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Sonic Team continues cooking on their streak. Sonic x Shadow Generations not only includes one of the best Sonic games, and the peak execution of the boost formula, but also includes a 3 hour Shadow campaign on top of that which uses the base of Sonic Generations and expands upon it perfectly for Shadow.

We'll start with the returning part, Sonic Generations.

Sonic Generations was already amazing. The only lackluster part being the Story. Sonic Generations was thankfully left mostly untouched aside from rewritten dialogue which was for the better. Lines are rewritten, such as Tails actually recognizing Chemical Plant Zone, properly addressing it along with Green Hill with their canonical locations they're in. Sonic now actually responds to the friends he saves, along with the general writing just feeling more thought out and more genuine. The main story beats are all the same though, but getting rewritten lines is more than I even expected. Otherwise, if you've played Sonic Generations, you know what you're getting. If you haven't it's still one of the best intro experiences to Sonic you can get.

Now for the true meal, Shadow Generations.

Shadow Generations takes the formula Sonic Generations perfected and adds a great new spin on it. The movement is fluid, the moveset as shadow feels great, and the level design is perfect. I won't spoil what areas you get access to from Sonic's history here, but the level choices are amazing, especially the second area, that's one of my favorite levels in all of Sonic. The soundtrack as you'd expect kicks ass and the boss fights are amazing. You gain access to new "Doom Powers" that just add more to your arsenal and are pretty fun.

Not to mention the wonderful story Shadow is given here. If you're a Shadow fan you won't be disappointed by the writing and getting to see some characters we haven't gotten more of in a very long time get some love. The references, the acknowledgements, the everything. The writing team has been on an amazing streak and this game makes me so excited to see what they'll cook up next for Sonic's next big game.

As for my only real criticism of the game, and I'll mark this with a spoiler as this will contain a spoiler for what levels you can expect to see! I am very surprised there was no Shadow the Hedgehog level. That was a little disappointing, especially considering all they brought from Shadow the Hedgehog. That's a little sad to me, but the level quality more than makes up for it and the representation given is fine enough for me.

However that's a very minor criticism and doesn't take away from the game at all, at least for me! If you're not too bothered by what levels get represented and you just want a fun double feature that contains one of the best Sonic games along with an expansion that adds even more amazing content, then do yourself a favor and pick this game up.

It'll be a date to die for.

a cute little game to play with my dbd duo partner

Will update this again with more playtime. Original review gave it a negative, with rampant server issues and bugs.

The game is being pushed into a much better state, excited for the future of it!

My favorite games are always my personal peak of an established franchise. Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, Danganronpa V3, Sonic Adventure DX, Portal 2. All of these take what I love about a franchise and push it to it's best, they take the saddle off, the training wheels, the booster seat and really dig into the potential and go crazy with it. Although with Hades 2 coming soon it will become a multi game franchise, right now it's just Hades and the game has gone over the moon and easily become one of my absolute favorite games of all time.

Lets start with the first thing, the game loop. Hades is an action rouge-lite centered around it's "Chambers". Most chambers you enter start an "Encounter", what the game refers to when you face enemies and they begin spawning. Once you defeat all the enemies in the room, you're treated to a reward. There are many rewards you can collect, from Money, Keys, Gemstones, Shops and importantly, Upgrades. The upgrades take many forms, such as Darkness. Darkness is used to give yourself permanent upgrades through your rooms "Mirror". Things such as more starting health, more dashes, etc. The big upgrade you can find in these Chambers though, is the Boons. Each God upon Olympus offers you many different boons that upgrade your attacks, dashes, and special abilities with their own unique effect. For example, Artemis' boons all generally center around Crit chance. Of course the other Gods all have their own specialties which can decide how you play your run.

Another big upgrade is the Hammers. The hammers all give you unique upgrades to your Weapon of choice, changing it's playstyle. Speaking of weapons, Hades gives you a total of 6 weapons, each with 4 of their own Aspects which alter how you approach the weapon and each of these can be upgraded using another reward you collect in the runs. For example, the swords first aspect; The Aspect of Zagreus, focuses on increased attack speed. It's second aspect, the Aspect of Nemesis, focuses on crit chance after using your special.

As you play, you formulate build ideas and using some tools the game gives you to manipulate what spawns as rewards you do these crazy builds and dish out damage or do some fun combos, etc.

What all this is to say, the game loop is addicting and rewarding. The rewards that you use to give yourself permanent upgrades and unlock more of the story make each run feel meaningful even if you don't make it to the surface. No run feels pointless and it keeps drawing you back in, wanting to go a little farther and even when you do win you just want to keep winning and it never stops! For the gameplay alone, I recommend this and BEG you to give this game a try.

However we haven't even touched on the Story, the absolute big draw of this game to me.

