Hoo boy! I've finally managed to take a bit of a breather after all the chaos that has taken place this past weekend! If you're on this community, you'll no doubt know already, but on Friday evening a new trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations was revealed at the Summer Game Fest showcase - mostly focusing on Shadow the Hedgehog and how his stages will look.

And the internet went gaga for it, obviously. Mostly because Sonic fans always get hype about games before release, and mostly also because it's Shadow and Shadow is just pretty badass, isn't he? I mean, just look at these screenshots!

Naturally, you're all here to eagerly await what I think of all of this, beyond the constant news-writing and updates I've been bringing you. Well, sadly I'm not going to be the one playing it at SGF (that's the role of our awesome news editor @nuckles87who is currently in LA right now, prepping for an interview with Takashi Iizuka most probably), so I can't really say whether it's turning out to be a decent product or not (I should be able to let you guys know come Gamescom though). What I can say is how this all makes me feel, though. And it's making me feel delightfully nostalgic.

Many of us probably feel that Sonic Generations only came out 'recently', but the game is 13 years old. It came out literally two console generations ago! The fact that it still feels so fresh in our minds (well, at least in my mind) is not only a testament to how good the original game really was, but also highlights the rough ride the Sonic franchise has had since then.

The 2010 Sonic Decade has been meme'd about from here to kingdom come, but they all (incorrectly, IMO) attribute the performance of the last ten years to 'Meta' writing, or Graff/Pontac, or whatever. For me, it was simply about lost opportunity. Besides Sonic Mania and until Sonic Frontiers, Generations was practically the last truly great mainline Sonic game (and certainly the only real memorable one). When you're able to easily forget about the existence of Sonic Booms, Lost Worlds and Mario & Sonics, a decade-old game really does tend to feel like "the last actual Sonic game".

That's not to mention Generations' constant presence in the PC player's psyche, thanks to the amazing modding community.

But yeah, Sonic X Shadow Generations is making me nostalgic, man. For many reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, it's an old game being remastered and (in some ways with the Shadow content) reinvented. Secondly, the game's very essence is one steeped in nostalgia; Generations was Sonic's 20-year-anniversary game, and was a trip down the blue blur's memory lane - so with a new Shadow campaign, I get to feel a whole new wave of nostalgia as I see new old levels reinvented, like Final Chase.

Thirdly, and this is gonna sound weird, but the hyper-positive reaction online to the game has made me feel very nostalgic too. The flood of 'Winged Shadow' fan art that is currently engulfing Twitter. The stream of micro-information about the game and how it plays, that is being excitedly shared on social media ("Sonic has the Drop Dash now! Shadow has end-of-act animations! AAAHHHH!"). Just the general vibe that the community is exuding right now harkens back to a simpler time.

Even when Sonic Frontiers was being shown off pre-release, there was a feeling that the fanbase was collectively holding its breath a little bit. Afraid to truly hype out, in case this open zone experiment went horribly wrong. We were all holding back. Today, we're seeing Sonic fans freak out and geek out again like it's the good old days. It's no doubt helped by Fadel/GamesCage, who was one of the first people to play Sonic X Shadow Generations at SGF and gave a blow-by-blow hyperactively positive account of what he experienced. God bless him.

I've been doing this for way too long to be getting rolled up in media hype these days, but when the game consists of a perfect nostalgia-storm like this, it's hard not to join in with the kids hyperventilating on Twitter and elsewhere.

I have a particular attachment to Sonic Generations myself, of course. Being the Sonic community leader for as long as I have, I was there at press events and preview showcases for the original release on Xbox 360 and PS3 back in 2011. I worked with SEGA to present a pre-release demo of Sonic Generations at the 2011 round of the first ever major Sonic convention, the Summer of Sonic (where I got to meet and look after both Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka in person - a big moment for me).

I was even the star of an official SEGA video where I unboxed a Special Edition of the game, which was only available in the UK at the time. You can still watch that on SEGA's YouTube channel. Please excuse the hair, it was a simpler time:

So yeah. Without even playing the new game, I'm feeling pretty heavily nostalgic. I'm looking forward to hearing what nuckles87 has to say about the game - you can expect to see that on this very website in the Sonic News section soon enough - and I'm definitely looking forward to playing it myself at Gamescom (and hopefully catch up with Iizuka-san and reminisce about the old Summer of Sonic days).

Only one thing left for me to say, I suppose.

ALL HAIL SHADOW!