Shadow one had just a bit more detail to easier go alongside stuff like Venom. The 2d shelf will have to do, I guess...

Edit: while I'm here, here's my "it would be very cool if" fantasy Patch for Generations:
- Some way to share custom setlists for both games and also just an easier way to set them up, potentially able to be used on secondary save files. Maybe even make it so you can use songs from both games.
- an egg shuttle or other challenge mode that compares to the Cyberspace challenges of Frontiers.
- a way to disable Drop Dash
- a way to make Doom Wing auto activate and to also set a default so I don't get put on the Doom Wing scoreboard despite not using it just because I didn't think to disable it (seriously that's so annoying)

 

I absolutely dream of an Egg Shuttle mode. The level design in these games would be benefited by a continuous run, as restarting a level would only slow down your total runtime.

 

Last night I got the platinum trophy for Sonic X Shadow Generations. What a fantastic game!
I normally much prefer Sonic over Shadow and I usually don't play as Shadow, but in this game the Shadow Generations part is just so good. No more jank in the controls or gameplay. When you fail it's totally your own fault.
The PS5 version has haptic feedback when using the DualSense controller and I think the haptic feedback is more noticeable in Shadow Generations than in Sonic Generations. Or it could just be me. I also like that the speaker in the DualSense controller is used for the ring sounds.
I was already impressed with how Sonic Frontiers turned out, but Shadow Generations is on another level. If Sonic Team can build upon this gameplay and physics style for the next Sonic game we are in for a treat.
I cannot believe how good Shadow Generations is. Sonic and Shadow are definitely back!

 

These are all the kinds of basic features that can greatly enhance the user experience but that Sonic Team almost constantly fail to recognise. Don't hold your breath.

An Egg Shuttle equivalent should have been standard long before Colours first introduced it, but even since then it's been absent and only got added to Frontiers in an update. Being booted from the results screen to the hub and then opening the pause menu to go from level to level is arduous.

I don't know why you have toggle Doom Wing on the menu before starting a level, nor why it defaults back to "on" every single time. It won't even remember your previous setting. For the smoothest experience, the game should automatically categorise your scores and times based on whether or not you actually activate the wings. Sonic Team never notice these things though. It's like how Sonic Generations will deny you a perfect bonus if you die before the first checkpoint but still go on to complete the level from start to finish workout any further deaths.

Modern Sonic's drop dash seems like it didn't get any scrutiny. So many people seem to find themselves activating it accidentally because they hold the button for just a fraction of a second too long. Did they not get that feedback during testing? Not to mention the weirdly inconsistent implementation of the move for Classic and Modern. For the former, it's an equipable skill meaning that you can't use in conjunction with certain other skill sets (including Super Sonic) and it's disabled in both boss fights and the White World. But for the latter, it's a permanent addition to his moveset and is genuinely intrusive.

Seriously, Sonic Team really seem to struggle in regards to making a satisfactory UX.

 

Played the first couple of stages of Shadow Generations yesterday. Shadow feels much more responsive to control than Sonic, especially at lower speeds, but the differences in handling and controls between the two are very jarring when you've just marathoned through 100%ing Sonic Generations...! I've got the hang of it now, but had to go back and replay Space Colony ARK Act 1 again straight after finishing it for the first time, as it took me most of the stage to get the hang of how different it all was!

Really enjoying the stage layouts so far though - both Acts of Space Colony ARK had lots of alternate paths to discover, and once I got the hang of the controls I managed to get into a really nice flow of using all Shadow's abilities to move through the stage. Still trying to get the hang of the trick I've seen other folks do of using Chaos Spear to maintain air momentum, but I'm sure that'll click for me eventually, haha.

Have had fun messing about in the White Space too, found quite a few machine parts on my way to Rail Canyon, as well as three or four additional chests I can't open just yet. If they take the design ethos of this are to make a few Adventure Field styled hubs in the next game I wouldn't complain, especially if they're more populated than White Space is.

The presentation is a real step up from Sonic Generations; the cutscenes so far have been really well animated, and already I feel like there's a bit more build-up of the mystery of exactly what's going on, even though I kind of know what's coming. This is the first time I've seen Kirk Thornton's Shadow in anything with any actual length, but he seems to be doing a good job so far. I especially like how he sounds in some of the more introspective moments, his soft-spoken tone reminds me of David Humphrey a little.

I love the little motion-comic style flashbacks too - I watched the "Shadow's Story" recap before playing, but it was very cool to also see a similarly-styled full-length reprise of Maria's last goodbye to Shadow within the game itself. Hoping I'll see a few more of these flashbacks as I progress further.

My one complaint so far is that I wish the room at the end of Space Colony ARK Act 1 had been the Eclipse Cannon control room from Sonic Adventure 2 - it would make way more sense for Tails' fake Emerald to be there rather than in some random other room aboard the ship, since I can't imagine he'd have left it aboard the ARK if anyone had actually bothered to recover it from there...!

 

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=594558746423626&id=100076085176496

1.5 million sales in the first month, before the big holiday rush and the movie's release is pretty good.

For comparison, Frontiers hit 2.5 million between Nov 8 to December 13 (that was the day it was reported at least). I can see SxS hitting that 3 million mark by the end of the year honestly.

 

We're never getting a new Classic Sonic game lol

 

Good. I don't want another one. Sega's made it evident that no matter how hard they try, they cannot recapture what made the classics good. They showed that with 4, Mania, and Superstars. They can't help themselves but to reuse levels and gimmicks from old games and butcher them.