News Sonic X Shadow Generations announced for PC and consoles (UPDATE: coming October 25th)

[JR436]

Here's a different video of the full level; better playing than the original anyway lol.

That bit when you can stop time to make a path out of a row of missiles is so cool.

Give me more Blaze.

 

[StretchNStripes]

The transition from the ARK to Radical Highway with the music coming in is awesome.

I’m hoping its just because its an early level, but it seems like there’s a lot of hallway segments with nothing going on and… it looks a little bland to me. Generations level design has a lot of that, but it also has the boost so it doesn’t feel as egregious. But maybe that will change from actually playing it. I am looking forward to this, nonetheless!

 

[Mandos]

The transition from the ARK to Radical Highway with the music coming in is awesome.

I’m hoping its just because its an early level, but it seems like there’s a lot of hallway segments with nothing going on and… it looks a little bland to me. Generations level design has a lot of that, but it also has the boost so it doesn’t feel as egregious. But maybe that will change from actually playing it. I am looking forward to this, nonetheless!

FYI they only look bland due to bad players, we saw gameplay from better players using boost and those segments actually have a ton of vertical options to speed things up

 

[chocolate_supra]

I think there was an interview where they originally wanted to do "Dreamcast Sonic" as a third Sonic for the original release.

Yeah...this might actually be trying to live up to that!

Yep, I do remember reading that was part of the initial plan.

I dunno if using the Adventure model was what they had in mind or if they were gonna try to make a version that was closer to the wobbly-style art from the era or what, but yeah.

God I wish that model weren't console exclusive. Did Sega not see how people reacted to stuff like the cel-shaded skins for Superstars being exclusive to some random grocery stores?

 

[Lucifer]

That bit when you can stop time to make a path out of a row of missiles is so cool.



Give me more Blaze.

This looks really good! I'm actually getting hyped again for a Sonic game. Why couldn't we have levels like this in Frontiers.

 

[MondoMega]

‘Shadow doesn’t need a gun, he is a weapon’ - Sonic Team talks Shadow Generations | VGC

VGC sits down with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to discuss its upcoming game…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Some notable responses (beyond the one referenced in the title lol):

Is dedicating a year of content to a single character something that’s a special case for Shadow, or would you consider doing it for other characters in future such as Knuckles or Silver?

Well actually 2024 is also the 30th anniversary of Knuckles, so it is also kind of the year of Knuckles as well! We did have the Knuckles TV show on Paramount Plus which got to celebrate that.

We did want to pick a character that would get fans excited, so that’s why we picked Shadow [this year]. But whatever we can use to get fans excited in the future, we definitely want to look at.

What can you tell us about the development team behind Sonic X Shadow Generations? Who’s working on the game?

This game is developed in Japan by Sonic Team. The director of this game is actually Mr Shrahama who was a designer on the original Generations game. We do have a lot of other staff working on the new game who worked on the original.

Did you consider bringing the Sonic Generations exclusive levels to this version?

No, there’s no 3DS version gameplay in this version: it’s based on the console version.

But back in the day, the only Nintendo platform which had Generations was 3DS, so this is going to be the first time Nintendo users will get to experience this kind of gameplay, because it was only on Xbox 360 and PS3.

We noticed in the demo that the two games – Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations – are treated like separate games. Does that mean we should expect a similar volume of content from Shadow?

For Sonic Generations, the story is that everyone got sucked into The White Space, and there you went back through the history of the Sonic franchise. Shadow Generations is happening in parallel to this story, with Shadow also sucked into The White Space and revisiting the famous places from his past.

The difference is that, in Sonic Generations the hub world is 2D sidescrolling, whereas in Shadow the team created an Open Zone hub world like in Sonic Frontiers, where you can run around and do what you want.

So although you talk about Sonic and Shadow Generations being different games, they all feed into the same story and there are a lot of similarities within the game format. It should hopefully feel like a very similar experience and pleasurable playthrough.

Why did you decide to use the Sonic Frontiers style gameplay for Shadow’s hub?

For 3D Sonic games, the design used to be quite linear, which is what we wanted to change with Sonic Frontiers. This new experience became the Open Zone format, which people really liked.

