Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Sonic X Shadow Generations Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

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What's up? And welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast Sonic Cross Shadow Generations review. Of course, I am your host and resident Sonic Sicko, Tim Getty's. Today I'm joined by another Sonic Sicko blessing at Ayoe Jr. Gotta go fast. And our third Sonic Sicko, Roger Pekorni. I am all I am. That's all you got to be.

That's all you got to be, Raj. We're about to spend the next hour talking about Sonic and talking about Shadow. And I love my life. It's definitely a threat. I love this, though, because I used to be alone. And then blessing came into my life. And then I wasn't alone. And now we're a group. There are enough of us that we can cause some commotion in this office. You know what I mean? I'm Barrett, you just got to be here. You just got to listen to us. Like, it's literally my job that I have to stay here and listen to you three sickos.

Shout out to Andy Cortez, who made this amazing set for us as well. He was like, it was Andy himself that was like, we got to go big at Sonic. Yeah, absolutely. We got to show him some respect. I was on Roger, I was like, why are we doing this for Sonic? You know, like, we don't do this for life is strange, which I'd be down for. Yeah. Put my head on Max's head.

Do the pose right now. Do the pose right now. Andy, do it. Well, here's the thing. Does a game like Life is Strange have bars like a shadow will show you where to find the light? You're right. I don't know, man. You're right.

I just don't know. Everyone, welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, October 21st, 2024. Remember, each and every day, we talk about the latest in video games, whether it's reviews, previews or just big topics of conversation with whatever's going on in the industry. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube Super Chat.

as we go. So if you have any questions about Sonic the Headchalk, any at all about Shadow, about Amy, about any of the other friends. You want to talk about Cream the Rabbit? Hit me with your Cream the Rabbit questions, okay? I like the way you're saying Cream the Rabbit. Hey man, I didn't make the rules, okay? I didn't call her Rouge. You know what I mean? That's true. Confusing children everywhere. Yeah. That never fucked me up. I was always like, even as an eight-year-old, I was like, oh, that's Rouge the bet. Yeah. I think first time I heard Rogue might have been from your mouth. And I was like, oh, it's because it's spelled that way, though. No, it's not.

Is it? Rogue? It's spelled Roos. R-O-U-G-E. Rogue. No, yeah, you're right. The G is for the U. There are stupid kids everywhere, okay?

I just happened to be one of them. I thought this was going to be a cupboard situation with Mike. Cupboards and drawers. If you are a kind of funny member, you're about to get a whole bunch of good stuff. You already got an amazing Greg way where Greg talks about parents when all hell breaks loose is 25 minutes of Greg getting real. personal. So check that out. On Games Daily, we talked about Spider-Man 2 coming to PC and not having any DLC planned. And you can get the kind of funny podcast this afternoon and then tomorrow on YouTube and

podcast services. Barrett, what's up? Also a new episode of Kind of Anime came out this morning on YouTube.com. So it's Kind of Funny Games and Kind of Funny In-Review podcast services where Mike and I talk about Dondodon, Dragon Ball Z. And I got to interview the English voice actors behind Endeavor, Dobby, and Shoto for My Hero Academia Season 7. And you'll say I'm the sicko. Do you hear what this man said? Don to Don to Don to Don.

Yeah. I'm also wearing a don't to don't hoodie. I've heard it's pretty good though. Can you imagine wearing merch? Yo, you gotta watch it. Don, I know, I'm not. Dude, it's good.

I mean, I've been watching so much Dragon Ball Super in the last year. 40-something and I finally has been watching a lot of original Dragon Ball. I know. We should just do a drag ball podcast. The Dragon Boys. Dragon Deas.

Nuts. Yeah. dragging these balls. I can't believe you didn't. Wow. That's what you were thinking. You just didn't connect it. Lord, everybody.

It's a huge week for partnerships here. It's kind of funny. Tomorrow at 9 a.m. We're streaming two hours of Batman Arkham Shadow with Ryan Payton. Then in the afternoon, we're streaming Blumhouse's new horror game. Fear the spotlight and interviewing the devs.

Shout out to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, and Delaney, Twining. We appreciate you so much. Today we're brought to you by Phasmophobia, New World Eternal, Marvel, and Shady Ray's butt will tell you all about that later. For now, we got to talk about the topic of the show.

It's Shadow Cross Shadow Generations Review. The time is finally here. Got Shadow on the mind, huh? He said Shadow Cross Shadow. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of shadow here. It's out tomorrow. Sonic Team is the developer.

The Steam description is as follows, Roger. Shadow the Hedgehog is back with classic and modern Sonic and Sonic cross shadow generations. an all new collection featuring two unique experiences. The Metacritic as of 9.44 AM is an 80. IGN's Jada Griffin gave it a 9 and VGC's Chris Scullion gave it a 4 out of 5. But I want to know what we hear are kind of funny give this game. Blessing, I want to start with you. Before you give the score, I want to know how much of Sonic Generations did you play,

how much of Shadow Generations did you play, what context and background do you want to give and then get into the score? Yeah, so Sonic Generations I played quite a few times over the years and jumping into Sonic Cross Shadow for the Sonic side of things, right? So for context, it's basically two games in one package now. You have the classic Sonic Generations game that is essentially a remaster with like a little bit of added content, but not too much. And then you have Shadow Generations, which is a new campaign that's added. That is about, I would say, equal length to Sonic Generations would surprise me. I played through all of Shadow Generations because I hadn't played it before.

and then for Sonic Generations, I hopped into the first, like, three levels. So I've done like both acts of the first three levels, the first stretch of levels, just to see what the differences were, which, again, weren't really many differences from the previous games. And so it took me maybe about six hours, seven hours, complete Shadow Generations. I played maybe an hour or so, yeah, Sonic Generations. In terms of score, I think this is going to be actually a very interesting conversation, because I know lightly what your thoughts are, Tim, and I think we're going to have like a good, you know, range of opinions here.

Because for me, playing through Shadow Generations, I actually don't like it as much as I like Sonic Generations. Shadow, not bad by any means, not my favorite in terms of how they've approached it. Because this time around, they have the Hubworld similar to what they did with Sonic Generations, except the twist is that the Hub World is now fully in 3D. And not only is it fully in 3D,

it is very inspired by Sonic Frontiers and the way they do that open world, which I think is both a positive and a negative. The Sonic Frontiers Open World, I think, worked for me while playing that game in a lot of ways because that was the game. That was the full thrust of things where you are exploring, running into giant enemies, taking them out,

looking for the collectibles, all that stuff. That was fully that game. Whereas here, the way that it is, all right, I am hopping into a shadow level going through it. All right, now let's go to the next level. Oh, but to do it, I got to go through this open world segment that feels a bit stitched together in jank for clarity right like i reviewed sonic frontiers a couple years ago when that came out i gave it a three out of five a three out of five for a game that i would say i love

but like a game that i'm also being realistic realistic about in terms of how i feel about how like how it is to play how it comes together the polish all that shit right i think a lot of those issues still exist in shadow um generations but even more so get in the way of like the content that i really want to play which are more of the linear levels. And so I didn't really love the structure of the open world this time around. I would even say that like even the level selection of the amages they're making to the previous sonic levels. I prefer the sonic stuff more just in the fact that like Sonic generations. I wonder why.

