I wouldnt really blame Ian Flynn (or however you spell his name) its very clear that the cutscenes being changed was out of his hands and he did the best he could. Shadow generations was written good but you dont hear Ian mentioned by most when talking about by most people. People love to pretend Ian is an evil villain when hes not
ehh. i'm a big fan of ian flynn, but the lack of levity and frequent references (as much as the second theoretically works in generations) are very much hallmarks of his writing. i'm glad for the continued deflanderization of characters, but his writing style does not work with generations.
@@Butwhythough881I’ll admit that while I think it works for Frontiers because a lot of said references were used to develop Amy, Knuckles, and Tails, here, stuff like the time stone just doesn’t work. That said however, I will disagree on the charm part. I don’t see what SF sees here. Especially with the Amy stuff seeing as how that was at a time she was still intolerable. The change for Amy here actually makes sense seeing as how the next game, Lost World, is where she would be significantly toned down with her stalking.
I think Ian wanted to do more with the talking after a level but couldn’t because of time and animation reasons. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place being asked to fix something where he didn’t have the resources to do so. Yes I said fix because I don’t see the charm SF sees in the story of the original nor do I get where he’s coming from with the voice direction.
@@Mojo1356 While I understand changing Amy’s stuff because of our current culture, it feels like they also did it to fast track her full character development in Frontiers. I don’t know why but I feel like her character transforming from Generations, to Lost World, to Forces, and finally Frontiers felt more natural than a lot of people who are all for the changes may think, yet whenever I bring it up, I get dogpiled by rabid Sonic fans. I understand why they may have done it, but I also understand why some may feel the changes take away charm, without throwing words like Woke or Agenda around.
Not only was Mephiles great as a boss but the dialogue enhanced it with him desperately trying to leave the time line he'll inevitably be destroyed in. At one point he even bargains with Shadow that he'd let him live if he removed him from the time line.
Mephiles is in a pretty terrifying situation if you think about it. He himself destroyed his timeline by turning it into a time loop. and given that his consciousness is timeless, for him it’s like Groundhog Day. he was a god, but now the bar of his desires has dropped from “returning his divine power and revenge for blasphemy” to “at least exist”
@@rickyronny4019 it depends on how long your spend playing it, if your collecting the Collectables then yeah it will be around the same length, but main story on its own sonic gens is longer
Great to hear everyone loves the game, but can we please not take out any anger on Ian Flynn. Remember he wrote the great story for Shadow Generation too, and the only reason the Sonic Generations rewrite is the way it is, is because of the mandates SEGA had in place for it. Ian Flynn is the best writer in the franchise, he just needs less restrictions.
Personally I normally find flaws with almost any plot I see Wether the character development is too fast or too slow The plot itself tries to make too much of itself and gets ruined or doesn't take all it's potential into account Etc But this plot? It was perfect, it was simple all things considered, but it went on smoothly and naturally, and I loved each and every interaction
You people all deserve another 20 years of Pontac and Graff. We finally have two Sonic games in a row that take their stories and character seriously and all that you mass of stupid people can say is complain about the references that Ian Flynn puts in the dialogue. You all deserve another 20 years of Baldy McNosehair jokes over and over again.
I disagree with your point on the 2D sections in Shadow Gens. I think that because it is more condensed, I had to react a lot faster to the upcoming platforming and I was able to get a great flow going. Yeah on my first playthrough I was stopped in my tracks several times, but replaying each level (with the exceptions of maybe Space Colony Ark and Chaos Island w/o doom wings) made me really appreciate each 2D level more and I want Sonic team to continue in this direction with 2D. Maybe to compromise we could have a slight speed boost going forward.
I feel the same way, I understand the gameplay reason for making Shadow a bit slower on the 2D levels, this is also something that happens in moder sonic games with 2d sections where they slow him down on purpose, but because of the transition it is harder to notice as 2D sections fo Sonic are more of a "oh shoot, it's platforming time" so you don't pay as much atenttion to it as much as in Shadow Gens that has a bit more of speed zones for the 2D levels. But also they should've pushed the camera a bit to the back of Shadow just angleing it a bit or having it just a tad bit further or infront of him could've helped with reacting to stuff, but keeping the momentum going in 2D feels as nice as in the 3D levels and I hope it keeps being this good in the future
People arguing about Ian Flynn so much feels so dumb, I think its clear most Sonic fans have no idea how this process works. Ye the Gens rewrite isn't super good, but 1. I don't think Flynn made the decision to go out of his way to change it, he doesn't have that kinda power. They wanted him to do it. 2. Since Sonic Team seemingly didn't want to or didn't have the time/budget to reanimate the cutscenes there's only so much he could do with the material. And 3. he's not the only person working on the story! There's a whole ass lore team working on Sonic now, plus the regulars at Sonic Team. He's not in charge here. Ian Flynn is a smart and talented guy and a great writer. He's not always gonna churn out a hit, but he has many times before and he did a great job with Shadow Gens. But he's also not the only guy working here, and I think people should lay off the guy.
@@SFproductions1 Personally I think a lot of it is fine, but its hard to get good results when you have to cram that shit into fully finished cutscenes and the voice actors have to match the timing of em while still keeping up the same energy over 10 years later. The fact that the cutscenes are pretty much the exact same as they were handicaps the whole process. I don't mean to make it seem like Flynn is immune to criticism, but I just find it unnecessary to take a shot at him for work done under such restraining circumstances.
Regardless of the circumstances, many found the dialogue to be subpar and thus are allowed to criticize it. Just because it “could’ve been better” had he not been restrained, doesn’t change the quality of the end product. The restrictions aren’t an excuse, just additional context to why the end product felt subpar.
@@Butwhythough881But then again, you're making a huge deal out of it when it's really nothing huge. Seriously, a reference here or there doesn't make the cutscenes bad in any significant way (the line delivery certainly does and yeah I won't defend that). To say you want the old cutscenes back is like saying you had no problems with the dialogue in sonic games from Colors onwards. Yes the dialogue there might have felt more natural, but it wasn't miles better either.
This game is a masterpiece , my only complain that they spoiled all the bosses in the trailers which made us think that they're hiding a suprise but there wasn't , sunset heights and chaos island could have bosses with obvious picks of knight and infinite , other than that this game is perfect , 10/10.
@@nicholas2153 Well i didn't talk with omega so i didn't read that but i expected the order of the bosses and i was right , because the trailers showed the biolizard first back in January then metal in August then Mephlies in September so it was kinda obvious that this is the order of the bosses
I guess we could assume Radical Highway is in the same city as the first level of Shadow the Hedgehog (05). Meaning this was one of the first locations his forces attacked.
Same. Everything he complained about in terms of Sonic Generations is personal nitpicking. Frame rate, lighting, etc. I saw no issue. Looked great to me. Rewrites were just fine as well. Maybe my eyes are just not 4K seeing machines or something. It's like people want things to look like real life, and if so, go outside?
I don’t see the references in this game as a bad thing at all actually; way more natural than in frontiers. It makes perfect sense for Sonic and Tails to recognise green hill and chemical plant, and for Tails to mention the islands where they’re from. It’s like, if you were suddenly transported to a white void and saw something like the Eiffel Tower, wouldn’t you be like “well it’s strange that this is here but we’re definitely not in Paris”. Other stuff like the times stones mention is a similar thing; they’re travelling through time, so it would make sense for Sonic to think about another mechanic they’ve used to travel through time. And even if you don’t know what any of these things are, it’s not like they actually get in the way of the plot. Even if you don’t like the rewrite, I would hardly call it worse than the original; if anything they both have advantages and disadvantages. And I definitely appreciate some of the better characterisation the rewrite offers. Also they DID keep in the iconic Eggman laughing scene, so props for that.
But PlayStation users already experienced Sonic Generations on the PS3 back in 2011 when it first released. This is the first time Generations gets released on a Nintendo console (besides the 3DS version).
Again, Ian has historically been forced by sega to do his best with a really shitty direction they give him. I don't think the dialogue is GOOD, but I will defend Amy being a less cringy obsessed character and being far more sensible in general. Yes he's wordy and makes references, but at the same time it makes less sense in the context of the past 7 years of sonic content to say the characters don't remember these places. I think he did his best with what was given, even if it isn't ideal.