So when we were looking back at what people liked about Shadow’s games in the past, we wanted to apply that Open Zone format somewhere in the game to add something more recent to the experience.

It’s been a few years since Frontiers was released. Should we see the inclusion of Open Zone gameplay here as evidence that you’re quite pleased with how that went?

Some time has passed and I think the big feeling is that the Open Zone format was successful in doing what we wanted to do, which was to bring something new to the table.

We saw that a lot of people who left Sonic games came back, because they thought the style of gameplay was interesting. And also, people who wouldn’t usually be interested in Sonic games also reacted positively to the format.

So I feel really glad that the team decided to challenge themselves with the Open Zone format and I believe it was really successful, because we see lots of people reacting positively to the format.

So in the future, I would really like the team to feel proud about what they made and go and make some more Open Zone format games.

The levels in the original Generations were chosen partly via a fan vote based on their popularity. How did you go about choosing Shadow’s levels for this game?

When we were thinking about the Sonic Generations format for Shadow, we knew we’d need to relive the history of the character and show the moments that were really important for him.

In doing so, the development team looked at what games were popular and which stages were popular within those.

 

[JazzyFuture]

‘Shadow doesn’t need a gun, he is a weapon’ - Sonic Team talks Shadow Generations | VGC

VGC sits down with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to discuss its upcoming game…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Some notable responses (beyond the one referenced in the title lol):

Worth noting that the question about the director has to be mistranslated or a typo, as no one worked on Generations with the name "Shrahama".
It's likely Katsuyuki Shigihara, who was both a designer on Sonic Generations and Sonic Colours, fitting the description, but also made his directorial debut with Sonic Origins.

 

[Jahranimo]

Worth noting that the question about the director has to be mistranslated or a typo, as no one worked on Generations with the name "Shrahama".
It's likely Katsuyuki Shigihara, who was both a designer on Sonic Generations and Sonic Colours, fitting the description, but also made his directorial debut with Sonic Origins.

Ok thanks for this, as that part of the interview scratched my head. Never seen a name like that at Sega, even within Sonic Team.

This interview + Fadel/Gamescage's footage on twitter is selling me big time on this. Dang! Guess it's going to be a busy October.

 

[ProteusRidley]

Also, I know this is incredibly unlikely, but I’m hoping against all odds that this somehow ends up being a “Silver Generations” DLC expansion for Sonic X Shadow Generations—if only because it would be a real possibility that they could finally fix the mess of continuity between Silver, Blaze, and Eggman Nega with something like that, lol.

Did I miss something in regards to the Chao?

 

[Jahranimo]

Yep, I do remember reading that was part of the initial plan.

I dunno if using the Adventure model was what they had in mind or if they were gonna try to make a version that was closer to the wobbly-style art from the era or what, but yeah.

God I wish that model weren't console exclusive. Did Sega not see how people reacted to stuff like the cel-shaded skins for Superstars being exclusive to some random grocery stores?

They probably don't care because $$$ unfortunately.

It'll probably get modded into the Steam version anyway. That shouldn't be the solution but it likely will be unless it can be acquired later on all platforms.

 

[HockeyBird]

Shadow doesn't NEED a gun but he wants a gun and Shadow gets what he wants.

 

[Megafan96]

and to think Geoff just frowned and was like "yeah yeah, year of shadow.. "

Geoff looked like he got a second soul injected in his husk and loudly proclaimed that this upcoming game in 2022 is why he plays video games, and it was another bioshock game.
he cannot be trusted

 

[Tye]

Did I miss something in regards to the Chao?

Here’s what we know about Chao in the game currently (taken from the Sonic wiki):

There are now three Chao emblems hidden throughout every level in the game. Collecting all three of them rescues that particular Chao. These Chao also appear in the first cutscene of the game celebrating Sonic's birthday. The Chao can become a companion of Classic and Modern Sonic in the levels, similar to Sonic Advance 3.

 

[HockeyBird]

Finally, they're making Sonic and Shadow kiss.