Oh, that's the thing. Sonic Generations is giving you the greatest hits, right? And so like when you hop into shadow generations, it almost feels like it's all right, well, what do we have left from Sonic Heroes? All right, here's this level that like you probably don't care about as, much as you do Ocean Palace from Sonic Heroes, you know? And so there's that. There's a roster of abilities that you're getting over the course of playing through Shadow Generations.

Some of those abilities I like, some of them I'm like, I could, you know, I don't necessarily need this. It's just more of a mixed bag than I was expecting going into this, especially it being more of what I love, which is Sonic Generations. And so if I'm going to give it a score, the way I would put it would be to say, if I were to score Sonic Generations, I'd probably give it an 8.5. If I also score Shadow Generations, I'd probably, give it a 7.5. And so I'm going to net out at an 8 out of 10 for this thing. I think overall

it's still a great package. It's still a great time because you're getting more of that content that you already love and you're getting the shadows out of things, which I think is exciting for a lot of reasons, even though it doesn't live up necessarily in terms of, you know, polish and, you know, what I want out of the new content as much as I'd like. Roger. This is an interesting one, guys, because I am not, I would not consider myself a Sonic Sicko fully. Right? I didn't grow up with the Sonic games necessarily. I did grow up with Shadow the Hedgehog,

the video game on the PS2, which now that I look back on it, probably played six hours, but I played that six hours over and over and over again. I probably played that first like two, not six hours, probably three hours over and over again, the first two levels.

So I love Shadow the Hedgehog specifically. So this is a very exciting proposition, right? This is an entry point to the franchise, the franchise that I know way too much about because my girlfriend is obsessed with the Sonic franchise. I went to the Sonic Symphony, and I looked at you after the Sonic Symphony, I was like, hey, what is the one to get into?

And you said, Sonic Generations. And then right around that time, they announced Sonic X Shadow. So I was like, okay, let me wait. This is the way that I'm going to get into it. And I mostly focused my review on just Shadow Generations. I played through the entirety of it. It took me about five and a half hours to finish it all. And then I hop back to Sonic Generations.

Didn't finish it. I think I'm pretty much where you're at. I think a little bit further in Sonic Generation. So I've not finished it yet. I will finish it one day. And I got to be honest, when I first played Shadow Generations, I was like, man, I don't know. Like, I don't know if this is the franchise for me.

I love the characters. I think it's very goofy and stupid and fun, and I like laughing with it. But I don't know if, like, the actual, like, gameplay is for me. Like, I, I, there's moments where I was getting into it and I was having a great time, but there was also moments where I would just get hard. Like, there would be, like, a stage, and I'm like, I just, I'm not feeling fast. I'm getting hung up on stuff.

And I just, I don't think I get it. I don't think this is for me. I didn't grow up with it. I don't have the nostalgia for a lot of the levels as you guys were talking about, right? of like a lot of these are references to older games. So I don't get some of those references, even though I'm playing it in my partners right there. And she's like, that's for Mo Six, that's from this, what's on that.

But, you know, it's not for me. And so I played that maybe a week ago, right? Like on Saturday, we got the codes pretty early. I played the entire thing. I was like, okay, this is fine, whatever. Maybe a six or whatever. I don't know. And then last Saturday, two days ago,

I just like, you know, let me boot it up. I want to get refreshed for this review. And I was like, holy fuck. I don't know what happened. Like, it just marinated for me. Like, it felt like in a way that I just did not. Like, I couldn't believe it, guys.

Jim's fake metaphor, Roger has turned around on this game that he, like, had a completely different tone about five days ago. What is happening? It's so funny. I came in, the first day after having the code, the first day after getting the code for this game, I come into work, and I look at Roger,

and I'm like, how do you like? He's like, he's like not having a good time. And I'm like, he's like, man, really like this is kind of, you know, this, this, this, this is that. Oh, like, Roger, this is the best that it's gonna get. You don't understand Roger. And then, so yeah, I booted it up on Saturday, again, just to go through it. And I think the fun that I had, right, is because I got, I got to go around the Hubworld. Because after you finish the game, you can just go to select and you can go through all the entire things.

You don't have to deal with the Hubworld, which I agree. I think that's the worst part of this is going, because the Hubworld kind of just looks saving, right? Like, it's hard to like figure out, oh, where it was like going? I don't know what's happening here. exactly like the Sonic Generations Hubworld and the fact that it was good because it was 2D Right this is 3D so you get confusing There's an underground layer to it it's it's not a great

Hub world so being able to just Select every single one of the missions Last night I Jesus Christ What the fuck was that? What was that? Barrett This was

These are assets that was sent to me I don't know what's happening That's crazy That's crazy That's crazy I was wild. Andy Cortez sent those to me, so I don't know how that got in there. That's really weird.

So I booted it up, and I'm like, I'm playing it, and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to try to S rank all these levels. No way. And last night, I spent, again, we have, in the words of J. Cole, bazookas in our arsenal right now when it comes to review codes, right? We have a lot of games. I have a lot of games. Oh, yeah.

And I was like, fuck all these games. I played six hours of Shadow Generations last night. Six more hours. Yes. I'm fucking obsessed I'm having so much fun And I think What of us

I think it is I have a lot of Again Going to the nerdy side That we'll talk about Like the details of Shadow And how I don't think they represent it incorrectly I think they go a little bit to PG

Little PC when it comes to When it comes to the shadow We don't really go to the core of what Shadow Is to me and that is the PS2 game He has no gun He does not ride this fucking bike Okay spoilers y'all He doesn't even say hell

He has, they have a fucking poster, they have a billboard of the bike. What the fuck? Why don't we, why don't we have a billboard of the bike? Let them ride the bike. Let's wait for the DLC. Yeah, wait for the DLC. But I, I love all of the new abilities that they give to Shadow. It is extremely fun, especially once you, I think, when you replay it and you go in there

and you actually play it through the first time, you're like, oh, I get all this. Because they throw a lot at you. I think every actor or every chapter or so, they give you a new ability. And by the ending, if you're like, I don't know, there's a lot to deal with it. But once you actually start speed running these levels, holy fuck, it is so fun. And as I'm saying all of this, I'm going to say Shadow Generation. I'm just talking about Shadow, because I've not finished Sonic. Shadow Generations is an 8 out of 10.

I really think this is a great game. It has a lot of flaws, but I'm so excited. I think I'm going to get this game on Steam Deck because I want to play it on the plane to New York. This is in November. He's thinking ahead. He's thinking ahead. But yeah, this is a great game. I'm having such a fun time,

and I'm so excited to talk to y'all about it. I'm so shocked. I am so shocked, too. Oh, man. I hate that we always need to do this. I hate that there always has to be when we talk about a Sonic game. We have to give this whole preamble about,

but it's a Sonic game, whatever. And it's really, really tough because I feel like I just want to start by saying, I truly don't believe 3D Sonic will ever get better than this. Like, I do think that this is the pinnacle of the 3D level design of how much fun it could be of the promise of what people think Sonic is, which is just

you're going fast and like constantly moving, moving, moving, moving. The 2D games aren't actually that. And that's why I am definitely a 2D Sonic fan more than a 3D Sonic fan, like by far. Like, that's not even a question. Like I think Sonic Mini is legitimately like, period, a great platformer. 1,000%. I feel like when you're talking about these 3D Sonic games, I don't know that I could like put that same type of backing into it. Despite me having a lot of fun with it, there's just so much more flaws. So, so many more flaws. But I do think that the shadow generations

portion of this game really is everything that they've learned from generations, which forever, you and I have been saying, that's the best Sonic 3D has to offer. And we go back to it every couple years just because there is so much love given to the history of Sonic in that game.

