Shadow the Hedgehog

"It's Shadow on an ultimate adventure to find his past!...again..."

Shadow, Shadow, Shadow. You've let me down. Okay, well it was fun the first time around, but really, it's the same old thing over again...Run around. Jump. Kill enemies. This time the only thing new is that you get to shoot the enemies too! Wonderful! Well, at least it's better than Sonic Heroes...<<

Well, I guess I'm kinda overestimating it. I mean, Heroes was disgusting, so pretty much that tells you that if they actually went uphill from there, they'd do it slowly…REALLY slowly…

Initial Reaction

First time around, it's really fun. I had a great time playing through all the levels, trying to get every ending, but soon, my interest in doing so faded. I found myself just not caring anymore.

Storyline: 2/10

Okay, let's face it. Shadow has had the same story for every game he's been in. "I have to find my past!" "Who Am I?!" Seriously, it was fun at first, but the character has now gotten boring and repetitive. I just thank god they've solved the problem...Or have they! o.o(Coming soon: Shadow 2-Amnesia!) This time around, they've introduced the black arms, a group of aliens who want to destroy the planet...or do they? The leader of the army, Black Doom, offers Shadow an interesting proposition. The Chaos Emeralds for the truth to Shadows past. Will Shadow Give Black Doom the Chaos Emeralds? Or will he keep them to himself and try to figure it out on his own? OR will he use them for good! YOU DECIDE! (=O)

Seriously, the storyline is just an excuse to run out of ideas. Sure there's 10 different endings, but that's the problem, they're DIFFERENT endings. If they had just had all the different story-paths end up in the same ending, it still would have been fun, because you'd still need to get to all the cut-scenes or something before you get the last ending. The whole multiple ending thing gets annoying. Come on, Sonic Team, you can do better.

Aside from the crappy storyline, and rancid Voice Acting, it was written nicely, with some powerful lines in it…But that's all as far as storyline goes…

Game-Play: 5/10

The game-play doesn't change very much in Shadow. That's right, you still have to press forward, and jump allot. This time, with all the mission modes, and guns, it's a little slower, and slightly more strategic. Which is good, because this way you get a much different feel to it, rather than the old way of playing the game. That doesn't mean it doesn't get boring and repetitive.

The whole multiple storyline thing gets pretty annoying, too, because no matter what, you have to play Westopolis about...875 times before you can get all the endings, and I found myself neglecting to get all the endings for the longest time, because I REALLY didn't want to do Westopolis again.

And when you do get the last ending, you get to do a Black Comet level...again...and then you go super. And, of course, Super mode is the same as the rest of them. Move around with the control stick, and press A to do the super boost. Whoopee, it's not a big deal.

Music: 9/10

One of the things I DID, enjoy, however, was the music. I was fairly impressed with the ending songs. My favs. were "I Am" (Of course...), and "Almost Dead." I was fairly disappointed with "Never Turn Back," however. I usually favour the last song over the rest of them, but I wasn't that excited about this one. Sure it was catchy, but it didn't really appeal to me as much as "What I'm Made of," which was...well, awesome. In one of the MP levels, the Radical Highway song from SA2B is back, which was fun, but I hated the MP mode anyways…

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics haven't changed much since Sonic Heroes. Maybe a little tweak here, a little smoother there, but nothing really that new. I liked the graphics in the game, as I did Sonic Heroes, but there's nothing new to report, really.

Multi-player: 1/10

The Multi-player is atrocious. Literally, all it is is a battle mode, and the first one dies wins. There is a list of six characters you can choose from. Normal Shadow, an orange streaked shadow, and four metallic shadows. BORING! At least make some other characters other than shadow playable. I mean, come on…There are three levels you can choose from: A fire level, and two military base levels, all of them horrid. Of course, in one of them it has the radical Highway music from SA2B which was neat, but still, who designed the extras for this game anyway? (No, seriously, I neglected the credits. I dunno, but he sucks, whoever he is…)

And another thing, why doesn't the game have a four player on the GC, I mean come on, it's been…a long time since the first GC game, you can think of something…

Replay Value: 3/10

There is little to no Replay value in this game. Seriously. After you've unlocked the last ending, there's not much motivation to get anything else. Getting all A Ranks will only get you "Hard Mode" Whoopie. I haven't unlocked it, I don't think I really want to, not really that valuable to me. There's nothing to unlock in MP mode, so there's really no point in playing it after you've beaten it.

Rent or Buy?

Rent. After you get the last ending, there's no point in playing it anymore. I bought it, and probably won't trade it in, but I don't recommend doing the same. I suppose if you're a serious Sonic gamer, I guess you could buy it, but really, there's really no point if you just want to play it for fun. It's a renter.

Overall: 5/10

Overall, I was not impressed. It was entertaining the first time around, which is good for renters, but there's no replay value, the game-play is obnoxious, and the storyline is just plain crud. Music was catchy though...

What they could've done…[

You know what? I like Shadow, but his whole storyline is so cliche. But, now that they've solved that issue, I'm interested in what Shadow has to offer. If it were me who made the game, It would've been a different game altogether.

First off, screw the original characters. Shadow never really fit in with Sonic, and the gang anyways, they were so kiddie, and Shadow was…well, dark. So, make a new cast of characters. Yeah, sure the Sonic Franchise doesn't really need any new characters, HOWEVER, if Sonic wasn't even in the game, it would technically then be the ‘Shadow' Franchise. Loophole! =D

As far as game-play goes, I would also make that completely different. I liked that you really had to DO the level, rather than run by it. However, different style in game-play calls for a different design in levels. I'm a fan of the 3D Sonic Games, but if you want shadow to stand out, just give him his own separate franchise. Instead of the start-to-finish levels, give him a Metroid: Prime style vast world. (Not the whole first person shooter thin, I'm talking about the way the levels are played out) That'd be fun. I'd buy it.

Storyline. I mean, come on, it wasn't exactly that spectacular. That's more of an intro thing. You don't make a whole game on “Who am I?” “What's my past?!” That's more something that you'd do first, and then the real storyline comes into play. That way, if you just do it in the beginning, you have MUCH more room for a good storyline, not crap with a star in it.

As far as anything else goes, better multi-player, and, above all, MORE EXTRAS!

That's about all I have to say about this game. It wasn't COMPLETE crap, but it was pretty crap...

-Anti_Entirety

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/06