 

[chocolate_supra]

‘Shadow doesn’t need a gun, he is a weapon’ - Sonic Team talks Shadow Generations | VGC

VGC sits down with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to discuss its upcoming game…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Some notable responses (beyond the one referenced in the title lol):

The one thing I wanted was the 3DS stages brought in and combined with the "main" game, and their take was basically "but Nintendo fans already played those, and the main game is what will be new to them" which would be a tiny bit disappointing if it hadn't turned out they were Bowser's Fury'ing this

 

[JR436]

The one thing I wanted was the 3DS stages brought in and combined with the "main" game, and their take was basically "but Nintendo fans already played those, and the main game is what will be new to them" which would be a tiny bit disappointing if it hadn't turned out they were Bowser's Fury'ing this

Admittedly I've never actually played the 3DS version, but having watched the levels being played I'm not sure we're missing much.

The locales though? That'd have been cool, particularly seeing Water Palace given the HD treatment.

More gameplay from that Fadel guy, but optimised.

 

[neon]

god shadow is so fucking cool

 

[Lucifer]

Admittedly I've never actually played the 3DS version, but having watched the levels being played I'm not sure we're missing much.

The locales though? That'd have been cool, particularly seeing Water Palace given the HD treatment.

More gameplay from that Fadel guy, but optimised.

I've played it and in terms of level design you're not missing much. The only fun thing in about the 3DS game is the themes and music. The levels would need to be completely new levels to actually match the quality of Generations.

 

[Tye]

‘Shadow doesn’t need a gun, he is a weapon’ - Sonic Team talks Shadow Generations | VGC

VGC sits down with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to discuss its upcoming game…

www.videogameschronicle.com

Some notable responses (beyond the one referenced in the title lol):

We noticed in the demo that the two games – Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations – are treated like separate games. Does that mean we should expect a similar volume of content from Shadow?

For Sonic Generations, the story is that everyone got sucked into The White Space, and there you went back through the history of the Sonic franchise. Shadow Generations is happening in parallel to this story, with Shadow also sucked into The White Space and revisiting the famous places from his past.

The difference is that, in Sonic Generations the hub world is 2D sidescrolling, whereas in Shadow the team created an Open Zone hub world like in Sonic Frontiers, where you can run around and do what you want.

So although you talk about Sonic and Shadow Generations being different games, they all feed into the same story and there are a lot of similarities within the game format. It should hopefully feel like a very similar experience and pleasurable playthrough.

I missed this earlier—ah, so Shadow Generations does take place concurrently with Sonic Generations after all. Interesting, I guess Shadow only started tracking what he later learned to be Doom’s Eye after being sucked into White Space then. I forgot that the hub world is also obviously White Space, lol.

Finally, they're making Sonic and Shadow kiss.

They’re leaning so hard into Sonadow territory with some of the stuff surrounding this game that I feel some of it has to be intentional, lol.

Look at this adorable Sonadow keychain in the Japanese collector’s edition! Like…c’mon!!

Or this keychain with Sonic and Shadow…connected by a ring…lol.

 

[Mandos]

I missed this earlier—ah, so Shadow Generations does take place concurrently with Sonic Generations after all. Interesting, I guess Shadow only started tracking what he later learned to be Doom’s Eye after being sucked into White Space then.



They’re leaning so hard into Sonadow territory with some of the stuff surrounding this game that I feel some of it has to be intentional, lol.

Look at this adorable Sonadow keychain in the Japanese collector’s edition! Like…c’mon!!

Or this keychain with Sonic and Shadow…connected by a ring…lol.

That’s just so sonic can use Lightspeed dash to actually injure shadow

 

[Tye]

That’s just so sonic can use Lightspeed dash to actually injure shadow

Nah they gay~ =p

 

[totofogo]

Finally, they're making Sonic and Shadow kiss.

best pride month announcement

 

[Tailzo]

That's a lot more than a remaster....

Looks great!

 

[JR436]

One detail I noticed in the "optimised" gameplay I posted earlier is that Shadow can use Chaos Spear at will.

I think some were under the impression that it was context sensitive with the Biolizard fight. It appears the Chaos Gauge is a catch all for his abilities.

 

[Jahranimo]

Got a video from someone else who played at SGF but with clearer audio.



The new Supporting Me remix is incredible. I hope Sega starts uploading songs from the game on their Youtube soon.

