Well dbz kai also had controversial recasts too, like Stephanie Nadolny not being cast as Gohan because Chris Sabat said she was hard to work. Not to mention whatever happened to Bradford Jackson

Sega has actually five mascots through its history. The first one being Usagi-sensei a pixelated rabbit that appeared in game manuals to give hints and aid. The second is considered to be Upa Upa from Fantasy Zone. The third one is Alex Kidd who was made to replace Upa Upa due to low sales. And was licensed to another company. Fourth is Sonic who replaced Alex due to its failures. And finally there's NiGHTS whom Yuji Naka wanted to replace Sonic after the classic Sonic trilogy and in Japan it actually replaced Sonic for a bit. At least until the shitstorm of Sonic X-treme which led to the creation of Adventure.

Also on 4kids the Genki Dama is Spirit BLAST. As in NOT A BALL.

Some say Disaster, I say The CW WISHES they could still pull the ratings this 'disaster' did for most of its run. 1.1 million. NO Kids CHANNEL does that anymore. Not even bringing back WWE to The CW did as well as DBZKai did.

gun didnt send shadow to the ark lol and chaos island was made because they had assets from frontiers so its an easy level to develop

Doom morph is actually really good for movement and speed but very hard to get the hang of, I’ve seen friends do incredible things with it. And doom wing is surprisingly good in all of the levels and not as situational as it seems surprisingly I found the challenge missions just as fun to play as the regular levels. Mostly the ones where I can break the time in half with chaos control

Doom morph is actually really good for movement and speed but very hard to get the hang of, I’ve seen friends do incredible things with it. And doom wing is surprisingly good in all of the levels and not as situational as it seems

15:50 It makes sense that SEGA sensored Rouge. In Sonic Prime, they changed her outfit to the heroes outfit for sensorship. And I'll be honest, as a kid, I always though Rouge was too revealing, especially as a charater in a kids franchise and it genuinely made me uncomfortable. I literally wasn't allowed to play earlier Sonic games because my parents saw her design as innapropriate, which I agree to an extent. With this franchise opening up to more kids, is it not obvious they would sensor Rouge to appeal to the younger kids and their parents? If she appeared in the Movies for example with her original design, the amount of parents from the casual side complaining would be ridiculous. This was basically inevitable if you think about it, and them only changing her clothing and not her body was a smart change.

You can’t say “I want a Lost World Stage” and not elaborate. What’s their identity outside the gameplay?! Windy Hills in the boost formula is Green Hills

I feel like the Sonic remasters so far are a tie in to the Movies Sonic Colors Ultimate = Sonic Movie 1 Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus = Sonic Movie 2 Sonic X Shadow Generations = Sonic Movie 3 while Sonic Colors Ultimate is Sonic Genesis 2.0 and Sonic Origins is fine, I'm happy to see Sonic Fans who knew of the series though the Movies are getting a chance to experience these games, as for Sonic X Shadow Generations, I loved Sonic Generations OG and was exited for this game, I wasn't disappointed with some of the changes (though I wished Classic Eggman would have still said, "Wow will I really get that crazy?") Sonic Generations remastered is just Sonic Generations with bells and whistles. Shadow Generations, It's pretty much the Sonic series' own Bowser's Fury, Bowser's Fury took what made Super Mario Odyssey great and made it better and I felt Shadow Generations did the same for Sonic Frontiers and has me exited for Sonic Frontiers 2. Rumors are going around that Sega-ATLUS could retire the Hedgehog Engine and I felt that a Sonic Unleashed remaster could give the Hedgehog Engine a send off and have a Knuckles story to it with Metal Sonic as the Villain (Silver would be better for a Sonic Lost World remaster)

7:35 I would like to counter argue that statement. Yes, despite Sonic '06 being panned, it still had some concepts and ideas fans still admired. With Lost World, on the other hand, I don't think it left that much of an impression on most people due to the game being too safe and all over the place with the amount of gimmicks it throws at you.

