I also forgot to mention this: Kirk Thornton did a phenomenal job voicing Shadow in this game. This is easily his best work as the character and there was so many times where his performance reminded me of David Humphrey from the Adventure Era! And huge thanks to my buddy Krowley Pinapples for that...."splendid" commentary on my gameplay XD
As a sonic fan for the last decade, it is unreal to be able to say "i hope the next game will be just as good" instead of "i hope the next game will be good"
Great review and yeah when you put it that way, it’s unreal that we have a game that has so MUCH QUALITY AND EFFORT, and all of it was a new campaign no less!
@@madkaiser4887 Exactly! Just a new campaign for Sonic Gens suddenly gave me almost EVERYTHING I've been wanting from Sonic and it still blows my mind! Thanks for watching, bro!
I would have loved to see Bingo Highway myself, the thought of such a goofy stage contrasting with the serious tone of everything else sounds great. And nice video!
@@nullthenightcat That would've been a good pick too! Not one of my favorite stages from Heroes either but would definitely still be the most unique stage if put into Shadow Gens. Thank you so much for watching!
Sonic Forces & Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog really gave me hope for the series. I'm glad that the characters feel more mature and grown up. I'm not a fan of characters feeling stagnant. Shadow Generations did a great job of continuing this as well. I'm glad we have Ian Flynn, as he feels like the Kevin Feige of the Sonic Universe now and it's exciting and wonderful to have hope for Sonic again.
Even though theres a lot of stances Ian Flynn has about the characters that I just do not agree with whatsover, I am glad we at least have someone who's putting the franchise back into heavy action and well written storylines again. I just hope that sooner or later, they get Shiro Maekawa back or any of the writers from the Japanese team to co-write with Ian Flynn so that the characters can feel like they used to back in the 2000s!
After I found out that the SOAP shoes from SA2 in Sonic Frontiers was a pre-order bonus that I'd missed by not knowing that before the release of that game and that that bonus could only be gotten afterwards by anyone who has the PC port, I got upset and determined to stay as aware as I can for whatever pre-order bonuses any Sonic games after that one would have and tried to get SXSG with the pre-order bonuses that that game has. (the Switch port of those 2 games were my only choice for those games because I didn't have a gaming laptop until Christmas last year. It surprised me that ever since release day anyone who got the standard version of SXSG could download the Digital Deluxe stuff as an update, so I did that and have had a lot of fun playing that game. It impressed me too. When I went through the Black Doom final battle I swapped the background music to "Live and Learn" because of how very highly impressed I've been with the quality of that epic and iconic song ever since I first listened to it. PS, Just so you know, SEGA had Blind Squirrel Games develop Sonic Colors Ultimate, so the glitchyness of that remaster wasn't Sonic Team's fault.
@@Hedgie3 I'm sorry to hear you couldn't get the SOAP shoes but I'm glad you enjoyed Shadow Gens! Yeah, I'm aware of Blind Squirrel games and their involvement. However, I still hold the majority of blame on SEGA for not properlly overseeing that studio during the development of Colors Ultimate.
@@Jman88933 It's okay, the SOAP shoes loss isn't too much of a problem now because I have that gaming laptop and I've been planning to have the PC port of Frontiers be one of the games that I'll play on it. When I do that I'll install this "Real Silver Frontiers" mod into it, so that I can play as Silver in that port and I've seen that one of the outfits that that mod has in it is a pair of SOAP shoes that was modified to have the same colors on them as Silver's boots do. I've never done online gaming before so one of my friends agreed to help me with leaning how install PC games on STEAM and do modding. After that person next visits me I'll be able to play games on that brand-new portable PC.
@@Jman88933 The truth about Colors Ultimate is that it was rushed out to tie into the unexpectedly successful Paramount Sonic Movie. They manged to do better even if it still was rushed with Origin for Movie 2. Its only with Shadow Generation for Movie 3 that they manged to time it in a way that gave the team enough time to polish the tie in game.
Shadow is basically the second main character of the series with every game where he is playable he is the most important character, believe me Shadow will most likely be playable in the next Sonic game and he will probably have an important role, especially if that new character Tori is Maria's sister like the theories Suggest
@@Shadow-Joop-157 I would love to go back to the days where the Sonic games had more than one main protagonist! Thats what I appreciated about Sonic 06 was that the game wasn't just about Sonic. It was also a story arc about Shadow, and newcomer at the time, Silver. I hope we get more playable characters in the next Sonic game! Who is Tori? 🤔
@Jman88933 oh god where to start with tori in the first tailstube the Humans from Unleashed were seen in a photo, but there was one human character that not only wasn't in Sonic Unleashed but was in the adventure 2 art work art style which makes her look very out of place standing next to the the Unleashed humans. Ian Flynn said she was going to be important in the future, fans thought she would be in Frontiers but that of course didn't happen, Ian Flynn then said please be patient. Not only was she in the latest New Year's Eve Tails Tube, she was featured as an Easter egg in Movie 3. but more importantly in the Japanese version Shadow Gens, She turned out to be studying Gerald's Journal while she is working for g.u.n and her name is victoria but tori for short. We don't know everything about her but she is clearly going to be one of the most important characters in the series in a long time, the theory is that She is Maria's little sister that Maria talks about in one of the chats with her that you can do in the overworld
I really wish that they picked Hang Castle from Sonic Heroes. Spooky stages really need to make a return. They’ve only been used in SA2 and Sonic Heroes. We have some spooky vibes in Sonic Superstars, but that’s still a casino level (a type of level that I wish they dropped entirely).