 

[JR436]

Got a video from someone else who played at SGF but with clearer audio.



The new Supporting Me remix is incredible. I hope Sega starts uploading songs from the game on their Youtube soon.

Weird how VGC seemingly used placeholder music from ShTH whereas there seems to be an actual remix for the Ark stage in this video.

 

[chocolate_supra]

 

[Jbone916]

I would love nothing more than a game like this but without the boost mechanic. The visuals, music, animation, and even level design seem on point but it's hard to appreciate it when youre boosting through the level with a screen blur effect and added sound effects. The adventure games control so well too, while the Unleashed-style games have always felt stiff to me when doing actual platforming.

I'll still (probably) buy this of course.

 

[chocolate_supra]

I would love nothing more than a game like this but without the boost mechanic. The visuals, music, animation, and even level design seem on point but it's hard to appreciate it when youre boosting through the level with a screen blur effect and added sound effects. The adventure games control so well too, while the Unleashed-style games have always felt stiff to me when doing actual platforming.

I'll still (probably) buy this of course.

I so so so so so so want a return to Adventure-style gameplay. And Frontiers got close! But boosting sorta trivializes some of the movement and the platforming is goofed by the weird jump physics. But it feels like 75% of the way to me, hopefully they nail it with the next one (even though the next one will still have boost)

 

[JazzyFuture]

Got a video from someone else who played at SGF but with clearer audio.



The new Supporting Me remix is incredible. I hope Sega starts uploading songs from the game on their Youtube soon.

That Final Rush remix is also really good. Surprised they didn't go for Final Chase's music cause it's Shadow's theme for the same level idea? Whatever.
EDIT: oooh also I just realized something I kinda assumed from the VGC footage, but wasn't sure. The soundtrack is possibly dynamic! New sections play depending on what section of the level you're at, and it wasn't just synced up very well for the Radical Highway part. Thank you to the person playing for not really playing the fastest, I mean it.

 

[Jahranimo]

That Final Rush remix is also really good. Surprised they didn't go for Final Chase's music cause it's Shadow's theme for the same level idea? Whatever.
EDIT: oooh also I just realized something I kinda assumed from the VGC footage, but wasn't sure. The soundtrack is possibly dynamic! New sections play depending on what section of the level you're at, and it wasn't just synced up very well for the Radical Highway part. Thank you to the person playing for not really playing the fastest, I mean it.

Yeah I was a bit surprised it was just a remix of Final Rush as well, I was looking forward to it sounding more like The Ark from Shadow the Hedgehog....I think because the scope is smaller but more focused they can add in more in depth details like the dynamic music changes and Shadow's various animations based on what cinematic part of the level he's at.

Now I very badly want to see Rail Canyon/Bullet Station and how they'll have all the rail grinding for today's era of Sonic games.

 

[MondoMega]

Thanks to that video we can easily see the other collectibles; I wonder if the book is actually for some in-game form of Gerald's journal, while the paintbrush is concept art? Music is pretty obvious though lol.

As for the music; it's funny they've done the exact same thing they did with Superstars again, sending press gameplay with music that differs from the demo actually present at the associated event.

• A Final Rush remix for Space Colony ARK is a fun choice, though i'd bet Act 2 goes for Final Chase. Shame for people who were excited for a remix of The ARK from ShTH though.
• The results theme pulling from ShTH should've been obvious, but it's still nice to hear.
• The press gameplay used the 3DS Biolizard theme for one clip and then switched to the new arrangement; here it's all the new arrangement from the beginning of the fight. I don't know how these things even happen lol.
• The menu appears to have an arrangement of Throw It All Away, though it doesn't get long to play in the footage.

---

We also got a few more details about the hub from a Japanese news post; seems like there are NPCs to talk to and challenges to complete.

