Zooming in with two incredible games,Sonic X Shadow Generationsis one of the best packages for any Sonic fan. One of the most engaging parts of both games is trying to beat levels in record times by finding new skips and routes to improve your time.
To achieve the fastest times, you have to know the tricks and things that many pro players know. Speed is Sonic’s game; if you want to master the S-Ranks or try a speedrun, then you must know about these tricks found in both campaigns.
10Shadow’s Deceleration Setting
Stopping For No One
Sonic Frontiers is one of the best Sonic games and one ofour high praises for the gameis for its options for Sonic. It allows you to customize almost everything about how Sonic is controlled to make him move just how you want to. Over in Shadow Generations, we see loads of Frontiers inspiration from the controls to the Open-zone hub world.
Shadow comes with the most refinedmove-set of any game he has appeared in yet, and it’s almost perfect. He has one handy option that changes his deceleration rate when stopping. If you set this all the way down to zero, Shadow will stop much slower. This helps with carrying momentum much further and makes moving feel much more natural.
9Seaside Hill Skips
Rolling Along The Water
Modern Sonic’s levels, while linear, have agreat open-level design that gives you room for exploration through multiple pathsto reward good players with faster, better routes. Many of the levels do have limitations, though, with lots of pits if you jump off the given path.
In Seaside Hill, however, there are many shortcuts that can be taken by jumping off the edge due to Sonic’s arch nemesis, water. The water around the stage is your goal for reaching record times here. If you boost onto it, you may skip major sections of the level and create huge shortcuts.
82D To 3D Slide
Being a celebration of both 2D and 3D Sonic games of the past, Sonic Generations has a great blend of both gameplay styles throughout. Modern Sonic features both heavily in his levels, which change how he plays quite drastically.
The 2D sections of levels have a speed cap to help you with the tight platforming, so when entering these parts of a level, you will noticeably slow down. There is one trick that can help any player to maintain their 3D speed in 2D sections. This is done by slide boosting in the transition between sections and then tapping jump repeatedly to maintain speed as long as you’re able to.
7Doom Morph Timing
Mighty Morphin' Doom Power
Shadow’s Doom Powers are one of the many reasons whySonic X Shadow Generations is one of the best Sonic gamessince the original Sonic Generations. From mandatory uses to creating new paths through effective use, it’s essential that you get used to how each Doom Power works. One of the trickiest is the Doom Morph, which can feel counter-intuitive to use at first.
The core timings fall into two types of launch: a swing forwards or a launch straight up. If you want to launch straight up, you need to release the button when you are directly below the swing hook. To swing forward, you just let go after the Morph has passed this. Keeping this in mind, it becomes much simpler to use.
6Jump Boosting
Launching Through Like A Fireball
Both Shadow and Modern Sonic have their own boost mechanics that each function a bit differently. Boosting is required to gain ludicrous speed and zoom through any obstacles, but many players do not know how to optimize their boost by using the jump boost technique.
With Sonic, you want to jump boost by lightly tapping the jump button, then do the same with the boost button. This will launch you very fast if you constantly chain multiple together. As for Shadow, you want to hold the jump button while tapping boost, but make sure you keep Shadow’s movement neutral with no directional input as this carries his momentum.
5Grinding Speed Boost
Grinding Around At The Speed Of Sound
The Sonic series is filled to the brim with rails all over to give that extra level of coolness to the spiky hedgehogs. Nothing beats speeding through a beautiful landscape on a grind rail. Many players may assume that while grinding, you want to use your boost to maintain max speed, but there is a trick that you only need to use a little for.
By tapping the jump and boost button to get onto a rail, you will shoot forward at a sound barrier-breaking speed, which goes much faster than even holding the boost. If the rail is long, then we recommend that you tap the boost button when you start to slow down, but if it is a straight rail you may be able to get another jump boost in.
4Reaching M-Speed And D-Speed
Pushing Speed To Its Limits
M-Speed and D-Speed are the fan-made names for the maximum speed you can reach in 3D and 2D sections. There are many ways to reach both, but the simplest one involves short jump boost chaining while slightly tilting the movement stick forward to get Sonic to slowly walk. This results in an exponential speed.
Note that it is much easier to perform these tricks on a controller due to having more precise control over Sonic’s movement. If you want to learn more, check outthis video here by Big Blue,which goes in-depth into how to fully achieve these max speeds in different ways.
3Chaos Spear Air Momentum Stalling
Moving Even Further Beyond
While Shadow may control like a dream with perfect level design to boot in his own campaign, there is one small issue you may have encountered. That is when Shadow is in midair, he will rapidly lose any momentum he has, even after a boost. There is a simple trick to fix this.
By using Chaos Spear repeatedly in the air, you can stall Shadow’s midair acceleration and go much further than usual. Allowing for ridiculous skips that involve launching Shadow and maintaining his momentum.
2Boost Drifting
Tokyo Drifting All Over
In certain parts of Modern Sonic’s levels, you can drift, which is intended for turning sharp corners with ease but has a secondary use when combined with a boost. If you drift slightly while against a wall, you can boost to safely make your way through at a faster speed than just boosting alone.
If you memorize where the drifting sections start, you can abuse this trick to plow through these sections with ease. The drift is also used in another trick, which involves drift boosting off a ramp or ledge, which gives Sonic a massive momentum boost.
1Chaos Control Buffering
Stopping Time Over And Over Again
One of Shadows' key Chaos abilities is his iconic Chaos Control. This builds by collecting rings and can be activated to stop time all around you, opening many shortcuts and exclusive paths. It is limited though, and slowly ticks down, but there is a trick to make one Chaos Control last over 30 seconds long.
When collecting a Chaos Control Capsule, it fills the meter, which leads to a neat trick to buffer the meter. If you collect a Capsule right after activating Chaos Control, it will buffer the refill to after the current Chaos Control has ended. This means you can get double the time and potentially chain even more depending on the stage.
