Sonic x Shadow Generations: a few first impressions

I picked up the new sanic game because people were saying it's good. And is it?

So, first thing to be clear about is it's basically two games. There's a remaster/HD remake/something of Sonic Generations, which seems to be mostly the same as the original with the addition of the Drop Dash from Sonic Mania as well as a new/rewritten script which apparently some of the comic people worked on? I'm not sure why it needed a new script, of course the world's worst gamerbros I'm sure have their conspiracy theories as to why but I don't even want to think about them. Since this exists Sega decided to delist the original Sonic Generations from Steam... sort of? It's still available in some bundles but not standalone, I'm not sure if they're worried about it cannibalising sales for their new game or what but then I also don't get why they felt the need to delist the emulated versions of Sonics 1-3K when Origins came out. But yeah, Sonic Generations was as I recall a pretty cool game when it came out and it still holds up OK.

Then there's the second part, the actual new bit - Shadow Generations. Narratively I guess it's supposed to be "what Shadow was doing while Sonic Generations was happening" (maybe this is why new script? to tie in better?) and the plot seems to have a lot of references to I guess Shadow-heavy games but then I did not play Shadow The Hedgehog because I have dignity so some of it goes over my head. Gameplay-wise it's not quite the classic vs modern style of Sonic Generations, instead the two acts of each world are split into modern 2d and modern 3d, either way it's like the boost-style of Sonic gameplay. Also for some reason the controls are different from sonic generations, like in the first game the same button does a jump and a homing attack but now it's two different buttons and messes with my muscle memory. IDK. For 3D sonic game standards the levels are pretty fun.

But there's not just levels, unlike Sonic Generations there is a full-on 3d hub world. For some reason. And from where I'm up to it's saying "ooh do these challenge bits before you can fight the boss" and I went "ehh do I have to?" so that's why I stopped playing it and I'm writing this now.

First impressions, Generations is what it is, like it's over a decade old now and idk what's with the new script but it's fine and does add some stuff. Shadow Generations, well the levels feel decent but I do not like having to fuck around in hub worlds - the biggest problem with modern sonic has always been having to fuck around.

Anyway honestly like at the time I was all "ooh, Generations is finally proper sonic with the classic levels" but tbh now in the present where we have Mania like that is the ACTUALLY proper sonic. It also does not make me fuck around with fucking hub levels. And it looks better with the nice pixel art. But yeah I think sonic x shadow generations is fine. It will not blow your mind if you're not really a sonic fan but if you are it's probably one you'll want to check out instead of ignoring like I have the last several sonic games.