15:12 that’s because of sweet baby Inc

Iizuka has no fucking idea what he's doing with Shadow the Hedgehog. like, for real.

has anybody else had the same thought that the Doom Spears essentially work like Gamma's shooting stages from Sonic Adventure?... just something i wanted to point out, great video, Mikey! :]

Whenever I hear people complaining about the tonal shift in the so called "meta era", compared to the Adventure Era and the Dark age, I feel I need to remind people why those changes were made in the first place. Back when those games were brand new, people just didn't like them. In fact, a lot of people straight up hated them. It was always the same nonsense. "Urgh, these stories are so dumb! I don't wanna sit through stupid cutscenes! Look at them; trying to be all dark and serious! It's just major cringe! I mean, C'mon! This is a cartoony Blue Hedgehog with Gloved Hands! You CAN'T take that seriously!" That and the fact that even the Dark Age stories that people are praising nowadays weren't well received when they first came out. Literally years of people spouting this nonsense, I feel, has had a negative effect on the people at Sega. It's taught them that, even when they put actual effort into their stories, overly critical critics as well hater and detractors are just going to complain and poke fun of it. So the meta era was literally Sega appealing their games to them over their own fans as a way of being in on the joke. The meta era was literally them just winking at their audience and going "Yeah, we know that this is dumb! We know that you hate serious stories! We know that you hate all of Sonic's lame-o friends! Don't worry, we've got you covered!" Things have definitely improved since the first live action movie, but you can sort of tell that the damage has been done.

Wait, you're doing a review now?

Didn’t Frontiers come out the same year as the second film

Your voice sounds familiar? 🤔🤔🤔

Can you replay levels in Shadow Gens at will once you've unlocked them without having to do the challenge stuff over again to access?

This wasn't remaster, but interqual for the original game events. Otherwise shadow could actually beat sonic!

We need a Knuckles game!!

You mention that Sonic Generations felt “safe” and, to some degree, I completely agree with you. Except for one thing. Crisis City. The older fans might remember the whole “Sonic sucks because Sonic 06” narrative floating around the internet at the time and it cannot be understated how TERRIFIED Sega was to even acknowledge ANYTHING related to Sonic 06. They were desperate to raise Sonic’s reputation from the mud, even going around delisting any game without a satisfactory metacritic score. Nowadays, after Sonic Boom, after ChaosX’s loving recreation of Sonic 06 and with the whole sour thing leaving the collective memory of the populace (especially with the addition of new, younger fans, that might have been too young or not even born in 2006), things are different, with Sega bringing back Black Doom and Mephiles, something that had no chance of happening in 2011. Yes, the game was very safe and very “Pontac and Graff”, but they did have the blue spheres to acknowledge Sonic 06 for the first time, which was nice. The game had a lot of ambition and potential, but sadly, I don’t think Sega ever really understood that. They probably still think that fans are angry at bad game, whereas fans are really angry at the lost potential and mismanagement of a great game idea. Unfortunately, now the problem has been replaced with Sega being willing to waste valuable resources on consulting companies that ruin games. So far, the damage has been minimal, but I can see it getting worse. Let’s hope this garbage consulting company practice will go away soon, especially seeing how “politically correct” games tend to make stocks plummet. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens further.

Can’t wait for Sonic x Big the Cat Unleashed

The reason why Shadow got a level from Sonic Frontiers is because Shadow fans kept demanding that he be in more games... without justification. "I don't care if it breaks the lore. Give us a Classic Shadow, you MFs."

Shadow Gens basically fixed all the main complaints you cited about vanilla Generations. Nothingburger story? Absolutely the not the case in Shadow Gens. Shadow's characterization is the best in years, and together with the incredible Dark Beginning shorts, is an emotional retelling of Shadow's origin story. Dr. Gerald and Maria even get characterization and are no longer completely flat 2D characters, but people that have their own personalities that you can actually care about (or at least, believe that Shadow cares about them). Even Devil Doom's motivations get fleshed out and he seems like a more credible villain that can emotionally antagonize Shadow. Although the story is a bit short, it is very impactful in that time, and I think it does a lot to re-establish Shadow's character. Awkward 2D stages? Shadow Gens generally has excellent level design, and the camera moving 45 degrees behind you on some 2D stages lets you see ahead of you as needed. This is a good innovation that can help reduce the problem of suddenly running into things. Too safe? Some safeness is going to be unavoidable as a remaster, but I don't think Shadow Gens is necessarily a "safe" game. Sega did take some creative risks by featuring human characters prominently in the story again, which backfired heavily in Sonic 06, and by having the courage to tell a more serious story this time (and expecting the audience to take it seriously). They also took some risks with the game design by introducing new mechanics for Shadow with the Doom powers. They've been mostly well received, but any time you introduce new mechanics to an existing character it's not guaranteed to go well.

