Sonic x Shadow

 

What is the longest that one can feasibly wait for a remaster to come out? 4 years? 5? Until the next console generation? How about thirteen? Yeah, how about we wait until an entire new generation of human has come into the world before going back and saying- let's do that Sonic Generations thing again! I know we throw a lot of crap at Sony and Naughty Dog for their extremely questionable 'resuscitation' campaigns around their games, throwing a 10 dollar upgrade path on The Last of Us Part 2 in order to add native 4k and a horde mode, but at least they aren't dragging over a decade old games and slipping them through the 'remaster' treatment. At least make it a sequel at that point! But no. We live in an age wherein it is apparently totally fine for Sonic X Shadow Generations to be announced when everybody was waiting with baited breath for Sonic Adventure 3. (Next year, guys! Next year!)

At the very least I think it's worth commending Sonic Team for finally taking the high road and taking back the term 'Sonic X Shadow' from the internet. In one fell swoop they sanitised that search result entirely from Google and wiped the endless pages of Wattpad smut fiction neatly under the rug. Well... Almost. Google still gives a 'safe search' warning if you click on images, Know Your Meme still prominently sneaks in a little fanart, but other than that- clean searches! But considering that A03 alone features exactly 3800 stories with a 'Sonic X Shadow' flag- maybe they're fighting a battle they'll never truly win. I can definitely see the romance authors striking back with even more smut in order to overwrite the search results! (But I guess that's tomorrow's problem, huh?)

Sonic Generations was a plea from yesteryear by a Sonic Team that were rapidly losing the trust of their fanbase after several misguided attempts to replace the Sonic of the 1990's with a 3d variation that never quite entered a niche of gameplay that the team were looking for. Sonic 06, Unleashed, Rivals- they all had their moments but mostly shot to exemplify a 3d standard that had yet to be reached. Generations stuck to a formula that is now a stable in Sonic game development- Nostalgia baiting. People liked the way that games used to play, throw in levels from the originals! City Escape is a classic- so give them another City Escape! Call it a 'greatest hits' album with a Sonic coat of paint and you wouldn't be far off- which is why I expected a sequel from such a concept, rather than a re-release.

Although, then I guess it already did get a sequel- didn't it? Because Generations wasn't just a boxed collection of old Sonic content buffed up in a new engine. It had a story of some description, a justification for the repetition, if you will- thus a narrative successor wasn't so bad of a concept. No, the badness came with the actual game itself. I suppose with Sonic X Shadow Generations we're just erasing Forces from existence and pretending it never happened? Which is easy enough to do considering the game consisted entirely of levels so short they never had time to settle in your short term memory cortex before vanishing. (Guess this means 'Classic Sonic' is going back to being a previous version of the Blue Hedgehog, rather than the alternate universe monstrosity he got retconned into in Forces.)

Shadow brings with him a whole new face to the Sonic lore that hasn't been touched on since his debut game all those many years ago- his classic monster slaying gun-toting levels. Which is funny because 'Shadow the Hedgehog' really isn't looked upon that fondly by it's fanbase. In fact, it's considered something of a black-furred chaos-control wielding sheep of the flock- so to tie that in with a game celebrating the greatest hits of the franchise feels a little bit misguided. People still complain about the fact that Shadow used human guns, as though that is the single worst thing a fictional character can do- "Urg, holding guns is so 'try-hard edgy' and 'problematic' and doesn't he say the 'damn' word in one scene? The game needs to be purged from history!"

Not me though. I loved Shadow the Hedgehog and it's insanely over ambitious choice driven narrative spread over a nauseating amount of alternative levels and distinct endings. I genuinely think Shadow was an attempt to up the ante of ambition from Adventure 2, and no Sonic game since has really tried to mimic as epic of a scale with it's plot. It's as though with the lukewarm reception to Shadow the team just threw up their hands and decided is was no use trying to tell stories with these characters anymore. And that's also when they stopped experimenting with their level design, and resigned themselves to only throwing one semi-gimmick into each subsequent title to see if it sticks. (I really think the multiple paths thing was a crazy concept that needs to be brought back.)

This version of Shadow does feel considerably toned down from what we knew. This is probably going to be a greatest hits compilation that speeds us across his most memorable levels- so the computer board mission is a shoe in. Also, don't see my boy packing any heat for this outing. What? Did they gentrify his neighbourhood or something? Fans on Reddit seem to be celebrating this change and hinting that they want him to start showing off his chaos crystal powers. As if that's less cringey? Oh, the anime-style reality manipulation powers of unlimited potential that were granted to him at birth by his mad scientist creator when he devised the 'perfect organism'? That's the more classy and nuanced version of Shadow you've been waiting all these years for? The Hedgehog is a cringe machine, for gods sake- let him go full cringe!

At the very least this project makes sense when compared to the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog 3 movie which has captured the imagination of fans delusional enough to conjure the 'concrete theory' that Hayden Christensen of all people is playing Shadow based off a single chuckle in a teaser that doesn't even- wait... okay, the theories definitely put this bias  n my head but that does sound like him. (Damn it, Sonic Reddit!) So don't see this as Sega's great re-embracing of the character of Shadow after years of treating him like the runt of the pack- elevating freakin' Rosie Rascal to main cast character before giving Shadow his first 2D sprite! This is convenient sideways brand alignment, plain and cynical. Now we just have to wait to see if the guys turn around and charge full price for the privilege!