They do it right. And the shadow stuff, I feel like, takes that, advances it forward to be more modern, but also takes a lot of the ideas from the last couple games, some of the better ideas, and implement them and add new things as well, creating what I do think is the best Sonic 3D campaign, best paste, best playing, best to go back in S-rank that we've ever had. 2D Sonic and 3D Sonic is all about multiple levels of playing through the same level.

And by level, I mean like a high, medium low type thing. You essentially, you want to stay high at all times. That's what's going to get you through the stage of the fastest. The game is designed that you can go lower, but it's going to slow you down. There's going to be more obstacles in your way. And to S-rank it, you're trying to find the perfect path and, like, stay on that path. I think that the shadow campaign does the best job of making all of those pads equally fun and filled with, like, unique mechanics that make me want to go to the other ones,

not just the best path. But I want to see what everything, what the game has to offer. I played the game differently than both of you did. Despite having played through Sonic Generations a handful of times in my life, I wanted to play through it front to back again. So I started with Sonic Generations. I then watched the 15-minute anime prologue for Shadow Generations, which if y'all are trying to get hype for this game,

watch that anime. It is the coolest thing I've ever fucking seen. Shadow does not deserve this, but we're here having it, and I am so happy. Shadow might deserve it? I don't deserve it. I'm happy I'm getting it. And then I played through Shadow Generations. And weirdly, both campaigns took me exactly five hours and 13 minutes each.

Oh, wow. Like on the dot. So that was kind of weird. It's weird to review this game, though, to give it a score, not just because of the normal Sonic, like, there's this and there's this, whatever, because I feel like that would be kind of easy to talk about. But the fact that this is a package that also includes Sonic Generations, and Sonic Generations is decidedly dated. I feel like when you play through Sonic and then play Shadow, Shadow is simply better in every single way,

except for obviously I care about Chemical Plant Zone more than I care about the fucking Shadow the Hedgehog stages or whatever, right? But having said that, in terms of the level design, the Sonic 06 level, which with the church where you're going through. Dude, the eagle and all that stuff. Does he have a name? I don't know, yes. He was in Sonic O6 as well. but like they nailed that level design in this game like it is the level is so much fun the music and sonic's always great and they really go hard on the shadow stuff as well thank you very much

for that bear it but um fucking girl um sonical is the princess of soliana um but i i was pretty let down actually by the sonic portion of this game um really the remaster portions of stuff i think that they should have went really a lot harder um i i'm asking i guess for something that this game is not, but the way it's presented is there's the two campaigns and they present them fairly equally. It feels a little bizarre that some major flaws that Sonic generations had.

Some of the bosses are simply not fun, and they're very unbalanced and just shitty compared to the rest of the game. And they don't fix that at all. The big changes in the game are some of the dialogues different, but in ways that does not matter at all. And they added the drop dash, which is when you are

spin dashing in the air as Sonic, you can hit the button again so that when you land, you're immediately dashing off. That's something that I think mania introduced and it's great. It's a great mechanic to like play the games the way they're designed to be played which is momentum. The biggest

problem though with Sonic Generations especially playing it now compared to Shadow is the Act 1, Act 2 going from 2D stage to 3D stage. The gameplay mechanics are different and the 2D sonic stages suck. We've played mania since then.

So while at the time it was like, oh man this is a nifty the nostalgic thing. It's like, no, no, we know what good 2D Sonic is. And the Sonic

Generations 2D levels are not it. And it's really upsetting that some of the, it does not play enough like the classic 2D Sonic games,

and it doesn't play enough like the 3D portions of the Sonic. So it kind of puts them in this weird place that, especially playing superstars last year.

Yeah. Like, it lacks the polish that superstars had. And I feel like that's very glaring. And then you play the 3D and 2D

versions of the shadow levels. And I really appreciate that all the gameplay mechanics are all the same. The controls are the same. The abilities you have are the same. You have a double jump as shadow. The levels are designed around that. The shadow campaign kicks

fucking ass. And it leans in so much into the absurdity of the shadow character. The cutscenes are so melodramatic. The amount of Maria we get. Like, this is it's perfect. It's fucking perfect for what it is. And I think what it is, is the best, and the reason

I think it's the best that we're ever going to get, is it takes the best moments or best ideas from all the Sonic and Shadow games and just gives it to us in these small versions. So the gimmicks that are added in Frontiers or colors or whatever, we're not playing through because I don't think the gimmicks

can hold a full fucking game, but they can hold one level. And I think that this game does that really well. Having said all that, it's still, to say it's not perfect, is insane. It's very far from perfect. But there are some things where

Shadow's abilities that they add. They're not all equal. I feel like some of them are awesome. Being able to swing is like, was. Yeah, exactly. Like the weird, like, Inky guy thing. It doesn't feel good. Like, there's, there's some stuff that I'm like,

ah, this, this game's new ideas still have some of that, I would say, bad Sonic Jake, the gimmicky ideas that are there just to add something new. I didn't dislike the Hubworld as much as you guys seem to. I also didn't love it. But I do appreciate it breaking up the pace of just going level, level, level, level, level. Um, but I did get

frustrated sometimes of, like, not knowing where I was going just because everything does look the same. But there was a wow moment for me of playing through Sonic Generations where it's the 2D Hub World and then playing Shadow and then there's that moment of it like kind of revealing its 3D and I was like oh they're frontier frontiers

in this and it's a little bit of frontiers which I'm like I like a little bit of frontiers you know what I mean? Never go full frontier yeah so I'm talking a lot right now and again it's really hard to speak on this game critically and accurately because I do think

that as a product that also includes Sonic Generations and what they did didn't do to that game, including the fact that I would have loved to just see like Sonic Generations only represents up to like... Yeah, what? Colors? Yeah.

And it's like I would love to have Sonic representation past that, you know? And I guess that that's a big ask, but I just feel like for what this project is, it could have happened. But I do appreciate how much they focused on Shadow and I think Shadow's campaigns like really, really good. So with all of that said, I would probably critically give this project a 7.5 out of 10.

But I think if we're just talking about the shadow part, I really 8.5. Like I feel like if you are a 3D Sonic fan, like this is it, y'all, this is it. It's so funny that we're all like aligned in terms of where we're at a number, but we still have our different takeaways from it. I love this. Because yeah, like for the shadow stuff,

the 2D shadow levels, I was almost confused about why they're in here. Right? That was one of the ones where I was like, I don't know if I'm enjoying these levels as much. You're right. It is, they're taking the mechanics that are already in the 3D shadow levels

and translating that to 2D shadow. And so it works for keeping it consistent. But I'm like, I don't have any nostalgia or I don't even think there's any heritage, maybe a little bit of heritage of like 2D shadow, like maybe here or there. But it's one of those things where I'm like, man, I think I personally would prefer

just an all 3D. shadow type situation, because I think that's what people associate it with. Yeah, no, absolutely. As somebody who only played the 2D games as, like, oh, like, how cool is it to have this little package of the Genesis games and all? You know, Sonic's here. And it's like, I never resonated with the 2D Sonics at all. So like 3D Sonic is where it's at.