Can we compare the rewrite to the original dialogue? Where somehow none of the characters remember anything like Green Hill or Chemical Plant nor acknowledge the story? Plus, the entire game is BUILT on references to past games so complaining about the dialogue making references is a really stupid opinion. Like someone else said, maybe you should go watch Sonic Colors and Forces cutscenes on loop so you get a feel for the quality we're actually getting by comparison. The only problem with the rewrites is the stuff sega clearly forced in like Amy being less obsessive or not pushing Knuckles into a tree. Everything else is at the least a 6/10. I actually liked how the characters talked about the locations they had visited and what was going on in the story cuz I was HEAVILY disappointed with the original writing where Sonic couldn't figure out what a Green Hill was. Sonic Generations was a remaster, which means they didn't have the budget to actually change cutscenes apart from making the mouths move differently to match the voices. All the budget was in Shadow Generations, the actual focus, while Sonic Generations only got a new wash to match the characters' personalities better.
bro the voice direction in shadow gens to regular gens is so rough, like in the mephiles boss you can hear how desperate mephiles is , wanting to be real at all cost, but then you see in the regular gen roger has to sometimes speak in double speed because they didn't make the animation longer to fit the new script
Ok, so… two things here: one right before this timestamp, 2:19, and one right after. So, if you’re playing on console, you can’t customize the controls past the legacy and standard options. And the “homing attack is on x” thing is kind of a lie. All they did was make x (square on ps, Y on nintendo switch) also a jump button. You can’t customize the still homing attack using the A button (B on switch, X on ps) to homing attack and air… dash? Not air boost. As for the drop dash… here’s something interesting… Modern Sonic’s drop dash is part of his moveset, while classic sonic’s drop dash requires 30 skill points to use (and is completely limited to levels only)
The first act was kinda easy BUT GOD FORBID THE SECOND ACT, THAT SHIT TOOK ME 2 HOURS, I was SO focused, I got an S rank, and didn't even notice after like, 5 minutes lmao
4:09 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the rewrites as well, but I thought some were funny like the interaction between Knuckles and Classic Sonic, as well as Sonic mentioning the Time Stones from CD. I assume Ian Flynn was forcibly told to add this in to warrant the 'remaster' status/ make the impression that there were changes, however I don't think it was Sonic Team's intention to sell this as a remaster and were probably guided by SEGA to do that. Either way, since the story was so nonexistent anyways, it doesn't change my opinion on Sonic Generations. HOWEVER they should not repeat this with any new remaster/remakes like Heroes, Unleased etc
I mean if they are going to remake heroes or any of the older games (if the rumors are true and the next in the list is a rerelease of heroes it needs to be a from the ground up remake, that game is OLD) a rewrite is going to be necesary becuase they will basically need to change everything
@@carso1500 Sure, but I don't want them to change major things like Amy's personality, because it's only changing things for the sake of it and to fit the modern agenda of characters, which shouldn't be necessary because your changing the source material Obviously, they could do it properly, but Sonic Generations didn't really prove they can do that, hence why I'm skeptical
@@AAlex-wg8ml Amy's character should definitely change seeing how SA1 gave her development which was immediately regressed with SA2, Heroes, 06, etc. Amy's character at the time of Heroes is not a good thing to keep the same seeing how she could be viewed as at her worse in heroes. (outright picking a fight to force a marriage for example)
@@nicholas2153 That... is a valid argument My only issue is that the possible changes they make to her character might make her WORSE If they do it, I want to have effort and good writing
So weird how Loudly some folks will crap on Ian for minor edits, but, when the fully fleshed out story Ian wrote is highly praised, Ian's contribution gets a passing mention.
11:40 While I agree 2D isn't my favourite, I still think that the 2D in this game is really good, and even beats out its Act 1 counterparts like in Sunset Heights. And obviously, its subjective to each person, but I wasn't expecting it to be of this quality! It surpasses Sonic 2D stages for me, and while it is slower, it sets itself away from 3D and uses that slowers speed well when incorporating how the level design works with the physics. It could just be me though 😅
I'm blaming SEGA more here. Remember how many times they screwed over Sonic Team really badly? And they ALMOST screwed them over with Sonic Frontiers. That would ULTIMATELY kill Sonic as franchise and would be end for Sonic Team.
i don't think changing the knuckles being slammed into a tree scene was a bad idea at all, because im pretty sure it was changed to reflect the fact that post-frontiers knuckles is a far more respected character where in generations, he was seen as the joke character around this time i also highly recommend giving the 2D acts another chance, i actually think a lot of the 2D acts music is good especially space colony ark and sunset heights, sunset heights in particular just hits imo these are some of the best 2D levels we've ever gotten and they're super fun to play through, kingdom valley act 2 is nearly unleashed quality
I really can't believe people are complaining about the rewrites so passionately, as if they ruin the story (which was and still is a nothing burger). I remember that the fandom was complaining that the stories in these games were getting so disjointed from one another and that there wasn't any references to the other stories in the new games. Now that we have that, people are complaining that it's "forced". This is literally a Sonic Fandom moment.
At first I was worried about this game but after playing Shadow Generations I love it! The visuals were great in levels and cutscenes. Perfect 10/10 game!
Here’s my personal (subjective) thoughts: - While I can understand the choice to rewrite Gens’ dialogue, i still feel it was relatively equal to the original in that it’s fine. I hope that Ian Flynn dials back on lore references. Don’t get me wrong, he does a great job writing Sonic, but I’d be lying if his use of references WASN’T excessive - I find it weird that despite being Classic Sonic’s move, the drop dash is a separate custom skill for CS compared to Modern Sonic who has it organically built into his move set. Personally, it would’ve made more sense to include the drop dash naturally into CS’ moveset and treat MS’s drop dash like the homing attack for CS and have it as an unlockable custom skill. - They actually do explain 06’s canonicity in Shadow Gens. If you speak with Gerald in white space after beating Mephiles, He theorizes about how the Time Eater/Black Doom’s powers are possibly reversing the effects of erased events in the timeline. Granted, I expected Ian Flynn to explain somehow that the Time Eater was remnants of Mephiles, but he still gives a decent explanation and Sega likely had restrictions on what he could do regarding 06 - The decision to not have a individual Shadow 05 level feels odd. Sure you can make the argument that Space Colony Ark is a Shadow with elements of SA2ms Final Rush and Final Chase, but it still felt too much like final rush/chase to me. Also Radical Highway is already included as the final level aside from the phantom ruby like sequences in other levels. I feel like if you replaced radical highway with something like Final Haunt or The Last Way I feel it would’ve evened out. Other than that, yeah, I quite enjoyed this. Hopefully this gets us closer to an Unleashed remaster/remake Also HOT TAKE: I like Robbie Daymond more than Dan Green as Mephiles’ voice. Same with Kirk Thornton as the definitive Shadow voice
I honestly don’t get why people don’t like the rewrite Like I played the original game recently and the dialogue was awful Plus, the rewrite was definitely a mandate from sega
0/10 review you forgot to mention the part where Knuckles implies that Classic Sonic ate the entirety of Angel island because they didn't change the animation of him rubbing his belly 🦔
I beat the game yesterday, and the physical copy arrived the day before, on the 25th, meaning it took me a day to beat this game (embarassingly). The ending was so bittersweet bro--Maria holding Shadow's head, and them touching foreheads, with her telling him: "If fate draws us apart, then I'll always be in your heart." MAH HEART, MAH SOUL 🖤❤️💙💛😭 I took SO MANY screenshots lmao. I cried at that part. Not just crying. UGLY crying. Crying like a newborn baby. Beautiful game. 9.5/10. It would be a 10 if they put Casey Williams's "Without You" in the end credits for the extra dose of sadness. As a 16 year old who has been a Sonic fan since I was 6, I was amazed and 100% satisfied with this game. It revived my childhood game, Sonic Generations, as well as give Shadow HIS OWN GAME AFTER 19 YEARS!! AND EXPLORE HIS DYNAMIC WITH MARIA!!!!!!!! Ian COOKED with both SXSG's GAME and PROLOGUE, my GOD.😭
Full honesty, I don’t like either version of Sonic’ generations’ story, but I actually prefer the rewrite just because I think it handles the characters a little better. Not much better, but at least the characters acknowledge that they’ve been to these locations before instead of acting like they have the memory of a goldfish, and I don’t care what anyone says Amy is handled better here. She may not have much to do, but at least she isn’t talking as if her only priority in the world is to flirt with Sonic
It wasn't Ian Flynn's fault for the bad rewrite because not only did he have to work with a game that has almost no cutscenes but he also had to make sure the new writing was the same length as the original cutscenes. The shadow generations part is written by Ian Flynn and the shadow dark beginnings is also by him so he did a great job
I wasn't sure about the Chaos Island 1 remix when I heard it on its own, but in the actual level with the heavy use of the Doom Morph... creature... the types of sounds they used make a lot more sense than I thought they would.
I am half and half on the references. I think that is Flynn's weakness and greatness as a writer. He loves these characters, the stories they have had, and referencing to it. Which is glorious and actually shows care and love unlike the two jokers who never had any knowledge and made the worst dialogue ever. But it is a double edge sword since it feels like he has to include everything to make references to it. I don't mind it most of the time like with the references to both Heroes and Adventure 2's pre fight dialogue with Sonic and Shadow, but I do with stuff like Chemical Plant. But hey at least he still knows how to kill it with story and character moments. That's two games now and he caused me to cry both times due to the character writing. To the point I can't choose which ending hurt more! Hopefully, he can fix some of his issues and then well truly will have a perfect writer for these games.
I don’t see where people are pulling this revisionist history over the old dialogue from like it’s the whole “Mania is bad” revisionist history when Superstars came out. I still see of plenty of people shitting on the original dialogue, and also just not liking the rewrite either.
One of my favorite parts of Sonic x Shadow Generations is having the enemy variety of all the different games! Seeing Artificial Chaos, 06 Eggman robots, Sonic Heroes Flappers, and Frontiers enemies reanimated in the style of Generations makes them feel so lively, I absolutely love them and I wish more people talked about them!!
To be fair, that's basically what this is. And like with Bowser's Fury, people prefer and want more of the new content that Shadow Generations delivers. Both Bowser's Fury and Shadow Generations deserve far longer campaigns instead of having to piggy back off of a remaster of an old game as side content. Lol
For the life of me I can’t understand why Sega didn’t give MODERN SONIC a DOUBLE JUMP. Please Sega, please. Can y’all give Sonic a double jump in Generations. Please…..
3:10 I have the exact opposite opinion lol. My main complaint with the new cutscenes is the new voice direction which I agree with you on, but I think the new dialogue fits a LOT better and I like the way Amy is being treated now, instead of being seen as "annoying girl" she's taken more seriously. I don't think it feels forced in the slightest and I actually love these a lot more than the original dialogue.
