As someone that has been a Sonic fan for 20 years, this package is everything I could ask for.
I want to geek out so bad in this review, but for the sake of keeping it spoiler free, I'm just going to touch on the actual gameplay of the two games.

Sonic Generations:
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Not really much has changed here. It's Sonic Generations almost the same way you remember it, but with slightly better visuals, small gameplay tweaks (addition of the drop dash, chao to find in every stage, and improved controller support). Not sure if this is a result of how much better the game runs, but it seems like classic Sonic feels a little less weighty than the original release, which is actually a good thing to me, but could be jarring to others. To make the game's writing more consistent with Shadow's story and give it more substance overall, Sonic Team/SEGA had Ian Flynn rewrite a lot of the cutscenes and for the most part, they are a welcome change. They are going to be jarring for fans of the original Generations, but newcomers won't have an issue with them whatsoever. For the most part, they are perfectly fine and improves on where the original version of the game was lacking (they are no where near as offensive as politically charged reactionaries are trying to make them seem). The only problem I have with them is that some of the animations aren't updated to fit the new dialogue, but that's just a nitpick at worst (it brought us the Classic Sonic ate Angel Island joke, so I can't really complain about it). I have encountered a few bugs I've never scene in the original release, but only one resulted in a softlock. At the end of Metal Sonic's rival fight, I somehow died while I was landing the last hit on him and it resulted in his defeat animation playing with a static 2D camera, no assets other than classic, metal, and the background, and the two floating around the upper right part of the screen. Once the animation finished playing, the screen faded to white and the game froze up. Besides that goof, the game is very polished, which is to be expected from an overall very safe remaster. However, I do wish a little more was added to really spice it up beyond it's already good original PC release. Even though my time with it is shorter than the absurd amount of time I've already put into Shadow's story, I can easily say that this is the definitive way to play vanilla Sonic Generations. At least on PC. 8/10!

Shadow Generations
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There is a good reason Sonic Team was so confident in this game. Not only is it easily one of, if not THE, most polished games Sonic Team has put out in over a decade. It stands toe to toe with their best offerings, including Sonic Generations itself. The levels are very well designed and art a blast to speed through, the bosses are the best we've gotten in ages, and the open zone is an evolution of the ones present in Sonic Frontiers. The open zone isn't huge by any means, but it is big enough and there are A LOT of collectibles to find in it. Mostly music that you can play in levels and boss fights (functions the same way it did in Generations), concept art, and history/lore. There are only six levels total, which I can see being disappointing to some, but I think the level design and how many branching paths there are to take more than makes up for it. These levels are very beefy and your first casual run of them can easily exceed five or more minutes. There are quite a few 2D acts (with the exception of the final stage, every act 2 is a 2D stage) and at first they seemed like they were going to be similar to the ones in Forces, but I'm more than happy that I was wrong about that. They are very well designed and get the best out of Shadow's abilities without being too overbearing. Can say the same about the challenge levels you have to beat to get the keys you need to access the boss fights. They are pretty short and don't overstay their welcome. You do have to finish all of them to fight the second to last boss, but I had a fun time speeding through them as they are designed to be rushed through unlike most of Sonic Generation's challenges. As for the bosses, they are fantastic! They feel like a mashup of the spectacle of the Frontier's bosses with gameplay that surpasses their original encounters from the games they originate from. They aren't difficult all things considered, but they aren't pushovers and may take a lil bit of time to figure out. All of them go above and beyond, but one boss fight had me grinning ear to ear because of the dialogue and how well it was executed. The doom powers are very context sensitive, but with how many there are and how they work, it makes sense for them to be. They add a wonderful amount of variety to the game, but even without them, this game is more than strong enough to stand out on its own. All of this is boosted by how polished it is, the insanely good music, production value, and how open Sonic Team has been about this game. It is a must play for Sonic fans and newcomers alike. Only bugs I ran into was one of my abilities breaking after the second doom power cutscene, Shadow getting stuck floating the air for a few seconds while homing attacking a spring, and the second to last cutscene of the game freezing up (I fixed it by verifying the integrity of game files). Overall, Shadow Generations is just as, if not more polished than Sonic's story and surpasses it in almost every way. It is a must play for any Sonic fan! Easy 9/10!

All hail Shadow!