And it's, it's a blast. And yeah, every time we would go to the, huh? It is a 3D blast. Yeah, no, no, when I went to, when I was S-ranking all the audience. And I would go back to the 2D levels. I was really down on them originally. And I played them like, you know what? going after playing a little bit of Sonic

generations I was like okay this is faster this is more of my speed this is less like the platforming you're stopping you can go really fast in those 2D levels and I think they learned a lot from Sonic generations going into Shadow Generations what are we 8 10 years removed from that original game yeah so like they learned a lot from it but I

still I totally wish that this is a 3D project specifically because I it's kind of like shoehorned especially since the Hubworld is 3D right like they're doing the thing where it's like oh it's not 2D anymore it's 3D so like I don't know it's really it's really funny that you guys feel that way because I am so into the minutia and the difference of like

the styles of gameplay for a Mario and for Sonic specifically because like I've essentially been there from the beginning and I have been fans of them even though it's been very difficult to be fans of both. You know what I mean?

You know what I mean for us. Tail two cities. But when we're talking about the 2D, it's funny because it's like I don't even see these shadow levels of 2D. I think I'm even referring to them as 2D just because they are more 2D than the 3D ones but the fact of the matter is like 3D Sonic

in any of the games, or at least the majority of the games, has so much 2D to it. Like, there's so many parts of it that are 2D. So it's just the second act, it's just the balance of how much of it's 2D to 3D is just flipped, I would say,

like 80, 20 back and forth. Whereas, like, in Sonic generations, it's like very much the gameplay is different. And it functions like a 2D game that maybe the camera turns 3D every once in a while, but 100% they are 2D levels. Whereas I feel like the difference between the shadow levels isn't big enough for me to actually see them as demonstrably different because they play

the same. Yeah, I can I concur with you to a certain extent. There are definitely ones that I was playing one earlier than last night where it was, you know, very, it feels like a 3D one and then it, but it's a 2D one, but then it just almost turns 3D by the ending of it, right? Like where the camera moves and it's just like, oh no, this is just pretty much just, it's just a perspective change. But there are ones where it's like, oh no, this is markedly slower than the, than the rest of the game. On the shadow side? Yeah, on the shadow side.

Yeah, for sure. Especially there's one where the platforms and you have to, like, are falling with the jump in order to get them up. And I know that's a gimmicky thing, but like that feels like a very 2D sonic idea that they're putting into shadows. So it's only a few levels.

It's not like a huge deal. I'm with you that it's not insanely different, but I just like, just double down on the 3D. I feel like the 3D stuff, the amount of levels that I was slowed down and the 3D stuff surprised me. But it makes sense, though, with the chaos control.

Like, that's the point of it, is it slow the things down so we can actually get some platforming going on as we're bouncing back and forth. But again, I liked the pacing of the differences of it all. Yeah. Yeah, no, I think it's, yeah, very interesting. I add some of the same takeaways as you, though, as far as, like, I think being spoiled a bit by Sonic Mania.

That's the thing is, I think this game, playing it in 2024 hits way different than playing it in, what, 2012? Oh, my God. It was Sonic Generations came out a lot. It was a PS3 game. Yeah. And so it was long ago enough to where we legitimately were,

in a different time as far as how this game would hit. Because I agree 1,000% as far as like, I think what we're talking about in terms of the clunkiness between 2D, 3D, within the 3D, right, and how 2D Sonic in Sonic Generation specifically hits or doesn't hit nowadays.

Because I think in, do you have the year? Oh, I thought you were looking at. For Sonic Generations. Because I think in, in all let's just say 20, oh, people are in 2011. Yep. Or no, somebody's in, come off of 2012. 2011, thank you.

in 2011 Sonic was in a different place enough to where the context of what makes a 2D Sonic was just different and so back then I think I think it felt way more natural

as far as oh yeah this is 2D Sonic you know So what's interesting is like just to take you back to that moment in time because this is where the Sonic cycle really began

like when people started talking about the cycle of like New Game gets announced maybe this is going to be the one oh it's a piece of shit new game announced maybe it's going to be the one oh it's a piece of shit

but we were outside of that at this point because we had had Sonic 4, which they made an episodic title. It was supposed to be like, if I remember correctly, like three episodes, but we only ended up getting two because they just, they weren't great. Like, they were, they looked kind of like what we

think of now as like the Sonic Generations, 2D Sonic games, but they just didn't work out and they really didn't understand what made the Genesis game so special. And then when we got into Sonic colors on the Wii, it was like, oh shit. Like, Sonic Unleashed was the one the werewolf one.

Yeah, yeah. Lien's a lot of that game wasn't great, but it was the first time that they were, the modern Sonic, modern 3D Sonic of like him running kind of in the lanes and the boost mechanics and all of that.

Like that's where the rooftop run levels from that. They felt more like almost like courses as opposed to just 3D platforming levels. Exactly. And it was like, oh, there's something here. Yeah.

And I think that was it kind of turning and then Sonic Colors was, let's take that and then also add some 2D, 2D that is more modern based in terms of like what we're thinking let's not try to emulate the Genesis games let's just do something special that is that and Generations kind of is mixing

those things. It's mixing the unleashed 3D levels and then the 2D of colors which works in some ways, doesn't work in others but I feel like Generations was at the point where they just took all the best lessons learned and turned it into what at the time was like oh it's never going to get better than this. In 2011

Sonic Generations hit so hard. In 2024 I understand 1,000% where you're coming from as far as 2D Sonic, because yeah, we've had Sonic Mania, which I think is, you can't get better at 2D Sonic than Sonic Mania. And if you're going to make a Sonic Generations 2, I'd be so fascinated to see how you approach it, because I think you would then make the 2D Sonic stuff. It's a weird one. You would either go back to Mania or you would just like make it superstars, which superstars

plays like an original 2D Sonic game, even though... The opening of the game, Shadow just shoots the 2D Sonic. Classic Sonic in the head. Yeah, with like a pixel gun. You're pixelated now. But I say all that to say that, yes, in 2024, Sonic Generations on the Sonic side does feel a bit weird in the 2D stuff in the way that Tim's talking about. And for me, it feels even weirder when you jump into the shadow stuff. And the shadow stuff, it has the 2D levels, but they feel like 3D levels, but they're still 2D.

It's a whole thing. Yeah, one of the notes I put is this feels as good now as generations did then at translating the 2D thrill ride to 3D. but that's not fully a compliment. You know what I mean? It's like I do feel like this is way more modern and way more, way more like fun to play for somebody that's jumping in for the first time. But to someone like Roger, it's also your players, you're like, oh, I don't know. I talked to big game about Sonic, but I don't know that this is actually good, you know? I mean, Roger, I'm curious about like your speed running now because I'm having so much fun.

Okay, sorry, go for it. Last night, I went to bed, I closed my eyes. I was seeing it. I was seeing. Yeah. The sodas effect. It was fucking insane. I was seeing that.

When you were just showing the trailer or whatever. Yeah, with all the thing. I was like, oh shit, I remember that's where I got that big boost. Like, I'm seeing it all. And like I'm having a great time.

Sorry, continue. Well, because a couple of the notes I took, right, I mentioned that I'm in my notes that I'm, you know, spoiled by Sonic Mania, which I think has a better feel for 2D.

