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As a follow-up to a lot of plot lines from Shadow's past games, there will be unmarked late-arrival spoilers for Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Battle, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Generations. You Have Been Warned.

Shadow Generations (Video Game)
"We meet again, Shadow the Hedgehog. Struggle all you want. You cannot deny your fate!"
Black Doom

Shadow Generations is a main series title in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise made available exclusively as part of Sonic × Shadow Generations, an Updated Re-release that also includes a remastered port of 2011's Sonic Generations. Announced on January 31st, 2024 during that month's PlayStation State of Play showcase, Shadow Generations coincides with the events of Sonic Generations' original story and stars Shadow the Hedgehog in the lead role (natch). It was released during the same year as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024), making 2024 the "Year of Shadow."

The story starts with Shadow returning to the ARK — the space colony where he was artificially created — in order to investigate a strange occurrence onboard, skipping out on going to Sonic's birthday party as a result (though, being Shadow, he was never exactly keen on attending to begin with). When he finally tracks down the source, he finds himself dealing with Black Doom, the vile alien warlord partially responsible for his existence; somehow, he's returned from the crushing defeat Shadow lent him the last time they met. But before Shadow can act, the enigmatic Time Eater wreaks havoc on the timeline, flinging him and everyone else into space-time limbo. Black Doom plots to take advantage of the resulting temporal anomaly to quickly revive his forces, the Black Arms, for another takeover attempt — a plot Shadow is resolute to foil by destroying the villain for good.

As his final confrontation with Black Doom approaches — and similar to what his blue rival and said rival's younger self are doing simultaneously — Shadow blasts through locations from his past (and future) and gets into heated rematches with some old foes, all the while getting rather painfully acquainted with brand-new "Doom" Powers tied to his alien DNA that make him even more powerful than he was already. But the Ultimate Life Form's mission soon becomes more complicated than he expected, as he's surprised to find that thanks to space-time being torn asunder, two certain other faces from his tragic past have re-emerged — faces he values seeing again far more than that of Black Doom...

Ian Flynn, writer for the Archie and IDW Comics as well as Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Dream Team, wrote the story and script for Shadow Generations.

The stages and bosses are:

  • Sonic Adventure 2:
    • Space Colony ARKnote 
    • Radical Highwaynote 
    • Boss: The Biolizard (Cannon's Core)
  • Sonic Heroes:
    • Rail Canyonnote 
    • Boss: Metal Overlord (Final Fortress)
  • Shadow the Hedgehog:
    • Final Boss: Devil Doom
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
    • Kingdom Valley
    • Boss: Mephiles the Dark (Dusty Desert)
  • Sonic Forces: Sunset Heights
  • Sonic Frontiers: Chaos Island
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024): Tokyo (DLC)note 

Like Sonic Colors Ultimate, Sonic Frontiers and Sonic Superstars before it, a prequel animation titled Sonic × Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings ties into the game's release, focused squarely on Shadow and his past, and is uniquely included in the game itself via the title screen (exclusive to the PlayStation 4/5 versions). A preview of the animation debuted at Anime Expo 2024, with three episodes being released ahead of the game's launch:

A tie-in manga series set in an Alternate Continuity, The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog, was published in CoroCoro Comic, and also focuses on retelling Shadow's backstory for a new, younger audience, along with being a truncated adaptation of Shadow Generations. It is written and illustrated by Yuki Imada, with the first chapter published on September 12, 2024, and is currently only available in Japan with no plans for an overseas release as of this writing.

Sonic × Shadow Generations launched on October 25, 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The Digital Deluxe Edition was made available three days earlier, on October 22, 2024, for all platforms except the Nintendo Switch. An upgrade DLC is available for all physical and digital versions featuring the Digital Deluxe content. A Nintendo Switch 2 port was also released as a launch title on June 5, 2025.


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Shadow the Hedgehog: the lone, dark warrior who judges the world by his own code. These tropes will return to haunt him.