As someone that has been a Sonic fan for 20 years, this package is everything I could ask for. I want to geek out so bad in this review, but for the sake of keeping it spoiler free, I'm just going to touch on the actual gameplay of the two games. Sonic Generations: ---------------------------- Not really much has changed here. It's Sonic Generations almost the same way you remember it, but with slightly better visuals, small gameplay tweaks (addition of the drop dash, chao to find in every stage, and improved controller support). Not sure if this is a result of how much better the game runs, but it seems like classic Sonic feels a little less weighty than the original release, which is actually a good thing to me, but could be jarring to others. To make the game's writing more consistent with Shadow's story and give it more substance overall, Sonic Team/SEGA had Ian Flynn rewrite a lot of the cutscenes and for the most part, they are a welcome change. They are going to be jarring for fans of the original Generations, but newcomers won't have an issue with them whatsoever. For the most part, they are perfectly fine and improves on where the original version of the game was lacking (they are no where near as offensive as politically charged reactionaries are trying to make them seem). The only problem I have with them is that some of the animations aren't updated to fit the new dialogue, but that's just a nitpick at worst (it brought us the Classic Sonic ate Angel Island joke, so I can't really complain about it). I have encountered a few bugs I've never scene in the original release, but only one resulted in a softlock. At the end of Metal Sonic's rival fight, I somehow died while I was landing the last hit on him and it resulted in his defeat animation playing with a static 2D camera, no assets other than classic, metal, and the background, and the two floating around the upper right part of the screen. Once the animation finished playing, the screen faded to white and the game froze up. Besides that goof, the game is very polished, which is to be expected from an overall very safe remaster. However, I do wish a little more was added to really spice it up beyond it's already good original PC release. Even though my time with it is shorter than the absurd amount of time I've already put into Shadow's story, I can easily say that this is the definitive way to play vanilla Sonic Generations. At least on PC. 8/10! Shadow Generations ---------------------------- There is a good reason Sonic Team was so confident in this game. Not only is it easily one of, if not THE, most polished games Sonic Team has put out in over a decade. It stands toe to toe with their best offerings, including Sonic Generations itself. The levels are very well designed and art a blast to speed through, the bosses are the best we've gotten in ages, and the open zone is an evolution of the ones present in Sonic Frontiers. The open zone isn't huge by any means, but it is big enough and there are A LOT of collectibles to find in it. Mostly music that you can play in levels and boss fights (functions the same way it did in Generations), concept art, and history/lore. There are only six levels total, which I can see being disappointing to some, but I think the level design and how many branching paths there are to take more than makes up for it. These levels are very beefy and your first casual run of them can easily exceed five or more minutes. There are quite a few 2D acts (with the exception of the final stage, every act 2 is a 2D stage) and at first they seemed like they were going to be similar to the ones in Forces, but I'm more than happy that I was wrong about that. They are very well designed and get the best out of Shadow's abilities without being too overbearing. Can say the same about the challenge levels you have to beat to get the keys you need to access the boss fights. They are pretty short and don't overstay their welcome. You do have to finish all of them to fight the second to last boss, but I had a fun time speeding through them as they are designed to be rushed through unlike most of Sonic Generation's challenges. As for the bosses, they are fantastic! They feel like a mashup of the spectacle of the Frontier's bosses with gameplay that surpasses their original encounters from the games they originate from. They aren't difficult all things considered, but they aren't pushovers and may take a lil bit of time to figure out. All of them go above and beyond, but one boss fight had me grinning ear to ear because of the dialogue and how well it was executed. The doom powers are very context sensitive, but with how many there are and how they work, it makes sense for them to be. They add a wonderful amount of variety to the game, but even without them, this game is more than strong enough to stand out on its own. All of this is boosted by how polished it is, the insanely good music, production value, and how open Sonic Team has been about this game. It is a must play for Sonic fans and newcomers alike. Only bugs I ran into was one of my abilities breaking after the second doom power cutscene, Shadow getting stuck floating the air for a few seconds while homing attacking a spring, and the second to last cutscene of the game freezing up (I fixed it by verifying the integrity of game files). Overall, Shadow Generations is just as, if not more polished than Sonic's story and surpasses it in almost every way. It is a must play for any Sonic fan! Easy 9/10! All hail Shadow!