But then also I'm spoiled from coming off of Astrobot recently. Where Astrobot's one of the most polished 3D platforms I've ever played with, you know, like, I get really good visuals, but then also like a tight like you know tightly designed levels that make something like speed running feel fun because we've had the speed run levels that uh that dropped in the last week uh that like you know i checked out i'm sure bared and like jeff grub and everybody's doing as well where it's like oh i feel like it's very fun to speed run these levels for you playing through the shadow stuff and like having that mindset of like no i'm i'm gonna fucking you know go all the way i'm gonna like you know learn the shortcuts learn how i can get the fastest things is that hitting like how is that working for you is a new you you're

It's, it's hitting for sure. I mean, some of the gimmicky stuff, as we talked about, alluded to earlier with like the swinging around with the doom stuff. And the way that they break down the speed running in this game is that there's two versions of every single level, or at least, yeah, I think every single level, where you can use the Doom Wings or you don't do the Doom Wings. Doom Wings essentially allow you to fly in it.

I don't use the Doom Wings at all. So I sometimes have accidentally pressed the Doom Wings level and I just do the speed run without the Doom's Wings and then I have to replay it again. Whatever, it's the whole thing. But yeah, there's a lot of versatility, especially with the Doom Wings being able to, they have multiple, you know, lanes to it where you can really get high up and, oh shit, there was things that I didn't even realize were up there and you can really focus in on that. Or you can just find all of the secrets and kind of go like that. And I'm, again, it's my first time playing like a real Sonic slash Shadow game in full. So I'm having a great time. I don't know how much of that is new, right? Like I'm sure that there has been a lot of challenge levels before. I know Frontiers had a bunch and I played the first one a lot of. But this is like, yeah, this is scratching that itch. I mean, it's scratching the neon white.

You know, I'm your beast level. I need to get the S rank. I need to do all this stuff. I'm shocked. It's not that good, right? Like, of course, there are moments where I'm like, fucking, this mechanic sucks. Like, why I'm I have to swing and I fucking hate this thing. But once I actually learn it and I actually put the time in, I was like, you know what?

I appreciate it for what it is. It wasn't like egregiously bad or anything. I mean, Roger, you're tapping into like the people that legitimately fight as these games being good. It's because of this. It's because once you, once it clicks that this is not Mario, this is not Astrobot. This is something very different. And you start focusing on it's about the paths through the level and like how can I hit all the things in the exact right way. And you do kind of get that

sonic brain of just like what the rhythm of the button presses. Like that's where it's like, oh, there's, Jank and all that stuff aside. There's a great game here. Like there's, there's like a potentially amazingly designed level here for you to be able to play. It's just it's definitely not for everybody. But I think that it is for clearly millions of people. And I think that, that they're learning more than they're not in terms of taking the right things from the previous couple games and putting it into this. Like, I do think that the shadow levels in this game are the most replayable of any 3D Sonic games that I've ever played. Like, I, there was multiple times I was like, this is my favorite 3D Sonic level. And I had to stop making that note because I just

feel like I kept saying it. Like, yeah, as soon as I stopped pretending that it was something else, right? like we're hoping it was going to be something else. Because again, I came from Shadow, the original Shadow of the Hedgehog game. And I love the, I don't like that game. Like, that game's bad, but I like the aesthetic of that.

And I don't think they really carry over some of the aesthetic from the original game. And I don't think some of the music choices. I don't really love. I think some music is good. But I mean, I wish that they brought in a little bit more of the original Shadow of the Hedgehog game. But once I stopped, like,

oh, I wish this was this. I wish this was more poshous. And I just accepted it. I was like, oh, that actually made the game a lot better. I know that's like a defeatist thing, right? Accepted. It really is like, you sound like me when I was playing Sonic Frontiers. Well, yeah, I was just like, I guess this is what it is.

But it's not a bad word. I'm going to eat this stop. This is called Stockholm City, bro. But it's, I need to pull you out before you get as deep into it as these two fuckers. But it's not like frontiers, right? We're like, not to take what the game. What are you about to say? But like, the game isn't like doesn't look awful, right?

Like, of course there's some cutscenes. I'm like, it looks like a PS3 game. But the game isn't like fundamentally. broken. It was just like, oh, I was expecting something else because I've never played these games before. I was hoping for something else. And then I ended up finding it by just replaying the game and going and trying to get the S rank on everything.

I was like, oh, this is what I wanted. I just needed to play the game first, get like the base understanding, almost like the tutorial for me. And I'm like, okay, this is how these games work? Okay, cool. How do I refine that? How do I find all the secrets in these levels? I definitely want to keep talking about this game, but we're going to have to do that after a word from our sponsors.

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I need to bring up something very important. Ah, shit. Because I think that there's a lot of people out there with questions of like, what is this game? Does this game deliver what we're looking for as Shadow the Headchalk fans? And I can just say, the answer is yes. This is the Advent children of Shadow the Headchalk, which is all we ever want. Hey, let's take this thing that's really cool. And in our minds, we've made cool for other reasons.

Let's just make the game based on those reasons. Let's give him wings. Let's be anime as all fuck. Why is Shadow the Headchok here freaking doing the drag. Dragonball punch, kick combos super fast on bosses. He's always been doing that. He does that early on. He does that to like a rocket.

Yeah, he fucking does. Punches the fuck out of a rocket. In the anime, the little prologue thing, there's a part where there's a missile and he chaos controls, catches it and throws it at a helicopter. And the helicopter dodges it. He chaos controls back to it and catches it again and throws it at the helicopter. That's awesome. It's fucking sick, man.

What gets me every time is like he will like land from a distance and then like he has like a cool role that he does to like get back. to running or skating, I guess, on his feet. I'm like the little details, man. Yeah. To make sure that they're conveying the fact that shadow is indeed cool. Yeah. And cool.

Cool is the word here, just like Advent Trowdard. Let's take Cloud. Let's take this character and let's make him incredibly dark in email. Yeah. We could have. We could have. We could have. I feel like we could have.

I feel like we could have leaned into like the darker, edgier type thing. I don't want him to curse. I don't want him to have a gun. I joke around about that. I do. He doesn't. I mean, he's got finger guns. Maybe he should, boom, blue, blue,

yeah. electric, right? So he got something there. But I feel like we could have leaned more into that vibe. That's the interesting thing. I'm so surprised, truly, and I know it's a meme, but like, it's true. Why was there no levels that were based on Shadow

the Hedgehog, the original game? There were none. Like, that's weird to me. Like, that's weird. Like, this is supposed to be like a celebration. No, there was not. Right? I'm pretty sure. I don't think there's one that is like the first stage or like, Andy Cortez is calling in. Oh, okay. Andy Cortez, you're live on the kind of funny Sonic

cast how you doing? Hey Tim. I've been notified that there was something that happened with the graphics this morning so sorry I don't know Adobe had an update recently for premiere I'm I'm not sure if I got hacked or anything like that but I like to apologize to the sponsors because that's just like unacceptable stuff so yeah I'm gonna try to like do a virus sweep of like PCA I don't know where that file came from but yeah yeah it is I did notice that in the intro you you flew in his tail for a second. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, definitely, yeah. That's the thing I'm talking about for sure. Definitely that. Yeah, that's the thing. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, I will fix it. We'll fix it in the edit.