 

[ziggyrivers]

Someone mentioned that Sonic Team used the Frontiers DLC and now Shadow extension to experiment around. I wonder if these leasons learned could be used for a hypothetical Adventure 2 remake

 

[MaskedRider]

Someone mentioned that Sonic Team used the Frontiers DLC and now Shadow extension to experiment around. I wonder if these leasons learned could be used for a hypothetical Adventure 2 remake

Yes please

 

[JazzyFuture]

I do want to point out something at least. There's still a possibility that The ARK from ShTH is remixed in Shadow Generations, and not just for a jukebox track like base Generations.
The ARK's theme actually takes it's main guitar riff leitmotif from Final Rush, just slowed down, so it'd actually work well as an Act 2 remix while still technically being the same melody. They could just go for another one of the billion songs that play in an ARK level though

 

[Tye]

I’m tying my brain in knots trying to figure out what the hell this game’s stage selection and structure will be like. I’m gonna assume that every stage (not necessary each act of every stage, though) is going to have a segment where Doom’s Eye comes in transports Shadow to a warped version of a stage from the same game, since that’s already confirmed for Space Colony ARK and seems to be the case for Rail Canyon, too. Now that we figured out the mystery of the multiple Radical Highway songs, I don’t think Radical Highway is going to get its own normal stage since, since that’d probably be redundant and require a lot of reworked assets (since they’d have to make both warped and normal versions). However, that either means that Adventure 2 only gets one stage (with both Final Rush/Chase and Radical Highway represented in it), or it has two and the second is White Jungle mixed with Sky Rail. However, I’d be surprised if Sky Rail is used at all since it’s pretty similar to Rail Canyon, though I suppose a warped version focusing more on Pumpkin Hill-like elements could work… Also, I’m worried that Rail Canyon being picked as a Sonic Heroes stage means Egg Fleet may not show up, since they’re both largely rail-focused stages set in the sky…

Also, the more I think about it, the more I don’t understand how Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations are supposed to take place concurrently. Like, surely the Chaos Emeralds will be featured in Shadow Generations (Shadow has to have at least one to be able to use Chaos Control, anyway), but Sonic’s collecting them in Sonic Generations… Also Shadow shows up again at the end of Sonic Generations, so, like, is this supposed to happen between the Sonic vs. Shadow battle and the end of Sonic Generations, or does it all happen before the Sonic vs. Shadow battle…or does it all happen after Sonic Generations (though that wouldn’t really be happening simultaneously anymore, lol)? I want to believe that they’ve actually tried to make it make sense since Ian Flynn is supposed to have written it…

 

[LouisACommie]

seems we have mostly recovered with the level design philosophy as far aslinear stages go
though frontiers cyberspace has the excuse of being rushed and before the budget recovered from the post boom fallout pre movie success restoration
forces was also low budget and designs in a year.
The real question is lost world idk why the levels were so flat despite the gravity gimmick and the bad single gimmick levels.

 

[chocolate_supra]

The real question is lost world idk why the levels were so flat despite the gravity gimmick and the bad single gimmick levels.

Lost World felt to me like they watched some of the old dev footage of Sonic X-Treme and went "what if we tried that sort of level design again?" then made one level like that and were somehow tapped out

 

[JR436]

I’m tying my brain in knots trying to figure out what the hell this game’s stage selection and structure will be like. I’m gonna assume that every stage (not necessary each act of every stage, though) is going to have a segment where Doom’s Eye comes in transports Shadow to a warped version of a stage from the same game, since that’s already confirmed for Space Colony ARK and seems to be the case for Rail Canyon, too. Now that we figured out the mystery of the multiple Radical Highway songs, I don’t think Radical Highway is going to get its own normal stage since, since that’d probably be redundant and require a lot of reworked assets (since they’d have to make both warped and normal versions). However, that either means that Adventure 2 only gets one stage (with both Final Rush/Chase and Radical Highway represented in it), or it has two and the second is White Jungle mixed with Sky Rail. However, I’d be surprised if Sky Rail is used at all since it’s pretty similar to Rail Canyon, though I suppose a warped version focusing more on Pumpkin Hill-like elements could work… Also, I’m worried that Rail Canyon being picked as a Sonic Heroes stage means Egg Fleet may not show up, since they’re both largely rail-focused stages set in the sky…

Also, the more I think about it, the more I don’t understand how Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations are supposed to take place concurrently. Like, surely the Chaos Emeralds will be featured in Shadow Generations (Shadow has to have at least one to be able to use Chaos Control, anyway), but Sonic’s collecting them in Sonic Generations… Also Shadow shows up again at the end of Sonic Generations, so, like, is this supposed to happen between the Sonic vs. Shadow battle and the end of Sonic Generations, or does it all happen before the Sonic vs. Shadow battle…or does it all happen after Sonic Generations (though that wouldn’t really be happening simultaneously anymore, lol)? I want to believe that they’ve actually tried to make it make sense since Ian Flynn is supposed to have written it…

Technically Shadow can use Chaos Control without a Chaos Emerald, or at least a form of it. Shadow uses it to chase Black Doom after the latter steals them all in The Last Way.