Did anyone noticed this in SXS Generations? The two stories are parallel to each other in ganeplay. Sonic Generations has Act 1 to be 2D and Act 2 3D, Shadow Generations has 2 acts but in reverse as now the Act 1 is 3D and Act 2 is 2D. Theres alos the hub world, Sonic's hub is 2D therefore act 1 and Shadow's hub is 3D which is the gams act 2. They made it so gameplay is parallel. So cool. Anyone noticed this? if theres more stuff like this do let me know.
I just 100%'d Shadow Generations last night and it is so much fun, I enjoyed that I could play Radical Highway without the Doom Wings as an option as I could get creative on some shortcuts for both acts to try and get that S Rank Wingless (PS: It is harder than I thought) Even then I hope for some QoL updates for future replayability like: -Jukebox for the whitespace available once you beat the game at least once just so I can go around listeing to the unlocked songs while collecting the parts, chests and jumping between challenges -Different S Rank times for playing an act with the Doom Wings as I really just S Ranked most of them without using it even thought I knew there were some paths only accesible with the Doom Wings, so a tighter S Rank would've been fine, but if they do not do it is understandable, as enforcing it retroactively would be annoying for people. -Actually opening the white space map, I know I can see it and zoom in where I am standing on the pause menu but letting me move it around to check an area as some icons overlap on the full map and also letting me disable some icons on the map (I already got all the chest, I don't wanna see all of them cluttering the map, or I just wanna see which one I've missed) would've been nice. -The Records Screen showing me every collectible (token, rocket part, journal) page I have collected and how many are in total as rn that page feels a but underwhelming -Removing the always online DRM, it sucked when I realized I couldn't play it on my Steam Deck outside of my home without an online connection, or just that day I had no internet on my home on my PC. And I think that's it, the game is one of my favorite games I've played this year and I can see myself replaying it again, I enjoyed my time with it on both my PC and Steam Deck (everything on low I was able to maintain 60fps on the deck), so I am excited for the DLC level based on the third Sonic Movie next month and I wouldn't mind more DLC levels for the game tbh
And as I always told my friends: If they have chance to play Shadow Generations, they should do it so they understand why we like Sonic games in general and why we want them to succed
I get the knee-jerk reaction to an excessive amount of references, but bringing up Flynn when criticizing the rewrite and then NOT mentioning him while praising Shadow's story feels very biased and leading.
and i didnt really criticize him for the rewrite either. i put an image on screen as a joke, poking fun at how everyone blames everything on him. other than that, i dont mention him at all
@@SFproductions1 Oops, I missed that bit, only heard the VA part. I don't see how to tell the image is supposed to be a joke as opposed to actually blaming him, though. Might be a case where sarcasm is indistinguishable from the real thing.
They could have done something different like: Instead of missions, we can add 2 extra stages to each level to get the boss keys like: Labyrinth Zone - STH 1991 Star Light Zone - STH 1991 Casino Night Zone - STH 2 Metropolis Zone - STH 2 Launch Base Zone - STH 3 Flying Battery Zone - STH 3 Sky Deck - Adventure Final Egg - Adventure Metal Harbor - Adventure 2 Green Forest - Adventure 2 Grand Metropolis - Heroes Casino Park - Heroes Flame Core - 06 Aquatic Base - 06 Cool Edge - Unleashed Jungle Joyride - Unleashed Aquarium Park- Colors Asteroid Coaster - Colors You all know what you guy are thinking. "After completing an era, players must defeat two bosses: a "rival" character and a main boss". Well, Let me give you something new type. It's called "Stage boss"! After Acts 1&2 in each stage, a third icon with a Time Eater face next to Act 2 will appear. Which means you unlocked a boss battle. And here they are: Green Hill - Egg Wrecker Chemical Plant - Egg Poison Sky Sanctuary - Mecha Sonic Mark II Speed Highway - Egg Walker City Escape - F-6t Big Foot Seaside Hill - Egg Hawk City Escape - Iblis Phase 1 Rooftop Run - Egg Devil Ray Planet Wisp - Refreshinator
I'm glad they replaced the part where Amy pushes Knuckles against the tree, I never found it funny. Knuckles in this last decade was just relief for the weak comedy.
Thank you, it was the damn start of Knuckles flanderization (much like Tails being a coward technically started in Unleashed at its worse in Forces) that we saw carry over into Lost World which now even little woodland creatures can make a joke of him with how they carried him off. Knuckles has been a comedy relief character at times yes, but it came more from his own hubris in being tricked due to his gullible nature or when his temper gets the better of him like what happened in Rush with him trying to nab Blaze who just dodged him in causing an avalanche of boulders to fall on him. Sega made the right call because just really now imagine being a Sonic fan brought in by the movies seeing game Knuckles made such a joke out of to the extent he was in the og Gens in letting himself be pushed around like that.
I feel the rewrites of the Sonic Generations portion down a bit for me. It's still a solid game as before but there was no need to rewrite the scenes of the characters. I rather they have spent time fixing the final boss fight. As for the Shadow Generations side, it's just absolutely incredible. It's truly one of the best 3D modern games to come out in recent years.
Hey, y'know what? I agree, it's such an awesome game! Even knowing that it would be fun I was blown away by how great Shadow Generations was, how creative and a joy to play it was! Even the 2D stages were tolerable and actually pretty fun, and I usually dislike 2D, and I commend the fact that the 3D stages were actually 3D all the way without any invasive 2D sections! I was expecting for Shadow to be uncontrollable at full-speed but nope! Pleasant surprise, he controls beautifully when set to stop on a dime when you let go of the left stick in the settings, so whenever I make a mistake, it feels like I've made that mistake which I can correct instead of the game screwing me over! The only thing I truly despise about it is the fact that you can't control the camera in 3D stages, it makes them feel more linear and restrictive than they really are; But overall, it was the most fun I've had with a modern-day video game since Mount & Blade Bannerlord! Oh, and there was no rival's battle with Sonic, which was disappointing, and the fact that there's not much combat, would've liked something that expanded upon the combat system of Frontiers. Otherwise, Shadow's story was pretty fine and emotional too, though the part about "standing in the light" was some rotten cheese when it could've been about the balance between light and darkness, like yin and yang; Which Shadow pretty much achieved, I really liked how he became a witty and dark yet noble warrior! And the final boss? Phenomenal! I adore it when your character's theme plays during a final boss fight instead of the boss's! I'm honestly wishing for the game to succeed and to sell a whole lot, and for D.L.C.! I want more of noble dark warrior Shadow with space demon abilities! Maybe colour his demonic abilities these warmer dark violet - purple to a lighter crimson colours, and make them look a little more angelic, to show that he's not connected to space Satan anymore! And maybe if SonicTeam could make the camera controllable in 3D stages I'd appreciate that! Oh, right, Sonic! Uhm... He still turns like a tank, which I dislike. Yeah, I like Shadow more here, hahah! And I get the impression that the developers did too.
This game is my favorite Sonic game ever. 11/10, but I’m really pissed that they didn’t add a level from Shadow 05, and I wish that they added voice lines where Shadow questions why Sunset Heights and Chaos Island are in the White Space since he hasn’t been there, and other stuff. But yes, best Sonic game ever.
I don't know why, but for some reason, I started headbanging to that outro. No real reason, really, I just went ahead and did it. Man, I love this series.
Shadow generations makes me hope sega doesn't try to radically change the formula for a bit. People still saying the boost formula isn’t as good are nuts after this game. Theres so much potential. And its...ya know...fun even the first time? Something that i feel like most old heads forget when talking about the games. Most people aren't in the same speedrun replay mindset sonic tubers tend to have.
Sonic × Shadow Generations gets a 9.5/10. What's holding this game back from being a 10/10 are the following: 1. No fix on Moder and Classic Super Sonic Ring depletion. 2. No Chaos Blast. 3. No Shadow The Hedgehog level. The first one can be an easy fix with a simple patch which is why I encourage everyone to let Sonic Team know this. The ring depletion was something many fans criticized about the Super Sonic transformation. It drains too fast even when not boosting. Compared to previous and future titles, it's the one game where it depletes fast. The last two was intentionally left out. I get trying to distant yourselves from STH 2005 due to guns, but in a game called Sonic × Shadow Generations to not have any STH levels is completely illogical.
15:13 And this is correct. I died in Sunset Valley Act 2 because of sheer stupidity but still got the S rank. On the other hand though, I feel the time limit for S ranks isn’t quite as forgiving as Sonic Generations was.
when it comes to the rerecorded lines, some of the characters voice actors had been recast since 2011 so i get doing that for those characters who'd been recast.
18:58 Man, it’s weird to me how much you didn’t enjoy the Act 2’s in this game(Music and gameplay) I personally loved them just as much as the Act 1’s but I guess everyone has their own preferences
Sonic 4 takes place before Sonic generations and sonic Mania, Sonic Mania takes place before Sonic Superstars, and Superstars takes place before the Dreamcast and original Xbox era of Sonic the Hedgehog games. This timeline arrangement can be an interesting perspective for fans to consider the interconnectedness of the Sonic game universe. It allows players to better understand the evolution of the Sonic series and how different games may relate to each other in terms of storylines and character development.
I went into Shadow Generations with low expectations. Instead it exceeded my expectations by miles. I'm extremely optimistic for the future of this series now.