    # - C 
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Shadow gains full access to Doom Wing, the final and most effective Doom Power, just before entering the final zone.
  • 2½D: Act 2 of each stage is a sidescroller where controls are limited to two dimensions, yet Shadow frequently moves to the foreground and background in scripted events. Act 1 on the other hand is in full 3D. This is flipped from how Sonic Generations ordered its levels, with Act 1 being in 2.5D and Act 2 mostly being 3D in that game.
  • Adaptational Context Change: The first-time interaction dialogue with Shadow in Sonic Generations had the Rival Battle start due to Shadow having no interest in uncovering the mysteries surrounding White Space and the Time Eater and just wanting another excuse to fight Sonic again. The cutscene leading into the duel here has Sonic be the instigator of the fight, knowing Shadow would have one of the Chaos Emeralds he needs to fight the Time Eater. Given that Shadow wants the Emerald to resolve his current battle with Black Doom but doesn't mention the specifics of why he's holding onto it, they both decide to fight for it.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance: Due to Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers appearing in White Space, certain enemies make early appearances: Galaga Bee (debuted in Sonic Lost World), Egg Tank and Death Egg Robot Sentinel (debuted in Forces), and Soldier and Cyclone (debuted in Frontiers).
  • Adaptation Amalgamation: While Sonic × Shadow Generations only includes the HD version of Sonic Generations, the Shadow Generations half incorporates some elements from the 3DS version, namely the Radical Highway zone, the Egg Flapper and Gold Beetle enemies, and a boss fight against the Biolizard.
  • Adaptation Deviation: The battle against Metal Overlord takes place on the surface of the ocean rather than in the skies like in the final fight of Heroes.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Sunset Heights from Sonic Forces, a game known for its short level lengths, gets a substantial lengthening combining elements from all four variants and the Metal Sonic Fight, plus brand new content on top of that.
  • Alien Geometries: In some stages, such as the latter half of Space Colony ARK: Act 1, Black Doom sends Shadow into a trippy, distorted cityscape, a hellish recreation of Radical Highway, where Gravity Screw kicks in regularly and buildings coil and slither. The final level set is entirely within this Radical Highway, starting with what is at the very least ominously floating chunks of the level.
  • All for Nothing: The Orbot and Cubot sidequest. The two bots want Shadow to help them finish a half-built rocket so they can try and get out of White Space and possibly vacation in Flicky Island away from Eggman's wrath. When the rocket is finished, it turns out that it's just a gigantic cuckoo clock, much to the bots' dismay. On the plus side, you do get a song for your troubles.
  • All There in the Manual: The official timeline of the game on Sonic Channel states that Black Doom was another victim of the Time Eater, rather than arriving in White Space willingly.
  • Alternate Universe: The trailer for the "Sonic 3 Movie Pack" sets the context for the DLC by showing Shadow being thrown through a Ring Portal from White Space into Shibuya, changing his appearance and voice. As a G.U.N. helicopter flees the scene, Shadow proceeds to pursue it on foot while busting through the military's defenses.
  • Ambiguous Situation: The game keeps it unclear how much control over White Space Black Doom has. He is capable of morphing it into Doom Zone and the ending shows Maria and Professor Gerald returning to the past with his defeat, but not the locations stuck in White Space (though they are presumably returned with the Sonics defeating the Time Eater). Sonic Channel states that Black Doom was sent to White Space by the Time Eater, but doesn't go into further detail than that.
  • Anachronic Order: In the collection room's story recap, Sonic Heroes is placed after Shadow the Hedgehog rather than before. This can cause confusion for newcomers, since Heroes is before Shadow in both the timeline and release order, and it connects Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow by introducing Shadow's amnesia and questions about his identity that are resolved in the latter.
  • Another Side, Another Story: The game takes place simultaneously with Sonic Generations. At the beginning, Rouge calls Shadow from Sonic's birthday party; he gets sucked into White Space at the same time as everyone else; and Shadow's side of the rival fight in Sonic Generations is shown from his perspective as a Cutscene Boss. When he catches up with Rouge afterward, he explains that he gave Sonic the fake Chaos Emerald when they fought, allowing him to continue using Chaos Control. After he defeats Black Doom for good, Maria encourages Shadow to help his friends as she returns to her original time, with Shadow tearfully racing off to encourage Sonic during the final encounter with the Time Eater.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Shadow Generations has no lives system at all, unlike the original Sonic Generations, meaning that you won't have to waste your time with game overs (the remaster of Sonic Generations lets you toggle this feature).
    • Unlike Sonic Generations, there is no "perfect clear" bonus; the only requirement to getting an S rank is meeting the target time. This is especially handy because the acts in Shadow Generations are much lengthier than previous games, being anywhere between three and five minutes long.
    • Not everything is stopped in Chaos Control, namely the shutters in Space Colony ARK, certain platforms and gimmicks, and basically anything that needs to move into place for the stage to progress.
  • Apocalyptic Log: The player can collect pages of Professor Gerald's journal, which details some of the key moments in his life and career. This includes his discovery of Angel Island; unearthing the Gizoid; Maria's birth, illness, and life aboard the ARK; the origins of Project Shadow; the mounting political pressure to provide the United Federation with weapons technology; said weapons going out of control; and the subsequent coverup which resulted in Maria's death.
  • Arc Symbol: On occasion in select levels, Shadow is pulled into twisted traces of Sonic Adventure 2's Radical Highway by Doom's Eye. It also serves as the final level of the campaign and location of the final boss. Supposedly, this specific locale represents where Shadow's fervent promise to avenge Maria began.
  • Art-ernate Universe: The "Sonic 3 Movie Pack" levels feature Shadow being transformed into his Paramount continuity counterpart, with more humanized facial proportions and realistic fur. His ball form is also changed from a stylized sleek sphere to its more realistic take seen in the movies where the quills are fully visible. Downplayed, as the game's visuals, while maintaining a slightly realistic look, are still a bit cartoony like the main games.
  • The Artifact: Despite the "perfect clear" bonus being absent in this game, the game still treats the S rank as a "secret rank", not displaying it on the score bar at all, even though a target time for S ranks have been added.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Orbot and Cubot, who only appeared in Dr. Eggman's flashback in Sonic Generations, get a larger role in this game. They want to escape White Space via a half-built rocket they found, and prompt Shadow to go through a Fetch Quest to finish it.
    • After only appearing as collectable figures in the original Sonic Generations, Omega and Big now appear in person as minor voiced NPCs.
    • Shadow himself goes from being a boss fight and encouraging the Sonics during the final battle of the original Sonic Generations, to being the star of this story.
  • Attract Mode: Lingering on the title screen will show a brief Previously on… movie that explains Shadow's backstory, covering the key events of Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog (this movie can also be played on the main menu).
  • Audible Gleam: Whenever Metal Overlord and the final boss are about to attack with their Tail Slap move, their eyes briefly flash red, the gleam being accompanied by an audio cue that tells the player to either dodge or jump over their tails.
  • Autobots, Rock Out!: The final phase of the Neo Devil Doom battle replaces Black Doom's theme with a new arrangement of "All Hail Shadow" by Crush 40, with a side of Orchestral Bombing.
  • Battle in the Rain: Metal Overlord invokes this trope by generating a tornado out at sea, causing a harsh rainstorm to fall and be the setting of his second phase.
  • Big Bad: Black Doom returns to serve as the main antagonist for Shadow trying to steal his body to become the Ultimate Lifeform. Notably, he has nothing to do with the Eggman duo's attempt to use the Time Eater, and is merely exploiting the situation to his advantage.
  • Bittersweet Ending: After destroying Black Doom, the time anomaly he used with the Time Eater's appearance begins to mend itself, causing Maria and Gerald to return to their original place in time. Shadow, knowing the grim fates that await them, proposes using Chaos Control to keep them here, and keep them alive. Maria convinces him to let them go, however, reminding him that his friends in the present need him. Knowing she is right, Shadow solemnly departs to aid Sonic in the final battle with the Time Eater, shedding a Single Tear along the way.
  • Bland-Name Product: The Tokyo DLC stage has a few stores replaced with more generic names, unlike its depiction in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film (for example, the Shibuya Scramble Starbucks is replaced with "Meanbeans Coffee", and the Shibuya 109 is replaced with Shibuya 103).
  • Bookends:
    • The game begins with a flashback of Maria and Gerald welcoming Shadow into the world. The final cutscene has Shadow leave Maria and Gerald as they return to their world.
    • Radical Highway is the first level where you play as Shadow in the Dark Story of Sonic Adventure 2, and thus the first full stage in which Shadow is ever playablenote . The final zone in Shadow Generations is Radical Highway, and it's also the stage for Shadow's climatic final battle against Black Doom/(Neo) Devil Doom.
    • Counting both Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow's eponymous game, both of his first levels in those games take place in a city at night, and starts with him either grinding down a rail or skydiving down past a building. The final level in this game has him do exactly this as well, right even down to it taking place in Radical Highway as well.
    • One for the compilation as a whole stems from this as well; if one plays all of Sonic's story before Shadow's, then the effect is achieved where the very first stage played is Sonic's very first level, Green Hill Zone, before the final stage ends up being Shadow's very first level, Radical Highway.
    • The very first Doom Power Shadow uses is the Doom Wing, but it's only useable in the Space Colony ARK's second Act. He obtains it for real right before the final stretch of the game.
  • Boss-Altering Consequence: There are a lot of small interactions that can affect the boss fights in big ways:
    • When fighting the Biolizard, the player has to damage the giant reptile by having Shadow destroy one of the Biolizard's bubble arms after it punches the ground and gets stuck, bursting into bubbles that allow Shadow to attack its weakpoint. However, if the player uses Chaos Control to stop time right at the moment it punches the ground, they can destroy the bubble arm within the time freeze, dealing even more damage.
    • Since Metal Overlord copied Chaos Control from Shadow back in Sonic Heroes, he won't be affected when Shadow uses it to stop time, but it can be used to access a Chaos Control tunnel that allows Shadow to attack Metal Overlord's weakpoint. Similarly, if Shadow destroys a Mako Gunship using his Doom Spears and then uses Chaos Control to stop the falling debris in the air, Shadow can homing attack into it and send the chunks flying right back at Metal Overlord to deal even more damage.
    • The player can attack Mephiles by either mashing the attack button or holding it down to use Doom Blast. If the player decides to mash the button to attack Mephiles twice in a row, he will counter it, even quipping how Shadow expected for him to fall for the same trick twice.
    • The final boss, Neo Devil Doom, has a section where the player can mash the attack button while Shadow is attacking one of its heads. However, if the player holds down the attack button instead, this triggers a unique cutscene where Shadow uses Doom Blast to kick the boss' head around and deals even more damage compared to just mashing.
  • Boss Banter: In every single boss fight minus the Biolizard, both Shadow and the boss he's fighting against will exchange barbs and taunt each other.
  • Brought Down to Badass: When Shadow is transported from White Space to Tokyo in the DLC, he loses access to any Doom Powers he's had at that moment, including the Doom Spears, bringing him back down to using just his basic abilities of Chaos Control, Chaos Snap, and Chaos Spear. Despite the loss of these powers, he's still incredibly formidable, tearing through G.U.N. military robots without much issue.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: After awakening to the Doom Wing, the entire White Space becomes a Doom Zone, with the stages and bosses getting harder versions. Once the player completes the game once, they can intentionally trigger this state by interacting with the idol of Black Doom in the middle of the hub world.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Black Doom makes a return after his defeat and presumed death in his first and only appearance, Shadow the Hedgehog. The Black Arms, likewise, also make a return as enemies Shadow has to contend with.
    • Professor Gerald and Maria Robotnik make their first in-person appearances since Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • Several types of enemies make their first non-cameo appearances in years: Artificial Chaos (last appeared in Shadow the Hedgehog), Egg Flappers (last appeared in the 3DS version of Sonic Generations), Needle Flappers and Rhinoliners (last appeared in Sonic Heroes), Laser Flappers (last appeared in Sonic Rush), and Egg Gunners, Egg Guardians, Egg Flyers, and Egg Stingers (last appeared in Sonic '06). Many of these enemies appeared as card cameos in Sonic Rivals and its sequel, as well as Sega Superstars Tennis for the Gunners, but that still leaves a gap of 17 years.
    • The Biolizard's return as a boss marks its first appearance in any form since the 3DS version of Sonic Generations.