I do think he's using an Emerald though, given that Chaos Control has a green hue. The first time we see Shadow using the ability in SA2 is when he has the green Emerald, so it might be a reference to that.

God, I'm such a nerd.

As for the story, I imagine they'll handwave some of it. Though I wouldn't mind them explaining why Shadow is so bizarrely hostile to Sonic in Generations. They at least give Silver the excuse of thinking Sonic is a fake. Shadow on the other hand just wants to "finish" Sonic for...reasons?

 

[Arrietty]

I like that Final Rush, Shadows final level in SA2, is the first level of the game here. The complete inverse of how Sonic Generations starts off with Green Hill Zone

 

[Arrietty]

Technically Shadow can use Chaos Control without a Chaos Emerald, or at least a form of it. Shadow uses it to chase Black Doom after the latter steals them all in The Last Way.

I do think he's using an Emerald though, given that Chaos Control has a green hue. The first time we see Shadow using the ability in SA2 is when he has the green Emerald, so it might be a reference to that.

God, I'm such a nerd.

As for the story, I imagine they'll handwave some of it. Though I wouldn't mind them explaining why Shadow is so bizarrely hostile to Sonic in Generations. They at least give Silver the excuse of thinking Sonic is a fake. Shadow on the other hand just wants to "finish" Sonic for...reasons?

my headcanon is that that shadow rival was SA2 era Shadow due to time travel shenanigans. he was not there at sonics party to be sucked into the time portals. which even makes more sense if you think about it: shadow generations occurs in parallel to sonic generations, so the playable shadow is the present shadow.

same with metal sonic who mysteriously came back. idk about silver though, gonna assume the same. i dont think he was at sonics party at the end was he?
UPDATE: no he were there at the party in the end. hmm..

UPDATE2: i forgot shadow even showed up at the party in the end too. maybe its all the same exact shadow. probably just a "hey you get to fight him, hes gonna be hostile for gameplay reasons". i wonder if the entirety of the new game takes place between that rival fight and the time eater fight? or maybe we're giving this way more thought than sonic team is. lol

also oops i realize i made a double post lol

 

[Mer.Saloon]

Ark is pretty damn huge for a modern sonic level isnt it? Yeah Choc wasnt going optimally, but 6:33 for a level that was largely 3D is out of the norm.

 

[Tye]

Though I wouldn't mind them explaining why Shadow is so bizarrely hostile to Sonic in Generations. They at least give Silver the excuse of thinking Sonic is a fake. Shadow on the other hand just wants to "finish" Sonic for...reasons?

This is sadly just in line with how Sonic Team treats the character from the 2010s onward. Shadow isn’t allowed to be anything more than an edgy rival to Sonic who’s always challenging him because that’s just what he does. Hopefully that changes in Shadow Generations, at least, with it being a giant love letter to the games where Shadow actually had somewhat deeper characterization than just “Sonic’s rival”.

 

[JR436]

This is sadly just in line with how Sonic Team treats the character from the 2010s onward. Shadow isn’t allowed to be anything more than an edgy rival to Sonic who’s always challenging him because that’s just what he does. Hopefully that changes in Shadow Generations, at least, with it being a giant love letter to the games where Shadow actually had somewhat deeper characterization than just “Sonic’s rival”.

They don't even commit to the bit in Generations considering he shows up to cheer on Sonic against Eggman at the end.

The dialogue he has during the Biolizard fight gives me hope they're going back to what made the character work.

The guy has edge, but he has heart too. I don't even his own game forgot that amongst all the gunfire and swearing.

