Sonic X Shadow Generations features old and new stages side by side
Continuing its Year of Darkness celebrations, Sega has shared a brand new trailer for Sonic X Dark GenerationIntroducing a few returning levels in Shadow’s adventure.
And, like Sonic’s stages in Sonic GenerationsShadow will also revisit levels from previous titles. Sega has highlighted three of them, and they will be familiar to all die-hard Shadow fans.
First up is a game we saw and played at Summer Game Fest 2024 — Final Chase, Shadow’s final stage in Sonic Adventure 2. We’ve compared this to all the space levels in the Dreamcast and GameCube games, but Final Chase is clearly the biggest inspiration here. The comparison images show that Sega has changed very little from the original level, but for the most part, this is a nostalgic trip into space.
Next is Rail Canyon from Sonic Hero — Team Dark’s variation is the hardest of all four teams in the cross-platform adventure, and honestly, the changes here are incredible. The lighting? The backdrop? Oh my…
Rounding the triple is a phase from Sonic the Hedgehogor Sonic 06: Kingdom Valley. This game looks gorgeous and marks a pretty stark, lush change from the other Shadow levels we’ve seen. The transition between the original game and the Generations version in the trailer is also fantastic.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is a re-release of one of the best 3D Sonic games to date, Sonic Generations. The original game came out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and 3DS in 2011. The 3DS version actually comes with a few different stages than the console version, including a returning stage for Shadow’s campaign—the fight against the Biolizard from Sonic Adventure 2.
So far, we’re really impressed with the look and feel of Sonic X Shadow Generations, but with so little footage or gameplay on Switch, we have some initial concerns.
Last week, Sega shared a trailer for the accompanying animated special Dark Generations. Set to debut in the fall—presumably before Sonic X Shadow launches—the three-part film will serve as a prologue to Shadow’s story in the upcoming game. Additionally, eager fans spotted a trailer on the official website that hints at a fourth playable character. Who could it be?