    • Metal Overlord, who has only made cameos in the games since his debut in Sonic Heroes, makes a surprise return as a boss fight against Shadow. While Metal Sonic is a consistently recurring threat, his Neo Metal Sonic form and Metal Madness/Overlord transformations were limited to Heroes. This also means Metal Sonic is voiced for the first time since Heroes, as he can only speak while in Neo Metal form.
    • Mephiles—who was erased from the main timeline thanks to Elise's actions in Sonic '06 and only appeared as non-canon cameos in games like Sonic Runners since then—returns as a boss. In addition, his Shadow minions make their first appearance since Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.
    • While they've been busy in side materials like the IDW comics and Sonic Prime (and they were briefly mentioned in Sonic Frontiers), this marks Orbot and Cubot's first appearance in the games since Sonic Forces. Notably, they were not present in the original Sonic Generations outside of a cameo.
  • Call-Back:
    • In the Japanese script, Shadow shows contempt towards the Biolizard, calling him an "ugly experiment", the same thing he called it back in Sonic Adventure 2 after beating it the first time.
    • Before their fight, Sonic and Shadow quip with each other, Sonic declaring "I found you, Shadow!", to which Shadow replies "The blue hedgehog...of all places!", referencing their first fight in Sonic Adventure 2. When Sonic insists on taking Shadow's Chaos Emerald because they have a "date" with the Time Eater, Shadow responds that "It will be a date to DIE for!"
    • Mephiles' quotes in his boss fight alternate between him cursing Shadow while despairing at the fact he no longer exists and remixing lines he had from his original game. His use of the word "curtain" is especially notable, as one of his last lines in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) referenced a "final curtain call." Other lines include "I owe much to you, Shadow" and "drown in darkness," the latter of which he opened his fights with throughout Shadow Generations and Sonic '06. The Japanese dub goes even further — most of Mephiles' lines of dialogue are direct quotes from Sonic '06, even introducing himself the same way he did in his first encounter with Shadow in Kingdom Valley. Also included is the line that particularly became memetic in Japan, "Zannen da yo, Shadow. Jitsu ni zannen daa", is included and translated more faithfully in Englishnote .
    • Just like when Amy managed to break through to him on the ARK, the ending has Shadow once again shedding a Single Tear in memory of Maria, this time the tear being shed as he lets Maria and Gerald go back to their timeline, instead of trying to save them.
    • In the Tokyo movie DLC level, Shadow (who has his game mind in his movie body) fights a helicopter halfway through, and in the process of defeating it, rips the door off of it and gives the pilot the opportunity to bail safely, just like he did during Dark Beginnings episode 3 to the GUN mecha's pilot.
  • Call-Forward:
    • Black Doom via Doom's Eye sends Shadow into an illusion much like Infinite would later do after gaining the finalized Phantom Ruby prototype. Fittingly, both villains' illusions are black and red and have been defeated by Shadow once prior to their revenge schemes.
    • Whereas Sonic Generations only explores Sonic's past up to Colors, Shadow Generations also explores locations from Sonic's future, namely Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers.
    • If you speak to Omega near the end of the game, he offers to bring Shadow along for a two-person raid on Eggman's base. This might refer to the two of them later working together to infiltrate Eggman's Arsenal Pyramid in Sonic Forces (as depicted in the Episode Shadow DLC and the Looming Shadow prequel comic).
  • Camera Abuse: When unlocking the Doom Blast, the short cutscene of Shadow showing it off has him beat up the camera as if he was fighting an enemy, which even looks around in fear when he suddenly disappears.
  • Cast from Hit Points: When Doom Wings are activated, Shadow's ring count will slowly drain at a rate of one ring per second, not unlike his standard Golden Super Mode.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In the opening cutscene, Shadow discovers that the ARK still has Tails' fake yellow Chaos Emerald, even mentioning that it's hard to tell the difference between the two. In the Cutscene Boss between him and Sonic, after Sonic beats him, Shadow tricks his rival into taking the fake Chaos Emerald, as Shadow needs the real one for his mission.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In the boss battle against Metal Overlord, using Chaos Control will have the boss counteract it by also using the move. Shadow pulls the same trick against Devil Doom in the finale.
  • Collection Sidequest:
    • There are 96 Collection Boxes to find across White Space, which unlock various concept art, music, or story summaries about Shadow's playable appearances, with the keys being found in every single Stage Act and Challenge Act. Two of these Collection Boxes can't be accessed until Shadow obtains all of his Doom Powers, making White Space itself turn into a Doom Zone.
    • Hidden across Shadow's White Space are 80 machine parts, which are given to Orbot and Cubot so they can try and build a rocket to escape the void.
    • While a physical version of Professor Gerald's journal is available as a Pre-Order Bonus for Sonic × Shadow Generations, the in-game version of the journal is unlocked by collecting pages held by balloons in White Space, with 15 sets of pages total.invoked
    • The Tokyo Extra level adds six collectible portraits of Movie Shadow that can be found in the stage and are viewable in the Collection Room.
  • Colour-Coded Timestop: In Shadow Generations, using Chaos Control gives the screen a green tint, with Shadow getting afterimages and a brightly-saturated green aura. Objects that are directly affected by the time stop, like missiles, are also given a green aura, while objects and obstacles that remain a danger have a red aura.
  • Company Cross-References: Some of the advertisements in the Tokyo DLC level feature images of Tomoko Hayane, a Virtual YouTuber used for promotional videos on the Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel.
  • Composite Character: The movie DLC, rather than simply being a non-canon DLC set in the movie universe, instead has the game canon version of Shadow briefly ending up in the movie universe through a ring portal. This has the effect of making it so Shadow has his game-canon personality, backstory, and non-Doom abilities (including the not seen in-movie time stopping Chaos Control) but his movie-canon design and voice.
  • Concept Art Gallery: The collection room includes a treasure trove of unlockable Shadow-related concept art from previous games, even including his Sonic X model sheets.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: Pretty much everything about Sonic's role in this side of the story is a love letter to Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog. The first few lines of Shadow's encounter with Sonic are almost line-for-line straight from their battle in White Jungle / Green Forest, with Shadow peppering in his "it'll be a date to die for" line he used against Team Sonic just before Team Dark's fight with them in Sonic Heroes. After Sonic wins, he throws out some trash-talk straight from Shadow the Hedgehog. The icing on the cake is it turns out Shadow played the same trick on Sonic and friends that Sonic and Tails pulled on him and Eggman back in Sonic Adventure 2: the emerald Sonic got from Shadow initially was the exact same fake emerald that Tails created.
  • Continuity Nod: Shadow Generations draws heavily upon the title character's history and the games that he was playable in, including Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006):
    • Upon the Biolizard's appearance, Shadow sees how it still suffers from poor respiration and how the life support system on his back is still its weak point.
    • If Shadow uses Chaos Control against Metal Overlord, the robotic dragon boasts about how it won't work against him since he copied that ability back in Heroes, and is unaffected by its power.
      Metal Overlord: Trying to use Chaos Control? HA! That power already belongs to me!
    • If you speak to Gerald as soon as the Doom Morph power is accessible, he will bring up the theory that two Chaos Control-users, working together, can open a portal in time — something we saw in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
    • Shadow has the yellow Chaos Emerald in his possession, as he does in the original Sonic Generations. At the beginning of the story, Shadow finds the fake yellow Chaos Emerald that Tails created to sabotage the Eclipse Cannon in Sonic Adventure 2, noting how authentic it appeared. This becomes important later when Shadow slips Sonic the fake Emerald after losing their duel so he could keep the real Emerald while he dealt with Black Doom, then having Rouge slip the genuine article back into Sonic's possession before the final battle with the Time Eater.
    • Big will at one point mention that he's been to the ARK and might have even seen Shadow pass by a few times, a reference to his many cameo appearances in Sonic Adventure 2. He also brings up how Metal Overlord kidnapped Froggy in the past, Sonic helped Big save Froggy from a "water monster", and how the yellow Chaos Emerald was Big's "lucky charm" for a while.
    • Before the battle with Metal Overlord, Omega will note that him and Shadow had been merciful to Metal after his defeat, referencing how the two were the only ones who stayed with the defeated Metal at the very end of Sonic Heroes. This also clarifies what was going through their heads in that scene, with Shadow (at the time an amnesiac suspecting that he might be one of Eggman's creations) and Omega seeing something of themselves in Metal, yet another of Eggman's weapons.
    • When Mephiles appears, he attempts to strike Shadow down with a massive laser beam surrounded by a prismatic aura. This is the exact same attack Mephiles used to kill Sonic in his debut game, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Shadow doesn't recognize Mephiles at all, since the events of Sonic '06 were erased from the timeline, and Mephiles even angrily comments that this is the second time he's been forgotten.
    • Professor Gerald's journal, unlockable in-game as well as available as a physical pre-order bonus, comprises mostly new content but also includes the entirety of the Sonic Battle version of his journal (which is nearly word-for-word identical), and ends with the excerpt that's read aloud in Sonic Adventure 2. It also includes Gerald's warning about Ifrit from Sonic Rivals 2.
    • Maria mentions that she and her family went to Spagonia before she fell ill.
    • If Shadow speaks to Big after Doom Morph becomes available, Big reveals he doesn't trust Omega, since he mistakes him for E-102 Gamma, who once kidnapped Froggy.
  • Continuity Porn: Several aspects of Shadow's history are referenced in Shadow Generations:
    • Black Doom's return as an antagonist and Shadow's new Doom Powers draw on his origins as a creation of the Black Arms, as shown in Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • Shadow's Homing Attack has been modified to resemble his Chaos Control teleportation featured in the opening cinematic of Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic '06 calls this technique "Chaos Snap"), rather than simply being a copy of Sonic's Homing Attack.
    • In certain parts of a stage, Shadow can find a green light which, if he uses Chaos Control, allows him to follow a trail at light-speed. Not only is this similar to the Chaos Control ability in Shadow the Hedgehog, but the sound effects of the trail are the same as when Shadow rides the light-speed circuits in the Digital Circuit and Mad Matrix stages.
  • Continuity Snarl:
    • In Dark Beginnings, Shadow's reason for going to the ARK before the game's events was him suspecting that Black Doom had returned and was hiding there, and he came into conflict with G.U.N. by stealing their shuttle for this purpose. And yet in the game's opening cutscene, Shadow mentions that G.U.N. detected signs of life on the colony, suggesting that they were the ones who discovered Black Doom's return and sent Shadow to investigate (it's possible that G.U.N. did know this and informed Shadow during the shuttle flight, but it's not mentioned or suggested if this is the case).
    • When Shadow actually encounters Black Doom at the end of ARK's first act, he reacts with surprise that it was Black Doom who he was tracking, even though Dark Beginnings states that his suspicions of the Black Arms returning was his reason for going up in the first place.
  • The Corruption: The Doom Powers act as this to Shadow, giving him a Power High and new abilities but seemingly stoking his anger and violent tendencies. When it influences him, his eyes become redder and full of electric energy. At its peak, Shadow sinks into his deepest wrath, agrees with Black Doom's statement of "no more mistakes", and growls that he'll "crush every last one of them" before Maria tearfully talks him down.
  • Coup de Grâce Cutscene: Just like Sonic Frontiers, the boss fights usually end with Shadow doing one last flashy attack on them, accompanied by a timed QTE action.
    • Against the Biolizard, after Shadow whittles its health down to 0, Shadow bounces off one of the bubbles it produces, delivering one last punch to destroy the core of its respiratory system.
    • Once Metal Overlord is defeated, he chucks one of the Mako Gunships at Shadow, only for Shadow to jump off of the ship. Shadow then uses a Diving Kick straight at Metal Overlord's weakpoint, carrying him across the sea with enough force that the robotic dragon explodes.
    • Mephiles, in a desperate bid to defeat Shadow, sends out his remaining Shadow clones at him. Shadow kicks his way through all of them, delivering an aggressive Megaton Punch right in Mephiles' face, sealing the darkness back into the scepter from whence he came, ensuring that he won’t return to the main timeline.
    • The final boss fight's second phase ends with Neo Devil Doom using Chaos Control, freezing Shadow in place. However, Shadow then activates his own Chaos Control, allowing him to cancel it out, avoiding all of Doom's laser beams, kicking the giant snake head away. He then delivers one last Diving Kick across Neo Devil Doom's face, ending the fight. This is followed by another pre-rendered cutscene, where Shadow overpowers Doom, finishing him off with a storm of Doom Spears and a punch through his head.
  • Cutscene Boss: Shadow's fight with Sonic from the original Sonic Generations is done this way from his perspective, as Sonic has to win and take Shadow's Chaos Emerald in order to keep continuity with Sonic's side of the story. However, the Emerald Sonic gets is actually Tails' fake Emerald so Shadow can continue using Chaos Control with the real one, Rouge being tasked with returning the latter when it's time for Sonic to fight the Time Eater.