I agree but it caused me so much pain in gens since there are moments where you want to jump as soon as you land after an air dash and what my muscle memory picked up was to spam the jump button while falling but instead I ended up drop dashing which kinda messed up my fast runs (especially during the mission stages) I just wished they did it like classic Sonic and made it a skill to equip but whatever lol
Thank you for telling the truth with your opinions. I agree with generations rewrite. I bought Sega Genesis with sonic 1 in 1991. Played every sonic game made . Still own and play 85 percent of them. And own The 90s cartoons. Full seasons. So anyway, We all have an opinion and I will play generations OG and my 3ds version. And play Shadow in this game. I got it like that. Good day y'all .
I'm mad at the community I managed to go on blind about the game's plot and bosses because that's the only way I can enjoy games And people just had to be idiotic and talk about it with no discretion whatsoever, I know that the bosses were known, but it's stupid to go on and ruin it to those that try to go blind, metal overlord was the only one I didn't know about, and it took me so much by surprise that it became my favorite
My only disappointment is the lack of Sonic Rivals levels in Shadow's story. Tbh if you're going to use 1 level per game & have a similar amount of levels you'd HAVE to use those games Bc he's only been in 7 games (Sonic adventure 2, heroes, shadow the hedgehog, Sonic the hedgehog (2006), Sonic rivals, rivals 2 & forces)
I honestly didn't mind the rewrite for Gens. The only one that really felt bad to me was the timestone mention because it literally makes no sense for sonic to say that. I mainly like the new stuff because the old gens itself didn't make much sense in the way that Sonic and Tails both barely recognised green hill and chemical plant when they went there.
Honestly the rewrite aint even as bad as they say, im just glad the story and characters take themselves seriously again, although i will say i do agree some changes were unnecessary, like i say this as someone who has Knuckles as his favorite character, Amy sending him flying is perfectly fine, in fact im pretty sure she has super strength too so it's not like its out of line
Everyone always says "oh we already got a good PC port we don't need a remaster" we don't all have computers schlawg 😭😭 I jumped from the wii straight to the PS4 and then PS5 and i missed this masterpiece
Honestly, I was so surprised there was no Infinite boss fight. That would've been neat to see, but still, I've never had more fun with a game in a while like Shadow Generations 🎉⚫️🔴⚪️
I like that Sonic and Tails actually recognize Chemical Plant and Green Hill this time around, since it made no sense for them to not recognize them before and having Amy not be a cringy obsessed fangirl this time around is a lot better, don't know why people complain about that, since they hated that side of her, but that's neither here nor there. And I do like that Shadow Generations basically confirmed that 06's timeline was erased with Shadow not recognizing Mephiles at all (via Elise blowing out the Flame of Solaris) But yeah, some of the rewrites are a little strange, like Knuckles asking Classic what happened to the rest of his island instead of asking him if he gained weight, which would make the part where he looks down at his stomach sadly make more sense, and yeah, I don't like that Amy no longer shoves Knuckles into a tree, I know it makes no sense for her to be able to do that, but it was still funny. But since there was hardly any story to begin with with Generations, it's not too big of a deal for some of the dialogue to be changed. And yeah, Shadow Generations is absolutely amazing and I'm not just saying that because he's my favorite Sonic character, I genuinely think it's amazing and since I played it BEFORE playing Generations, I immediately noticed a quality downgrade lol
My 2 cents on the rewrite: it's fine. Perfectly functional if a bit hard on fan service in some areas. People criticize it for taking out the charm in them but that mostly comes down to personal taste. At the time, when Pontiac and Graff wrote the cutscenes, they were largely criticized for being uninteresting for the same reasons as Sonic Colors. I didn't personally mind things like Amy being obsessive over Sonic, but removing it entirely makes sense given their rewriting the series somewhat. Most elements are kept the same. The most pressing fan service moments definitely came from the reference to the time stones after Sonic's first boss fight and the cutscene with Shadow and Sonic. That was probably due to Ian Flynn's understanding of what he was writing, considering he was doing this for Sonic generations, so he probably thought it fitting. It's functional, so I'm not too down on it, but it can feel ham fisted when the dialogue and concepts they use haven't been relevant for several decades. It's not bad really, but I can see there being a problem with the people who were used to how the characters used to be. I wish I could put this in a more eloquent fashion.
I have seen the changes with Sonic Generations stories and outside a couple changes I don't agree with, I don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be. Personally I felt they're fine changes for the most part and and it never bothered me outside of some changes with the humor. It doesn't hurt the story of Generations IMO.
the shadow gameplay was one of the most fun sonic experience I have had since sonic adventure 2... I think the feel and polish of shadows mechanics was top notch!! Good job sega
burhhhhh staaawp ittttt. How can ppl say Frontiers is one of the least polished sonic experiences when Boom, 06 and Colors Ultimate in the roster? Like Frontiers wasn't the most polished, but it was leagues aboves these I just mentionned. But apart from the little Frontiers Rant. I aggree with all the points in this video. Except for the Ian Flynn jab, it's not his fault, he had an already limited story to work with, and did his best. Don't blame the writers in this case.
I know that before I got my steam deck, Sonic Generations was one of my most wanted ports because I wanted it on the go with the Switch. I only got to play the game at that point on Sony's PS3 streaming service. But since I do have Generations on PC, I appreciate the brand new game packaged with it.
If I was to use one word to describe Doom Morph, it would be Skill Issue. From what I've experienced and seen from other players it's difficult to manage at first even with its tutorial but when you figure out how to play it it's really good. I wasn't able to figure out that the swing and what I call the zip are two different things it can do. I originally thought you could only swing after transforming and since you can only go in one direction a screw up can be difficult to recover from since the swing points disappear after being used. Turns out if you tap the button, you'll zip through it which can be easier than swinging to another, but this depends on the angle of the zip. This info alone makes the Final Boss' second phase easier to handle, especially if you A. Get comfortable with using your boost (I know it took some getting used to since the boost doesn't stay if you hold down the button, you need to spam it to maintain your speed) and B. learn to combine your boost and your jump. If you do it right then you can cover a LOT of ground which is particularly useful in that second phase I mentioned. Once you figure all of this out the Morph ability is pretty good.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I love how everyone craps on the generations rewrites and praises the shadow story forgetting that the same person wrote both lol
Lol I don't get Ian Flynn
@@SFproductions1Best guess that he actually cared about writing Shadow generations, and was forced to rewrite Sonic generations on a tight schedule.
Shocker, a person can write two things of differing qualities
@@grimey3480 Yeah, but you can tell which one had more effort and passion put into it
@@AAlex-wg8ml That has nothing to do with what I'm saying
Ian is literally fixing the plotholes of an over 30 year old franchise.
Heaven forbid he doesn't do a perfect job, just a good one.
I wouldnt really blame Ian Flynn (or however you spell his name) its very clear that the cutscenes being changed was out of his hands and he did the best he could. Shadow generations was written good but you dont hear Ian mentioned by most when talking about by most people. People love to pretend Ian is an evil villain when hes not
ehh. i'm a big fan of ian flynn, but the lack of levity and frequent references (as much as the second theoretically works in generations) are very much hallmarks of his writing. i'm glad for the continued deflanderization of characters, but his writing style does not work with generations.
Disagree. I think Ian Flynn is an exceptional writer for Sonic. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t think his use of lore references was excessive.
@@Butwhythough881I’ll admit that while I think it works for Frontiers because a lot of said references were used to develop Amy, Knuckles, and Tails, here, stuff like the time stone just doesn’t work. That said however, I will disagree on the charm part. I don’t see what SF sees here. Especially with the Amy stuff seeing as how that was at a time she was still intolerable. The change for Amy here actually makes sense seeing as how the next game, Lost World, is where she would be significantly toned down with her stalking.
I think Ian wanted to do more with the talking after a level but couldn’t because of time and animation reasons. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place being asked to fix something where he didn’t have the resources to do so. Yes I said fix because I don’t see the charm SF sees in the story of the original nor do I get where he’s coming from with the voice direction.
@@Mojo1356 While I understand changing Amy’s stuff because of our current culture, it feels like they also did it to fast track her full character development in Frontiers. I don’t know why but I feel like her character transforming from Generations, to Lost World, to Forces, and finally Frontiers felt more natural than a lot of people who are all for the changes may think, yet whenever I bring it up, I get dogpiled by rabid Sonic fans. I understand why they may have done it, but I also understand why some may feel the changes take away charm, without throwing words like Woke or Agenda around.
Not only was Mephiles great as a boss but the dialogue enhanced it with him desperately trying to leave the time line he'll inevitably be destroyed in.
At one point he even bargains with Shadow that he'd let him live if he removed him from the time line.
Mephiles is in a pretty terrifying situation if you think about it. He himself destroyed his timeline by turning it into a time loop. and given that his consciousness is timeless, for him it’s like Groundhog Day. he was a god, but now the bar of his desires has dropped from “returning his divine power and revenge for blasphemy” to “at least exist”
The fact that Shadow gens is shorter than Sonic gens but has more 3D gameplay is just crazy to think about
Shadow Gens is shorter? It seemed around the same length imo
@@rickyronny4019 it depends on how long your spend playing it, if your collecting the Collectables then yeah it will be around the same length, but main story on its own sonic gens is longer
@@SosadoesMusic idk lol, Sonic Generations having a story is pretty laughable 😂
@@rickyronny4019Shadow Gens has less levels but those levels are longer than those in Sonic Gens so it does even out
@@maroonkennedy6213 ok
Great to hear everyone loves the game, but can we please not take out any anger on Ian Flynn. Remember he wrote the great story for Shadow Generation too, and the only reason the Sonic Generations rewrite is the way it is, is because of the mandates SEGA had in place for it. Ian Flynn is the best writer in the franchise, he just needs less restrictions.