@@Hynotama A mash between Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion would've been FIRE! Loved both of those stages in Heroes despite them being hard as hell XD. Thanks for watching!
I love Amy's characterisations in the games, but I have to say, X and Battle's was a touch too much exaggeration. She got a bit better towards the end of X in particular, but early X, good god. Felt like an opposite extreme to Frontiers. There's an extent to where it goes past charm. Also Frontiers had all the characters just going through it, it was just a more serious game, there was no time to pile on the flirting. That aside, your energy for Shadow Gens is infectious Edit: Okay your friend is an agent of chaos and I love it LMAO
In another timeline, Sonic would be more popular than Mario right now. Oh yeah! Shadow, our favorite edgelord. I feel like I'm back in 2006. xD Great video, man. I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much. Hopefully Sega can deliver more gems like this.
You're damn right. Sonic has all the potential to be at that level, if the franchise wasn't mismanaged for so long. Yup! I legit kinda miss the gun gameplay now thinking about it XD. Our boy Shadow was done justice here. Thanks for watching dude! More great things are to come!
This was an excellent video J-Man! Well worth the wait. I believe that you went into great detail in describing the gameplay and mechanics, as well as going into good details about the story. I didn't do all that much research into Shadow Generations prior to watching your video. All I knew is that the general consensus was that Sonic fans enjoyed the game. After watching your video I believe that I am sold and will get the game as soon as it goes on sale. From looking at the gameplay footage it seems that Shadow Generations has everything that a Sonic game should have: High speed gameplay, action and platforming, stunning visuals, great music, etc. Elaborating more on the visuals, the game is a beauty to look at. I enjoy the way the camera pans on Shadow during certain parts of the stage and the cool poses that he does. In summary, your video was excellent. Things that are the standard that most people won't pay attention to when it comes to judging a RUclips video but is expected are the production values. The footage that you provided align perfectly with your commentary. Your voice was the perfect volume that you could clearly understand what you're saying. The music you play in the background was audible, but not drowning out your voice, which is a good thing. Keep up the good work J-Man 👍.
@@StratoPhoenix Thanks for watching brother! Totally get the game if you can, its truly great! I'm glad the production of this video really shined for you as I was a little concerned at times of my voice ans the music being too loud or too low. But I'm glad everything was still clear to you. There's definitely more things to come! 😁👍
Completely agree with porting old games that aren't legally available anymore. Me: gee, I'd love to play Sonic Rivals. Hey Sega can you port it? Sega: ... Who?
Exactly! They have so many good Sonic games that so many people would love to play today in ports. I'd throw money at them the moment they announce an Advance HD remastered collection or a Sonic Riders HD with online!
I HATE the Radical Highway sections (not the actual Radical Highway levels) The Radical Highway sections have too much automation/ automated parts (especially the Rail Canyon one)
There was admittedly. That's a valid point. And as much as I don't like heavy automation in Sonic games, I wasn't bothered by the Radical Highway sections here. Some of them were pretty cool!
Respectable @@Jman88933 It does have cool spectacle. I just wished that the gameplay was better. (For example, imagine if you had to physically move from object to object from that Egg Gate QTE?)
@@Hyp3rSonic I think the single most annoying thing about Shadow Generations is that Sonic Forces brain dead QTE's would properly have fit in here perfectly to make the cinematic level moments also a bit player controlled while not needing to be deep gameplay wise as the core gameplay already got that covered.
Its a really great game but I can't say I really *loved * it per-say because it is just doing the Generations thing again. Give me brand new stages, multiple playable characters, and a storyline thats just as engaging as the one we have now, then we'll be golden!
@@Jman88933 I'm inclined to agree. It's quality, but Shadow is kinda carrying it in most aspects and it doesn't *really* do much to move the plot forward (even if it *might* end up putting the plot back on a positive track once all the Robotnik family plotlines start to form a proper thread) and while the stages were well put together, it's only like maybe an hour of real top quality content. It's another instance of something that makes me hopeful for a future where SEGA realizes first that Shadow is a bigger tentpole character than any of the other core characters that isn't Sonic and second that the plot the series needs to be digging to isn't more noise about the ancient alien race of the week (and I'm sorry, just because the ancient cocos or whatever they are called have some progenitor relationship with Chaos Zero doesn't make them interesting) and more about the human intrigue started up by SA2. It's always more interesting when the plot is actually relevant to the main cast rather than the main cast just sort of being there.