In my opinion while I understand the controversy of the rewritten dialogue at least the story was taken seriously. As much fun Sonic Generations was gameplay wise story wise yeah the dialogue was too cheesy. Do I wished they added more to Generation's Main Story? Well at least we had the grand masterpiece such as Shadow's story. Even if its small less is more. Shadow is getting more appreciation and taken seriously in his animated shorts. Rogue and Omega are finally partners with Shadow and Shadow not abandoning them in All Star Racers. Shadow Story finally made sure he wasn't just Ow The Edge and removed the dirty flith other adaptions such as Sonic Boom or Forces did to him. Black Doom while bland at least was intimidating. A movie starring Shadow has Keanu Reeves who is one of the few Celebrity VAs that was great for the role and actually take the role seriously. And a final resolution of Maria, Gerald Robotnik and Shadow. Even if there is flaws in this new edition. We can all agree Sonic and SEGA is back. Also let's all say. *ALL HAIL SHADOW*

I'm incredibly happy that this release turned out as well as it did. 4 years ago, I remember seeing a Sonic Franchise sale on Nintendo Switch, and the promo image in the News section used Generations' key art. Since then, I REALLY wanted a Generations remaster to play on my Switch. After Colors Ultimate release in 2021 and became one of my most disliked Sonic games, I was admittedly worried. But then this game came around. I bought the Switch version, and beat both games in less than a day. And the absolute joy I felt that the game turned out much better than I thought it would. Sonic Generations plays like Sonic Generations, no bullshit to be found like with Colors Ultimate. And Shadow? That left an even better impression. It's shorter than the Sonic campaign, but it does what it sets out to do brilliantly, even taking what Frontiers did and polishing it up. Shadow controls like a dream, even in the 2D sections. The single complaint I have about Shadow is just how the Hub World's map doesn't function like Frontiers'. Ya can't move it freely or put any markets. Beyond that, I think Shadow is easily the best part of the package, and mind you, the Sonic campaign rocks from a gameplay standpoint too. The story is what irked me the most about Sonic Generations, especially seeing as Shadow's side is just so much better from a presentation and writing standpoint. I genuinely hope they learn from Shadow Generations going forward, they did great here. Full package overall is a 9/10 for me, only brought down by the issues I have with Generations' cutscene presentation and writing. Oh, and Classic Sonic does admittedly feel weird, but that's also because I played a lot of Mania and Superstars.

Hot take: I actually like some of the dialogue rewrites. Since the game was originally made to celebrate Sonic's 20th anniversary, it's nice to hear all of these callbacks. Also, some other rewites actually improved the story imo.

I would like to hear your thoughts on Sonic Lost world it’s a very interesting game in terms of what it represented for Both Sonic Team/Sonic Franchise back then and looking back now in current times!

Great review! Wonder if you'll be doing more of these

Chaos CONTROL!

Sonic X Shadow Generations has been out for a bit, so let me know what you think of it! Do you want to see more Shadow after 2024?

Change? Bro almost the whole reason sonic is like he is is because of dragon ball 💀 I'm not gonna say it's the whole reason he exists but so many things in the franchise are based off dbz it's crazy It's crazier considering that sonic raw dogs all of dbz neg diff....

For Super Sonic and Super Saiyan, they're the inverse of each other. Originally for Super Saiyan, it was gonna have red eyes but was cut to not make it have a darker tone, and in S3&K, Super Sonic had green eyes before changing it to Red for later on. It's no wonder why some say Sonic is a parallel universe to DragonBall

Also a fun fact for DragonBall and Sonic: the Japanese VA of Sonic in the 90s was also the VA of Future Trunks when DBZ was around