Personally I normally find flaws with almost any plot I see
Wether the character development is too fast or too slow
The plot itself tries to make too much of itself and gets ruined or doesn't take all it's potential into account
Etc
But this plot?
It was perfect, it was simple all things considered, but it went on smoothly and naturally, and I loved each and every interaction
So yes, I agree
You people all deserve another 20 years of Pontac and Graff. We finally have two Sonic games in a row that take their stories and character seriously and all that you mass of stupid people can say is complain about the references that Ian Flynn puts in the dialogue. You all deserve another 20 years of Baldy McNosehair jokes over and over again.
It's okay, people criticizing dialogue won't ruin your life, take it easy
@@SonicMan2007 Yeah, shame on people for criticizing unnecessary dialogue changes.
So much for opinions. I mean god forbid we criticize the lord and savior Ian Flynn. 🙄🙄🙄
@@Butwhythough881THIS 👍
calm down, it's online criticism over the writing in a blue hedgehog game
I disagree with your point on the 2D sections in Shadow Gens. I think that because it is more condensed, I had to react a lot faster to the upcoming platforming and I was able to get a great flow going. Yeah on my first playthrough I was stopped in my tracks several times, but replaying each level (with the exceptions of maybe Space Colony Ark and Chaos Island w/o doom wings) made me really appreciate each 2D level more and I want Sonic team to continue in this direction with 2D. Maybe to compromise we could have a slight speed boost going forward.
I feel the same way, I understand the gameplay reason for making Shadow a bit slower on the 2D levels, this is also something that happens in moder sonic games with 2d sections where they slow him down on purpose, but because of the transition it is harder to notice as 2D sections fo Sonic are more of a "oh shoot, it's platforming time" so you don't pay as much atenttion to it as much as in Shadow Gens that has a bit more of speed zones for the 2D levels.
But also they should've pushed the camera a bit to the back of Shadow just angleing it a bit or having it just a tad bit further or infront of him could've helped with reacting to stuff, but keeping the momentum going in 2D feels as nice as in the 3D levels and I hope it keeps being this good in the future
A missed opportunity to use "Asteroid Coaster" as a stage since Shadow did technically visit the location in "Sonic Colors DS".
Or even a level rom shadow's own game.
Controversial take: I prefer the new script over the original (it's not perfect, but I just enjoy the story in the remaster more)
Imo both of these games together are 10/10! Both individually are 9/10
That math aint mathin
@@Romir01x nah its just because 18/10 doesn't exist
@@BoykeeplaysSo
9/10
+
9/10
=
18/20 ?
@@Bestmotion2389 no, 9/10 + 9/10 = 18/10. The denominator doesn't change. I can reduce it, though. 18/10 = 9/5
9+10 =
21
People arguing about Ian Flynn so much feels so dumb, I think its clear most Sonic fans have no idea how this process works. Ye the Gens rewrite isn't super good, but 1. I don't think Flynn made the decision to go out of his way to change it, he doesn't have that kinda power. They wanted him to do it. 2. Since Sonic Team seemingly didn't want to or didn't have the time/budget to reanimate the cutscenes there's only so much he could do with the material. And 3. he's not the only person working on the story! There's a whole ass lore team working on Sonic now, plus the regulars at Sonic Team. He's not in charge here. Ian Flynn is a smart and talented guy and a great writer. He's not always gonna churn out a hit, but he has many times before and he did a great job with Shadow Gens. But he's also not the only guy working here, and I think people should lay off the guy.
I know it wasn't his decision to write it but that doesn't get rid of the fact that the new dialogue is just bad and he wrote it
@@SFproductions1 Personally I think a lot of it is fine, but its hard to get good results when you have to cram that shit into fully finished cutscenes and the voice actors have to match the timing of em while still keeping up the same energy over 10 years later. The fact that the cutscenes are pretty much the exact same as they were handicaps the whole process. I don't mean to make it seem like Flynn is immune to criticism, but I just find it unnecessary to take a shot at him for work done under such restraining circumstances.
That's fair
Regardless of the circumstances, many found the dialogue to be subpar and thus are allowed to criticize it. Just because it “could’ve been better” had he not been restrained, doesn’t change the quality of the end product. The restrictions aren’t an excuse, just additional context to why the end product felt subpar.
@@Butwhythough881But then again, you're making a huge deal out of it when it's really nothing huge. Seriously, a reference here or there doesn't make the cutscenes bad in any significant way (the line delivery certainly does and yeah I won't defend that). To say you want the old cutscenes back is like saying you had no problems with the dialogue in sonic games from Colors onwards. Yes the dialogue there might have felt more natural, but it wasn't miles better either.
This game is a masterpiece , my only complain that they spoiled all the bosses in the trailers which made us think that they're hiding a suprise but there wasn't , sunset heights and chaos island could have bosses with obvious picks of knight and infinite , other than that this game is perfect , 10/10.
The only surprise I was looking for was the order of the bosses, then Omega had to spoil me that I was gonna be fighting Metal Overlord next.
@@nicholas2153
Well i didn't talk with omega so i didn't read that but i expected the order of the bosses and i was right , because the trailers showed the biolizard first back in January then metal in August then Mephlies in September so it was kinda obvious that this is the order of the bosses
I'm so glad this didn't get a mixed reception like how Colors Ultimate and newer Sonic games did.
Black doom in this game: how can i make this about radical highway?
I guess we could assume Radical Highway is in the same city as the first level of Shadow the Hedgehog (05). Meaning this was one of the first locations his forces attacked.
totally disagree with your rewrite complaints
Totally agree your delusional
Crusty?! Wasn't expecting you here lol
Same. Everything he complained about in terms of Sonic Generations is personal nitpicking. Frame rate, lighting, etc. I saw no issue. Looked great to me. Rewrites were just fine as well. Maybe my eyes are just not 4K seeing machines or something. It's like people want things to look like real life, and if so, go outside?
Sunset heights is the best boost stage since rooftop run!
Man what a glow up! XD
I don’t see the references in this game as a bad thing at all actually; way more natural than in frontiers.
It makes perfect sense for Sonic and Tails to recognise green hill and chemical plant, and for Tails to mention the islands where they’re from. It’s like, if you were suddenly transported to a white void and saw something like the Eiffel Tower, wouldn’t you be like “well it’s strange that this is here but we’re definitely not in Paris”.
Other stuff like the times stones mention is a similar thing; they’re travelling through time, so it would make sense for Sonic to think about another mechanic they’ve used to travel through time. And even if you don’t know what any of these things are, it’s not like they actually get in the way of the plot.
Even if you don’t like the rewrite, I would hardly call it worse than the original; if anything they both have advantages and disadvantages. And I definitely appreciate some of the better characterisation the rewrite offers.
Also they DID keep in the iconic Eggman laughing scene, so props for that.
For a masterpiece, you sure do have a lot of complaints.
All of the complaints are very minor
people are allowed to have more than one black and white opinion about something man 😭
Masterpiece does not mean perfect, if it did then nothing is a masterpiece.
Switch and Playstation 4 and 5 users can finally experience Sonic Generations!
Unless you count ps3 in which case we've always been able to experience it
In 720p 30fps yes @@Charisonic_558
But PlayStation users already experienced Sonic Generations on the PS3 back in 2011 when it first released. This is the first time Generations gets released on a Nintendo console (besides the 3DS version).
PlayStation users can finally experience Sonic Generations after 13 years you mean.
@@Charisonic_558 I made a correction.
Again, Ian has historically been forced by sega to do his best with a really shitty direction they give him. I don't think the dialogue is GOOD, but I will defend Amy being a less cringy obsessed character and being far more sensible in general. Yes he's wordy and makes references, but at the same time it makes less sense in the context of the past 7 years of sonic content to say the characters don't remember these places. I think he did his best with what was given, even if it isn't ideal.
Ian is generally poopoopeepee
genuinely the most mature and realistic take I've seen someone have about the rewrite
Yeah but some people will say that Amy being a "cringy obsessed character" is what made her special. Seriously, these complaints are ridiculous
@@TheSultan1470 No, Pontac and Graff are poopoopeepee. Ian is doing the best he can, and clearly knows and loves these characters.
@@GamerMinilla *LOL*
Can we compare the rewrite to the original dialogue? Where somehow none of the characters remember anything like Green Hill or Chemical Plant nor acknowledge the story?
Plus, the entire game is BUILT on references to past games so complaining about the dialogue making references is a really stupid opinion.
Like someone else said, maybe you should go watch Sonic Colors and Forces cutscenes on loop so you get a feel for the quality we're actually getting by comparison.
The only problem with the rewrites is the stuff sega clearly forced in like Amy being less obsessive or not pushing Knuckles into a tree. Everything else is at the least a 6/10. I actually liked how the characters talked about the locations they had visited and what was going on in the story cuz I was HEAVILY disappointed with the original writing where Sonic couldn't figure out what a Green Hill was.