Firstly I wanna say great video! I really liked this game I feel like at this point amy, knuckles, shadow, sonic, and tails have enough uniqueness to them for a new adventure game in modern day as I feel like ever since the boost games came out I've always wondered how they'd readapt their movesets, nonetheless I like how this game brought back the monitors from the adventure games that was pretty cool and I hope they stay tbh, I think you could consider the ark to be a shadow 05 stage since it was both in SA2 and shadow 05 but that's up to interpretation I guess, also a cool thing you can do is spam chaos spear to help skip large sections of stages, lastly while I like this game I still plan to temper my expectations for any game going forward as I don't know if they'll suddenly fumble again, I hope not especially since (I think) Naoto oshima said he thinks he understands the sonic formula now, he said this after we had frontiers with multiple characters playable and shadow gens which had shadow playable in his own unique way, so I'm hoping that's what he meant or if not something better though I wish this franchise the best going forward
Thank you so much for watching! I feel like there's more opportunities now more than ever for a new Adventure game, but thats all up to SEGA at this point. The fact that people can do insane speed runs by spamming Chaos Spears still blows my mind, lol. You're totally right to be hesitant on fully trusting the company, and part of me is the same way. But Shadow Generations convinced me that Sonic Team/SEGA are truly listening to feedback(*carefully*) from the fans and are truly to turn the ship around for good this time. I just hope I'm not wrong XD. Regardless, lets all hope for the best!
tokyo [dlc level] was westopolis! course id way prefer that stage to just BE westopolis & not tokyo, even as a huge shadow 05 fan, gotta admit, that IS the westopolis we were given
Hot take time, Shadow Gens's story just... didn't do it for me. The crux of Shadow's arc in this game was one already done in Shadow 05 where he learns to separate himself from his ties to Black Doom and live as his own person, when it was set up in the Dark Beginnings shorts to be about him letting go of Maria for good, something that actually has yet to happen in the games until... now, I guess, but the execution felt really limp to me. Maria and Gerald should have been the main supporting cast for the game, and the Faustian temptation to save them should have been the primary focus rather than Shadow's personal conflict with his origins as a tool of the Black Arms. Which takes me to my primary complaint, as someone who has NEVER touched Sonic 06, _Mephilis should have been the main villain,_ and not doing so was a massive mistake on the part of the writing team, or SEGA (it depends on who has the highest authority when it comes to these creative decisions). Mephilis is basically the Sonic equivalent to Lucifer in how he tempts others with deceit, visions of bad futures, and the uncharacteristically Lucifer trait of the carrot on the stick. Maria and Gerald both would have been perfect "carrots" for Mephilis to dangle in front of Shadow. He's also just synonymous with time shenanigans and would have been a perfect compliment to the Time Eater. Also it was heavily implied that he remembers the events of 06, and GOD THE THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE WITH THAT IF THEY DEDICATED THE WHOLE STORY TO IT UGGGHHHHHHH! It just feels like this story could have been so much more, y'know? It feels like what we got was just too... safe, too held-back and lacking in the ambition that people praise the adventure era so much for.
If you read the comic and compare to Frontiers besides a bigger sense of responsibility the similarities end there with Amy, they consistently show her love and affection for Sonic very liberally and consistently (issue 75, the most recent one shows this in fact) So the comparison and if they’re the same are odd to me
I felt just as hopeful for the franchise after the original Generations launch, but all that amounted to was mediocrity and disappointment. I was enjoying myself with Frontiers for a while but ended up putting the game down after realizing I was absolutely bored. It remains installed in my Steam library, waiting for the day I eventually decide to give it another go. I'm tired, boss. I just want to have play a good game and enjoy myself. Mania and Shadow Generations are great; at the very least I have those (also Project '06) to keep satiated in case Sega decides fun time is over.
@@GroovyPancake You and me both man. We all loved Sonic because he used to make it a standard to always push out high qualilty products. Yet this last decade ruined the trust we all had with that company. I'm hoping Shadow Gens is the *taste* of what we have to look forward to with the franchise in regards to brand new games!
I disagree on your Amy point, she still has those mother instincts especially in frontiers when she helped the coco. Toning down her love for sonic will make her stand as her own character instead of just a sonic simp.
@@rvbrt2123 Thats where we don't see eye to eye, I'm afraid. Amy has *always* stood on her own, as I explained in my clip. There were always many other traits to her character from all the Sonic games(and spinoffs) from Adventure 1 to the way to Sonic Riders Zero Gravity. However, many of these traits tended to be ignored by a section of the fanbase, due her main trait, being her love for Sonic, being in the forefront. And also, what exactly is wrong with her being a quote, "Sonic simp"? Her loving Sonic the way she did, took nothing away from her character, as she still shined as a character in scenes where Sonic wasn't present and/or Sonic wasn't the main topic. It was the *charm* of her character and made her lively and fun everytime she was on screen. She still managed to be one of the most memorable characters in this franchise and provided unique qualities to the table that no character, including Sonic, else has.
