I actually quite like the 2005 Shadow The Hedgehog game. It's an odd duck in the Sonic series, full of over-the-top edginess – but that almost makes it refreshing. Yet, while I enjoy it, I have to recognize it has plenty of moments of jank, with highlights such as gazing out across Glyphic Canyon underscore by clunky controls that cause many deaths in the likes of Cosmic Fall and others.
Naturally, this made me a bit skeptical about the return of my favorite anti-hero to star in his own brand new campaign with Sonic X Shadow Generations. I shouldn't have been. Not only is it a return to form for Shadow, but it features some of the best 3D Sonic levels in the series, period, thanks to some really clever bits of level design and a solid understanding of what makes a speedy platformer fun to master. It's made all the more obvious by being packaged alongside a game that frankly feels worse in comparison (though it is 13 years older).