    D - N 
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The PC version of Shadow Generations (alongside the remastered Sonic Generations) has Boost mapped to the Ctrl key. Those who are used to Sonic Forces, Sonic Colors Ultimate and Sonic Frontiers having Boost be mapped to Shift typically end up having to try and get used to it or use external remapping programs to get around it (for some reason, remapping Boost to Shift does not work in-game).
  • Darker and Edgier: Fitting for a Shadow campaign, this game is more serious and dramatic than the original Sonic Generations:
    • Unlike Sonic's story, this title replaces the former's adventurous feel and borderline Excuse Plot with a more elaborate narrative containing bigger emotional depth where Shadow again confronts his past.
    • The Time Eater, while still a more menacing antagonist, was ultimately a tool in the hands of the Eggmen, which are more comedic and hammy villains as always. Shadow's story has the return of Black Doom as the Big Bad, no less vile and humorless than he was before. Furthermore, similarly dark foes such as Metal Overlord and Mephiles return as bosses.
    • Sonic could get Skills in the original Sonic Generations that simply enhanced his natural speed-based abilities. Shadow instead gets the Doom Powers, which make him undergo Painful Transformations as he becomes enveloped in black tendrils.
    • The White Space in Shadow's story has a singular melancholic theme, when compared to the upbeat medleys of Sonic's history in Sonic Generations. Each zone still has its own theme that plays when nearby, but even those are heavy metal covers rather than the acoustic vibe on Sonic's side.
    • This game has a very Bittersweet Ending whereas Sonic's side of the story ended much better and happier.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Shadow gets the spotlight in an all-new story that takes place alongside the original Sonic Generations, where he chases down Black Doom and journeys through his own memories.
  • Decomposite Character: An interesting case. Shadow was originally named "Terios", and he went through several designs during development of Sonic Adventure 2. In this game, one of Shadow's concept designs appears as a unique skin, distinguished by giving it the name Terios. Unlike the similar case with the Rabbit in Sonic Superstars (an early concept design that evolved into Sonic but nonetheless remained a separate character), Terios was originally meant to be the same character as Shadow.
  • Developer's Foresight: There is a small cutscene that plays after the brief scuffle with Doom's Eye in Space Colony ARK Act 1. On the first playthrough of the act, Shadow collects a unique token, which he briefly reacts to before turning back up to Doom's Eye; on all subsequent playthroughs, the token doesn't appear and Shadow uses a different animation where he simply glares at Doom's Eye.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Like in Sonic Forces, Shadow's style of gameplay is largely similar to Sonic's; unlike Forces, he is not a direct copy of Sonic, even before factoring in his new Doom Powers.
    • Shadow cannot Jump Dash, Light Speed Dash, or Drop Dash (moves that Sonic has access to in the Sonic Generations half). He also does not have access to any of Sonic's purchasable skills.
    • Shadow can double jump, which is a move usually available to Sonic in games since Sonic Colors, but not present in Sonic Generations.
    • Shadow's homing attack teleports him to his foe. This is more than a cosmetic change, as it lets Shadow teleport through walls that he can see enemies through to attack them.
    • Shadow can use Chaos Control by defeating enemies or finding capsules that fill his power bar, letting him stop time to find new paths through levels and easily defeat enemies.
    • Shadow can use Chaos Spear to stun enemies and activate switches.
  • Diving Kick:
    • In a finisher straight out of Kamen Rider, Shadow uses a sunken Egg Fleet Mako Gunship like a ramp, spring boards off of his Doom Surf ride, then dives straight into Metal Overlord's core with a kick that generates enough force to briefly carry them across the ocean's surface.
    • Shadow uses one against Neo Devil Doom, doing it with such force he pierces through the alien warlord and causing them to explode.
  • Doomed by Canon: Maria, Gerald, the Biolizard, and Mephiles all re-appear in this game, despite their original Character Deaths, thanks to the Time Eater pulling them out of time. However, given how none of them appear in any post-Sonic Generations installments, none of them get to undo their deaths. This is played differently with each character. Maria and Gerald genuinely do not know that they will die, and Shadow can't bring himself to tell them (and Gerald doesn't want Shadow to tell him anything about the future anyway). The Biolizard is given what Shadow explicitly describes as a Mercy Kill. Mephiles is fully aware that he's been given a second chance to live, and wants to defeat Shadow so that he can "restore his place in the timeline", given that Sonic '06 was subject to a Cosmic Retcon; he even cries "I want to exist!" as he's defeated.
  • Downloadable Content: Aside from a skin based on Terios, the early design of Shadow, the version of Shadow from the Sonic the Hedgehog (Film Series) (voiced by Keanu Reeves) is playable in some post-launch DLC that is based on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024), where Shadow runs through Shibuya, Tokyo.
  • Dub Personality Change: A relatively minor example: in the original English script, Shadow takes pity on the Biolizard and treats defeating it as a Mercy Kill. In the localized Japanese script, Shadow scorns the Biolizard and shows no pity toward it, as was the case in Sonic Adventure 2.
    English: You tortured soul... I will end your suffering! [...] Stop struggling. You cling to a crueler fate.
    Japanese: An ugly experiment... Fine. I'll deal with you! [...] You disgraceful experiment! Get out of my sight! [...] What a fool... you still want to keep going?
  • Dull Surprise: Shadow has a pretty muted response to entering another dimension and changing shape in the Tokyo DLC. Of course, his actor is known for his muted acting style in general.
  • Eldritch Location: The Doom Zones are pocket spaces controlled by Black Doom which take on the appearance of warped visions of Radical Highway where the laws of space and gravity do not apply. Buildings are seen twisting and folding in on themselves. The dedicated Radical Highway stage starts out looking like the original level from Sonic Adventure 2 (a normal night city), before gradually becoming more distorted the further Shadow goes in.
  • Everyone Has Standards: During the Tokyo DLC level, Shadow downs a G.U.N. helicopter chasing him using a Chaos Spear, but he rips the door off of it so the pilot can parachute to safety.
  • Evil Counterpart: Every boss is this to Shadow.
    • The Biolizard is a prototype of the Ultimate Lifeform. While both it and Shadow were created to treat Maria, Shadow progressively gained humanity through interaction with Maria and honors her wish to do what he can to keep the world safe. In contrast, the Biolizard is just a mindless, destructive beast who nearly brings about the end of the world.
    • Metal Overlord is a form taken by Neo Metal Sonic after he copies the data of multiple characters, Shadow included. As a result, he is able to gain the power of Chaos Control and declares himself the supreme being of the world, intent on using his status as an ultimate lifeform to rule the world. Just like Shadow, he is an artificially created hedgehog (one robotic and one biological) and among the few individuals that can match Sonic in speed.
    • Mephiles literally is a shadow copy of Shadow, creating a body for himself by using the latter's image, and continually he tries to tempt Shadow to give in to more selfish impulses.
    • Black Doom intends to turn Shadow to his darker impulses so he can steal his body, effectively planning to become an evil Shadow the Hedgehog himself.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Being the nice girl she is, Maria doesn't outright say this, but it's clear she means that being stuck in one place and having time robbed of her and Gerald isn't a preferable or realistic form of living.
  • Fake Crossover: The Movie DLC. While Shadow enters the real-world Tokyo and ends up being transformed into his Paramount movie counterpart, it's essentially just another world that Shadow enters and departs just as quickly, leaving no real-lasting consequences to Shadow Generations or the movie universe as a whole. Even Shadow's comment about his return is more or less a nod towards his movie counterpart's plan and vengeance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
  • Final Dungeon Preview: Most levels in the game contain a segment where Black Doom hijacks the level, introducing terrain resembling Radical Highway, the game's final stage.
  • Final-Exam Boss: The final boss is a three phase fight that incorporates three of Shadow's most prevalent platforming Doom Powers and tests the player's skills with them, containing elements based on the two encounters with Metal Overlord and Mephiles, along with the player's prowess with the Doom Wing. In order: the first phase tests the player's ability with Doom Surf to deflect certain projectiles or hit certain ramps, the second phase has platforming challenges with Doom Morph, and the final phase requires Shadow chasing the boss through the air using Doom Wing.
  • Fully Absorbed Finale: In a way; though it's bundled with Sonic Generations and occurs during the events of that game (even overlapping at points), this game serves to bring full closure to Shadow's story arc from Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • When Shadow utilizes Chaos Control in gameplay, the in-game time also stops for its duration. This is necessary for some challenges, which give you a strict time limit and encourage you to stop time to overcome it.
    • Metal Overlord was taken from a point in time where he fully copied Shadow's bio-data, and gained Chaos Control. Because of this, if the player does try to use Chaos Control during his boss fight, it doesn't freeze him at all, though it still has its uses for interacting with objects in the area.
    • When Shadow meets up with Sonic, their fight is a Cutscene Boss to avoid Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (since canonically, Sonic must win and claim Shadow's Chaos Emerald), and Shadow deliberately avoids using his Doom Powers, which explains why they don't appear on Sonic's end; he let Sonic win because he wants it to be a fair fight. Also, the Chaos Emerald he gave up was the fake Emerald left on the ARK, neatly explaining why Super Sonic isn't available until the final battle in Sonic Generations and allowing Shadow to continue using Chaos Control for the rest of the game, with Rouge swapping in the real Emerald later.
  • Grand Theft Me: Gerald speculates that this is Black Doom's endgame: failing to convince Shadow to become the champion of the Black Arms, he will be "completed" and ripe to take over his body to be reborn in. Naturally, Shadow prevents that from happening.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Although Black Doom is Shadow's primary foe, a lot of the specific circumstances of their fight are unknowingly thanks to Dr. Eggman controlling the Time Eater.
  • Guide Dang It!: In Doom Morph form, Shadow can zip straight to a Morph Ball or swing from under it. What the game alludes to but doesn't directly tell you is that if you release your swing in the middle of its arc, you can zip straight up and over the Morph Ball, which is required to get a few collectibles and alternate paths.
  • Hero of Another Story: While Sonic was trying to prevent Eggman from destroying reality with the Time Eater, Shadow was busy dealing with Black Doom and preventing him from making the situation in Sonic Generations any worse.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When given the chance to avert their fates, Maria and Gerald decide against it so that Shadow has a sure fire shot at life.
  • High-Altitude Battle: During the final boss, Black Doom transforms into Neo Devil Doom, giving it greater mobility through the air than ever before. As a result, Shadow taps into his Doom Wing power to chase him, the final phase of the fight taking place entirely in the air with no ground.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: The player can suffer this with Chaos Control if they Didn't Think This Through, as it freezes everything besides Metal Overlord and Devil Doom when used.. including progression objects such as pulleys when you clear specific enemy encounters out in a stage. While the clock is frozen as well, this effectively means a player that misuses Chaos Control is stuck waiting for it to end before they can continue on with the stage. It's also entirely possible to freeze time for progression at the wrong point, causing objects you'd traverse to be nigh-unusable, though usally there's a respawning Item Box with a full Chaos Control charge nearby if it's essential to progress rather than a bonus route.
  • Iconic Item: This is subverted, and is actually part of a plot point in this story. Shadow, well-established for primarily using the green Chaos Emerald, has the yellow Chaos Emerald on his person in this mode to neatly tie into the fact he gives the yellow Chaos Emerald to Sonic upon being defeated in base Sonic Generations. It goes deeper than that, however; Shadow's Emerald is the same color as the fake Chaos Emerald Sonic and Tails tried to trick Shadow and Eggman with back in Sonic Adventure 2. Shadow actually finds the fake Emerald just before entering White Space, and ironically uses it to trick Sonic into thinking he has the yellow Chaos Emerald following their fight in this game. This allows Sonic to collect a yellow Emerald in Sonic Generations while still allowing Shadow to utilize Chaos Control throughout the back half of Shadow Generations.
  • Instant Thunder: Averted with the volcano in Chaos Island Act 1 — when it erupts, there's a noticeable delay between the visual and the sound.
  • Internal Deconstruction: While the time shenanigans in Sonic Generations are used as merely an excuse for the gameplay and treated as another one of Sonic's fun adventures, Shadow's side however explores the implications of it, particularly with Maria, Gerald, and Mephiles all being pulled from points of time before their deaths, but being powerless to stop it. Mephiles himself is completely aware that he technically no longer exists due to the Cosmic Retcon from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and he is desperate to restore his place in the timeline.
  • Internal Homage:
    • The original teaser for Sonic Generations announced Classic Sonic's involvement in the title with a shot of the two Sonics leaping through the air, side by side. The announcement trailer for Sonic × Shadow Generations features the same shot, only for Shadow to leap on to the screen from the opposite side to announce his involvement in the same manner. The way Shadow poses back-to-back with Modern Sonic also recreates the title screen from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. In Shadow Generations itself, a similar scene is recreated during the cutscene depicting Shadow's battle with Sonic, though with different poses compared to the one in both Adventure 2 and Sonic Generations.
    • The Biolizard's pre-fight cutscene recreates the moment it first appears in Sonic Adventure 2, with the Cannon's Core pumping like a heart, the Biolizard teleporting in using Chaos Control, and then it roaring into the camera.