@@jokingbee.2852 Bakeru! Its a niche 3D platforming game that released late year by the developers of the "Mystical Ninja Goemon" games! They also helped developed Princess Peach Showtime! 😁👍 Its on Nintendo Switch and PC!
i think you being upset over not getting to play as shadow fighting sonic is ignorant because why would you be able to play in a bossfight that is impossible to win in? and also it wouldnt make sense story wise for shadow to even use the doom powers against sonic because they have literally never been brought up in any sonic game except this one. so yeah, it makes much more sense for it to be a cutscene and not a full rival boss fight
With all due respect, the word "ignorant" is not being intelligently used here. There's nothing that I'm lacking awareness or knowledge of regarding this particular topic of Sonic vs Shadow in either of these games. Also, you're acting as if this franchise, as well as countless other franchises hasn't done something like that before?? In Sonic 06, Sonic LOSES the fight against Silver, yet they had you play that fight anyway for the sake of the story AND interactive engagement from the player. Why can't they do that same thing here? In regards to Shadow's doom powers, they could've had Ian Flynn come up with some sort of lore excuse to have his doom powers turned off during that fight. Hell, since Ian Flynn rewrote the dialogue to the original Generations anyway, I'm seeing less of a reason why he can't change up the rules. The point is, if SEGA *really* wanted to have a boss fight with Sonic in Shadow Generations, they would've found a way to implement that in the game.
There's no way you all genuinly beloeve shadow gens to be a good story point for Shadow. A atory which completely regressed the character. This just shows the fanbases gullibility
@Jman88933 it regress back on the path to be led by his grievance for Maria, a character he already let go of at the end of Shadow 05's story. The story tries to say *"Well, you can still grief even after you say you moved on"* completely ignoring Shadow's no-nonsense character whej it comes to present problems that currently endanger the world.
@@ataladin87 I have a question to ask you: Do you know anyone in your life who hasn't grieved at least ONCE after the passing of their loved one, even after they've made an effort to move on? We're talking about a death, dude. Something like that never *completely* leaves you, regardless of how far you think you're over it. Plus, you need to think about the unique situation Shadow as in this time around. A person that he thought, he would NEVER see again, suddenly came back into his life again temporarily. Do you have any idea how crazy that is? Put anyone, that you personally know who lost loved ones, in that same position. Where the person that they grieved their hearts out over their death, suddenly coming back into their lives like a dangling carrot to be able to get back and hold what was once lost to them, only for them to disappear AGAIN. That would destroy anyone. Thats exactly what Shadow went through. He essentially had to watch Maria die TWICE. Did you expect him to just turn around and walk forward as if nothing happened just because he tried to move on after Shadow 05? This entire storyline for Shadow as made for the audience to empathize and relate with Shadow on the feeling of loss. Which is a completely valid arc for Shadow, despite it being a repeat of Shadow 05. How in the world is that character regression when all this story did was reaffirm how much Maria loves him and wants Shadow to use his strength for good?
@@ataladin87 News flash, once you grieve for somebody once, you CANT GO BACK AND REFLECT ON THAT AGAIN even IF youre met with a literal phantom representation of them that would naturally stir up old memories for anyone. Taking the time to honor someones memory especially in such a situation like this despite any pain they may feel is a cool thing to see Shadow go through. This is coming from me by the way, the guy who hasnt been nearly into sonic as Jman here.
I can see this as an ongoing arc for shadow. 05 being about him letting go of his past Generations having him being confronted by his past And a future story (an adventure per say) where he can finally accept and overcome his past
>I want an Amy game (proceeds to use Princess Peach Showtime as the reason why) If SEGA takes away anything from Princess Peach Showtime, it should be that you can expect a spinoff starring 'the girl' to sell about 1/30th of what you'd get out of a game featuring the main character. Terrible investment.
I also forgot to mention this: Kirk Thornton did a phenomenal job voicing Shadow in this game. This is easily his best work as the character and there was so many times where his performance reminded me of David Humphrey from the Adventure Era!
And huge thanks to my buddy Krowley Pinapples for that...."splendid" commentary on my gameplay XD
As a sonic fan for the last decade, it is unreal to be able to say "i hope the next game will be just as good" instead of "i hope the next game will be good"
That is such an insanely accurate way of putting that XD. It'd be even better if SEGA/Sonic Team could go even higher than here too!
12:45 "So Gerald Robotnik was definitely executed well too!" - GUN, 50 years ago.
@@FamusJamus 👏INCREDIBLE! XDDD 🤣
Great review and yeah when you put it that way, it’s unreal that we have a game that has so MUCH QUALITY AND EFFORT, and all of it was a new campaign no less!
@@madkaiser4887 Exactly! Just a new campaign for Sonic Gens suddenly gave me almost EVERYTHING I've been wanting from Sonic and it still blows my mind!
