Shadow Generations (シャドウ ジェネレーションズ^[4], Shadō Jenereeshonzu^?) is a video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega, featuring Shadow the Hedgehog as the main protagonist. The game's plot runs parallel to that of Sonic Generations (2011) and centers on Shadow as he must stop Black Doom from taking over the world. Rather than being released as a standalone game, it is instead bundled with a remaster of Sonic Generations in Sonic X Shadow Generations, a product bundle which released on 22 October 2024 for players who purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition, with the regular version set for release on 25 October 2024.

Plot[]

During Sonic's birthday party, Rouge contacts Shadow asking if he will be coming. Shadow declines, explaining that GUN sent him to investigate an abnormal bio-sign on Space Colony ARK. The signal is revealed to be from Doom's Eye, and Shadow pursues it. After collecting the fake Chaos Emerald Tails used to trick Eggman in Sonic Adventure 2, the Time Eater appears to drag Shadow into White Space, where a Black Arms satellite hangs in the air.

Shadow meets Omega, who had been tracking the Time Eater before being pulled into White Space as well. He soon notices that he is manifesting new powers, and as he questions their origins he sees Maria and Professor Gerald off in the distance. He is surprised but dismisses the incident as a hallucination. Soon afterwards, he encounters a strange relic that grants him his first of his Doom Powers, the Doom Spear. Shadow then makes his way to Rail Canyon, encountering Doom's Eye once more. Eventually he faces off against the Biolizard, slaying the prototype of the Ultimate Life once again. Its defeat causes a new region of White Space to manifest.

Black Doom contacts Shadow through a projection of Doom's Eye. He reveals that he survived their last fight and intends to use the Time Eater's anomalies to accelerate the rebuilding of the Black Arms army and pursue the conquest of the world once again. Shadow demands that Black Doom show himself, but the overlord cryptically tells Shadow that they will not battle again until Shadow has been "perfected".

Gameplay[]

The gameplay of Shadow Generations is similar to that of Modern Sonic's gameplay from Sonic Generations, with elements from Sonic Frontiers, featuring both 3D movement along with the occasional 2.5D side-scrolling section throughout the stages. As such, Shadow retains many of the same abilities as Modern Sonic, including the Spin Jump, Homing Attack/Chaos Snap, Stomp, Boost, and Air Boost. Unlike Sonic Generations, the levels of the campaign will be put together so they have a feeling they are joined.

However, Shadow also has many abilities exclusive to him which make use of his various Chaos powers. One of those is the Chaos Snap, which Shadow uses to attack enemies instead of the Homing Attack, instantly teleporting to them, allowing him to go through certain obstacles that the Homing Attack cannot, such as lasers. He can also fire Chaos Spears to stun enemies and hit distant targets. His most prominent Chaos power however, is Chaos Control. In addition to the Boost Gauge, Shadow has another gauge known as the Chaos Gauge. When the Chaos Gauge is filled, he can activate Chaos Control, which stops time for a few seconds, allowing him to be unharmed by obstacles that would normally damage him. These frozen obstacles can then be used in other ways, such as using them as platforms. Under Chaos Control he can also perform a currently unnamed move similar to the Light Speed Dash along a trail of green energy. While the ability is active, the in-game timer is paused, while a small timer appears above Shadow's head, reminding the player of the time remaining before the ability wears off.^[5]

In addition to his Chaos powers, Shadow will also gain access to Doom Powers throughout his adventure that grant him new abilities, such as the ability to surf on water, growing wings that enable him to fly, and more.

Controls[]

Shadow Generations uses a similar control scheme to Sonic Frontiers, though a legacy control scheme option is available. For the PC version, it is also possible for the player to customize the button mapping.