In Hades, you don't play as Hades(Sorry). You play as the son of Hades, Zagreus attempting to break out of the Underworld through Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and Styx. Receiving the blessings of the Gods on Olympus through Nyx's help, you begin your journey. I won't spoil how the story develops as I think it's fun to go in dark, but each run progresses the story and you continue to grow close to the cast of characters through the whole house you just get so invested in their stories. Each run feels integral to the story as each character reacts to the events that transpired in the run with absolutely stellar voice acting for each line, you always have something to look forward to and THAT is what makes it so addicting to me to keep going in Hades and to reach those credits and what lies beyond them.

Every aspect(haha) of Hades seamlessly merges with each other in a wonderfully addicting soup that tastes so damn good every damn time.

I excitedly await Hades 2 and seeing how Supergiant builds off of perfection.

So go ahead, if you've been considering this game make that push. It's worth every penny.

If you do, then I'll see you in Hell.

Frogun might be the cutest little adventure I've ever seen.

When I initially bought Frogun, I thought it looked really sweet and cute and it'd be a fun little game to play for a bit. What I got was not only all of that, but I put quite a few hours into this 14 dollar game! Ultimately if you go through the game purely just to beat the levels it won't take you super long to get through it, but going through and trying to 100% every level by getting all the badges offered so much enjoyment that it was worth it every run.

Each level has a set of badges, from speedrunning the level, to no deaths, to collecting all the coins, etc. and each one can be earned independently of the others so for me it really encouraged going for coins and collectibles on my first run through to get a feel for the level then to try and speedrun it with no deaths after achieving the other badges.

The gameplay itself is actually really fun, it reminds me in some ways of Sonic Adventure 1 (My personal favorite platformer, which funny enough Renata does the games iconic pose). The game's level design absolutely encourages you to go bonkers with the "Frog gun" and utilize it to find ways to just break levels and skip whole sections. It's incredibly fun!

Not to mention the art style is absolutely beautiful. There's so much personality oozing out of it and it was clear in every piece of art in this game that the artists had a big goofy smile on their face, and it absolutely infected me as well. My community on twitch absolutely adored this game and it will forever be a beloved little game for us <3

Looking forward to Frogun Encore and more from this team!

When one of your favorite franchises suddenly gets its own murder on the oriental express that takes you back to Danganronpa, and you come out of it with a beaming smile on your face... The word that comes to mind is... Peace.

I've always been a hopelessly optimistic sonic fan. Even some of the lesser liked titles in the franchise I have a soft spot for and still thoroughly enjoy, however despite all that sonic direction for a while was something I just wasn't really thrilled about. From colors to forces, it never felt like sonic was going in a direction again that felt like it truly honored his character. Even generations; a love letter that while being incredibly fun and a perfected execution of the boost formula, felt a little empty. Like it was more of an art gallery showcasing sonics history rather than a full on honor and celebration of it.

Frontiers and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, the two most recent sonic games are both big innovations on the sonic formula with frontiers being an open world game in the vein of Breath of the Wild and Murder being a mystery visual novel, that have felt like the greatest love letters to the franchise in a long time. Seeing the characters engrossed in their own world, where they truly act like the characters are meant to act rather than being goofy caricatures of their tropes... It's magical.

If you're a sonic fan, don't fall for this game having released on april fools. This is a wonderfully adorable story that puts so much love into each of it's characters with little nods to sonic's history that feel just right. It's free, give it a play and immerse yourself into the seat of the MC and realize that yes, Sonic is truly on the right path now. I just never expected a visual novel murder mystery game to be the next sonic release that helps me feel that sonic is truly in a good place where he needs to be, with loving and caring writers.

Sonic Frontiers is an Open Zone Sonic game reminiscent of BoTW, a first for the series.

It's also the game I've been waiting for for so long.

I've been a Sonic fan for as long as I can remember, with my absolute favorite being sonic adventure 1, and this is the first Sonic game in a very long time that evokes the same emotions that I feel playing that game. Thanks to the open world gameplay style mixed with the modern day boosting mechanics, it feels like the first sonic game since SA1 that truly lets you traverse the levels and world exactly as you want to. Even many of the mini levels(I use mini levels to separate them from the main world, some of these levels are decently long!!) inside the portals have aspects somewhat similar to SA1 that allow you to do some super cool skips and it just feels so right to play. Not to mention those mini levels are also call backs to past levels throughout the series!

Not to mention the story and character writing is just so... Oh my god, so many wonderful callbacks that are not just used for fun "Hey!" moments, but even some are used for character development that just feel so perfect. The characters are treated with the respect they deserve with some wonderfully talented voice work from the VAs. A fantastic job all around.

Of course the Soundtrack is great, with a mix of calming piano/orchestral tracks, EDM, and Heavy Metal. Breaking Through It All being a personal favorite of mine.

All in all, Sonic Frontiers is an absolutely fantastic return to what makes sonic so great to me. I'm so happy and this makes me so hopeful for the future. Thanks SEGA and Sonic Team, you always make me feel like a child <3

its ok

its ok

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