Thanks for watching, bro!
I would have loved to see Bingo Highway myself, the thought of such a goofy stage contrasting with the serious tone of everything else sounds great.
And nice video!
@@nullthenightcat That would've been a good pick too! Not one of my favorite stages from Heroes either but would definitely still be the most unique stage if put into Shadow Gens.
Thank you so much for watching!
Sonic Forces & Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog really gave me hope for the series. I'm glad that the characters feel more mature and grown up. I'm not a fan of characters feeling stagnant. Shadow Generations did a great job of continuing this as well. I'm glad we have Ian Flynn, as he feels like the Kevin Feige of the Sonic Universe now and it's exciting and wonderful to have hope for Sonic again.
Even though theres a lot of stances Ian Flynn has about the characters that I just do not agree with whatsover, I am glad we at least have someone who's putting the franchise back into heavy action and well written storylines again. I just hope that sooner or later, they get Shiro Maekawa back or any of the writers from the Japanese team to co-write with Ian Flynn so that the characters can feel like they used to back in the 2000s!
After I found out that the SOAP shoes from SA2 in Sonic Frontiers was a pre-order bonus that I'd missed by not knowing that before the release of that game and that that bonus could only be gotten afterwards by anyone who has the PC port, I got upset and determined to stay as aware as I can for whatever pre-order bonuses any Sonic games after that one would have and tried to get SXSG with the pre-order bonuses that that game has. (the Switch port of those 2 games were my only choice for those games because I didn't have a gaming laptop until Christmas last year. It surprised me that ever since release day anyone who got the standard version of SXSG could download the Digital Deluxe stuff as an update, so I did that and have had a lot of fun playing that game. It impressed me too. When I went through the Black Doom final battle I swapped the background music to "Live and Learn" because of how very highly impressed I've been with the quality of that epic and iconic song ever since I first listened to it.
PS, Just so you know, SEGA had Blind Squirrel Games develop Sonic Colors Ultimate, so the glitchyness of that remaster wasn't Sonic Team's fault.
@@Hedgie3 I'm sorry to hear you couldn't get the SOAP shoes but I'm glad you enjoyed Shadow Gens!
Yeah, I'm aware of Blind Squirrel games and their involvement. However, I still hold the majority of blame on SEGA for not properlly overseeing that studio during the development of Colors Ultimate.
@@Jman88933 It's okay, the SOAP shoes loss isn't too much of a problem now because I have that gaming laptop and I've been planning to have the PC port of Frontiers be one of the games that I'll play on it. When I do that I'll install this "Real Silver Frontiers" mod into it, so that I can play as Silver in that port and I've seen that one of the outfits that that mod has in it is a pair of SOAP shoes that was modified to have the same colors on them as Silver's boots do.
I've never done online gaming before so one of my friends agreed to help me with leaning how install PC games on STEAM and do modding. After that person next visits me I'll be able to play games on that brand-new portable PC.
@@Jman88933 The truth about Colors Ultimate is that it was rushed out to tie into the unexpectedly successful Paramount Sonic Movie.
They manged to do better even if it still was rushed with Origin for Movie 2.
Its only with Shadow Generation for Movie 3 that they manged to time it in a way that gave the team enough time to polish the tie in game.
Shadow is basically the second main character of the series with every game where he is playable he is the most important character, believe me Shadow will most likely be playable in the next Sonic game and he will probably have an important role, especially if that new character Tori is Maria's sister like the theories Suggest
@@Shadow-Joop-157 I would love to go back to the days where the Sonic games had more than one main protagonist! Thats what I appreciated about Sonic 06 was that the game wasn't just about Sonic. It was also a story arc about Shadow, and newcomer at the time, Silver. I hope we get more playable characters in the next Sonic game!
Who is Tori? 🤔
@Jman88933 oh god where to start with tori
in the first tailstube the Humans from Unleashed were seen in a photo, but there was one human character that not only wasn't in Sonic Unleashed but was in the adventure 2 art work art style which makes her look very out of place standing next to the the Unleashed humans.
Ian Flynn said she was going to be important in the future, fans thought she would be in Frontiers but that of course didn't happen, Ian Flynn then said please be patient.
Not only was she in the latest New Year's Eve Tails Tube, she was featured as an Easter egg in Movie 3.
but more importantly in the Japanese version Shadow Gens, She turned out to be studying Gerald's Journal while she is working for g.u.n and her name is victoria but tori for short.
We don't know everything about her but she is clearly going to be one of the most important characters in the series in a long time, the theory is that She is Maria's little sister that Maria talks about in one of the chats with her that you can do in the overworld
I really wish that they picked Hang Castle from Sonic Heroes. Spooky stages really need to make a return. They’ve only been used in SA2 and Sonic Heroes. We have some spooky vibes in Sonic Superstars, but that’s still a casino level (a type of level that I wish they dropped entirely).
@@Hynotama A mash between Hang Castle and Mystic Mansion would've been FIRE! Loved both of those stages in Heroes despite them being hard as hell XD.
