Shadow the Hedgehog

"Shadow's a little too edgy for his own good, but this is still a solid experience."

So few characters in the Sonic franchise get the honor of having their own game. And thanks to the crazy Shadow fanbase, Sega decided they could really milk us for all we're worth with Shadow the Hedgehog, a game in which we take control of a hedgehog who's supposed to be a dark version of Sonic.....but he's not evil. Or is he? One of the fun ideas of this game is that it has an open ended story mode where you get to choose what Shadow does during the course of his adventure. Oh and it's a 3D platformer with elements like controlling vehicles, and using....guns. Yes, Shadow uses guns. I know, it doesn't fit.

The story has our hero Shadow pondering his existence. For some reason or another, he's got amnesia and he can't remember a thing. The only memory he has is of him and a girl named Maria, running away from some military troops, then BAM! Maria gets shot. Yeah, this is a kids game! Out of nowhere the planet gets invaded by a legion of aliens known as the Black Arms. Their leader, Black Doom (creative name by the way), approaches Shadow and demands he get the Chaos Emeralds to him....like he promised. Shadow doesn't know what he's talking about of course, but it intrigues him. Could he know about his past? Shadow rushes off to take sides and find answers. Who he helps is entirely up to you. Do you trust Black Doom? Do you wanna help Sonic and his friends? Or are you like me and swear loyalty to Dr. Eggman (Robotnik) and the Eggman Empire!? The choice is entirely yours.

And that's the game's story in a nutshell. Personally I feel it could've been a lot better. It makes the mistake of assuming that you've played Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes...so most of the time Shadow gets his flashbacks, you get still images and clips back to those games. But if you haven't played those....they don't explain a whole lot. Another problem is that it's plot hole city. Most levels start off with you there for no reason, with no clue how you got there or why. I could be in outer space one minute, and for no reason I get warped to Eggman's base. Zuh?! Also in that particular level I mentioned, no matter what choice you make be it good or evil, you always fight the same boss and that really defeats the purpose now doesn't it? Plus the ending retconn's Shadow's creator's story and I don't particularly like changing that. But I digress. There are a ton of cutscenes and it's fun to see both Good and Evil Shadow doing their thing. Mostly evil though. I would've liked to had seen less of the president and the military though. They aren't Sonic characters, we don't care about them.

But the story doesn't make a video game. Now I have been reading up on some terrible reviews for this game and I am astounded. Admittedly it's not perfect but it's far from the train wreck some people have made it out to be. I can imagine a lot of the criticism comes from the edgy new attitude that Shadow brings to the table. The first thing you see when the game boots up, is Shadow loading ammo into a submachine gun. I don't think guns should ever be in a Sonic game unless they're attached to Eggman's drones. Now if it was in the gameplay only, I wouldn't mind. But in the opening FMV Shadow is blasting everything in sight and even the menu sounds are gun shots. Sonic Team....Shadow doesn't need guns. So stop boasting about it. Another edgy addition is the inclusion of minor swears. Shadow and company say Damn, and Hell a lot. In fact everytime Shadow falls down a cliff, he says "Damn! Not here!!" When he gets hit normally, he screams "Damn!" And there's one priceless line in which he says "Where's that DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?" It's pretty ridiculous. I know Shadow's a darker version of Sonic....but that doesn't mean the world should get darker and edgier because of it!

Yeesh. Luckily the gameplay itself stays somewhat true to the regular 3D formula. And hey, this is the closest we've gotten (aside from Sonic and the Secret Rings) to a Sonic only adventure where you don't play as any of his friends. Shadow's the only playable character, and he has quite the adventure. Shadow keeps the trademark speed we've all come to expect as he whips around loop de loops, jumps from wall to wall, and even uses his Chaos powers to go through everything at the speed of light. The speed is still there and I'm grateful for that. Shadow has the traditional homing attack and spin dash, and though he may not be our favourite blue hero, he sure feels like it. New additions to the gameplay come in form of the Good/Evil system and the gunplay. In every level there are usually two sides of enemies fighting each other. One side's good, the other's evil. On the top of the screen you've got two empty bars on the left and right They are the good and evil meters. Kill enough Evil enemies and your good meter fills up. When it does Shadow gets charged with a blue light and is able to use the skill, Chaos Control. Chaos Control lets you whip past everyone towards the goal until your good meter runs out. Not to worry, if it runs out while you're flying above a bottomless pit, you keep flying until you reach land.