    • Shadow first meeting Black Doom is almost a Shot-for-Shot Remake of how the two first met in Shadow the Hedgehog, complete with Doom's Eye projecting Black Doom's image to Shadow.
    • Black Doom's distorted version of Radical Highway has multiple level setpieces and a red sky evoking Westopolis and Lethal Highway, from his debut game.
    • Some of Shadow's Stage Clear poses are ones he has done before in various renders:
      • Getting an A-Rank has Shadow tug at his glove while posing at the screen, similar to his render from the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series.
      • Getting a B-Rank has Shadow turn his back to the camera, before posing while holding his fist up, similar to his stage clear pose in Sonic Forces and his render from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). This pose is also used for Shadow's biography in the collection room.
    • Radical Highway Act 1 starts with the same shot of Shadow grinding down the suspension bridge's rails, just like in SA2.
    • While Shadow the Hedgehog doesn't get a level of its own, the DLC Tokyo level from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) uses a remix of the Westopolis music as its theme.
    • The Tokyo level recalls a few of the setpieces from Sonic × Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings, including Shadow using Chaos Control to redirect several missiles while in mid-air, and tearing up an aircraft to allow the G.U.N. soldier piloting it to escape (though unlike in the animation, these happen separately).
  • Irony: Despite the story of Shadow Generations heavily building from Shadow the Hedgehog, no stages specific to that game return. It does have a few stages set on the Space Colony ARK, though that seems to be more representative of Sonic Adventure 2, even if it also takes elements from levels like Space Gadget.
  • Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The second key art of Sonic × Shadow Generations has Shadow Generations on the right half, showing Shadow walking through the distorted Radical Highway, his shadow showing his Doom Wings, and his side having the Black Moon, which is split to contrast against the Sonic Generations campaign. Both sides are split by a fracture in time that shows a bit of White Space.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Omega makes it clear that the Time Eater is Dr. Eggman's handiwork, a major twist in Sonic Generations, spoiling players new to both games but chose to play Shadow Generations first.
  • Launcher Move: The Doom Blast is a technique where Shadow pummels certain foesnote  at sonic speed before smashing them into the air, then kicking them away for the finisher. In gameplay, this allows Shadow to interact with level geometry in special ways, as the initial launch gains height and the finisher can be used to throw the enemy into interactable objects such as breakable walls.
  • Leitmotif: The collection's title screen changes music depending on which game you're hovering over, which reflects the characters each game represents. Sonic Generations uses a cover of the Sonic Adventure version of "It Doesn't Matter", Sonic's theme from that game, while Shadow Generations uses a heavier cover of "Throw It All Away", Shadow's theme from Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Level in Boss Clothing: The second phase of the final boss fight requires Shadow's Doom Morph to maneuver through perilous platforming challenges in order to reach and attack the boss itself.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: None of the bosses appear to be working with Black Doom or are even aware of his existence: The Biolizard is simply lashing out in an animalistic rage, Metal Overlord wants to destroy Shadow in order to prove his superiority as the "true" Ultimate Lifeform, and Mephiles believes that killing Shadow should be his first order of business before making attempts to un-Ret-Gone himself.
  • Lore Codex: The collection room includes recaps of each of the Shadow-related stories the game covers, which can be unlocked over the course of the game.
  • Lovecraftian Superpower: Shadow's Doom Powers are all transformations that sprout disturbing kind-of glowing and pulsating tendrils. One of those transformations fully turns him into a tentacle creature, with this power being granted to him by Black Doom of the Black Arms.
  • Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Mephiles, dragged out of the doomed timeline of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), wants to destroy Shadow so that he can return to the main timeline and allow his future to play out as the prime reality.
  • Male Gaze: During the cutscene following the encounter with Sonic, there's a moment where the camera cuts to a shot of Rouge's rear end for several seconds before shifting back to her and Shadow talking.
  • Manly Tears: When Shadow is unable to change Maria and Gerald's fates and Maria tells him they'll see each other again soon and that she'll always be with him, Shadow sheds a Single Tear as he races off to lend Sonic his support.
  • Match Cut: The opening cinematic shows Professor Gerald awakening the hedgehog for the very first time, welcoming him to the world as Shadow's eyes open while he's still inside the chamber. Once Shadow's eyes are open, it fades to the present day, zooming out to show Shadow in the same room, observing the now abandoned stasis chamber.
  • Meaningful Echo: When Maria talks Shadow down from his aggression due to Black Doom's corruption, she says "This isn't who you are!", referring to Shadow's Arc Words in Shadow the Hedgehog — "This is who I am!" Later, when he finishes off Neo Devil Doom, he says "I am Shadow the Hedgehog. This is the destiny I choose!", evoking the recurring "I am..." arc words of the game's endings.
  • Megamix Game: Just like Sonic Generations, this game is a celebration of Shadow's past playable appearances and history, plucking a lot of relevant material and levels and jamming them into one game.
  • Mistaken for Faked Disability: In Gerald Robotnik's journals, he notes how some personnel on the ARK think Maria isn't Delicate and Sickly because her symptoms aren't obvious. Earlier journal entries make it clear she is, and as shown in the animation Sonic × Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings, the low gravity environment aboard the ARK keeps Maria's illness in remission, and she only gets exhausted if she overexerts herself.
  • Model Museum: The models for all of the main characters, along with biographies for each, can be viewed in the collection room. Interestingly, while the bosses aren't viewable (as to be expected, since the same applied to Sonic Generations), Black Doom is not present either, even though he plays a large role in the story as the main antagonist.
  • Monochrome to Color: Like with Sonic Generations, the game's levels and the areas surrounding them are solid white in the Hub World and become more colorful as you complete each Stage act, becoming completely restored once their challenge acts are beaten.
  • Move in the Frozen Time:
    • Even if Shadow freezes time, Metal Overlord can still fly and move around due to cancelling Shadow's Chaos Control with his own Chaos Control. Metal even mocks Shadow for this as he copied that ability from the black hedgehog. However, this move is still useful in allowing you to use Chaos Dash or hit debris back at him.
    • During the final boss, Neo Devil Doom uses Chaos Control on Shadow, freezing him in place. Shadow, in spite of being frozen, activates Chaos Control on his own and breaks free.
  • Museum Game: Just like Sonic Generations before it, Shadow Generations pays tribute to many aspects of Shadow's playable history, from the playable levels, the in-game collection room compiling several years of Shadow's history, and even a look at Professor Gerald's journal while he was creating Shadow the Hedgehog.
  • Musical Nod:
    • Shadow's stage clear jingle is a new arrangement of the same track from Shadow the Hedgehog.
    • What should play as Rouge makes her entrance into the story other than the instrumental version of "Fly in the Freedom"?
    • Various songs from Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog are reused in cutscenes featuring Maria and Gerald Robotnik, such as Shadow's Semi-Hero Ending theme and "3 Black Noises".
    • Once Shadow unlocks his last Doom Power and White Space itself turns into a Doom Zone, the theme changes from a melancholy "All Hail Shadow" orchestral score to a foreboding version of Black Doom's boss theme.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: Shadow realizes that meeting Gerald and Maria in White Space means that he can potentially prevent their fates from 50 years ago. But, as Gerald points out, altering their past would also mean altering his past — all of the things he's accomplished since then would be undone. In the end, Shadow can't fight fate, and he leaves them behind.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Shadow's name in the game's logo is spelt with his crest featured on the cover of Shadow the Hedgehog. Additionally, the crests are collectables in Shadow Generations, with Black Doom dropping one after Shadow defeats him for the first time in the distorted Radical Highway, and it appears in one of Shadow's stage clear animations.
    • Space Colony ARK composites elements from levels set on the colony from both Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog:
      • The outside segments take heavy cues from Final Rush/Chase, with nods to the Shadow the Hedgehog levels that reused its aesthetic (The ARK, Space Gadget, and Cosmic Fall). Additionally, the music track for The ARK is reused for Act 1's appearance in SEGA's own pre-roll footage as a placeholder track, while the actual game uses a remix of Final Rush's track.
      • The indoor segments borrow the aesthetics of Crazy Gadget, Lost Colony, and Eternal Engine, right down to the iconic sliding doors. The transition indoors also involves falling while dodging lasers, a recurring obstacle in SA2's ARK levels.
      • One of Space Colony ARK's missions tasks you with defeating a certain amount of Artificial Chaos enemies before reaching the goal, a clear nod to Lost Impact in Shadow the Hedgehog, which had the same goal as its Hero mission.
    • Rail Canyon follows the precedent established by Seaside Hill in Sonic Generations by incorporating elements of its own companion level, Bullet Station, most obviously by featuring a remix of that stage's track as the theme for Act 2.
    • The Doom Spears' ability to stun enemies is first introduced in Rail Canyon with the Laser Flappers, who were similarly able to be stunned in Sonic Heroes; they even use the same animation when they're stunned in this game.
    • Overlapping with Development Gag, Metal Overlord being fought over water is a literal Mythology Gag, borrowed from Biblical Motifs. The sin of Envy is tied to the great beast of the sea, Leviathan, in the bible. Doing double duty, Metal Overlord quoted one of the passages attributed to the beast in the Japanese dub of Heroes, as confirmed by Shiro Maekawa.invoked
    • Using the green Chaos Control paths not only gives a visual similar to Chaos Control's usage in Shadow the Hedgehog, but it makes a sound lifted straight from the light-speed circuits from Mad Matrix and Digital Circuit.
    • After getting almost all the parts needed for Orbot and Cubot for their escape rocket, Orbot suggests Flicky Island as a potential spot to "vacation" (read: hide away from Eggman as long as possible).
    • The surrounding area for the Chaos Island level in White Space reuses the blue and magenta gimmicks, while you can press some switches to make floating courses appear much like the general overworld gameplay of Frontiers.
    • Shadow's reunion with Maria and Gerald in the present, Gerald's rueful description of his deal with Black Doom, and Maria bidding farewell to Shadow with encouragement although he cries at losing her again, are similar beats to the main story of Archie comics issue 171, which saw Shadow meeting digital copies of them while accessing Gerald's diary. This story and issue too were written by Ian Flynn.
    • The Movie Pack DLC has quite a number of references to other Sonic continuities:
      • The opening cutscene to access the Tokyo level has one of Movie Sonic's Rings fall through a vortex into Shadow's White Space, creating a Ring Portal that can move between the Movieverse and the Gameverse.
      • At the beginning of the Tokyo DLC level, the nearby coffee shop (being a stand-in for Starbucks) is branded "Meanbeans Coffee" (using the same white color and a similar font), while also referencing Agent Stone's coffee shop from the second movie.
      • A symbol that looks exactly like AOSTH Robotnik's head can be seen on a storefront sign.
      • Retroactively to the movie, (which released after the Tokyo DLC) Shadow spots a GUN-branded helicopter which prompts him to chase it which also clues him into something off about this world. In the movie, Shadow immediately distrusted Team Sonic because he saw them jump out of a GUN-branded helicopter.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: In the "Generations of Stages" trailer, a remix of Bullet Station's stage music can be heard alongside footage of Rail Canyon Act 1. The Bullet Station remix is actually for Act 2, with Act 1 using a remix of the actual Rail Canyon music. In contrast, the same trailer accompanies Space Colony ARK Act 1 and Kingdom Valley Act 1 with the corresponding remixes.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: With Shadow Generations paying greater attention to Shadow's link with Black Doom, it features him gaining a slew of new Black Arms-related powers, including:
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics: The assets for Chaos Island are ripped wholesale from the previous release, Sonic Frontiers; given how this is the only represented title that Shadow did not appear in and how the game barely bothers to justify its appearance, its inclusion primarily exists to round out the level count while saving time and resources.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: While his creation of White Space may have unwillingly gave Black Doom a chance to build his new weapons without the consequences of time, Eggman's use of the Time Eater pulling in Shadow both assists Shadow in defeating his nemesis, getting closure with Maria, and eventually giving Sonic one of the Chaos Emeralds needed to defeat him.
  • No-Damage Run: The achievement "Untouchable" is unlocked by the player taking no damage during the final boss.
  • No-Sell: Metal Overlord is immune to the effects to Chaos Control, since he can also use it, mocking Shadow if the player uses it against him.
    "Trying to use Chaos Control? Ha! That power already belongs to me!"
  • Nostalgia Level: Like Sonic Generations, all of Shadow Generations' levels are derived from previous Sonic the Hedgehog titles, though with a greater emphasis on them being from Shadow's history, with the exception of Chaos Island from Frontiers, as Shadow doesn't make an appearance in that game.
  • Not the Intended Use: The intended usage of Chaos Spear/Doom Spear is to shoot projectiles out of the air and stun enemies so Shadow can strike back. However, they also have the unique property of preserving aerial momentum when you use them as Shadow would otherwise decelerate significantly while airborne without Air Boosting. This has resulted in them being abused as a speedrun tactic by spamming Spears constantly in the air to fly much farther distances than normal.