 

[Tye]

I’m tying my brain in knots trying to figure out what the hell this game’s stage selection and structure will be like. I’m gonna assume that every stage (not necessary each act of every stage, though) is going to have a segment where Doom’s Eye comes in transports Shadow to a warped version of a stage from the same game, since that’s already confirmed for Space Colony ARK and seems to be the case for Rail Canyon, too. Now that we figured out the mystery of the multiple Radical Highway songs, I don’t think Radical Highway is going to get its own normal stage since, since that’d probably be redundant and require a lot of reworked assets (since they’d have to make both warped and normal versions). However, that either means that Adventure 2 only gets one stage (with both Final Rush/Chase and Radical Highway represented in it), or it has two and the second is White Jungle mixed with Sky Rail. However, I’d be surprised if Sky Rail is used at all since it’s pretty similar to Rail Canyon, though I suppose a warped version focusing more on Pumpkin Hill-like elements could work… Also, I’m worried that Rail Canyon being picked as a Sonic Heroes stage means Egg Fleet may not show up, since they’re both largely rail-focused stages set in the sky…

Following up on these thoughts, I’m getting increasingly worried that there will only be one proper stage (with a second, warped version mixed in) per game. I think it’s likely that they’re going to focus on the more plot-relevant stages for Shadow—Space Colony ARK (with a warped Radical Highway) obviously makes the most sense of any SA2 stage; Rail Canyon (and Bullet Station) is where Shadow first discovers a Shadow android and begins to question his reality post-revival; and Kingdom Valley, well…okay, this one is a bit of a head scratcher because it’s not the most plot-relevant stage for Shadow in ’06, but I believe it’s supposed to be the area in which the Solaris Project happened in the past so I guess there’s that.

Anyway, what really worries me is that after Final Chase and Radical Highway, there are only two Shadow stages left in SA2—White Jungle and Sky Rail, either of which are particularly important stages for Shadow compared to the other two that are already represented. This has me worried that we’ll only be getting the one SA2 stage, and if SA2 of all games only gets one stage, I can’t imagine Heroes, Shadow, or ’06 getting more than one, either. If they do have every stage be mixed with a warped version of another stage from the same game, that would at least be a way of representing 8 stages overall…but it’s more like 8 half stages to make just 4 full stages. Yet if each game gets two stages instead of one, while still mixing in warped stage for each one as well, that would be 16 half stages to make 8 full stages…which would kind of be more than we got in Sonic Generations, so I’m not sure that would really happen, either…

The other possibility would be for something in between, like each game getting two stages, but only one of those two stages is a two-for-one deal with an extra warped stage mixed in; this would make a total of 8 full stages but with 12 stages represented overall, 3 from each game. However, if that was going to be the case…I can’t imagine why they would choose White Jungle (or Sky Rail, I guess, but I doubt they’d choose that over White Jungle) to be the one stage from SA2 that gets to be fully itself when you think that honor would have gone to Radical Highway or the ARK stage… I dunno, I just can’t make sense of what they’re gonna do with the stages here, but I really hope that we’re gonna get more than just four full stages (one per game)… The fact that there’s already a DLC stage confirmed also contributes to my worries that the number of stages in the base game may be more on the lower side, too…

 

[JazzyFuture]

...and Kingdom Valley, well…okay, this one is a bit of a head scratcher because it’s not the most plot-relevant stage for Shadow in ’06, but I believe it’s supposed to be the area in which the Solaris Project happened in the past so I guess there’s that.

Kingdom Valley is where Mephiles takes on Shadow's form, meaning we'll likely get a Mephiles boss for 06. Ian Flynn said a while ago that he wanted to make the Time Eater be connected to Mephiles in Archie, so there's a possibility that that becomes canon with Flynn contributing to the stories now. The Time Eater is pretty unexplained in Generations, so it'd make sense to explain it more here.

I'd say White Jungle is pretty important for Shadow, Sky Rail shares a lot of visual overlap with Rail Canyon so I can't exactly see them doing that. I'm at least betting on White Jungle appearing for a fight against Sonic that's not just copy pasted from Sonic Generations (where Roger and Kirk can redub the faker scene too), plus it'd be good to use to introduce Rouge in the hub world, as that level is about saving Rouge instead of escaping selfishly, showing Shadow's heroic side for more than just Maria. I think they'll do more than one and half levels for each game.

