Sonic x Shadow Generations is a remake of Sonic Generations. With it, SEGA has added a bunch of new modes, content, and improvements to the original game, as well as some more subtle changes.
It’s hard to tell what has been added or taken away from the original or changed if you don’t pay attention to some specific activites, cutscenes, and other things. Most of the changes are actually pretty small outside of the big new mode and a few additional collectibles to find in levels.
So let’s help you understand what exactly is different this time around.
All changes to Sonic x Shadow Generations
| A quick summary of the changes |
|---|
| New Shadow Generations Story mode |
| Chao collectibles |
| Gameplay improvements |
| Reworked cutscenes |
| New voice actors and scenes |
The obvious big addition in Sonic x Shadow Generations is the inclusion of the Shadow Generations story mode that lets you play as Shadow through a brand new story, going through older levels in the process. We won’t deep dive into this change, as its pretty obvious, and there are a lot more subtle changes that have been made we can point out instead.
Gameplay Changes
There have been multiple gameplay changes to improve the playing experience, with some of the biggest and best changes including the following.
- Chao have been added as additional collectibles in levels, with three hidden on each act.
- Red Star Rings are now tracked in-level when collected, showing the order they appear. This helps to know how many Red Ring Stars you’ve missed and how many are still to come when trying to collect them all.
- New skins have been added: Classic Legacy Sonic looks, a Modern Sonic Adventure Skin, and an additional Shadow skin based on the beta version of the character.
- Both Classic and Modern Sonic can use the Drop Dash ability, a new move to the game.
- Fully customizable controls have (finally!) been added.
Reworked Cutscenes
Multiple cutscenes have been changed for some reason, with parts of the script reworked entirely. Some of the major scenes fans will remember fondly from the original game that have been changed include:
- Amy presents cupcakes to Sonic instead of flirting with him, and Sonic’s casual hand to her face has been removed.
- Modern Sonic will respond to his friends after saving them from levels, instead of his original reaction when he would make a random motion and not say a word.
- In the ending cutscene, Amy pushes Knuckles back instead of blasting him into a tree.
- Chao can be seen in multiple cutscenes.
Voice Cast Changes
There are multiple voice actor changes in the remake throughout various languages, but we will focus on English and Japanese changes in particular.
- [ENG] Colleen O’Shaughnessey replaces Kate Higgins as the voice of Classic and Modern Tails.
- [ENG] Dave B. Mitchell replaces Travis Willingham as the voice of Knuckles.
- [ENG] Matthew Mercer replaces Troy Baker as the voice of Espio.
- [ENG] Erica Lindbeck replaces Laura Bailey as the voice of Omochao and Blaze.
- [ENG] Bryce Papenbrook replaces Quinton Flynn as the voice of Silver.
- [JAP] Kotaro Nakamura replaced Chikao Ōtsuka as the voice of Classic and Modern Eggman, following Ōtsuka-san’s death in 2015.
Personally, I would have preferred the team at SEGA to keep Ōtsuka-san’s voice as a legacy for fans of the voice actor.
Removed Content
The playable port of Sonic the Hedgehog has been removed from the remake, but the Casino Night DLC, which originally had to be paid to play in the original, is part of the remake’s full game. It makes sense to remove the playable version of the original game here, but it still sucks.
