Shadow the Hedgehog

"I was disappointed with this game, but still some fun to be had"

Sonic and Mario have been mascot rivals and are both character icons representing each company. Mario represents Nintendo and Sonic represents Sega. Shadow the Hedgehog is the latest platfomer(or shooter) game and many game critics didn't like it, but was still enjoyed by alot of fans and reader reviews. To me, I think once again this game was somewhat underappreciated, yet again, I think it's also overrated. Shadow the Hedgehog is a fairly fun game but is very frusterating on alot of parts. At first when saw Shadow the Hedgehog was being made, I though it was a bad idea. Then I thought it would be a good shot for Sega to make the game, but when I saw the scores, there were sub-par. 4.8(Gamespot, what?!) 4.9(Ign, ouch) and of course 4(game informers, well it's expected to happen there). I think this was a huge dissappointment. I mean Sonic is the number one mascot for Sega, and he's somewhat treated like he's not.

Mario has been in alot of games. Some were excellent, some were good, then average and maybe very few that are bad, but not terrible. Because of alot of games Mario could have something for everyone, well unless if you think Mario is childish. Sonic, on the other hand has a fair amount of problems. But I didn't think Sonic Adventure 1 or 2 were bad. They were great. SA2B is the best 3-D sonic game in my opinion. Sonic Heroes were great too, not without its faults though. Yes all of that seems positive, but the problem some people didn't like the adventure ones at all, but alot did. They often don't listen to the game critics.

Dissapointments also are there for both companies. Nintendo's Starfox Assault was dissapointing, but still a very fun game thats just about right on everything except for replay value. Shadow the Hedgehog seems to be a little too rushed and Sega and Sonic Team didn't spend enough time in it, though Starfox Assault wasn't rushed, but was still expected to be a whole lot better.

Now Shadow the Hedgehog is here and it turns out to be a mediocre or average game. It has its positives and negatives. Now on to the review.

Story- Well as a start, the story is a whole lot better than Sonic Heroes story. That game just had a plot that came out of nowhere. Shadow's Story is a step in the right direction. Though I feel the Black Arms and the GUN soldiers fighting seems to be sort of there and doesn't seem to have an impact on Shadow but not bad. Anyway Shadow doesn't know much about himself and can't rember his past and wants to findout. In the Beginning, he meets Black Doom. He's part of the race of the Black Arms, a race of aliens who are against the Human GUN soldiers. I may have not described the story very well because I'm not very good at story telling. But it's not as bad as Sonic Heroes Story.
Score:6-10

Gameplay-6/10- Alright This game has its ups and downs. Whats cool about this game is that Shadow can choose which side he wants to go on and there are several pathes to take. Depending on what he does. If he chooses to help the good guys he will go to the path with the good guys and if bad, the same thing happens too, or he could just go on the neutral side.

Shadow the Hedgehog isn't neccessarily a boring game, but the only time I(and you'll likely) that I have enjoyed the game the most is staying on neutral. All you have to do is run and reach to the goal ring(it could be something else). However, some of the Hero and Dark missions are fairly good, but far from great. Thing is, some of them could have a goal like the neutral ones, but most have objectives( similar to Team Chaotix Missions in Sonic Heroes, but those were better than these). One may have you kill all the humans, or aliens in a city where one could require you to destroy bombs in a circuit. Some are Tolerable and while theyare beatable, they are very time-consuming and some often last 25 to 30 mins(e.g. lost impact). While I do like long stages(e.g. Sonic Heroes did well) this game doesn't work well and makes their missions boring. Once again, few of the Hero missions were okay, but I haven't got there yet.

Also different from the other Sonic games is gimmick use of guns. You press be to shoot them and I think th X button to pickone up, though sometimes you pick one up by just running over one. These guns are just there and our optional, but they can be a hit or miss. Can be very frusterating but then somewhat fun gimmick. If you'd like to avoid them, you could just use the homeing attack to hit enemies. Unlike other Sonic games, The controls feel somewhat clunky and unresponsive. Some levels seem to be more exploration than speed. While I do find that fine, it seems very hard for this game. Also the inclusion of guns should have made this game a "Teen" rated game instead of E10 for people 10 and up. Sega, what the hell were you thinking? Do we want 10 year-olds to shoot humans? Sure there was killing in the previous games, but this seems very unlike those games. The camera wasn't a problem in the previous 3-D games, but the games design makes it annoying and the worst camera out of them. You use the C-stick to move it, but sometimes it's very unresponsive. Often you would get very good angles of your surroundings which could lead to deaths. It happened when I tried to jump on a platform in Cosmic Fall and ended up dying a few times. Get ready for a frustrating experience. Did I mention that you ONLY LOSE TEN RINGS WHEN HIT?!. While it was due to the design, fun part was to lose all of your rings.

Despite Some very frustrating objectives and level designs, the game does a decent job of spicing things up. The boss battles are great(some are annoying but there good) and beats Sonic Heroes bosses and nearly matches the ones from SA1 and SA2B, because they fit the story very well. I like the Dr. Eggman ones. Also some levels like the Tron level, accessiing all the terminals can be somewhat fun but can take time, though bad if your trying to destroy 30 bombs in that level in the circuits. Hero and Dark missions do have few positives.

Graphics-5/10- The graphics are dissappointing. They look alot like Sonic Heroes, except the developers didn't update it. Fortunately, theres lots of variations in the levels. Enviroments on some of the levels looke decent and the Tron-level looks cool. The framerate is consistent one the Gamecube and Xbox, though I heard the PS2 version has frequent slowdowns. Overall dissapointing, but still functional.

Sound-6/10- The previous Sonic games had great music. The music in this game is not as good. There are a few decent tracks(e.g. Final Haunt and Prison Island). Then Some are catchy but not great and then others are average. I liked the Theme "I am". There aren't any bad tracks around but most are average. Sound effects are your typical Sonic sounds with the gun effects and then explosions. They fit the game well. But the voice acting has something to be desired. Some sound like the voices on Sonic X. Why did Sega use the 4 Kids Entertainment Voice Makers? Sonic's voice is okay but he sounds like a punk and I prefer his voice to the other games. Tail's Voice is better than Sonic Heroes, but sounds somewhat like a girl. Knuckles doesn't sound good at all. Shadow sounds like he should be. Espio isn't great either(I want his voice from Sonic Heroes). Charmy's voice is flawed, he sounds like a punkish child who tries to be cool(Sure Charmy in Sonic Heroes sounded like a girl, but I so prefer that voice because he sounds humorous). Vector's Voice is okay but he sounds very cranky(definately prefer his in Sonic Heroes) Eggman's okay but sounds a little different from the others. Did I ever mention that Shadow curses when he gets hit or when he falls. He says "damn" or "hell". Thats another reason why this game should be "Teen" rated.

Value- 5/10- This game has replay value but it may or maynot be worth your time. The multiplayer there is fun for a few minutes but it's so pathetic that it's worthless. Sure Starfox Assault(to me) didn't have a fun multiplayer, but Namco tried to make that game a great multiplayer one with a lot of stages. This game only has THREE stages. In fact, maybe I'll buy Starfox Assault and try the multiplayer soon(if the price is lower enough). Anyway, It can be fun replaying the missions to get all the endings, but it can be frusterating doing it 50+ or whatever times.

Overall, Shadow the Hedgehog is a fun rental, but it can be very frusterating. This is the Second game I rented(First was Starfox Assault). I wouldn't recommend buying this game, but any Sonic fan should rent it, because there is fun to be had, especially when you go on neutral.

Score: 5.7/10(C)

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/06