Thanks for watching!
@ yes, that would have been amazing!
12:47 I feel like Gerald was "executed" best in SA2
@@OceanChime You dudes are cracking me up!! 😂😂
I love Amy's characterisations in the games, but I have to say, X and Battle's was a touch too much exaggeration. She got a bit better towards the end of X in particular, but early X, good god. Felt like an opposite extreme to Frontiers. There's an extent to where it goes past charm.
Also Frontiers had all the characters just going through it, it was just a more serious game, there was no time to pile on the flirting.
That aside, your energy for Shadow Gens is infectious
Edit: Okay your friend is an agent of chaos and I love it LMAO
In another timeline, Sonic would be more popular than Mario right now.
Oh yeah! Shadow, our favorite edgelord. I feel like I'm back in 2006. xD
Great video, man. I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much. Hopefully Sega can deliver more gems like this.
You're damn right. Sonic has all the potential to be at that level, if the franchise wasn't mismanaged for so long.
Yup! I legit kinda miss the gun gameplay now thinking about it XD. Our boy Shadow was done justice here.
Thanks for watching dude! More great things are to come!
This was an excellent video J-Man! Well worth the wait. I believe that you went into great detail in describing the gameplay and mechanics, as well as going into good details about the story.
I didn't do all that much research into Shadow Generations prior to watching your video. All I knew is that the general consensus was that Sonic fans enjoyed the game.
After watching your video I believe that I am sold and will get the game as soon as it goes on sale.
From looking at the gameplay footage it seems that Shadow Generations has everything that a Sonic game should have:
High speed gameplay, action and platforming, stunning visuals, great music, etc.
Elaborating more on the visuals, the game is a beauty to look at. I enjoy the way the camera pans on Shadow during certain parts of the stage and the cool poses that he does.
In summary, your video was excellent. Things that are the standard that most people won't pay attention to when it comes to judging a RUclips video but is expected are the production values. The footage that you provided align perfectly with your commentary. Your voice was the perfect volume that you could clearly understand what you're saying. The music you play in the background was audible, but not drowning out your voice, which is a good thing.
Keep up the good work J-Man 👍.
@@StratoPhoenix Thanks for watching brother! Totally get the game if you can, its truly great!
I'm glad the production of this video really shined for you as I was a little concerned at times of my voice ans the music being too loud or too low. But I'm glad everything was still clear to you. There's definitely more things to come! 😁👍
Im taking that outstretched hand of Jmans. What a video. Fat W.
You're such a goof. But thanks! XD
Completely agree with porting old games that aren't legally available anymore.
Me: gee, I'd love to play Sonic Rivals. Hey Sega can you port it?
Sega: ... Who?
Exactly! They have so many good Sonic games that so many people would love to play today in ports. I'd throw money at them the moment they announce an Advance HD remastered collection or a Sonic Riders HD with online!
I HATE the Radical Highway sections (not the actual Radical Highway levels)
The Radical Highway sections have too much automation/ automated parts (especially the Rail Canyon one)
There was admittedly. That's a valid point. And as much as I don't like heavy automation in Sonic games, I wasn't bothered by the Radical Highway sections here. Some of them were pretty cool!
Respectable @@Jman88933
It does have cool spectacle. I just wished that the gameplay was better. (For example, imagine if you had to physically move from object to object from that Egg Gate QTE?)
@@Hyp3rSonic I think the single most annoying thing about Shadow Generations is that Sonic Forces brain dead QTE's would properly have fit in here perfectly to make the cinematic level moments also a bit player controlled while not needing to be deep gameplay wise as the core gameplay already got that covered.
Imma be honest, I like new Amy more than old Amy. And I liked Amy even before. I just think new her is neat.
Fair enough!
>I nearly loved it
Not a... perfectly... glowing endorsement. But I guess it was short.
Its a really great game but I can't say I really *loved * it per-say because it is just doing the Generations thing again. Give me brand new stages, multiple playable characters, and a storyline thats just as engaging as the one we have now, then we'll be golden!
@@Jman88933 I'm inclined to agree. It's quality, but Shadow is kinda carrying it in most aspects and it doesn't *really* do much to move the plot forward (even if it *might* end up putting the plot back on a positive track once all the Robotnik family plotlines start to form a proper thread) and while the stages were well put together, it's only like maybe an hour of real top quality content.
It's another instance of something that makes me hopeful for a future where SEGA realizes first that Shadow is a bigger tentpole character than any of the other core characters that isn't Sonic and second that the plot the series needs to be digging to isn't more noise about the ancient alien race of the week (and I'm sorry, just because the ancient cocos or whatever they are called have some progenitor relationship with Chaos Zero doesn't make them interesting) and more about the human intrigue started up by SA2. It's always more interesting when the plot is actually relevant to the main cast rather than the main cast just sort of being there.