We technically don't have a Shadow the Hedgehog original level announced yet (although most of ShTH's levels are technically from SA2), the most is The ARK which is more taking from SA2 using Final Rush's music and a fight against the Biolizard, so I could definitely see them pulling multiple from a single game, cause there's not many games where Shadow is very relevant. The PS Blog post about the announcement had to mention Sonic Battle, and there's not exactly a lot to go off there for a stage.

I guess they could technically pull a stage theme from Forces cause the Time Eater doesn't have to stop at everything before Generations, but that might just be me being the one unironic fan of Infinite hoping he gets to show up outside of mobile games.

 

[Mekanos]

I think both the boost and Adventure styles have their benefits. I definitely would love a return to the Adventure style though as it's been so long.

 

[Brenal]

Following up on these thoughts, I’m getting increasingly worried that there will only be one proper stage (with a second, warped version mixed in) per game. I think it’s likely that they’re going to focus on the more plot-relevant stages for Shadow—Space Colony ARK (with a warped Radical Highway) obviously makes the most sense of any SA2 stage; Rail Canyon (and Bullet Station) is where Shadow first discovers a Shadow android and begins to question his reality post-revival; and Kingdom Valley, well…okay, this one is a bit of a head scratcher because it’s not the most plot-relevant stage for Shadow in ’06, but I believe it’s supposed to be the area in which the Solaris Project happened in the past so I guess there’s that.

Anyway, what really worries me is that after Final Chase and Radical Highway, there are only two Shadow stages left in SA2—White Jungle and Sky Rail, either of which are particularly important stages for Shadow compared to the other two that are already represented. This has me worried that we’ll only be getting the one SA2 stage, and if SA2 of all games only gets one stage, I can’t imagine Heroes, Shadow, or ’06 getting more than one, either. If they do have every stage be mixed with a warped version of another stage from the same game, that would at least be a way of representing 8 stages overall…but it’s more like 8 half stages to make just 4 full stages. Yet if each game gets two stages instead of one, while still mixing in warped stage for each one as well, that would be 16 half stages to make 8 full stages…which would kind of be more than we got in Sonic Generations, so I’m not sure that would really happen, either…

The other possibility would be for something in between, like each game getting two stages, but only one of those two stages is a two-for-one deal with an extra warped stage mixed in; this would make a total of 8 full stages but with 12 stages represented overall, 3 from each game. However, if that was going to be the case…I can’t imagine why they would choose White Jungle (or Sky Rail, I guess, but I doubt they’d choose that over White Jungle) to be the one stage from SA2 that gets to be fully itself when you think that honor would have gone to Radical Highway or the ARK stage… I dunno, I just can’t make sense of what they’re gonna do with the stages here, but I really hope that we’re gonna get more than just four full stages (one per game)… The fact that there’s already a DLC stage confirmed also contributes to my worries that the number of stages in the base game may be more on the lower side, too…

So aparently in an interview with Sonic Stadium Lizuka may have confirmed that the act2 will be 2D, in contrast to the act1 that is 3d, in order to be consistent with Sonic generations, although the wording is a bit vague but it may explain the lack of 2d sections in Ark act 1, even though we saw 2d kingdom valley in the trailer , maybe Space Colony Ark act 2 will merge with a different stage

 

[HockeyBird]

I'm posting this video because I had a chuckle when he was saying Sonic Generations was one of the highest rated 3D Sonic games ever while showing a 77 Metacritic score and then I started laughing when he said that rounds up to an 80. lol The perspectives and expectations between a Sonic fan and say a Mario fan are so wildly different. But I get it.

I'm actually surprised that Generations had a 77 Metacritic score. I thought it'd be hire given the amount of praise it gets nowadays. From what I played of the game, I'd probably give a 7. I think Classic Sonic kind of controls like crap...

 

[ILikeFeet]

modern sonic is too constricted to the boost formula in Generations. it ruins older 3D levels, IMO. and levels in general since it allows for cheesing.

still like Colors more