In 2011, SEGA released Sonic Generations to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Sonic The Hedgehog video game series. Back when it came out, it was considered to be one of the better games of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, receiving a 9/10 on Steam, a 77% on Metacritic, and an 8.5 (Great) from IGN. In 2024, Sonic Generations got a remaster for modern consoles, and this remaster was bundled with a new game called Shadow Generations, starring Shadow the Hedgehog. Together, those two games are called Sonic X Shadow Generations. Does Sonic Generations hold up in 2025? Is Shadow Generations a good game? Is Sonic X Shadow Generations worth buying? This review will answer those questions.

Sonic Generations starts with Sonic and his friends celebrating Sonic’s birthday. While Sonic and his friends are celebrating, the Time Eater interrupts, and eats Sonic’s friends and locations from Sonic’s past. As a result of that, it is up to Sonic to restore time and space, and save his friends. However, there is a twist: there are two Sonics. Basically, the Time Eater took locations from Sonic’s past, and went through time and space. Because of that, there is Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic. Act 1 of each level has the player play as Classic Sonic, and his levels play like the SEGA Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog games and are completely 2-dimensional, only more modernized. Act 2 of each level has the player play as Modern Sonic, and his levels use the boost formula, which was previously used in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors, and are mostly 3-dimensional. Sonic Generations has the player go through levels of the previous mainline Sonic the Hedgehog games from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) through Sonic Colors. Although the levels are from older games, the levels in Sonic Generations are new and refreshing takes on the levels, in which both, one who is not a Sonic fan and one who is a Sonic fan can enjoy. Each act of the levels features a new remix of the original song. Most of these remixes are really good. Also, speaking of the soundtrack, there are five red star rings per act, which obtaining one will get you some concept art or a song from a previous Sonic game. The concept art and music are also obtainable by completing challenges. Collecting every single red star ring will let Classic Sonic use the homing attack. The red star rings give great replay value, and there is a great reward for it. There are also three rival fights and three boss fights. The rival fights include a fight against Metal Sonic, a fight against Shadow the Hedgehog, and a fight against Silver the Hedgehog. The boss fights include the Death Egg Robot from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Perfect Chaos from Sonic Adventure, and the Egg Dragoon from Sonic Unleashed. The boss fights and rival fights are required to get all seven Chaos Emeralds, and beat the game. The boss fights are kind of difficult, but fun. Same with the rival fights, only less difficult. After beating every level and every rival and boss fight, the final boss is unlocked, also known as the Time Eater. The Time Eater took Classic Robotnik after the Death Egg Robot boss fight, and the Time Eater then took Modern Robotnik after the Egg Dragoon boss fight. It is then revealed that the Time Eater was a part of the Robotniks’ plan to defeat Sonic, because two Robotniks are better and smarter than one. As a result, the two Sonics go into their super forms, while Sonic’s friends cheer them on, and they fight the Time Eater. The Time Eater boss fight admittedly is not that fun, but after the Sonics defeat the Time Eater, time and space is restored. Overall, despite a somewhat lacking story, being kind of short, and a mediocre final boss,  Sonic Generations definitely makes up for it with great gameplay, great level design, great replay value, having good graphics, and a great soundtrack.

Part Two of this review coming out next week, featuring Shadow Generations.