First released in 2011, Sonic Generations is one of the best efforts to bring the blue hedgehog into the third dimension. Building on the boost formula established in Sonic Unleashed, Generations sought to merge 2D and 3D gameplay into a cohesive whole, but Sega never directly followed up on it – until now. Sonic X Shadow Generations’s initial reveal made it feel like a remaster with a little extra content bolted on, but this game also serves as a full-length sequel to Sonic Generations, built using the latest version of Hedgehog Engine and packed with incredible stages for all current and last-gen consoles, plus PC. Our tech review looks at that package as a whole, comparing it to the original Sonic Generations release, discussing performance and how the Switch version in particular fares.
In its original form, Sonic Generations released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 running at 880×720 and 30fps, with a PC version following in its wake that brought the game to 60fps. A backwards compatible version for modern Xbox consoles – Xbox One and Series X/S – came out just a few years ago, with higher resolution visuals at 60fps. Now the 2024 release brings the game – and the all-new Shadow Generations content – to PS5, PS4 and PS4 Pro, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One/X, Switch and PC.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the difference in vintage, the main menu of Sonic x Shadow Generations lets you choose between Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations modes when you first start it up. Starting with Sonic’s game, the entire UI has been remade to support 4K, loads are super fast, a new profile system allows for multiple saves, and all pre-rendered cutscenes were recreated at 4K – a big improvement over the ugly 720p videos of the original. Sega has done a great job improving the visuals here.
Weirdly though, the game has been rewritten and voiced in English – something that only became apparent after I switched the game to Japanese and got completely different dialogue. That means mixing Japanese voices with English text, for example, would produce a mismatched result.
Beyond this though, I wanted to find out whether this new version of Generations overcomes the limitations of the original, or whether there are instances where you might prefer that original 2011 version.
If you’re on any of the PlayStation consoles, the new release is your only option – and thankfully, it’s good. PS4, PS4 Pro and PS5 all run at 60fps, with PS5 running at a clean native 4K but even PS4 still faring well – this is an excellent version of Sonic Generations. There are occasionally small frame-time hiccups on PS4, which is a little odd but doesn’t detract from the experience in a major way.
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If you’re on Xbox, the recommendation is a little more complicated. If you’re using an Xbox One or One X, this new version is the way to go as it’s the only way to enjoy the game at 60fps. On Series consoles, however, the Xbox 360 version running in back-compat mode is also 60fps and in theory ought to offer a similar experience. Weirdly though, this 360 version doesn’t work on my Xbox Series X correctly right now, with stutters and skips in the gameplay and audio that weren’t there before and don’t appear in other back-compat games. I couldn’t fix this with a reboot or clearing quick resume data, so it’s a bit of a mystery.