All right. Thanks, Andy. I hope you're doing well. Bye. Roger, I don't know if you knew this, but I feel like the, you know, the callback to the Shadow the Hedgehog game is that you're playing as Shadow the Hedgehog game is that you're playing as Shadow the Hedgehog. That's a great call. That's a great call. And also, the entire story of the freaking, whatever the hell of the game is. the little... Black Doom guy. So yeah, it's not a huge thing, but I was just like, oh, like, that would have been neat. That would have been neat to kind of go back

to that original game a little bit more. I'm with you that it is... I don't want to talk too much about spoilers, like things that aren't in the game, but you already said earlier, the motorcycle. I'm surprised at the lack of the motorcycle. I'm surprised that they didn't have... Although I really do think that we're going to get it in the movie,

DLC... DLC in December, but... I don't know. I don't know how far we want to go into the future talk, right? Because I know you said that you think this is the best will ever be. I, to me, and of course, I'm a new Sonic fan, right? You guys are jaded.

You guys have seen, gotten your hopes up and then just fucking crash down to the floor with whatever. But I look at this, I'm like, this could be the start of something beautiful. Okay, no, no, not with shadow. Not with shadow. I'm just saying with just like the idea of all of these abilities, right? Like, I think those abilities are really cool. They're interesting. And I could see Sonic Adventure 3.

And then we focus on three or four of these characters. We have abilities. We really hone in on this idea. It's starting to hurt me, Roger. I'm sorry. You don't know the words, the power of the words you're saying. I know. Because what you're describing is Sonic colors.

Like what you're described, it's like, they just keep giving these fuckers abilities. And we don't want the ability. That's the thing, Roger. Yeah, nobody wants the ability. It's the problem. You're stuck between. But you make them good. You make them good like this.

Like, this actually adds to the character. Let me, let me rephrase this. Sonic fans don't want a good game. Like, at the core of this, yes, Roger, you're thinking about a level of game design and creativity and innovation. Sonic fans don't want any of that shit. We want to run fast. Imagine if Knuckles

had the uppercut, like Shadow does it, where you can go and you do the teleport, fucking fucking, no, because anytime they try to innovate or do something to Sonic, everybody's like, this is the worst game you ever fucking made, just give us the fucking Sonic unleash 3 levels, and that's it. I do think that there is something here of like, I know

that they're doing this to coincide with the movie, right? Of course. They want Shadow and The Year of Shadow. Fearless Year of Shadows What they're calling you. I think he's, I mean, he's going to be a big hand and he's Keanu Reeves in the fucking movie. Like this is going to be a resurgence of shadow the character.

Is it crazy to think that we get another shadow game? I think it is crazy. We're not going to get another Shadow game, but I do think we, the next Sonic game, I mean, I don't know. What is it?

Because like I feel like a Frontiers 2 is pretty likely. And I can see them focusing more on Shadow in that as well. well. I'm with you that like Sonic is, I would say, by the numbers, more popular than it's ever been at this point. And the movies and shows and stuff have a lot to do with that. And also the quality of the games. Like we're at a point that like these are good games coming out. Like even like Frontiers was a win for Sonic. Oh, yeah. Even though it didn't hit for everybody. It didn't really hit for me. But it hit for you. And it, there's a lot of good in it. Anyone can see that. People were going crazy at that Sonic Symphony when they started playing from from her tier shit. People were,

I was like, damn, bro. It didn't. Realize it was that. That was the DLC music, too. It's like, damn, they're in that shit. Holy crap. Speed of the music on this game. There was some boss fights in this game that the music that, like the remixes to songs, I just couldn't believe they were doing because it's the most fan service.

You know how sometimes the most obvious thing is the right choice and then they don't do it. And you're like, why? Why would you not do that? This game does it every time. Every fucking time. What are you upset about? They didn't have all of me. They didn't play his.

fucking theme song in Shadow It's in there You can choose it Yeah, I can choose it I wanted to play it at the end of the game What is happening? They didn't play it, come on I am all I am

It's fine, I was listening to the gym In the gym today That's how I know I'm falling apart I watch I watch Kaiju number eight At the fucking gym And I listen to the entire soundtrack I want to make fun of you

But yesterday on my flight back from New York I played the Ray and the Orden theme song Voices like five times In a row on the plane He's so cool He's so cool It's such a good song. It's such a good song.

I need somebody to organize a karaoke night where I can sing that song. Yeah. It's not been appropriate. Yeah. It's not been appropriate the last few that I went to. I'm like, they want to appreciate.

They don't get it. I would bless. But here's the thing. Oh, fuck. I forgot I was going to go. I don't know. I was going to go. Here's the thing.

Here's the thing. It's the music. I was talking about all I am. You're talking about Shadow. Oh, you're talking about like the Shadow come back. I think maybe, possibly if they do like more Sonic like

collections of games. Eventually, you got to get to the 3D stuff. And I would love a, like, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, I don't know, Sonic Adventure 2, I guess. So he's reserved only from when they remastered games. No, but see, like, real talk, that is the, that is a problem of where we're at. And that's why I'm saying, I think this is the best, is that Sonic is at its best when it's a greatest hits of things.

And we're just doing the good parts. Because there is always going to be a lot of bad parts. and I just, I do not think we can get a brand new Sonic game that in some way doesn't go back to the well and it actually be great. I just don't see it happening. Like, I just don't. You don't think we can have a deeply original Sonic game.

That's good. I mean, you just, Sonic Frontiers. Would you consider that deeply original? Yeah, okay. No, see, even then I wouldn't because it's like the best parts of that game are the parts that are just fucking generations levels. I like exploring the world. I did download Sonic Frontiers after I was,

after my first play through. I get what I'm saying that. And then I was like, oh, it's, you know, I was having fun. If I'm planning out the next few Sonic releases,

I think yes, the next mainline game is going to be Sonic Frontiers to you. After that, I think you get another 2D Sonic game, maybe like another superstar style thing. Or if we're lucky, if we're lucky and God shines down upon us, we get Sonic Mania to you,

never going to happen. I think after that, I could see a, let's go back to Sonic Adventure. Because we're getting to the point with the movies where, I think people are getting more and more curious about these characters and more like, people are falling in love with these characters more.

Here's the thing about Sonic Adventure. And there's no jokes in what I'm about to say at all. I don't know that we're ever going to get a Sonic Adventure 3 because I think the people involved in Sonic Adventure care way too much about that franchise and they know they don't got it. They can't bring the heat. Oh, okay. What kind of heat are we talking about here? They think that they think that they brought with those games,

that the way that fans of those games talk about those games, again. Because I'm not even talking about Sonic Adventure 3. I'm talking about maybe like a Sonic Adventure reboot. Or like a game that's just called Sonic Adventure. Yeah. That is giving us a brand new Sonic story. There is baggage there.

That's what I'm saying, man. It's dangerous territory. Really? The Sonic Adventure sickos, y'all. But that's what you want. That's going to sell. I don't know. I mean, it would.

It would. But I don't think it's going to bring back Chow stuff. Because I think in Sonic Generations, one of the few things they've added is how you can collect these chowels that are hidden in the levels you can't do shit with them there's no child garden or anything but i feel like it's them acknowledging at the very least like oh people care about this they know but that's what i'm telling you it's i honestly i think they're fucking scared this is the fearless year shadow what's the fucking feared year of sonic adventure wow but i yeah and i think that that's but i think i i see all

this is just like dip in their toe in right like they're slowly being like hey you like shadow how much you like shadow how many million are we're going to sell like a lot of copies here Or how, like, same thing with Chow's. Like, you like Chow's? Like, how much you like Chow's? You know, are you going to actually replace Sonic Generations to get all these Chows? Like, I see them just slowly dropping these things. I don't know.