    O - Y 
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: While the game has the franchise standard instant failure if Shadow doesn't hold a ring, certain Hard mode stages and the boss missions against The Biolizard and Mephiles the Dark contain no rings, meaning one hit will result in the player needing to start over.
  • One-Winged Angel: The final boss is Black Doom in his Devil Doom form, which he ramps up to "Neo Devil Doom" in the fight's second phase.
  • Opening the Sandbox: For the initial part of the game, Shadow is kept on a bendy yet straightforward path between Space Colony ARK and Rail Canyon's White Spaces, with a section in the middle of the map. During this time, there aren't a lot of Collectible Boxes, only some bolts, and no other overworld challenges. Once Biolizard is defeated, the rest of Shadow's White Space appears, allowing Shadow to play Kingdom Valley and Sunset Heights in either order, as well as access an astronomically multiplied number of Collectible Boxes, collect many more bolts, and engage in new overworld challenges. It's slightly downplayed in that while Chaos Island's section is also on the map at this point, it can't be accessed until after obtaining the Doom Morph power, causing the game to reroute into a somewhat linear fashion.
  • Orchestral Bombing: In keeping with the tradition started by Sonic '06 (and reprised in Unleashed, Colors, and Frontiers), the final boss's last phase is accompanied by an orchestral rock arrangement of a theme associated with the hero — in this case, the Crush 40 version of "All Hail Shadow".
  • Perpetual Storm: Act 2 of Sunset Heights has grey skies and is set during a constant rain storm, and it doesn't stop even after the stage is cleared.
  • P.O.V. Sequel: Shadow Generations takes place during the events of Sonic Generations, with this game showing what was happening during Shadow's perspective and what he experienced while Sonic was undoing the damage the Time Eater had done to the main timeline.
  • Power Gives You Wings: The Doom Powers awaken within Shadow as he pursues Black Doom, with his ultimate Doom Wing form causing him to sprout a pair of black tendril/bat-like wings from his back. They allow him to fly and glide through stages.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation:
    • Kingdom Valley has sections that had variant gameplay in the original 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog adapted into more conventional mechanics. With no vehicles, Shadow instead uses Doom Surf to traverse the water and in the section based off Sonic's Mach Speed Section, the standard boost gameplay is used instead.
    • Chaos Island deviates from its original open-ended design seen in Sonic Frontiers and instead features the typical linear design of the other zones seen in this game. However, harkening to the open zone design, Act 1 is one of the most open levels in the game.
  • Press X to Not Die: Downplayed. Much like Sonic Frontiers, some levels and boss fights are occasionally interspersed with various Action Commands the player has to react to, executing them within a specific window to get past an obstacle or finish a boss fight. While there are a few events in levels that failure results in a delay, allowing a QTE to expire in a boss fight will have Shadow finishing the fight as if it were a success regardless.
  • Pretender Diss: Shadow mocks the Biolizard for being his Flawed Prototype and Metal Overlord for daring to call himself the "true" Ultimate Life Form.
  • Previously on…: The main menu has a "Shadow's Story" feature that allows players to get up to speed on Shadow's character.
  • Promoted to Playable: In the original Sonic Generations, Shadow was only a non-playable rival boss fight. In Sonic × Shadow Generations, he's been promoted to playable character status and has his own parallel story campaign.
  • Purposefully Overpowered: The Doom Wing, which gives Shadow wings to glide over stages if he has 50 rings or more. It also gives him invincibility and functionally infinite Boost. For these reasons, there are separate scores and rankings for whether the Doom Wing is enabled or not.
  • Puzzle Boss: Downplayed — each boss tests your skill with a particular Doom Power, and while using them to their full extent isn't required to beat them, it makes them much easier to handle.
    • The Biolizard's final phase fires harmful orbs at you from the ceiling, which can be dispelled using Doom Spears. Besides that, it also relies on being able to time Chaos Control and the Homing Attack effectively to attack it, making it a Warm-Up Boss as well.
    • Metal Overlord's fight takes place entirely over water, testing how skilled you are at using Doom Surf and its Spin Attack to deflect his attacks and debris at him. It likewise features elements that are interactable with Chaos Control, such as a Chaos Control tunnel that lets Shadow attack his weakpoint or pause certain debris in the air while Metal Overlord is unaffected by its power.
    • Mephiles covers the entire floor in a harmful substance that can be easily traversed with Doom Morph but makes things much more difficult otherwise. Since he's the same size as Shadow, he's also fought primarily using Doom Blast to smack him around, rather than simple Homing Attacks.
    • Devil Doom tests your skills with Doom Surf, Doom Morph, and Doom Wing in that order, acting as a Final-Exam Boss for these powers, as well as allowing you to get accustomed with the 11th-Hour Superpower.
  • Real-World Episode: The DLC brings Shadow into the real world city of Tokyo, Japan.
  • Recurring Riff: "All Hail Shadow," the Pure Hero theme for Shadow in his self-titled game, specifically the Crush 40 version that served as his leitmotif in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), is spread liberally through the soundtrack of Shadow Generations.
    • The White Space hub world uses an orchestral Dark Reprise of the song, as Black Doom's influence over White Space is affecting Shadow as he slowly awakens the Doom Powers within him.
    • Whenever Shadow starts a challenge in White Space, it plays an instrumental version of the song.
    • The song has a Triumphant Reprise during the final boss fight, where vocals are added and the instrumentation is similar to the Sonic Symphony versions when Shadow manages to put Neo Devil Doom on the backfoot. A different orchestral rendition is also used in the Coup de Grâce Cutscene of the same fight.
  • Replay Mode: The collection room includes the option to review the game's cutscenes once they are unlocked.
  • Running Gag: Big the Cat is, once again, in a place he has no reason being in, to everyone's surprise.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Shadow attempts to invoke this upon realizing that Maria and Gerald were taken from a point in time prior to the ARK incident which causes the former's death. However, his defeat of Black Doom causes both of them to fade away and return back to their time period, their fate still left unchanged.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: To keep with the darker atmosphere compared to Sonic's campaign, the cutesy helper robot Omochao is not present as the Exposition Fairy. Instead, their role is replaced with the return of Hint Rings.
  • Shot-for-Shot Remake: Upon seeing Maria in White Space, Shadow has a flashback to last time he saw her, moments before he was ejected from the ARK. While the flashback is presented with redrawn art and still images, it recreates the same flashback sequence from Sonic Adventure 2, even using the same music cue and word-for-word dialoguenote .
  • So Proud of You: Maria expresses how proud she is of Shadow for finding friends and for having a good heart. Gerald does so as well, saying that he's sorry to have put Shadow on the path of a warrior but proud of how he's walked it.
  • Sound Test: The collection room includes music tracks that can be unlocked and then either listened to or set to play on certain stages. As to be expected, they're primarily Shadow-related themes, to the extent that Shadow the Hedgehog is the most represented game by far. The Digital Deluxe Edition includes extra music tracks, with more focus on Sonic-related themes (though Shadow also gets some vocal themes that were missing from the main game).
  • Spanner in the Works: As Shadow searches White Space for Black Doom and conquers his trials, he's also unknowingly restoring more time periods taken by Eggman and the Time Eater than Sonic misses. Unlike Sonic, he does this completely unknowingly.
  • Spin Attack: While using Doom Surf, Shadow can deflect all sorts of objects by spinning around, including other attacks, which is different from the series' traditional spin dash and more akin to Super Mario Galaxy's Star Spin move.
  • Stepping Stones in the Sky:
    • During the quick-time event in Space Colony ARK Act 1, Shadow stylishly skates on a missile fragment after breaking it apart to get close to the explosive warhead in preparation of delivering a finishing blow.
    • In Sunset Heights Act 1, using Chaos Control while the Death Egg Robots are hurling rubble in your direction will freeze them in the air, revealing them to be targetable with Homing Attack. This can be used to access an elevated shortcut that Shadow would not be able to get to normally.
    • In the Tokyo Extra Act, in order to get the Warp Ring that will send him back to White Space, Shadow runs up the side of the Tokyo Sky Tree while being pursued by homing missiles fired by a G.U.N. helicopter. Shadow then uses Chaos Control to teleport and freeze the missiles in place, using them as leverage to fly through the air and re-enter the Warp Ring.
  • Super Drowning Skills: Prior to getting Doom Surf, the water in White Space kills Shadow instantly if he falls in it.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Because Sonic is collecting the Chaos Emeralds, Shadow cannot access his super form in this game, with the Doom Wing standing in its place: it's the 11th-Hour Superpower reached by Shadow unlocking supernatural powers, it costs 50 rings to activate and drains rings while in use, it grants Shadow the ability to fly, and it's used in the final battle against Devil Doom.
  • Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: A power-up refills the meter for using Chaos Control at specific points in the game, usually indicating that the next obstacle or hazard you encounter cannot be bypassed except by slowing down time, or a shortcut/alternate path will be destroyed and inaccessible if it isn't used.
  • Synchronization: The more Doom Powers Shadow unlocks, the more powerful Black Doom becomes in turn. When Shadow finally defeats Black Doom for good, the Doom Powers go with him.
  • Taste of Power: Although the Doom Wing is the last power Shadow unlocks, he gets to use it in Space Colony ARK Act 2 to demonstrate its power and the Doom Powers in general.
