Summary
Sonic X Shadow Generationsis out today in early access, letting anyone with the deluxe edition play ahead of its October 25 launch. Unsurprisingly, many are immediately blasting through the new story mode, Shadow Generations, to see all of the new content added in this release.
Spoiler warning for Shadow GenerationsAs we all expected, Shadow Generations is a tour of Shadow’s past - or more accurately, his trauma. Here,he’s reunited with some familiar faces, and by the end of the story, has reopened some old wounds.
More specifically, Shadow meets Maria again. She’s pulled in from the past as Shadow makes his way through the story, letting the old friends see each other once again. She’s there for most of the story, but because this is Shadow we’re talking about, a good thing can’t last forever.
The story ends with both Maria and Gerald Robotnik being sent back to the past - which dooms them both to their original fates. It’s a bittersweet ending, with Maria accepting this, despite Shadow’s desperation to save her this time. Very understandably, this all proves too much for the hedgehog, and as he runs away in the final moments of his story, we see that he’s shed some tears.
The Sonic Series Has A Strange Relationship With The Concept Of Crying
Crying after all of this is very understandable, but for the Sonic series, this is revolutionary. As we’ve previously covered, Sega is very,veryparticular about how its characters are depicted in games and other media.It’s generally assumed that one of the rules that Sega is put in place bans Sonic from crying, since it has seemingly enforced this in the past.
Apparently, Shadow comes with his own set of rules. The writers on the Sonic Boom show previously said in interviews that they didn’t use Shadow that much because anything they wanted to do with him required “layers of clearance”. This involved not letting him tell jokes, or stray too far from his edgy persona.
With this in mind, it’s amazing that Shadow Generations shows him crying, rather than using violence to deal with his emotions. I mean, he still does a bit of that, but there are plenty of tender moments here too.
Hopefully, this means we’ll see more of Shadow in future games and projects. Sega dubbed 2024 the Year of Shadow due to the amount of appearances he’s made, after being benched for so long.Given how well-received Sonic X Shadow Generations has been, I’m sure many are hoping this continues into 2025.
Sonic X Shadow Generations
WHERE TO PLAY
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a double package of a remastered version of the 2011 title Sonic Generations, alongside an all-new campaign featuring Shadow the Hedgehog and both 2D and 3D levels.