Sonic Generations was a remaster, which means they didn't have the budget to actually change cutscenes apart from making the mouths move differently to match the voices. All the budget was in Shadow Generations, the actual focus, while Sonic Generations only got a new wash to match the characters' personalities better.
the ending where shadow runs away as fast as he can as he sheds a tear that falls onto rouges face is such an amazing closing moment
bro the voice direction in shadow gens to regular gens is so rough, like in the mephiles boss you can hear how desperate mephiles is , wanting to be real at all cost, but then you see in the regular gen roger has to sometimes speak in double speed because they didn't make the animation longer to fit the new script
Ok, so… two things here: one right before this timestamp, 2:19, and one right after. So, if you’re playing on console, you can’t customize the controls past the legacy and standard options. And the “homing attack is on x” thing is kind of a lie. All they did was make x (square on ps, Y on nintendo switch) also a jump button. You can’t customize the still homing attack using the A button (B on switch, X on ps) to homing attack and air… dash? Not air boost. As for the drop dash… here’s something interesting… Modern Sonic’s drop dash is part of his moveset, while classic sonic’s drop dash requires 30 skill points to use (and is completely limited to levels only)
15:25
Trying to S rank Radical highway without wings is actually painful
Fr
The first act was kinda easy
BUT GOD FORBID THE SECOND ACT, THAT SHIT TOOK ME 2 HOURS, I was SO focused, I got an S rank, and didn't even notice after like, 5 minutes lmao
4:09 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the rewrites as well, but I thought some were funny like the interaction between Knuckles and Classic Sonic, as well as Sonic mentioning the Time Stones from CD.
I assume Ian Flynn was forcibly told to add this in to warrant the 'remaster' status/ make the impression that there were changes, however I don't think it was Sonic Team's intention to sell this as a remaster and were probably guided by SEGA to do that.
Either way, since the story was so nonexistent anyways, it doesn't change my opinion on Sonic Generations.
HOWEVER they should not repeat this with any new remaster/remakes like Heroes, Unleased etc
I mean if they are going to remake heroes or any of the older games (if the rumors are true and the next in the list is a rerelease of heroes it needs to be a from the ground up remake, that game is OLD) a rewrite is going to be necesary becuase they will basically need to change everything
@@carso1500 Sure, but I don't want them to change major things like Amy's personality, because it's only changing things for the sake of it and to fit the modern agenda of characters, which shouldn't be necessary because your changing the source material
Obviously, they could do it properly, but Sonic Generations didn't really prove they can do that, hence why I'm skeptical
@@AAlex-wg8ml Amy's character should definitely change seeing how SA1 gave her development which was immediately regressed with SA2, Heroes, 06, etc. Amy's character at the time of Heroes is not a good thing to keep the same seeing how she could be viewed as at her worse in heroes. (outright picking a fight to force a marriage for example)
@@nicholas2153 That... is a valid argument
My only issue is that the possible changes they make to her character might make her WORSE
If they do it, I want to have effort and good writing
So weird how Loudly some folks will crap on Ian for minor edits, but, when the fully fleshed out story Ian wrote is highly praised, Ian's contribution gets a passing mention.
3:11 ad came up on this part😂😂😂
11:40 While I agree 2D isn't my favourite, I still think that the 2D in this game is really good, and even beats out its Act 1 counterparts like in Sunset Heights. And obviously, its subjective to each person, but I wasn't expecting it to be of this quality! It surpasses Sonic 2D stages for me, and while it is slower, it sets itself away from 3D and uses that slowers speed well when incorporating how the level design works with the physics.
It could just be me though 😅
i agree i think the 2d is underrated
Ian Flin is a good writer. Blame Sonic Team and Sega for the re-write being bad, not him.
I'm blaming SEGA more here. Remember how many times they screwed over Sonic Team really badly? And they ALMOST screwed them over with Sonic Frontiers. That would ULTIMATELY kill Sonic as franchise and would be end for Sonic Team.
i don't think changing the knuckles being slammed into a tree scene was a bad idea at all, because im pretty sure it was changed to reflect the fact that post-frontiers knuckles is a far more respected character where in generations, he was seen as the joke character around this time
i also highly recommend giving the 2D acts another chance, i actually think a lot of the 2D acts music is good especially space colony ark and sunset heights, sunset heights in particular just hits
imo these are some of the best 2D levels we've ever gotten and they're super fun to play through, kingdom valley act 2 is nearly unleashed quality
I really can't believe people are complaining about the rewrites so passionately, as if they ruin the story (which was and still is a nothing burger). I remember that the fandom was complaining that the stories in these games were getting so disjointed from one another and that there wasn't any references to the other stories in the new games. Now that we have that, people are complaining that it's "forced". This is literally a Sonic Fandom moment.
At first I was worried about this game but after playing Shadow Generations I love it! The visuals were great in levels and cutscenes. Perfect 10/10 game!
Here’s my personal (subjective) thoughts:
- While I can understand the choice to rewrite Gens’ dialogue, i still feel it was relatively equal to the original in that it’s fine. I hope that Ian Flynn dials back on lore references. Don’t get me wrong, he does a great job writing Sonic, but I’d be lying if his use of references WASN’T excessive
- I find it weird that despite being Classic Sonic’s move, the drop dash is a separate custom skill for CS compared to Modern Sonic who has it organically built into his move set. Personally, it would’ve made more sense to include the drop dash naturally into CS’ moveset and treat MS’s drop dash like the homing attack for CS and have it as an unlockable custom skill.
- They actually do explain 06’s canonicity in Shadow Gens. If you speak with Gerald in white space after beating Mephiles, He theorizes about how the Time Eater/Black Doom’s powers are possibly reversing the effects of erased events in the timeline. Granted, I expected Ian Flynn to explain somehow that the Time Eater was remnants of Mephiles, but he still gives a decent explanation and Sega likely had restrictions on what he could do regarding 06
- The decision to not have a individual Shadow 05 level feels odd. Sure you can make the argument that Space Colony Ark is a Shadow with elements of SA2ms Final Rush and Final Chase, but it still felt too much like final rush/chase to me. Also Radical Highway is already included as the final level aside from the phantom ruby like sequences in other levels. I feel like if you replaced radical highway with something like Final Haunt or The Last Way I feel it would’ve evened out.
Other than that, yeah, I quite enjoyed this. Hopefully this gets us closer to an Unleashed remaster/remake
Also HOT TAKE: I like Robbie Daymond more than Dan Green as Mephiles’ voice. Same with Kirk Thornton as the definitive Shadow voice
I honestly don’t get why people don’t like the rewrite
Like I played the original game recently and the dialogue was awful
Plus, the rewrite was definitely a mandate from sega
Yeah, there are flaws with the new dialogue but let’s not act like the original one had a story
0/10 review you forgot to mention the part where Knuckles implies that Classic Sonic ate the entirety of Angel island because they didn't change the animation of him rubbing his belly 🦔
I'm not sure why they didn't change that lmao
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I beat the game yesterday, and the physical copy arrived the day before, on the 25th, meaning it took me a day to beat this game (embarassingly).
The ending was so bittersweet bro--Maria holding Shadow's head, and them touching foreheads, with her telling him: "If fate draws us apart, then I'll always be in your heart."
MAH HEART, MAH SOUL 🖤❤️💙💛😭 I took SO MANY screenshots lmao. I cried at that part. Not just crying. UGLY crying. Crying like a newborn baby.
Beautiful game. 9.5/10. It would be a 10 if they put Casey Williams's "Without You" in the end credits for the extra dose of sadness.
As a 16 year old who has been a Sonic fan since I was 6, I was amazed and 100% satisfied with this game. It revived my childhood game, Sonic Generations,
as well as give Shadow HIS OWN GAME AFTER 19 YEARS!! AND EXPLORE HIS DYNAMIC WITH MARIA!!!!!!!! Ian COOKED with both SXSG's GAME and PROLOGUE, my GOD.😭
Should I play the new one or old one?
0:30 At least next Gen Console players can play it now. That's all im really happy about as well as the new shadow portion
Full honesty, I don’t like either version of Sonic’ generations’ story, but I actually prefer the rewrite just because I think it handles the characters a little better.
Not much better, but at least the characters acknowledge that they’ve been to these locations before instead of acting like they have the memory of a goldfish, and I don’t care what anyone says Amy is handled better here.
She may not have much to do, but at least she isn’t talking as if her only priority in the world is to flirt with Sonic
It wasn't Ian Flynn's fault for the bad rewrite because not only did he have to work with a game that has almost no cutscenes but he also had to make sure the new writing was the same length as the original cutscenes. The shadow generations part is written by Ian Flynn and the shadow dark beginnings is also by him so he did a great job
I wasn't sure about the Chaos Island 1 remix when I heard it on its own, but in the actual level with the heavy use of the Doom Morph... creature... the types of sounds they used make a lot more sense than I thought they would.
I am half and half on the references. I think that is Flynn's weakness and greatness as a writer. He loves these characters, the stories they have had, and referencing to it. Which is glorious and actually shows care and love unlike the two jokers who never had any knowledge and made the worst dialogue ever. But it is a double edge sword since it feels like he has to include everything to make references to it. I don't mind it most of the time like with the references to both Heroes and Adventure 2's pre fight dialogue with Sonic and Shadow, but I do with stuff like Chemical Plant. But hey at least he still knows how to kill it with story and character moments. That's two games now and he caused me to cry both times due to the character writing. To the point I can't choose which ending hurt more! Hopefully, he can fix some of his issues and then well truly will have a perfect writer for these games.
To be fair, literally everyone was shitting on Generation's original dialogue until now
I don’t see where people are pulling this revisionist history over the old dialogue from like it’s the whole “Mania is bad” revisionist history when Superstars came out. I still see of plenty of people shitting on the original dialogue, and also just not liking the rewrite either.
One of my favorite parts of Sonic x Shadow Generations is having the enemy variety of all the different games! Seeing Artificial Chaos, 06 Eggman robots, Sonic Heroes Flappers, and Frontiers enemies reanimated in the style of Generations makes them feel so lively, I absolutely love them and I wish more people talked about them!!
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury but Sonic Generations be like. (I have nothing better to say.)
Can tell💀
That's Now The Most Unoriginal Opinion In History Now. It's The Most Overrated Opinion More Then BOTW And Frontiers.