  • Tennis Boss: During the second phase of Metal Overlord's boss fight, he charges up and fires a crystal at Shadow, which Shadow has to deflect back at him by spinning, the volley getting faster each time the attack is deflected back.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: The battle with Black Doom begins with a remix of his battle theme from Shadow the Hedgehog. In the final phase, it turns into a Triumphant Reprise of "All Hail Shadow" as Shadow gets him on the ropes. The Coup de Grâce Cutscene similarly starts with Black Doom's primary theme playing as he grabs and claims that Shadow that they are the same. Once Shadow breaks free of his grasp, "All Hail Shadow" starts playing again as Shadow finishes off Neo Devil Doom.
  • Time Master: For the first time in a long while, Shadow's Chaos Control is an ability that can actually be used by the player. It mainly serves to freeze the level in time for five seconds, letting Shadow do things like use stopped missiles as platforms or deliver cinematic beatdowns. Metal Overlord can use this ability too, being unaffected by Shadow's usage of it against him. During the final battle, Devil Doom attempts to trap Shadow using Chaos Control himself, only for Shadow to cancel it out with his own Chaos Control.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: In an easily-missed interaction with Professor Gerald in White Space, Shadow mentions that he's visiting places that are unfamiliar to him, referring to the Sunset Heights and Chaos Island levels, which appeared in games after Sonic Generations. Professor Gerald floats the theory that White Space may not be restricted to drawing from the past, explaining these future locations appearing in the game (and alluding to how Stardust Speedway's bad future, Crisis City and the Mephiles boss can still occur due to the Time Eater).
  • Took a Level in Badass: As with the Sonic side of things, everyone Shadow encounters has gotten tougher since his previous outings, though this naturally applies to him, too.
    • The Biolizard was able to put up a decent fight with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, but this was mostly a result of its sheer size and Shadow not being as maneuverable as he is now. The Biolizard shows evidence of an Adaptive Ability that has it respond to Shadow's new tactics by mastering and exploiting its energy balls in ways it never could before, though it never takes on the form of the Finalhazard.
    • Metal Sonic was able to toss around Eggman's gunships before as Metal Overlord, but he's craftier this time and makes active use of the terrain around him to give Shadow a difficult fight. This also demonstrates Shadow's relative uptick in power - before, Metal Overlord required twelve of the realm's greatest heroes, three of whom were superpowered by the Chaos Emeralds, to fall in battle. One of those heroes is now his match solo.
    • Mephiles the Dark is about as powerful as he was before, but this time he's playing for keeps because he is keenly aware of what he has to lose at this juncture. The fight in Dusty Desert was effectively a formality for Mephiles last time, but this time, Mephiles utilizes all the tricks he'd only ever reserved for cutscenes, opening the fight with the move he used to kill Sonic in his game of origin and demonstrating the ability to project and telekinetically manipulate objects.
    • The most dramatic increase comes from the Big Bad himself, Black Doom. Black Doom's paralytic trick was already devastating to the heroes before, but Black Doom now demonstrates how he actively gets stronger as Shadow gets stronger, meaning all of Shadow's efforts to grow in power create a feedback loop with his progenitor. Beyond Devil Doom evolving from a Mighty Glacier to an out-and-out Lightning Bruiser and Doom being able to manipulate the flow of time with equal (and perhaps superior, considering he can project stages for Shadow forward in time) proficiency as the Eggmans while the Time Eater is running rampant, his connection to Shadow has allowed him to unlock an even greater Neo form.
  • Trash Talk: Shadow and Metal Overlord spend as much time dissing each other as they are fighting each other.
    • When the fight with Metal Overlord begins:
      Metal Overlord: You can't hope to defeat me! Accept your fate, you fake hedgehog! I have become the true Sonic, the true ultimate lifeform!
      Shadow: "True ultimate lifeform?" Don't make me laugh. You'll be joining the rubble in the water soon enough.
    • As the Metal Overlord fight enters Phase 2:
      Metal Overlord: Let's see how long you last on such unstable terrain.
      Shadow: Idiot. You think you can stop me?
      (Shadow damages Metal with its own crystal projectile)
      Shadow: Not much to show for such big talk.
    • As the fight ends, Metal Overlord says this as he throws a battleship at Shadow:
      Metal Overlord: As if I can be challenged by an imposter like you!
  • Tutorial Failure: The Doom Morph tutorial does not adequately explain how latching onto Morph Balls works while in Doom Morph form. While it tells you how to grab them, it does not explain that Shadow interacts with them in different ways depending on the direction of his swing momentum when the grab button is released. If you simply tap the grab button, Shadow will immediately fly through the Morph Ball and lose all of his speed, and if you let go while swinging forwards, Shadow will be launched forwards at an angle. This is intuitive enough, but there's also a third interaction: if you let go while Shadow is directly beneath the Morph Ball, he will launch straight upwards and gain a large height boost. The game expects you to figure this out on your own since several White Space collectables are only obtainable by using the latter trick.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Dr. Eggman has no idea that by creating White Space, he has given the viler Black Doom infinite time to work on his latest plan.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The bosses aren't working for Black Doom, but are being exploited as part of his plan to 'ripen' Shadow up so he can steal his body.
  • Upgraded Boss: When White Space becomes a Doom Zone, the player can face harder versions of all the bosses in extra challenge missions.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Once Shadow unlocks the Doom Wing and thus completes the Black Moon, White Space itself transforms into a Doom Zone, which spawns platforms from Radical Highway. Within the Black Moon itself, Shadow is transported into Radical Highway, seemingly the original, before it is transformed into the most dangerous Doom Zone, setting the scene for the endgame.
  • Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Justified: as in Sonic Generations, the bosses are all displaced in time from when they were first fought, and thus go down much easier to the older and stronger Shadow, who now also has his Doom Powers. Subverted with Black Doom, as he wasn't actually displaced in time but recovered via his Hive Mind and is just taking advantage of the situation, and actually did get much stronger to the point he still requires Shadow to use a Super Mode to put down.
  • Walk on Water: Shadow can use his Doom Powers to surf, automatically wielding this form whenever he lands on a body of water.
  • Waterfront Boss Battle:
    • The fight with Metal Overlord has Shadow surfing atop a flooded area to pursue an airborne Metal Overlord, with Metal Overlord flying in front of Shadow and out of his reach. Shadow has to deflect debris at him in order to damage him or find ways to attack his weakpoint.
    • The first phase of the final battle takes cues from the Metal Overlord fight, where Shadow, while using the Doom Surf in a flooded Radical Highway, has to deflect its attacks in order to damage the boss or hit certain ramps to attack the weakpoint.
  • Wham Shot:
    • The announcement trailer begins with a highlight reel of Sonic Generations, ending in a recreation of the very first reveal trailer with Modern and Classic Sonic soaring through the sky... before they're interrupted by Shadow flying in and disrupting the two, followed by a brief look at his new campaign in all of its glory.
    • The State Of Play 2024 trailer has Shadow expelled into a burning city, only for a movie version of a G.U.N. helicopter to fly past, and Shadow to notice he's gained a notably higher fidelity appearance... and the voice of Keanu Reeves, as the Digital Deluxe version's post-launch DLC is confirmed to be set during Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024), with players getting to control Shadow, who's transformed into his Paramount counterpart.
    • After clearing Space Colony Ark Act 2, Shadow is wandering around White Space when he suddenly sees Maria and Gerald in the distance. He's so shocked that he thinks his eyes are playing tricks on him.
      Shadow: Maria...?
  • What You Are in the Dark: When Shadow sees Maria being chased by a Black Arms soldier, he drops everything without a second thought and saves her. But at this point, he doesn't even know if it really is Maria, so it goes to show that his immediate reaction to someone in trouble is to help them, even if he has no reason to do so.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: At the end of the game, when Shadow realizes that Gerald and Maria are returning to their original point in time, he panics and tries to retrieve his Chaos Emerald from Rouge, so that he can use Chaos Control to freeze time and stay with them forever. Maria stops him by saying that she and Gerald don't want to be frozen in one moment in time, even if they don't know what will happen to them. She encourages Shadow to continue living in the present with the friends he has now. Shadow can barely hold back his tears, but he honors Maria's wish and runs off to help Sonic defeat the Time Eater.
  • Wide-Open Sandbox: Shadow's White Space, instead of the 2D design featured in Sonic Generations, is a 3D sandbox inspired by the open zones of Sonic Frontiers where the player can test Shadow's abilities and solve platforming puzzles to uncover secrets and find collectibles.
  • Willfully Weak: The explanation as to why Shadow loses to Sonic in their Rival Battle in Sonic GenerationsShadow stops himself from taking a clear opportunity to nail Sonic with his Doom Powers, granting Sonic an opening to defeat him. He explains to Rouge that when it comes to Sonic, he wants to win fairly or not at all. It also helps that he had a fake Chaos Emerald on hand.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Some of the unlockable concept art is from Sonic X. However, due to the legal firewalls regarding the series, the concept art doesn't mention Sonic X by name, merely calling them "Shadow Animation" art pieces.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Sonic's fight with Shadow in Sonic Generations is revealed to be this in Shadow's favor: if Shadow wins, he gets to keep the Chaos Emerald he needs to beat Black Doom, and if Sonic wins (and he does), Shadow just hands him Tails' fake emerald and keeps the real emerald until he no longer needs it. Rouge, who can be a Manipulative Bitch when the situation calls for it, is impressed with Shadow's plan.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Shadow thinks to himself and later tries to change Maria and Gerald's fates, but fails, as they fade back to their own time after Black Doom is killed. It does, however, give Shadow a chance at closure.