The problem with Chaos Control is that unless your goal of the mission is to just reach the end, this ability is useless. More on that later. Defeating good enemies fills up the evil meter and charges Shadow with a red light that lets him use Chaos Blast. With Chaos Blast you can destroy absolutely everything in the surrounding area with a burst of energy, and you can do it more than once since it doesn't waste too much power. The benefits of getting into Chaos mode for either side is that until the meter goes out you're invincible and have unlimited ammo for your guns. So it's usually better for good players to not use Chaos Control, and instead take advantage of the benefits. As for the gunplay, Shadow can pick up a variety of human, alien, and robot weapons to use at his disposal. Some are handguns, some are machine guns, and some are rocket launchers. Aside from the rocket launchers the guns aim automatically shoots anything that's in front of it. So though at first glance it looks stupid and like you can't hit anything....that's cause you're not facing the enemy. Gunplay is easy and though I hate it's strong presence in the menus and whatnot, I admit it's a fun little addition that adds something new to the Sonic formula. Shadow can also useless melee weapons....but those are useless since they break after a certain number of hits. Boo!

Structure wise the game follows typical Sonic gameplay but adds in different missions for the multiple path storyline. The first level for example offers you three different ways to play. You can just reach the goal line (neutral), you can take out all the aliens (Good) or you can take out all of the law enforcement there (Evil). So for the other 2 missions you have to kill every single cop or alien in the level. The checkpoints that save your progress are now also used to teleport you to other checkpoints...this is so that if you reach the end and you haven't killed all of the cops because one was hiding really good, you can teleport back to the start of the level and keep searching. Some of these missions do take out the speed part of the game as you'll be stopping to hit every goon that comes your way. But I didn't mind...it's something new. And hey if you just want the speedy adventure, then that's what the neutral mission is for. The missions aren't all "kill all of the enemies". Some force you to collect a certain amount of rings, others you might be destroying a ship that's slowly driving away, maybe you might be activating a series of switches in another. There's enough diversity to keep it from being boring. Though some will annoy you to no end. Mad Matrix's Dark Mission: I HATE YOU.

Shadow can also get into vehicles every now and then and let me say...they are absolute garbage. The opening FMV shows Shad on a motorcycle going at a pretty decent speed. Yet in the gameplay you get onto one, and you move slower than anything in the world. Not only that, your motorcycle gets damaged from running over alien creatures that aren't even as big as the wheel! It's much faster and easier to go on foot, and that's sad. The game also rates you on your skills during the level and give you an A to E rank depending on how well you did. It was too easy to get the A rank this time around. I remember my first playthrough I got 4 A Ranks. Getting all A ranks earns you a super hard mode. Personally I was hoping for a better reward. I took the time to A rank every mission of every level and this is the thanks I get? Come on Sonic Team what happened to those extra Green Hill levels and Metal Sonic skins and other fun bonuses of past Sonic games? Oh and speaking of that, the multiplayer in this game is AWFUL. They only give you 3 arenas where you have to pick a different looking Shadow, and battle each other. The camera doesn't help there at all. It helps in the 1 player adventure, but it's horribly broken in 2 Players. Why bother throwing that in guys?! But I digress.

Graphically this game looks okay. Shadow looks like he does on the cartoon show and really isn' t that good enough? We don't want him to have a Conker: Live and Reloaded fur effect, he's fine as is! The FMV sequences look like all kinds of awesome, and I love the Chaos Control effect where Shadow whips past everyone and the screen gets all distorted and everything. It's good stuff. I wish camera had better control though. Sometimes you just wanna see all around you but unfortunately it's locked in a position that makes it very difficult to do so. But at least it's looking at what you need to see....unlike a certain Xbox 360 Sonic game I know. The only thing that looks stupid is the humans. One, they have flat faces and square bodies, and the troops Shadow runs into in the actual gameplay are all freakin' midgets. Shad's gun is bigger than their heads! That's not accurate guys! Otherwise it looks fine for a Sonic title.

Audio wise the game brings some more catchy level tunes and 80's style rock music. And usually these Sonic games have a wide variety of music...sorry, it's Shadow's game and he only wants dark rock stuff. Don't expect any uplifting teamwork music that Sonic usuallly has. Again, this game is too edgy for it's own good. This game marks the first of many Sonic games to feature a new voice cast. And I don't mind their work, and our lead Shadow, sounds almost exactly like the previous voice actor...so at first I didn't even notice. And Black Doom is a favourite of mine if only because he sounds exactly like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. I'm corny, I like the fun attitude Sonic games have brought to the table, so I like their audio.

Shadow the Hedgehog is a lot funner than people make it out to be. Sure some of the missions are annoying and trying to find all of the troops you need to kill sucks. But ONLY some. For the most part it's a really fun time and it'll keep you busy since there are over 10 different endings and an 11th true ending for when you get the first 10. Yes it does have guns, and yes Shadow says Damn way too much. But oh well. Take all that out and the gameplay stays the same. It's fun, it's different, and I enjoyed it very much. Plus I'm a sucker for games that let me choose between being good or evil.

IN THE END...
Shadow the Hedgehog is too edgy for it's own good. But that doesn't hurt the gameplay. It's fast, it's fun, it's got some good graphics, great audio, and there's a lot of replayability to be had with all the missions and A-Ranks to get. Slight camera problems and a few annoying missions aren't enough to bring this game down.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/05/07

Game Release: Shadow the Hedgehog (US, 11/15/05)