To be fair, that's basically what this is. And like with Bowser's Fury, people prefer and want more of the new content that Shadow Generations delivers. Both Bowser's Fury and Shadow Generations deserve far longer campaigns instead of having to piggy back off of a remaster of an old game as side content. Lol
@@Super_Cinder.Infernonot overrated just speaking facts
Honestly crazy that we somehow didn't get a level from Shadow 05
Need I remind you that in the original version of the script, sonic did not remember Greenhill of all places!
For the life of me I can’t understand why Sega didn’t give MODERN SONIC a DOUBLE JUMP. Please Sega, please. Can y’all give Sonic a double jump in Generations. Please…..
3:10
I have the exact opposite opinion lol. My main complaint with the new cutscenes is the new voice direction which I agree with you on, but I think the new dialogue fits a LOT better and I like the way Amy is being treated now, instead of being seen as "annoying girl" she's taken more seriously. I don't think it feels forced in the slightest and I actually love these a lot more than the original dialogue.
Did anyone noticed this in SXS Generations?
The two stories are parallel to each other in ganeplay.
Sonic Generations has Act 1 to be 2D and Act 2 3D, Shadow Generations has 2 acts but in reverse as now the Act 1 is 3D and Act 2 is 2D.
Theres alos the hub world, Sonic's hub is 2D therefore act 1 and Shadow's hub is 3D which is the gams act 2.
They made it so gameplay is parallel. So cool. Anyone noticed this? if theres more stuff like this do let me know.
I just 100%'d Shadow Generations last night and it is so much fun, I enjoyed that I could play Radical Highway without the Doom Wings as an option as I could get creative on some shortcuts for both acts to try and get that S Rank Wingless (PS: It is harder than I thought)
Even then I hope for some QoL updates for future replayability like:
-Jukebox for the whitespace available once you beat the game at least once just so I can go around listeing to the unlocked songs while collecting the parts, chests and jumping between challenges
-Different S Rank times for playing an act with the Doom Wings as I really just S Ranked most of them without using it even thought I knew there were some paths only accesible with the Doom Wings, so a tighter S Rank would've been fine, but if they do not do it is understandable, as enforcing it retroactively would be annoying for people.
-Actually opening the white space map, I know I can see it and zoom in where I am standing on the pause menu but letting me move it around to check an area as some icons overlap on the full map and also letting me disable some icons on the map (I already got all the chest, I don't wanna see all of them cluttering the map, or I just wanna see which one I've missed) would've been nice.
-The Records Screen showing me every collectible (token, rocket part, journal) page I have collected and how many are in total as rn that page feels a but underwhelming
-Removing the always online DRM, it sucked when I realized I couldn't play it on my Steam Deck outside of my home without an online connection, or just that day I had no internet on my home on my PC.
And I think that's it, the game is one of my favorite games I've played this year and I can see myself replaying it again, I enjoyed my time with it on both my PC and Steam Deck (everything on low I was able to maintain 60fps on the deck), so I am excited for the DLC level based on the third Sonic Movie next month and I wouldn't mind more DLC levels for the game tbh
And as I always told my friends: If they have chance to play Shadow Generations, they should do it so they understand why we like Sonic games in general and why we want them to succed
In my experience Shadow Generations was actually longer than Sonic Generations. Both were casual playthroughs.
I get the knee-jerk reaction to an excessive amount of references, but bringing up Flynn when criticizing the rewrite and then NOT mentioning him while praising Shadow's story feels very biased and leading.
"thanks to ian flynn for the fantastic writing" 7:45
i literally praised him right here
and i didnt really criticize him for the rewrite either. i put an image on screen as a joke, poking fun at how everyone blames everything on him. other than that, i dont mention him at all
@@SFproductions1 Oops, I missed that bit, only heard the VA part.
I don't see how to tell the image is supposed to be a joke as opposed to actually blaming him, though. Might be a case where sarcasm is indistinguishable from the real thing.
They could have done something different like:
Instead of missions, we can add 2 extra stages to each level to get the boss keys like:
Labyrinth Zone - STH 1991
Star Light Zone - STH 1991
Casino Night Zone - STH 2
Metropolis Zone - STH 2
Launch Base Zone - STH 3
Flying Battery Zone - STH 3
Sky Deck - Adventure
Final Egg - Adventure
Metal Harbor - Adventure 2
Green Forest - Adventure 2
Grand Metropolis - Heroes
Casino Park - Heroes
Flame Core - 06
Aquatic Base - 06
Cool Edge - Unleashed
Jungle Joyride - Unleashed
Aquarium Park- Colors
Asteroid Coaster - Colors
You all know what you guy are thinking. "After completing an era, players must defeat two bosses: a "rival" character and a main boss".
Well, Let me give you something new type. It's called "Stage boss"! After Acts 1&2 in each stage, a third icon with a Time Eater face next to Act 2 will appear. Which means you unlocked a boss battle. And here they are:
Green Hill - Egg Wrecker
Chemical Plant - Egg Poison
Sky Sanctuary - Mecha Sonic Mark II
Speed Highway - Egg Walker
City Escape - F-6t Big Foot
Seaside Hill - Egg Hawk
City Escape - Iblis Phase 1
Rooftop Run - Egg Devil Ray
Planet Wisp - Refreshinator
13:01 Radical Highway Acts 1 and 2 are easily the hardest stages to S rank due to not being able to use Chaos Control
I'm glad they replaced the part where Amy pushes Knuckles against the tree, I never found it funny. Knuckles in this last decade was just relief for the weak comedy.
Thank you, it was the damn start of Knuckles flanderization (much like Tails being a coward technically started in Unleashed at its worse in Forces) that we saw carry over into Lost World which now even little woodland creatures can make a joke of him with how they carried him off. Knuckles has been a comedy relief character at times yes, but it came more from his own hubris in being tricked due to his gullible nature or when his temper gets the better of him like what happened in Rush with him trying to nab Blaze who just dodged him in causing an avalanche of boulders to fall on him.
Sega made the right call because just really now imagine being a Sonic fan brought in by the movies seeing game Knuckles made such a joke out of to the extent he was in the og Gens in letting himself be pushed around like that.
I feel the rewrites of the Sonic Generations portion down a bit for me. It's still a solid game as before but there was no need to rewrite the scenes of the characters. I rather they have spent time fixing the final boss fight.
As for the Shadow Generations side, it's just absolutely incredible. It's truly one of the best 3D modern games to come out in recent years.
Hey, y'know what? I agree, it's such an awesome game!
Even knowing that it would be fun I was blown away by how great Shadow Generations was, how creative and a joy to play it was!
Even the 2D stages were tolerable and actually pretty fun, and I usually dislike 2D, and I commend the fact that the 3D stages were actually 3D all the way without any invasive 2D sections!
I was expecting for Shadow to be uncontrollable at full-speed but nope!
Pleasant surprise, he controls beautifully when set to stop on a dime when you let go of the left stick in the settings, so whenever I make a mistake, it feels like I've made that mistake which I can correct instead of the game screwing me over!
The only thing I truly despise about it is the fact that you can't control the camera in 3D stages, it makes them feel more linear and restrictive than they really are;
But overall, it was the most fun I've had with a modern-day video game since Mount & Blade Bannerlord!
Oh, and there was no rival's battle with Sonic, which was disappointing, and the fact that there's not much combat, would've liked something that expanded upon the combat system of Frontiers.
Otherwise, Shadow's story was pretty fine and emotional too, though the part about "standing in the light" was some rotten cheese when it could've been about the balance between light and darkness, like yin and yang;
Which Shadow pretty much achieved, I really liked how he became a witty and dark yet noble warrior!
And the final boss? Phenomenal! I adore it when your character's theme plays during a final boss fight instead of the boss's!
I'm honestly wishing for the game to succeed and to sell a whole lot, and for D.L.C.!
I want more of noble dark warrior Shadow with space demon abilities!
Maybe colour his demonic abilities these warmer dark violet - purple to a lighter crimson colours, and make them look a little more angelic, to show that he's not connected to space Satan anymore!
And maybe if SonicTeam could make the camera controllable in 3D stages I'd appreciate that!
Oh, right, Sonic!
Uhm... He still turns like a tank, which I dislike.
Yeah, I like Shadow more here, hahah! And I get the impression that the developers did too.
my favorite thing about chaos control is that it refills the boost gauge back to full which is so useful for speedrunning too I’d say
This game is my favorite Sonic game ever. 11/10, but I’m really pissed that they didn’t add a level from Shadow 05, and I wish that they added voice lines where Shadow questions why Sunset Heights and Chaos Island are in the White Space since he hasn’t been there, and other stuff. But yes, best Sonic game ever.
Gerald has a line where he says the places shadow doesn't recognize are probably from the future, or something like that
I don't know why, but for some reason, I started headbanging to that outro. No real reason, really, I just went ahead and did it.
Man, I love this series.
Apparently knuckles getting slammed into the tree wasnt in the original Japanese version of generations
Really? I can't find any clips with that
@@adithyasajitkumar4204 I just heard it somewhere let me check for it
@@adithyasajitkumar4204 ok turns out I was wrong misinformation strikes me yet again sorry
@@dravenmartinez6311 no biggie. Anyways great game. Can't wait to pick it up soon
Shadow generations makes me hope sega doesn't try to radically change the formula for a bit. People still saying the boost formula isn’t as good are nuts after this game. Theres so much potential. And its...ya know...fun even the first time? Something that i feel like most old heads forget when talking about the games. Most people aren't in the same speedrun replay mindset sonic tubers tend to have.