    Tropes in Professor Gerald's Journal 
  • Adaptation Expansion: The Japanese localization has some extra details not present in the English script:
    • Because Japanese is a syllable-based language, the initial note to Commander Tower is signed "Torii" rather than just "T".
    • After Gerald explains how Maria gave Shadow his name, he says that he'll honor her by setting Maria's name as his passcode, a detail that isn't present in the English text. This ties in to the beginning of the Dark Story in Sonic Adventure 2, where "Maria" is the passcode for Shadow's containment pod.
  • Arc Welding: Every bit of Professor Gerald's research from across the series is condensed into this book, connecting various plots together from past games before Shadow Generations.
    • Gerald's discovery of the Gizoid is chronicled in the booklet, detailing how he first found it, how it reacted to the Chaos Emerald, and how he eventually needed to give the Gizoid to G.U.N. when they started hounding him. These events are described using the exact passages from Sonic Battle.
    • There is scrawled out text that reads "The all-powerful █████. The █████ held the power to bind one's soul... The █████ destroyed the entire..." These are passages regarding the Ifrit from Sonic Rivals 2, which Eggman Nega found via Gerald's research: "The all-powerful Ifrit. The Ifrit held the power of destruction, and the power to bind one's soul... The Ifrit destroyed the entire..."
    • The last pages of Gerald's journal are word-for-word the final diary entries that Rouge reads in the Last Story of SA2.
    • The Gizoid's rampage, as described in one of the entries taken from Sonic Battle, is directly tied to the events depicted in the Shadow the Hedgehog level Lost Impact by having it cause the Artificial Chaos to become "erratic", with Gerald's attempts to fix them turning them violent, forcing Shadow to deal with the issue. This additionally ties into their blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo during the battle the Gizoid and Shadow had in Dark Beginnings, where the containment units that shattered around the two appeared to be housing them.
  • Call-Forward: The journal is a record of a fifty-year old backstory touching on three previous games, so of course it foreshadows things the reader will already know. One particularly tragic example comes when Gerald remarks about Maria that "I find all my reason and restraint vanishes when she's slighted."
  • Cerebus Retcon:
    • The Artificial Chaos rampage, as depicted in Shadow the Hedgehog, was already a pretty morbid event, with Maria mentioning human casualties, but the journal suggests that it was also the last straw for G.U.N., who used it as an excuse to clean up the ARK, leading to Maria's death, Gerald's insanity and Shadow's misanthropy.
    • Emerl's rampage is also portrayed in a darker light — not only did the robot cause damage to the ARK, he caused the Artificial Chaos to go haywire in the process.
  • Continuity Porn:
    • Entry #170 confirms that Gerald had found Angel Island by deciphering the engravings of a ring he found during a dig at the Mystic Ruins jungle. He mentions multiple biomes, corresponding to Angel Island's different Zones, including Sky Sanctuary. The professor also saw the Master Emerald and the shrine that held it, which would help go on to inspire some of the elements of Project: Shadow. The ring that Gerald found is a deep-cut reference to the Japanese backstory for Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which starts when Sonic finds an ancient ring that reminds him of the legend of Angel Island.
    • Entry #620 uses Sonic Comic's explanation for how Shadow received his name, while also explaining how it coexists with the original "Project Shadow" codename; Gerald originally named it Project Shadow because he thought the goal was intangible and foolish (like trying to grab hold of a shadow), and later because he resorted to darker measures to realize his goal. Maria, however, later reframed it into a more positive interpretation, saying that a shadow always shows the way to the light. Gerald expresses how impressed and inspired he is by her seeing the good even in something he thought of so bitterly (even borrowing the same question he asked Maria in Sonic Comic, where he thought the name was "villainous"). This entry in the Japanese localization also mentions Gerald setting his passcode to Maria's name, tying it to the Dark Story of Adventure 2, where it is used to unlock Shadow's containment pod.
    • Entry #651 is all about Gerald and Maria doing research and conceptualizing accessories for Shadow, with Maria coming up with his Limiter Rings and Air Shoes. Gerald's research into Chaos Control has him design a clock-like device — recognizable as a Time Switch, which stops time in the Cannon's Core level of Sonic Adventure 2, suggesting the switches were how Gerald tried to learn how Chaos Control worked before Shadow awoke.
    • One of the last entries (the one where Gerald notes he's lost track of the days) sees the Artificial Chaos aboard the ARK turn violent, with Gerald stating that "█████ raced across the ARK, pacifying them quite expertly..." This is clearly meant to be the events depicted in the Hero mission of Lost Impact from Shadow the Hedgehog, a flashback level that saw Shadow scouring the ARK to take down the rampaging Artificial Chaos, putting it in the same timeframe as the Gizoid going berserk, tying it to Dark Beginnings. This incident also sent an SOS signal to G.U.N., with Gerald fearing what will happen next, which ends up kicking off the ARK's tragedy.
    • Both of Gerald's sons were Grade Skippers who graduated college summa cum laude, and Maria is revealed to have developed Shadow's Limiter Rings and Air Shoes, making her a prodigy inventor. In Sonic Rivals, Dr. Eggman Nega states in his Motive Rant that the Robotnik family were a lineage of brilliant scientists that weren't disrupted until Dr. Eggman's failure to take over the world, which would require all of his relatives before him to be geniuses as well. Additionally, one passage reveals that Maria had a younger sister who showed no signs of NIDS, which would mean there's a Robotnik family branch other than Eggman's, which would explain how Dr. Eggman Nega can even exist, considering Eggman is... Eggmannote .
  • Conveniently Interrupted Document: As noted by T in the letter to Commander Tower, pages of the journal have been ripped out, and several key words, names, and even photographs have been censored or tampered with, giving the impression of it being censored In-Universe. That said, there are still enough context clues for fans to fill in the blanks themselves.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: One of the entries discusses the flashback scene of Lost Impact in Shadow the Hedgehog. While there are two possible ways for the level to be completednote , the journal establishes that the hero mission reflects the level's true events.
  • Destroy the Evidence: Discussed in the opening letter to the Commander, who requested tangible evidence of the ARK incident from 50 years ago. Unfortunately, Abraham Tower's predecessor was very thorough in erasing the cover-up operation, with the only thing remaining being Gerald's personal memoirs of the incident — and even that was only thanks to Eggman retrieving it.
  • A Dog Named "Cat": The Biolizard is revealed to have been originally a salamander, meaning it's not even a reptile let alone a lizard.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Inverted. The journal is a Continuity Cavalcade for all the games where Professor Gerald had some sort of impact. This includes Sonic Rivals 2, a game never released in Japan, and specifically on his brief encounter with the Ifrit.
  • Easter Egg: The barcode at the back of the journal is stamped as for internal use by G.U.N. Scanning the barcode reveals the message of "they don't know."
  • Exact Words: G.U.N. tells Gerald that they want something "bigger and flashier" than the Gizoid. Gerald responds by making the Eclipse Cannon, a massive Kill Sat weapon that will destroy the entire planet in a flash of light if fired, meaning G.U.N. can't ever actually use it.
  • Flawed Prototype: The first subject Gerald used in Project Shadow was a salamander, so chosen for their natural regenerative abilities, to which he could apply energy from Chaos Drives in the hopes of strengthening its body. The resultant "Biolizard" grew out of control, becoming gigantic, violent, and necessitating a bulky life support apparatus to live. It became too dangerous and was ultimately sealed away in the innermost levels of the ARK.
  • Framing Device: The journal is presented as if it was recovered from Eggman's base and given to Commander Abraham Tower as part of his request for tangible evidence of the ARK incident from 50 years ago. The letter included past the cover notes how certain parts of the journal have been damaged and cannot be recovered or uncensored, and is signed by "T". The back cover likewise includes a "PROPERTY OF THE EGGMAN EMPIRE" sticker, since the entire plot of Sonic Adventure 2 was kicked off by Eggman having it in his possession.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Following the government's request to build an even bigger and more powerful weapon than the Gizoid (the military finding it not big and flashy enough), Gerald builds the Eclipse Cannon to "fulfil" their demands. As it is a Kill Sat that can easily destroy the world, this ends up too powerful to reasonably use, with the only intended "target" being the Black Comet.
  • Handwriting as Characterization: Professor Gerald writes in neat, compact, semicursive longhand, reflecting his genius. As things get more stressful and intense for him, his handwriting deteriorates accordingly, starting with a few lines being smudged and culminating in frenzied pages with scrawled scientific notes in the margins on top of the lines being noticeably thicker in comparison, inferring that he's been applying more pressure to the pages under stress. However, his ominous final message reverts to the original neat handwriting, indicating his final state of Tranquil Fury.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Heavily implied for Abraham Tower. The journal identifies him as the one child born to people on the ARK, indicating that not only was his family killed along with Maria in the G.U.N. raid that drove Gerald to madness, but that he eventually became in charge of the very organization that destroyed his life and family while blaming Shadow for it.
  • I Have No Son!: Implied. The entry that reveals Maria has a sister starts with "my son and-" before that gets crossed out and continues with "Maria's parents", implying Gerald views their having another child as an act of abandonment and a lack of faith in his abilities as the Robotnik family grew apart.
  • Internal Homage: Two images in the diary reference art from Sonic Channel featuring Shadow and Maria, one showing the two of them discussing stars on Tanabata and the other showing them taking exams on the ARK.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: In Entry #170, we see a photograph of Gerald's crew that were aboard the Space Colony ARK. Among his crew, we see Dr. Tenma from Astro Boy and Dr. Wily as silhouettes.
  • Like Father, Like Son:
    • Entry #42, the first intact entry of Gerald's journal, mainly focuses on him celebrating the graduation of his two sons, one of which had inherited Gerald's talent for robotics, and the other inheriting his talents for archaeology. It's implied that the son who specialized in robotics went on to father Eggman, and the son who specialized in archaeology went on to father Maria.
    • Gerald's similarities to Eggman are also noted through his use of a Signature Laugh (a short "ho-ho" rather than Eggman's elongated "ohohohoho") and him designing the ARK as a faceship in much the same way Eggman would later do with the Death Egg.
  • Mythology Gag: Gerald's journal is the first time it's been explicitly confirmed that Maria was born on Earth and taken to the ARK later in life; fans had long assumed that she was born on the ARK, which has only ever been stated to be the case in third-party strategy guides.note  In reference to the common fan assumption, one of Gerald's later entries says that Maria has lived on the ARK for so long that some of its staff think she was born there.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Discussed; Gerald notes with undisguised contempt that some personnel on the ARK believe that Maria isn't really ill, since she doesn't show any outward signs of sickness. Earlier entries make it abundantly clear that her illness is real, and the ARK is just stabilizing her condition.
  • One-Letter Name: The agent who signs the letter to Commander Tower simply goes by "T". The Japanese localization of the journal instead has the letter signed by "Torii", who would later be properly introduced as Professor Victoria in TailsTube.
  • Protagonist Journey to Villain: Gerald's journal starts out with him as a caring and idealistic scientist seeking to cure his granddaughter Maria's illness. Over the journal his desperation and obsession with curing her drove him to making Faustian deals and increasing dubious actions, taking a toll on his other relationships and sanity. This ultimately blew up on him causing Maria's death costing him everything, leaving Gerald the broken, misanthropic man with nothing left but Revenge he was by Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Purposely Overpowered: When G.U.N. threatened to cut off funding to the ARK unless provided with new weapons technology (and the Gizoid not being satisfactory in that regard), Gerald maliciously complied by building the Eclipse Cannon. They now had a big fancy Kill Sat that fit the bill, and was so powerful that a single blast would destroy the Earth, its overwhelming strength being a deterrent against actually using it.
  • Removed from the Picture: A few of the photographs in the journal have been defaced with ink, most notably Black Doom completely scribbled over in a photo of the alien and Gerald regarding Project Shadow.
  • Ret-Canon: Following the canonization in Dark Beginnings, the name of the G.U.N. Commander is "Abraham Tower", the one he had in the Archie comics, when the character had No Name Given in his debut game.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The last two pages (which detail Gerald's horror of the Gizoid accident attracting G.U.N. and his loss of Maria) that can be obtained will ONLY spawn in the Doom Zone, a version of White Space where all the light has been taken away and all that's left is an unsettling darkness.
  • Scientist vs. Soldier: Multiple entries have Gerald deal with the frustrations of the ARK's funding only continuing if he can develop new weaponry for G.U.N. The Artificial Chaos had to be explained as autonomous weapons when he originally designed them for search-and-rescue operations, the Chaos Drives that power G.U.N. robots were a by-product of his research into imbuing life with Chaos energy, the Eclipse Cannon was an apocalyptic final solution that Gerald knew was too dangerous for a sane government to actually use on anything except the Black Comet, and Project Shadow itself was allegedly supposed to give them an immortal soldier.
  • Shout-Out: Franchise-wide page.
  • Tempting Fate: One of the final entries details how the Gizoid they were experimenting with went out of control, and how that caused the Artificial Chaos aboard the ARK to go haywire. Shadow managed to get things under control, but an SOS was still sent out, and Gerald is somewhat worried about the repercussions. The remaining entries deal with the aftermath of G.U.N.'s coverup, which caused Maria's death.
  • There is Another: Entry #670, aside from detailing Project Shadow's completion and joy over how Shadow and Maria have instantly bonded, also reveals that Gerald's more dedicated than ever to find a cure for Maria's condition because Maria's parents have recently given birth to another, healthier daughter.
  • Tragic Keepsake: The journal reveals that Shadow's Limiter Rings and Air Shoes were designed by Maria, meaning that Shadow is always wearing a reminder of his fallen friend.

That I'll see you again
And that I'll save you
From all the things I failed to
Now I'm without you

I can't forgive the wrongs I've done you
'Cause now you're gone forever
I remember
How bright you shined all on your own
Yet I remain alone...
Casey Lee Williams, "Without You"

 
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Mephiles

Mephiles the Dark returns as a boss in Shadow Generations after being erased from the timeline by Elise back in the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog game. Mephiles intends to destroy Shadow and restore himself to the timeline, though Shadow doesn't remember Mephiles due to the events of their encounter being erased from history, with Mephiles noting with annoyance that this is the second time Shadow doesn't recognize him.

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Main / TheBusCameBack

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