Firstly I wanna say great video! I really liked this game I feel like at this point amy, knuckles, shadow, sonic, and tails have enough uniqueness to them for a new adventure game in modern day as I feel like ever since the boost games came out I've always wondered how they'd readapt their movesets, nonetheless I like how this game brought back the monitors from the adventure games that was pretty cool and I hope they stay tbh, I think you could consider the ark to be a shadow 05 stage since it was both in SA2 and shadow 05 but that's up to interpretation I guess, also a cool thing you can do is spam chaos spear to help skip large sections of stages, lastly while I like this game I still plan to temper my expectations for any game going forward as I don't know if they'll suddenly fumble again, I hope not especially since (I think) Naoto oshima said he thinks he understands the sonic formula now, he said this after we had frontiers with multiple characters playable and shadow gens which had shadow playable in his own unique way, so I'm hoping that's what he meant or if not something better though I wish this franchise the best going forward
Thank you so much for watching!
I feel like there's more opportunities now more than ever for a new Adventure game, but thats all up to SEGA at this point. The fact that people can do insane speed runs by spamming Chaos Spears still blows my mind, lol. You're totally right to be hesitant on fully trusting the company, and part of me is the same way. But Shadow Generations convinced me that Sonic Team/SEGA are truly listening to feedback(*carefully*) from the fans and are truly to turn the ship around for good this time. I just hope I'm not wrong XD.
Regardless, lets all hope for the best!
Bro ya friend is hilarious 😂
That dude, is a HANDFUL! But nah, it was hard for me not to crack up at times, haha! I'm sure he'd be happy to hear you say that.
This is he, Thanks a TON Lol
tokyo [dlc level] was westopolis! course id way prefer that stage to just BE westopolis & not tokyo, even as a huge shadow 05 fan, gotta admit, that IS the westopolis we were given
Hot take time, Shadow Gens's story just... didn't do it for me. The crux of Shadow's arc in this game was one already done in Shadow 05 where he learns to separate himself from his ties to Black Doom and live as his own person, when it was set up in the Dark Beginnings shorts to be about him letting go of Maria for good, something that actually has yet to happen in the games until... now, I guess, but the execution felt really limp to me. Maria and Gerald should have been the main supporting cast for the game, and the Faustian temptation to save them should have been the primary focus rather than Shadow's personal conflict with his origins as a tool of the Black Arms.
Which takes me to my primary complaint, as someone who has NEVER touched Sonic 06, _Mephilis should have been the main villain,_ and not doing so was a massive mistake on the part of the writing team, or SEGA (it depends on who has the highest authority when it comes to these creative decisions). Mephilis is basically the Sonic equivalent to Lucifer in how he tempts others with deceit, visions of bad futures, and the uncharacteristically Lucifer trait of the carrot on the stick. Maria and Gerald both would have been perfect "carrots" for Mephilis to dangle in front of Shadow. He's also just synonymous with time shenanigans and would have been a perfect compliment to the Time Eater. Also it was heavily implied that he remembers the events of 06, and GOD THE THINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE WITH THAT IF THEY DEDICATED THE WHOLE STORY TO IT UGGGHHHHHHH!
It just feels like this story could have been so much more, y'know? It feels like what we got was just too... safe, too held-back and lacking in the ambition that people praise the adventure era so much for.
If you read the comic and compare to Frontiers besides a bigger sense of responsibility the similarities end there with Amy, they consistently show her love and affection for Sonic very liberally and consistently (issue 75, the most recent one shows this in fact) So the comparison and if they’re the same are odd to me
I felt just as hopeful for the franchise after the original Generations launch, but all that amounted to was mediocrity and disappointment. I was enjoying myself with Frontiers for a while but ended up putting the game down after realizing I was absolutely bored. It remains installed in my Steam library, waiting for the day I eventually decide to give it another go.
I'm tired, boss. I just want to have play a good game and enjoy myself. Mania and Shadow Generations are great; at the very least I have those (also Project '06) to keep satiated in case Sega decides fun time is over.
@@GroovyPancake You and me both man. We all loved Sonic because he used to make it a standard to always push out high qualilty products. Yet this last decade ruined the trust we all had with that company.
I'm hoping Shadow Gens is the *taste* of what we have to look forward to with the franchise in regards to brand new games!
I disagree on your Amy point, she still has those mother instincts especially in frontiers when she helped the coco. Toning down her love for sonic will make her stand as her own character instead of just a sonic simp.
@@rvbrt2123 Thats where we don't see eye to eye, I'm afraid.
Amy has *always* stood on her own, as I explained in my clip. There were always many other traits to her character from all the Sonic games(and spinoffs) from Adventure 1 to the way to Sonic Riders Zero Gravity. However, many of these traits tended to be ignored by a section of the fanbase, due her main trait, being her love for Sonic, being in the forefront.
And also, what exactly is wrong with her being a quote, "Sonic simp"? Her loving Sonic the way she did, took nothing away from her character, as she still shined as a character in scenes where Sonic wasn't present and/or Sonic wasn't the main topic. It was the *charm* of her character and made her lively and fun everytime she was on screen. She still managed to be one of the most memorable characters in this franchise and provided unique qualities to the table that no character, including Sonic, else has.