Button formation				Movement
Switch	PS4/PS5	Xbox One/Series X and S	PC
left/right			[A]/[D]	Move/Grind Step
up			[W]	Look up
down			[S]	Look down/Crouch
			[SPACE]	Spin Jump
(mid air)	(mid air)	(mid air)	[LEFT CLICK] (mid air)	Homing Attack / Chaos Snap
			[SHIFT]	Boost/Air Boost
/	/	/	[Q]/[E]	Quick Step
			[CTRL]	Slide
(mid air)	(mid air)	(mid air)	[CTRL] (mid air)	Stomp
			[Z]	Chaos Spear
(on wall)	(on wall)	(on wall)	[SPACE] (on wall)	Wall Jump
			[F]	Chaos Control
x2	x2	x2	[SPACE] x2	Double Jump
+	OPTIONS	START	[P]	Pause

Objects[]

Items[]

• Goal Ring
• Item Box
• Ring
• Super Ring

Gimmicks and obstacles[]

Characters[]

Playable[]

• Shadow the Hedgehog

Skins[]

• Terios
• Movie Shadow

Non-playable[]

Enemies[]

Stages[]

There are currently six stages for Shadow Generations. Much like Sonic's campaign, Shadow's sees him go through stages from his past, as well as some stages from his and Sonic's futures. The levels in Shadow Generations are connected by a massive and open 3D hub world of White Space, which contains its own items, power-ups, and characters.

According to Iizuka, there will be moments in the game when Shadow will cross paths with Sonic. He also explained that the reason why there are levels from games after Sonic Generations, is simply because the development team wanted to include games all the way up to Sonic Frontiers.^[6]

As part of the "Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Movie Pack", an unnamed Tokyo Stage based on the location of the same name will be added to the game on December 12th.

Stage	Original appearance
Space Colony ARK[note 1]	Sonic Adventure 2
Rail Canyon	Sonic Heroes
Kingdom Valley	Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Sunset Heights	Sonic Forces
Chaos Island	Sonic Frontiers
Radical Highway	Sonic Adventure 2
Unnamed Tokyo Stage (DLC)	Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (film)

Bosses[]

The game will feature multiple boss battles.

Stage	Location	Original game
Biolizard[7]	Cannon's Core	Sonic Adventure 2
Metal Overlord	Final Fortress	Sonic Heroes
Mephiles the Dark	Dusty Desert	Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Devil Doom/Neo Devil Doom[8]	Radical Highway	Shadow the Hedgehog and Shadow Generations

Differences from Sonic Generations[]

Gameplay features[]

• Unlike in Sonic Generations, where the Boost Gauge can be refilled by both collecting Rings and defeating enemies, Shadow can only refill the Boost Gauge with Rings, like how Sonic does in Sonic Unleashed, while defeating enemies fills up the Chaos Gauge instead.
• The Drift and Light Speed Dash abilities are not present in Shadow Generations, with the respective buttons used to activate them in Sonic Generations being used to activate Chaos Control and Chaos Spear instead. However, an ability that Shadow has while under Chaos Control functions similarly to the Light Speed Dash albeit with green energy instead of Rings.
• Shadow has the Double Jump, rather than Modern Sonic's Jump Dash.
• When the controls are set to "Legacy", only the button used to activate Shadow's Boost is changed. The Chaos Snap/Homing Attack always uses the //[LEFT CLICK] buttons to activate, regardless of settings.
• White Space in Shadow Generations is presented as a 3D, open hub world, inspired by the open-zone design of Sonic Frontiers, whereas Sonic Generations uses a 2D side scrolling hub world.
• Instead of collecting five Red Star Rings, each level instead features three of a new collectible known as Collection Keys. These are items found throughout the levels that each have icons of a book, musical note, and paintbrush.
• A different ranking system is used.
  • The player is now able to get an S-Rank with a clear time fast enough, while the Perfect Bonus, the bonus that boosts the score rank by one rank, is absent.^{[9][note 2]}
  • Maximum Ring score available is drastically decreased, from 5,000 points to 1,000.
  • S-Rank Border drops from 50,000 to 40,000.
• Due to the introduction of Doom Wing, Best Clear Time with and without the usage of the ability will be recorded seperately.
• In Sonic Generations, only boss fights contains Hard Mode. In Shadow Generations some Challenges now also contains Hard Mode.
  • In addition, there will be no Rings for gathering in Hard Mode boss fights in Shadow Generations.
• Shadow Generations does not have a Life system, whereas Sonic Generations allows the player to toggle it on or off in the settings.
• Shadow Generations has several additional options not present in Sonic Generations:
  • There are various options related to the in-game camera, including moving it, its distance, angle, and sensitivity.
  • As with Sonic Frontiers, the player can adjust their deceleration rate when stopping.