Before getting to my bigger point, I wanna say something about the interviews. When it comes to lore statements, and I took this approach with Toriyama's interviews too, I tend to wait until they're relevant in canon and see how things are done there. Because between the interview and a canonical piece of media releasing, things can change. In Sonic's case, I wait for the Sonic Team games and their respective animated shorts. I just find it best to not take these on the spot claims too seriously until they're relevant. I understand Iizuka's words carry a lot of weight, given he's both Sonic Team's current leader and the director of the mainline games from 1998 to 2005, playing a big part in Shadow's creation, but he's not really in a serious storytelling mode when being interviewed. Now, regarding the big boy himself, I think the important thing about Shadow's writing is that his best portrayals have nuance to them. Shadow isn't just cool or edgy, he's layered in a way not many characters in this series are. And I think that's something some writers and even SEGA themselves miss. His constant stereotyping due to the perception of Shadow '05 didn't help matters. But things like this just made me appreciate Shadow Generations all the more for what it did with Shadow. It's easily the best he's been since 2006. And something I feel is needed to write Shadow well is taking the character seriously and write him *sincerely.* No self deprecating shlock, no making him a borderline Vegeta parody (hi, Sonic Boom), none of that. He's meant to be taken seriously and just because one game took the edgy badass thing a little far doesn't mean we suddenly gotta make that his whole identity. I just hope that, moving forward, we don't go back to Shadow's portrayal in the Meta Era. It was bad enough that that whole era began with a sense of cynicism and sucking up to the critics (I am never letting go of that damn Project Needlemouse countdown), but the character writing being as watered down as it was was the biggest bummer. I'm just happy we're in a place of relative normalcy again.

The adventure era was peak 3D and 2d sonic in my opinion. The sonic adventure and sonic advance games are to me the essence of sonic’s key gameplay feedback loop, with scores, ranks, fun gameplay and especially the chao garden which encouraged even more replay ability than any other sonic game mechanic,

Amy from Sonic X and Sonic boom were really great she had a lot of character. ❤

Honestly the thing that I appreciate the most is that dark beginnings and shadow generations basically reestablished that shadow at least likes the other members of team dark. The three of them have such a great dynamic and I hope they put that in future stuff

I wonder what you think about IDW Sonic's character in the comics once you read them. I love these kind of videos that takes a deep dive into Sonic characters, talking about their lore and giving their own thoughts about the character.

This guy's voice is what I imagine Berdly from Deltarune would sound like

Loved listening to this. Great work!!

I'm so glad u actually get his character. This is really well put together. I really love that shadow is not someone who works under labels others even the AUDIENCE, define him as. He defies typical conventions. Rouge & Omega R def the ppl he trusts most but even they have times where circumstances pit them against each other like in rivals. Shadow is as maria says in the prologue, someone who's own actions define him & nothin/no-one else. He is simply shadow jus as sonic is simply sonic. It makes him unique as an "anti-hero" not only in his own journey in a vacuum but in respect & especially REFLECTION to sonic. They live as they pls no matter wut & they have a penchant for protectin the planet they stand on itself for their own reasons. They're unwaverin in their paths & will let nobody stop them or tie them down from wut is truly in their hearts. They have their own ways of goin about that tho. I could go on & on but u prob get the point lol. So ye I agree wit the creator of Shadow & his games when he says he DOESN'T have "friends" lol.

Isnt sonic also the type of character to fight for what he believes is right whether he is seen as a hero or not because that is kind of how he was portrayed in sonic and the black knight

I got my pre-ordered Switch copy of SXSG from Microplay, picked it up on release day and have been impressed with it ever since I started playing it! SEGA sure positively nailed-it with that game and Shadow's portion of it is the best portion. It no doubt deserves to get some game awards. I don't think that I've ever been more hyped for a movie than I am for that SA2 inspired Sonic 3 one. I've been planning to have it be the first movie in my life that I will watch in a theater twice instead of once and I'm currently waiting for the arrival of an adult sized officially liscensed Movie Shadow bodysuit costume from Amazon that I plan to wear when I go to watch that upcoming movie! Also I'm soo glad about the confirmation that Paramount made a deal with the Crush 40 rock band to get the rights to "Live and learn" so that that iconic song can legally play in that third movie installment!!!! (It's currently my #1 favorite song) Good that Paramount understands how absolutely vital that one is to the Sonic 3 movie. (most likely due to the major worldwide fan demand for it to NOT be left OUT of that upcoming feature film!)

Wouldn't say shadow starts out as evil. More like brainwashed delusional. Believeing destroying this damn planet is the right thing to do.

I like sonic the hedgehog

nice

I think my favorite portrayal of shadow is sonic x Jp shadows more closed off and mysterious and is the same shadow from the game he has heart and he has some friends. He just didn’t go through those since sonic X got cut short. What’s your favorite portrayal of shadow and what are ur thoughts on shadows portrayal in the prologue and shadow generations itself

I'm a huge Sonic fan and I like your videos 😊😊😊