What's the name of the game in the beginning of the video?
@@jokingbee.2852
Bakeru! Its a niche 3D platforming game that released late year by the developers of the "Mystical Ninja Goemon" games! They also helped developed Princess Peach Showtime! 😁👍
Its on Nintendo Switch and PC!
Thanks dude
great video !!!!!
@@Turdtomatoe Thank you so much!
i think you being upset over not getting to play as shadow fighting sonic is ignorant because why would you be able to play in a bossfight that is impossible to win in? and also it wouldnt make sense story wise for shadow to even use the doom powers against sonic because they have literally never been brought up in any sonic game except this one. so yeah, it makes much more sense for it to be a cutscene and not a full rival boss fight
With all due respect, the word "ignorant" is not being intelligently used here. There's nothing that I'm lacking awareness or knowledge of regarding this particular topic of Sonic vs Shadow in either of these games.
Also, you're acting as if this franchise, as well as countless other franchises hasn't done something like that before?? In Sonic 06, Sonic LOSES the fight against Silver, yet they had you play that fight anyway for the sake of the story AND interactive engagement from the player. Why can't they do that same thing here? In regards to Shadow's doom powers, they could've had Ian Flynn come up with some sort of lore excuse to have his doom powers turned off during that fight. Hell, since Ian Flynn rewrote the dialogue to the original Generations anyway, I'm seeing less of a reason why he can't change up the rules. The point is, if SEGA *really* wanted to have a boss fight with Sonic in Shadow Generations, they would've found a way to implement that in the game.
LMAO DARK BEGINNINGS ISN’T EVEN 2D.
IT’S CELL SHADING.
(There are a few shots that are 2D tho)
Oh? I thought it was 2D with CGI implemented into it.
What are you doing in the Nile dude, you're gonna drown.
@davudlinteanu8947 What? XDD
@Jman88933 you're in denial ( the Nile, yknow, the river in Egypt )
@davudlinteanu8947 I must be the lamest guy right now, XD because I've never heard of that joke before! 😭
@@Jman88933 I know, it's a classic dad joke, and I just couldn't miss the opportunity.
There's no way you all genuinly beloeve shadow gens to be a good story point for Shadow. A atory which completely regressed the character.
This just shows the fanbases gullibility
@@ataladin87 Alright, lets talk. How did it regress his character?
@Jman88933 it regress back on the path to be led by his grievance for Maria, a character he already let go of at the end of Shadow 05's story.
The story tries to say *"Well, you can still grief even after you say you moved on"* completely ignoring Shadow's no-nonsense character whej it comes to present problems that currently endanger the world.
@@ataladin87 I have a question to ask you: Do you know anyone in your life who hasn't grieved at least ONCE after the passing of their loved one, even after they've made an effort to move on?
We're talking about a death, dude. Something like that never *completely* leaves you, regardless of how far you think you're over it.
Plus, you need to think about the unique situation Shadow as in this time around. A person that he thought, he would NEVER see again, suddenly came back into his life again temporarily. Do you have any idea how crazy that is? Put anyone, that you personally know who lost loved ones, in that same position. Where the person that they grieved their hearts out over their death, suddenly coming back into their lives like a dangling carrot to be able to get back and hold what was once lost to them, only for them to disappear AGAIN. That would destroy anyone. Thats exactly what Shadow went through. He essentially had to watch Maria die TWICE. Did you expect him to just turn around and walk forward as if nothing happened just because he tried to move on after Shadow 05?
This entire storyline for Shadow as made for the audience to empathize and relate with Shadow on the feeling of loss. Which is a completely valid arc for Shadow, despite it being a repeat of Shadow 05. How in the world is that character regression when all this story did was reaffirm how much Maria loves him and wants Shadow to use his strength for good?
@@ataladin87 News flash, once you grieve for somebody once, you CANT GO BACK AND REFLECT ON THAT AGAIN even IF youre met with a literal phantom representation of them that would naturally stir up old memories for anyone. Taking the time to honor someones memory especially in such a situation like this despite any pain they may feel is a cool thing to see Shadow go through. This is coming from me by the way, the guy who hasnt been nearly into sonic as Jman here.
I can see this as an ongoing arc for shadow.
05 being about him letting go of his past
Generations having him being confronted by his past
And a future story (an adventure per say) where he can finally accept and overcome his past
I regret watching this video 😒
@@Therealones745 Do you feel like telling me why? 🤔
i regret reading this comment 😂
>I want an Amy game (proceeds to use Princess Peach Showtime as the reason why)
If SEGA takes away anything from Princess Peach Showtime, it should be that you can expect a spinoff starring 'the girl' to sell about 1/30th of what you'd get out of a game featuring the main character. Terrible investment.
@@deedoubs I'm afraid we don't see eye to eye in that.