My boy got a review copy, he's going places now 😂😂😂. Well done for getting recognised by Sega themselves.
Sonic × Shadow Generations gets a 9.5/10. What's holding this game back from being a 10/10 are the following:
1. No fix on Moder and Classic Super Sonic Ring depletion.
2. No Chaos Blast.
3. No Shadow The Hedgehog level.
The first one can be an easy fix with a simple patch which is why I encourage everyone to let Sonic Team know this. The ring depletion was something many fans criticized about the Super Sonic transformation. It drains too fast even when not boosting. Compared to previous and future titles, it's the one game where it depletes fast. The last two was intentionally left out. I get trying to distant yourselves from STH 2005 due to guns, but in a game called Sonic × Shadow Generations to not have any STH levels is completely illogical.
15:13
And this is correct. I died in Sunset Valley Act 2 because of sheer stupidity but still got the S rank. On the other hand though, I feel the time limit for S ranks isn’t quite as forgiving as Sonic Generations was.
when it comes to the rerecorded lines, some of the characters voice actors had been recast since 2011 so i get doing that for those characters who'd been recast.
18:58 Man, it’s weird to me how much you didn’t enjoy the Act 2’s in this game(Music and gameplay) I personally loved them just as much as the Act 1’s but I guess everyone has their own preferences
Sonic 4 takes place before Sonic generations and sonic Mania, Sonic Mania takes place before Sonic Superstars, and Superstars takes place before the Dreamcast and original Xbox era of Sonic the Hedgehog games.
This timeline arrangement can be an interesting perspective for fans to consider the interconnectedness of the Sonic game universe. It allows players to better understand the evolution of the Sonic series and how different games may relate to each other in terms of storylines and character development.
I went into Shadow Generations with low expectations. Instead it exceeded my expectations by miles. I'm extremely optimistic for the future of this series now.
Modern sonic getting the drop dash kinda makes sense. As the air dash in the original killed all momentum.
I agree but it caused me so much pain in gens since there are moments where you want to jump as soon as you land after an air dash and what my muscle memory picked up was to spam the jump button while falling but instead I ended up drop dashing which kinda messed up my fast runs (especially during the mission stages)
I just wished they did it like classic Sonic and made it a skill to equip but whatever lol
Thank you for telling the truth with your opinions. I agree with generations rewrite. I bought Sega Genesis with sonic 1 in 1991. Played every sonic game made . Still own and play 85 percent of them. And own The 90s cartoons. Full seasons. So anyway, We all have an opinion and I will play generations OG and my 3ds version. And play Shadow in this game. I got it like that. Good day y'all .
I'm mad at the community
I managed to go on blind about the game's plot and bosses because that's the only way I can enjoy games
And people just had to be idiotic and talk about it with no discretion whatsoever, I know that the bosses were known, but it's stupid to go on and ruin it to those that try to go blind, metal overlord was the only one I didn't know about, and it took me so much by surprise that it became my favorite
@@axl256gamesx7 well you should be mad at Sega not the community
@@SFproductions1I think that you should blame both
You can't expect the community to not talk about things Sega officially revealed. Leaks are a different story tho
What we are getting from Shadow is just amazing. This should lead into an HD remaster of Shadow or a completely new Shadow game.
finally someone agrees with my opinion on the dialogue changes I don’t like it as well
Initially I was gonna get this around Black Friday, but this video convinced me to get it today :)
My only disappointment is the lack of Sonic Rivals levels in Shadow's story. Tbh if you're going to use 1 level per game & have a similar amount of levels you'd HAVE to use those games
Bc he's only been in 7 games
(Sonic adventure 2, heroes, shadow the hedgehog, Sonic the hedgehog (2006), Sonic rivals, rivals 2 & forces)
I honestly didn't mind the rewrite for Gens. The only one that really felt bad to me was the timestone mention because it literally makes no sense for sonic to say that. I mainly like the new stuff because the old gens itself didn't make much sense in the way that Sonic and Tails both barely recognised green hill and chemical plant when they went there.
Honestly the rewrite aint even as bad as they say, im just glad the story and characters take themselves seriously again, although i will say i do agree some changes were unnecessary, like i say this as someone who has Knuckles as his favorite character, Amy sending him flying is perfectly fine, in fact im pretty sure she has super strength too so it's not like its out of line
Everyone always says "oh we already got a good PC port we don't need a remaster" we don't all have computers schlawg 😭😭 I jumped from the wii straight to the PS4 and then PS5 and i missed this masterpiece
Nice job getting a review copy you’re in the big leagues now
Honestly, I was so surprised there was no Infinite boss fight. That would've been neat to see, but still, I've never had more fun with a game in a while like Shadow Generations 🎉⚫️🔴⚪️
I like that Sonic and Tails actually recognize Chemical Plant and Green Hill this time around, since it made no sense for them to not recognize them before and having Amy not be a cringy obsessed fangirl this time around is a lot better, don't know why people complain about that, since they hated that side of her, but that's neither here nor there.
And I do like that Shadow Generations basically confirmed that 06's timeline was erased with Shadow not recognizing Mephiles at all (via Elise blowing out the Flame of Solaris)
But yeah, some of the rewrites are a little strange, like Knuckles asking Classic what happened to the rest of his island instead of asking him if he gained weight, which would make the part where he looks down at his stomach sadly make more sense, and yeah, I don't like that Amy no longer shoves Knuckles into a tree, I know it makes no sense for her to be able to do that, but it was still funny.
But since there was hardly any story to begin with with Generations, it's not too big of a deal for some of the dialogue to be changed.
And yeah, Shadow Generations is absolutely amazing and I'm not just saying that because he's my favorite Sonic character, I genuinely think it's amazing and since I played it BEFORE playing Generations, I immediately noticed a quality downgrade lol
I just want the old voices to come back
Kate Higgins as Tails
Travis Willingham as Knuckles
and Laura Bailey as Omochao
In the future.
Greatest Sonic remaster soo far 🔥🔥
Amazing review man! Funny enough, I also think it’s an 8.5/10 too!
My 2 cents on the rewrite: it's fine. Perfectly functional if a bit hard on fan service in some areas. People criticize it for taking out the charm in them but that mostly comes down to personal taste.
At the time, when Pontiac and Graff wrote the cutscenes, they were largely criticized for being uninteresting for the same reasons as Sonic Colors. I didn't personally mind things like Amy being obsessive over Sonic, but removing it entirely makes sense given their rewriting the series somewhat. Most elements are kept the same.
The most pressing fan service moments definitely came from the reference to the time stones after Sonic's first boss fight and the cutscene with Shadow and Sonic. That was probably due to Ian Flynn's understanding of what he was writing, considering he was doing this for Sonic generations, so he probably thought it fitting. It's functional, so I'm not too down on it, but it can feel ham fisted when the dialogue and concepts they use haven't been relevant for several decades.
It's not bad really, but I can see there being a problem with the people who were used to how the characters used to be. I wish I could put this in a more eloquent fashion.
I have seen the changes with Sonic Generations stories and outside a couple changes I don't agree with, I don't think it's as bad as you make it out to be.
Personally I felt they're fine changes for the most part and and it never bothered me outside of some changes with the humor. It doesn't hurt the story of Generations IMO.
You know it feels so good to be a sonic fan because sonic is my childhood
I also like to say the Switch port is very good, like it a lot better then i expect
the shadow gameplay was one of the most fun sonic experience I have had since sonic adventure 2... I think the feel and polish of shadows mechanics was top notch!! Good job sega
i loved every single second of the game
i hope they make more dlcs other than the sonic movie one
burhhhhh staaawp ittttt. How can ppl say Frontiers is one of the least polished sonic experiences when Boom, 06 and Colors Ultimate in the roster? Like Frontiers wasn't the most polished, but it was leagues aboves these I just mentionned. But apart from the little Frontiers Rant. I aggree with all the points in this video. Except for the Ian Flynn jab, it's not his fault, he had an already limited story to work with, and did his best. Don't blame the writers in this case.
I think the ranking system for boss fights is good but regular levels are too generous
I know that before I got my steam deck, Sonic Generations was one of my most wanted ports because I wanted it on the go with the Switch. I only got to play the game at that point on Sony's PS3 streaming service.
But since I do have Generations on PC, I appreciate the brand new game packaged with it.
I 100% agree with you on the dialogue and cutscene changes. They're completely unnecessary and set a bad precedent for future Sonic remasters.
*As the saying goes: "If it ain't broke, then don't try and fix it."*
@@winniebae4alwayyz963 Too bad SEGA/Sonic Team doesn't understand that 99% of the time.
If I was to use one word to describe Doom Morph, it would be Skill Issue. From what I've experienced and seen from other players it's difficult to manage at first even with its tutorial but when you figure out how to play it it's really good. I wasn't able to figure out that the swing and what I call the zip are two different things it can do. I originally thought you could only swing after transforming and since you can only go in one direction a screw up can be difficult to recover from since the swing points disappear after being used.
Turns out if you tap the button, you'll zip through it which can be easier than swinging to another, but this depends on the angle of the zip. This info alone makes the Final Boss' second phase easier to handle, especially if you A. Get comfortable with using your boost (I know it took some getting used to since the boost doesn't stay if you hold down the button, you need to spam it to maintain your speed) and B. learn to combine your boost and your jump. If you do it right then you can cover a LOT of ground which is particularly useful in that second phase I mentioned.
Once you figure all of this out the Morph ability is pretty good.
Oh my God...i just realized the meaning of your new logo...
It has Shadow and Luigi, because they both had their own year...
THAT WAS GENIUS
I also bought the movie shadow DLC which was fun