I know it's a loaded thing, Sonic Adventure 3. I say that just as an idea. But I could, we have Sonic Heroes. I know that that's in gestation, right? The remaster remake, that's been something that is... I'll love. I will love for them. I don't know. But I think the most pure thing to bring back would be,

even if you're not calling it Sonic Adventure, something that carries that soul, I know right now it might be described. being Sonic 06, but you make it, but you make it good. Yeah. Because I know Sonic, somebody in Chad mentioned, like, Sonic 06 is basically Sonic Adventure. It is. I mean, dude, again, Sonic 20, me being in this shit, as long

as I fucking have. I don't think that at that point in my life, I have ever been more excited for a game than when I first saw the E3 trailer for Sonic 06. Yeah. It was everything I could have asked for. It felt like they were taking Sonic seriously and then I had got my hands on the sticks, and it all fell apart

very, very quickly. But yeah, I'm with that, though, but that is they're like if a reboot of Sonic Adventure, I do think it would be a bit more serious like that and trying to have a story like that, I just don't know. I don't know, man. You gotta redefine what that means in 20, in the 2020s.

But if you do that, then it's not the thing people are asking for. And I think that's the problem. If you invoke the term Sonic Adventure. Well, that's what I see. I see that this as a test for that, right? You do many campaigns that are like that and then they call coalesce into an ending or whatever.

Like, What I'm asking is for you to, yeah, explore more of the characters and have a story. And that's pretty much it. Yeah. I like it. I like it almost like convincing dad. Well, you guys didn't even, neither you played the adventure games. You're right.

I watched a lot of it. But I watched a lot of it. And I know how much people love those games. And honestly, honestly, I would love a modern version of that, right? Like, I get sad that I can't play as Omega XLR or whatever the fuck his name is. So you get sad. No, because here's the thing, though, like, real talk, you essentially played through those games in Sonic Generations

and then Shadow Generations. It's like, like, legitimately, you know the Shadow story. You know Shadow and Sonic stories by playing from Adventure, like the shit that matters from that stuff. You played it. It was just more fun here because they made it the fun version of playing through those levels. And I know I'm like talking shit about some people out there.

I'm saying this is somebody that, like, I boot up Sonic Adventure 2. I've bought Sonic Adventure 2 at least five times. at least five fucking times, okay? We got some super chats here. AK.98 says, Roger, if you feel like Shadow Generations clicked for you, you should revisit Frontiers again.

The levels in that game are genuinely pretty solid. I will. I respect that. Genuinely pretty solid. I agree with that. I agree with that, too. I do love the challenge stuff. I played, I think, the first two challenge levels

back in the day when we first got the codes. And I was like, oh, I like this. I don't know about the open world aspect of it, but after booting it up again and playing around, and it has all like the modern amenities I wanted. Like the fact that in when I played the Sonic Generations and there wasn't a air dash, I was like, oh, I don't want, I don't want you. But now this one has an air dash.

Frontiers is an air dash. I'm like, okay, I'll try it out. I'll keep up playing it. By one beef with like the challenge levels in Sonic Frontiers is that they can feel a bit too templated. Whereas like why are so many of these have the same background when you're in subspace or cyberspace or whatever it is? Um, it feels a bit copy and paste. just in that, the actual levels themselves

are pretty fun. I like them. And I think, like, I could see you maybe getting into the open world stuff. You kind of just have to, like, allie yourself. Yeah, stop fighting. Stop fighting it. Right. It's not wrong. God, the poppin, though. Don't dude.

Donut dude. 246. I wonder if it's related to Donut. What is it from the movies? Donut King? Donut man? Mr. Donut. It's human friend. Can we get Roger to play Sonic Marsden

James Marsden Donut Lord That's what it is That's what it is I got you Donut dude writes in And says Can we get Roger to play

Sonic Adventure 2 On stream please I mean Sure We can do anything Would I be happy about I have watched so much Of this fucking awful game

From Leanza playing it And she hates this game too That's the most time I didn't tell you guys This part Which is my favorite part I didn't have Lanzah, I love her to death.

She's the greatest person in the universe and she is the biggest Sonic nerd in the world. Like she wrote self-insert Sonic fan fiction when she was a child, right? Like she loves Sonic so easily. Self insert. And then the way,

when I was talking to her about it last night, when I was talking to her about it last. Wait, who was she? She was just her, right? But she was like, you know, part of the group. I love it. I was fucking love it. She did get kidnapped once.

And then Sonic in any came. Sorry, in her, so. God damn it. She didn't get kidnapped once and then Sonic did save her. There might have been a smooch. There might not have been a smooch.

No, don't say, oh my God, Roger, no. No. Oh, my God. You can't tell me you. Oh, no. That's what she told me. That's what she told me. But she, well, Batman couldn't beat that information out.

I'd be that. When we're playing Shadow Generations, right? And again, very positive person. She loves video games. She loves art, right? We're playing Shadow Generations. I've never seen. Someone's so negative.

Someone hate everything to do with this fandom so much. Fucking lazy. I can't believe they did that. I'm like, bro, what are you talking about right now? She hates Sonic, but she loves Sonic so deeply. It's like a self-hate situation, but it was beautiful to watch her because by the ending of it, she was like, it's pretty cool. It was really cool.

So speaking of self-hate, right, and Sonic fans dunking on Sonic content, can we have an honest conversation about Shadow the Hedgehog? What about him? How cool he is? How sexy is? Because there were moments in this where definitively, I was like, I don't know if he's cool anymore, man. What?

I don't know if he's... Advent children. It is very Advent children, but Advent children came out in the early 2000s. And it's 2024. And like, you know, again, when Shadow's doing the thing where he's skating around, he's doing like his little parkour rolls or whatever, I'm like, that's cool.

When he fucking, I don't know, talks about Maria. Yes. Like, there are so many parts of this where I'm like, oh, man, it's not 2003 anymore. That's why you got to go edgier. That's why you got to go like, I have a gun

I'm driving a motorcycle and I'm like a cool badass. Like him without it, I don't know. And I'm so fascinated to see how they do it in the movie. I guess in the movie, it's a kid's movie, right? And so, like, they don't really have to go that hard in terms of it. And there's more stakes. I mean, even that trailer, like him, like, fucking, like, cracking knuckles, knuckles or whatever, like breaking his hands.

Like, there's something cool there. Like, oh, he's his force. And that's stuff I like. And I think the thing that's tough for me right now with Shadow is that Sonic the Hedgehog in his creation as a character was already created to be cool. Like he was made like second was like Oh we need a cool Mario We need a Mario that runs faster than Mario

It's 90s cool and 2000s cool That's really what it is Yeah but 2000's cool I think it's way less cool now Than even 90's cool is now It's different ways to adapt to adapt the character Like Sonic Prime does Shadow really well Like Shadow is like not part of the group He's in the Latinos

He just like me for That's a lot he says It's fire Wait wait what's this? Yeah Shadow? Uh-huh. In Sonic Prime?

I think that's a meme. No way. No way. What do you think he said? That's a meme. Tim thinks that in Sonic. I didn't watch season two. Shadow,

Shadow, Headshot says that he's into Latinos. That's absolutely. I just love Latinos. Adios, amigo. No, I'm like, is that real? No, that's a meme.

No, that's not real. But here's the thing, you guys. I need everybody to understand that I never questioned it. Fucking dying, bro. That's fucking crazy. What do you think the premise of that episode was? The show was fucking weird. Watch Sonic Prime, at least season one.

