Enough time has passed where I feel comfortable saying this - the Final Boss for Shadow Generations is the best final boss in the series

I absolutely love the fight against Devil Doom / Neo Devil Doom!

I wanted to give it some time before really deciding if it was my favorite or not, I didn’t want to fall to recency bias, but after some time has passed and I’ve gone back and played other final bosses again throughout the series, I genuinely believe that this one is the best.

In most Sonic games, the final bosses involve going Super and flying around hoping you retain enough rings the whole time, but I wouldn’t necessarily say any of them really build off of the gameplay of whichever game they’re in. Don’t get me wrong, presentation-wise, they’re all sick (so sick they make me want to bark like a dog, in fact [thank you anyone who gets the reference lol]), but gameplay-wise they’re a little lackluster, even if they’re still fun.

Frontiers was definitely a step in the right direction for boss fights in my opinion, because you get to use all of your combat moves that you’ve been using throughout the game, but I also wouldn’t say those combos are all that difficult to master in the first place, and you can kinda just pick a favorite and rely on that if you want to.

Shadow Generations, though, has its bosses utilize the most recent ability you’ve gained, all leading to the final boss where you have to use all of your abilities, and while I still wouldn’t call any of them super difficult, they definitely can take a little time to get used to (especially Doom Morph).

Having multiple phases of the final boss where each one uses a specific skill that the game has been training you on throughout its levels and previous bosses is so cool, and it makes it feel even more satisfying to master each of them! I’d argue it even helps the replayability of the game because you’ll want to really go back and hone your skills, especially given that the S Rank for Black Doom is a lot tighter of a window than the other bosses.

Overall, it feels like the culmination of the game in a way that other final bosses don’t necessarily capture gameplay-wise. Oh, and in terms of presentation, it’s still absolutely sick! I hope that future Sonic games continue to do something like this when it comes to final bosses!