Appearance[]

• Shadow Generations uses the Hedgehog Engine 2 as its graphics engine, as with Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers, whereas Sonic Generations uses the original Hedgehog Engine.
• Certain sections of the levels in Shadow Generations feature transitions from standard gameplay into cinematic scenes and vice versa mid-level, similar to the Real-Time Interaction sections of Modern Sonic and the Avatar's levels in Sonic Forces. This does not occur in Sonic Generations, though certain points of levels do feature dynamic camera angles.
• There is mid-level banter between the characters in Shadow Generations, while in Sonic Generations, such banter is only present during the final boss.
• The in-game HUD, while similar thematically, has a completely different design.
• Hints are given through Hint Rings, rather than by Omochao.
• Before a boss battle begins, the loading screen shows the name of the boss, while in Sonic Generations, it only says "Rival Battle" or "Boss Battle" (though the Nintendo 3DS version of the game showed the name of the boss).
• For boss battles, a Health Gauge for the enemy is now in the HUD on the top of the screen, while in Sonic Generations it is completely invisible.
• In the Italian version of Shadow Generations, Shadow is voiced by Claudio Moneta, his current Italian voice actor since 2013, while in Sonic Generations, he is voiced by Maurizio Merluzzo and Riccardo Lombardo.

Cast[]

Role	Voice actor(s)
	English	Japanese	French	Italian	German	Spanish
Shadow the Hedgehog	Kirk Thornton	Kōji Yusa	Benoît DuPac	Claudio Moneta	Felix Spieß	Manuel Gimeno
	Keanu Reeves (Paramount skin)	TBA			TBA
Black Doom	Ben Diskin	Ryūzaburō Ōtomo	TBA
Maria Robotnik	Stephanie Sheh	Yuri Shiratori	TBA			Elena Moreno
Gerald Robotnik	Mike Pollock	TBA				Francesc Belda
Rouge the Bat	Karen Strassman	Rumi Ochiai	Marie Lenoir	Jasmine Laurenti	Marianne Graffam	Ana Vidal
Sonic the Hedgehog	Roger Craig Smith	Jun'ichi Kanemaru	Alexandre Gillet	Renato Novara	Marc Stachel	Ángel de Gracia
E-123 Omega		Taiten Kusunoki	Thierry Buisson	Marco Pagani	Viktor Pavel	Albert Vilcan
Big the Cat	Kyle Hebert	Takashi Nagasako	Antoine Nouel	Andrea De Nisco		Santi Lorenz
Orbot	Kirk Thornton	Mitsuo Iwata	Tony Marot	Massimo Di Benedetto	Romanus Fuhrmann	Albert Vilcan
Cubot	Wally Wingert	Wataru Takagi	Benjamin Pascal	Luca Sandri	Matthias Horn	TBA
Metal Sonic/Metal Overlord	Ray Chase	Jun'ichi Kanemaru	TBA
Mephiles the Dark	Robbie Daymond	Takayuki Sakazume	TBA
Narrator	Wally Wingert	TBA

Development[]

Shadow the Hedgehog first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2, becoming very popular with fans and a recurrent character in the series. Prior to Sonic X Shadow Generations, he had protagonized his own eponymous game that was released in late 2005 to mostly negative reviews.

After the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by Paramount Pictures, Sonic Team wanted to get a game starring Shadow out before the third movie's release, since he would be playing a big part in it. The development started while Sonic Frontiers was being worked on, since Sonic Team had been expanding throughout the past couple of years. It allowed a small portion of developers to work on both games along with Sonic Superstars.^[10]

Takashi Iizuka, head of Sonic Team, suggested the idea of a new game starring Shadow in June 2023, but otherwise gave no confirmation that one was in development.^[11] It would not be until January 31 of the next year where in Sony's State of Play, it was revealed to the public. It is the second time a 2010s game was remastered for newer consoles, following Sonic Colors: Ultimate in 2021. Unlike Sonic Colors: Ultimate, which was developed by Blind Squirrel Games, Sonic X Shadow Generations is being developed by Sonic Team.^[12] Iizuka later established that the story of Shadow Generations will share a universe with the story of Sonic Generations involving the Time Eater.^[13]

Soundtrack[]

In an interview for Good Vibes Magazine, Iizuka revealed that Jun Senoue from Crush 40 will be in charge of the soundtrack for the game.