They have pirate world. They let you know. What do you think was happening? I mean, this is like just another argument for like, you don't need AI to trick people. You can just fucking be creative on your own and make a fucking freak out there think that Shadow the Hedgehog actually once just said, I just love Latina's sonic. To be fair, like, I like, you know, like, it's a very understandable thing to say. Yeah, absolutely. True, true.

I'm still going to believe it. I refuse to believe that's not real. Garrett Reddiken Sorry, real quick You were talking about How Shadow's not cool You're so right But he is

This is Shadow But I think I'm less willing To forgive it as much As I thought I was gonna be Like playing to do this I was like Oh, they'll find a way To translate his edge

To like 2024 edge or whatever And playing it I'm like Nah man Like I gotta put on some Lincoln Park And put on some like

Black eye makeup And really just embrace What's going on on screen That's what he is dude Shadow is a very Very sad tortured soul He was made to be The Ultimate Life

form, he realizes there's other things that think they're the ultimate life form, and he lost his poor Maria. He's not torture enough is my issue. Like, he's not, he needs to be like an outsider from the crew. He watched his best friend get shocked. Yes, exactly. You don't need a crew. You know what I mean? You'll be on the outside. Like, he needs to be like

the, like the, uh, what's it called? Red Hood of the, of the universe, right? We're like, I don't like the stories where Red Hood is like part of the group. Like, he's on the... He's not part of the group. But he is, though. Like, Roo's the baddest fucking calling him. He's like, where were you at the party and everything? Yeah, but the crew, I'm a gal on.

I don't want to get a bucket spoilers here, but it's like this is even early on, even just like that the prolonged anime thing. Like, it's implied that like he's, he's alone, he's not getting hit up by them all the time.

Yeah, but it's implied, but like, you know what I mean? Like, he's there, like, I need it to be like a full outsider.

Like he kind of looking over on the mountain while they're having a picnic. You know what I mean? Like, he's just kind of overlooking. I don't know. They make him too like goody two shoes a little bit. He's like,

he's like mean, but he's goody two shoes at the arm. I do wish that, yeah, They would up the rating to like rated T for team for Shadow. And I understand that you're selling this in the same package of Sonic. And now we're going full circle. Give him a gun.

Make him say hell. Go full circle. I agree with that. I think you should. I think he needs a gun. Y'all don't understand who Shadow is. I lived in the streets. I was fucking playing that game.

I got it from the school. I got it from the classic book fair. Who is Shadow to you, Tim? Sonic Adventure 2. That's Shadow. The entire story is that. Maria is the only thing that makes him worth anything. He just exists.

in an awkward plane where it's like, all right, you're a cooler, edgier Sonic, but Sonic is already like made to be a cooler, edgier Mario. And so now we're in this like plane of edge that I can't fuck with anymore. It's very different cool and edge though. Like the types of cool, like, Sonic was always made as cool as like, he listens to cool music and does cool things and break dances. He's that type of cool. Shadow was never made to be that. Shadow's made to just be like, I'm fucking better than you. It's a very Vegeta situation. I don't know if you would understand. I was gonna go. I was gonna go, it's like, you know,

Sonic is Obi-1, Shadow, Anakin. Think about it, think about it. It's true. True. But he's like Vegeta, Vegeta had on like, again, like dark eye makeup and listen to, what's an emo band, Bear? My Chemical Romance.

And listen to My Chemical Romance on repeat. Not really, you know, but. But you're right. That's what it is. That's all Shadow is. That's all of me. All of him. But I feel like to make this work.

You gotta put a gun in his hand. Like he, it all comes back to that. That's when they took it too far. That's when they took it too far. I mean, the beginning of Shadow the Headshot was him standing over like a tower

of corpses including Sonics. Like, that's, that's what Shadow is to me. I gotta play that game. I mean, no, you don't. You watch it all the cutscenes,

but no, you don't know that. It sucks. And then we got a Garrett red in, right in saying, I'm an adventure sicko. I think the potential for a reboot

is way higher than a Sonic Adventure 3. You do need chow. But, multi-character mechanics and missions feel within reason with modern tech and design. Look, I'm not saying that you're wrong. I'm just saying that I don't see it happening because I think that that would be the expectations for a Sonic Adventure 3 or just Sonic Adventure otherwise are so out of this world. There's just no way that they meet them. I think that the fans.

No, but the fans are going to hate it. Like, I think the fans are going to revolt. And if you lose the fan, Sonic, you won't got nothing. I don't know. See, the fans have been through this before, though. Like, Sonic 06. But not with adventure, though. Not with their, their baby, their love.

But, like, we, they got to know that adventure isn't good, right? That's a great question. Like, I got, we brought him aside. We're like, come on, let's be real, y'all. Let's be real. There's not a, it's not a 10 out of 10. That's barely a fucking seminar. Barely.

It is barely a seminar. Like, I think it'd be such a move. Like, it'd be a power move. Like, it would be a... Oh, yeah.

Hey. That's like an E3, like, closer moment. Like, honestly, that's like year of dream shit. Like, you're not wrong.

Like, fuck. Yeah, but then the game has to come out. Yeah. I mean, I think it is, I don't know,

it has to line up so perfectly because eventually they're going to make a Sonic the movie four. And like, when we get there, or we make to make it Maybe the fifth movie. I don't know.

Like, I feel like Sonic is reaching a point where it is, damn, we're hitting on all levels commercially. Maybe you're not critically. But like, commercially, we're hitting on all levels.

What is like the biggest step we can take right now to bring that up another level? Sonic Adventure is back, baby. And we got the child's back in here. And here's a child mobile game. Yeah.

And here's a fucking eighth movie. Like, an eighth movie. I think we're there. I think we're building up to it. I can't wait to see. I'm gonna lose my shit if a Sonic Adventure ever gets announced

and it's gonna be like oh my God If it closed in the E3 I think that would be like the okay Bring back E3 just for this Yeah yeah yeah If they closed a showcase Then it's a oh man no we set this up

Too much They were doing too much to hype this up And not say in the middle of a Of like a PlayStation state of play Yeah To let people know like oh it's back It's exciting But like you know

That's a showcase That's a show game awards Jeff Keely No I want PlayStation to end PlayStation showcase with this All jokes aside I after playing this game I'm incredibly excited for the DLC coming out

The fact that we're getting movie DLC stuff Is very cool Kiano Reeves voicing him like How long is this gonna be it's just one level right? I mean my fingers crossed two levels Two apps right like the 3D and 2D I hope we're just getting more and like that's so cool And I feel like that that to me is

The future thinking of where this franchise can go Specifically with generations of them just have Them treating the movies as a generation is very, very cool. The cross-media and them acknowledging it is incredibly good, I think, for these characters and a potential, if it's not adventure,

name, an actual game that plays with all the different characters and, like, the cast being who we see in these movies, I think could be good. It could be good. Could be good. It could be good.

Could be good. Oh, man. Roger has to get back to trying to S-rank every level in these games, so I appreciate that. We don't want to waste anyone's time more. Let us know in the comments below if any of you are excited to play through this game.

All the Sonic Sickos, the Shadow Sicko's, sick out, so everybody. I just love you all so much. I appreciate you. Thank you for hanging out with us. Thank you, Andy, for working on this background. Thank you, Barrett, for being a part of this show. And until next time, go fast, y'all.

I go so fast. Bye.