The music for trailer version of the Kingdom Valley Act 1 was officially released on various digital platforms on July 25, 2024, under the name of Richard Jacques' Audissi Studios.

On 8 August 2024, the music for Space Colony Ark Act 1 was officially released, as a partnership between Jun Senoue and musician TeddyLoid. ^[14]

On 20 August 2024, on the release of the Shadow Generations "Doom Powers" trailer, musician RichaadEB announced being the arranger of a "Supporting Me" remix for the Biolizard boss fight.^[15]

On 5 September 2024, the music for Chaos Island Act 1 was officially released, the music is remixed by R.B.U.

On 10 October 2024 the official soundtrack was revealed to be called Sonic X Shadow Generations: Perfect | Reflections and was made available for pre-order. It is set to release 25 December 2024.

Promotion[]

On 31 January 2024, Sonic X Shadow Generations was first announced during Sony's State of Play.

On 14 May 2024, it was announced that an upcoming 2D animated special focused on Shadow titled Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings will be released in Fall 2024.^[16]

On 8 June 2024, a trailer on Summer Game Fest was shown which was instantly released on YouTube.^[17] With it, it was announced that there would be multiple bonuses available: Physical pre-order, and a Digital Deluxe version. Along with the Sonic Adventure legacy skin for the Sonic Generations campaign, the Physical pre-order bonus will give the buyer Gerald Robotnik's Journal, a physical book that has details of his life before Shadow, and what lead to his creation. PlayStation owners will also get extended and deleted scenes from Sonic X Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings.

The Digital Deluxe Edition contains many more features, like a Terios Skin for Shadow, which is based on one of his early designs from Sonic Adventure 2, an extra BGM pack, and a digital art book and soundtrack all while getting to play the game three days early on all platforms (October 22nd as apposed to the 25th). However, getting the Digital Deluxe Edition on the Nintendo Switch will not allow players to play it early.

On 3 July 2024, the Japanese website was updated, revealing that Shadow Generations will have another character in the campaign, but its identity currently remains unknown.^[18]

There will also be an additional character skin and level for Shadow that is set to release in Holiday 2024.

On 19 July 2024, it was announced on their social media that all pre-orders from the physical release will have the Japanese box art as a reversible cover.

On 18 September 2024, an officially endorsed video from Terminal Montage parodying Shadow's life was released. The video was sponsored by Sega to promote the game and recap Shadow's story to a new audience through a comedic-lense.^[19]

On 24 September 2024, it was confirmed that the game would receive an additional stage and skin based on the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film, complete with Keanu Reeves voicing the skin based off Shadow's appearance in the film.^[20]

Trivia[]

• The Terios skin is based on an early concept version of Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2, who was known as "Terios" during development.^[21]
  • This is the second game to feature a character skin of an unused concept design, the other being the Rabbit skin in Sonic Superstars which was based on an early design of Sonic. In an interview with Takashi Iizuka from Sonic Stadium, he stated that Ohshima's willingness to put in the Rabbit skin was the catalyst for the Terios skin.^[10]
• Excluding cameos, this game marks the first physical appearance of Black Doom and Metal Overlord since Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes respectively.
  • It also marks the first time Mephiles the Dark appears in a mainline game since Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
  • It also marks the first time Maria and Gerald physically appear in a game since Shadow the Hedgehog.
• This marks the first Sonic game where Shadow will not be voiced by Klaus Lochthove in the German version, after his passing in 2023.
• This is the first mainline entry since Sonic Unleashed to contain Humans other than Doctor Eggman.
• In the Shadow Generations DLC, in the reveal trailer, if one looks closely in Tokyo, a billboard on a city says "ROUGE".
• Shadow re-encountering both Maria and Gerald is coincidentally and slightly reminiscent of "I Am", from Archie Sonic the Hedgehog #171, a story written by Ian Flynn, who likewise writes for Shadow Generations.
• The dialogue Shadow has with Sonic before their battle references their previous fights in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes.

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• English website
• Japanese website
• Steam page