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Shadow the Hedgehog: 10th Anniversary Remastered Edition Except not really this is just a topic about the game don't worry


Wraith

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Well I've been preparing for the 10 year anniversary of this game. Really preparing. 

I remember back 10 years ago. I was in secondary school, my Sonic obsession was ripe and thirsty for anything I could get a hold of. I also adored Shadow, I loved his character, I loved his level mechanics and I loved his story. When I heard he was to get his own game, I was hyped like nothing alive. Now back then, I had not much access to the internet so I didn't hear all the naysayers. I tried to keep up with what I could until the game came out and I got it for Christmas. I was so over joyed and looking forward to it (not helped by seeing a trailer for it on a cinema screen!).

So let's get into my feelings on this controversial game. It's pretty fun...though there is a catch. DO NOT TRY TO TAKE THIS GAME SERIOUSLY. If you do, you will not have fun. It tries to make you take it seriously but dude, I got a game about a black hedgehog with guns riding motorbikes to kill aliens. Not happening. Now the story of course, is what you make it. Apart from the Last Story but I'll get onto that. I liked the freedom of a make your own adventure in a Sonic game. The cutscenes and story was hokey but, it's Sonic so why should I take it seriously? If I take it with a pinch of salt, I can withstand it (unless it pushes too many of my buttons, like Lost World, Boom and most of Unleashed does for me). As for the Last Story, yeah it means what you did is meaningless, but I choose to pick and take what I did that led Shadow to there.

Let's go for style next. I can say, most is kind of drab. I never liked the Heroes models and they don't lend themselves to these environments, save the digital ones and black comet ones. Heck, even the Ark has had a bit of a downgrade. The gameplay is fine in my opinion Shadow is slippy but I got use to him damn fast, the guns work and I have never understood how people had problems (really, is there a problem with auto aim?). Everything else was carried from Heroes which was okay, heck we even got wall running before Lost World and the best rail swapping until the Boost games. The vehicles are there. Take them or leave them, doesn't matter. I like the jumpy thing personally and the disk is okay I guess. Shadow also has a pretty good soundtrack, got some real hidden gems in it. The cut songs "Who I Am" and "Broken" are worth a listen too.

So final verdict? Shadow after 10 years is still okay. Not nearly as bad a destroyer as the world seems to love hyping it as. It's not the best game, not by far (I still love Adventure 2 way more) but it's a harmless cheesy romp. Though guys, I will be honest. I did all 326 stories and man, I don't know if it's worth it. I like the game and I know I didn't get anything from it but the bragging rights are quite a feat. Facebook has been full of people's jaws dropping at the sight of it and that just takes me back to being the kid who got this for Christmas 10 years ago. Watch the video down below to see the full angsty library (even I'll admit, those names are ridiculous).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fKtlAYBmFQ 

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Shadow the Hedgehog is one of my favourite Sonic games! I mean yeah the story sucks and the Diablion boss is the most tedious thing ever. But even then, I still had heaps of fun with this game. I like the mechanics used. It's inspired me to make my own project, using this as inspiration. I wish Sega would revisit the gameplay here and fix it up a bit to make it even better, but that'll never happen.

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About Sonic in this game I write something on it before but here it is:

I know alot of people dont like how Sonic or anyone is protrayed in that game. However the more I watch the cutscenes (i dont have a wii anymore so I cant play the game) the more I like him in this game. Plus I used to hate how he was in this game 

Anyway, I noticed that while he acts like a 2 year old who had too many oreos, he still has his warmth and humanity. Even on the dark missions he still has "care" for his rival even giving him advice on the boss fights. Im not sure if I touched this before but this is from a different prespective~

2rmsh01.png

This sticks out because Sonic knows that Shadow is mentally unstable in this scene and in the others. Im also sure he didnt want them to fight but rather not. When a character is that unstable they start to do crazy shit but in this case, Sonic knows that and wants to stop his rival from hurting himself. Even his own rivals, Sonic still cares about them. He wants to help, but the way the games written will not allow it.

Im pointing this out because while he was annoying I feel people forgot about that part of his character in the game. (I also think its worth saying, well the way i Thought it was, that in the fight Sonic puts himself between diablon and Shadow and tries to block his rival from doing crazy stuff)

 

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I can't stand this game. From the horrid controls to the terrible plot to the drab aesthetic to it's buttrock-tastic ost, it's just all bad to me, man. I remember being excited for this game once upon a time ( though I was ten at the time and I got hyped by nearly anything that was related to Sonic) and thought it looked like the coolest thing ever. Yuck.

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Ah, Shadow The Hedgehog... what can I say about you, hm?

Well, as a little kid back in 2005, I was excited for this game. Why? Because it had a Sonic character in it. It had guns, and I thought it was normal because it had Sonic in it.

Yeah, I wasn't very bright back then.

Anyway, I got it and tried to play through the Hero Story thinking the Hero Path was the true ending with Super Shadow. In the end, I made it to the emo path and I thought that was it. Again, not very bright.

Now that I'm older and I know what exactly this game had to offer, I gave it a shot once again. I never made it to the final story because the ARK levels pissed me off. The missions can be rather tedious, the controls were slippery, the story was all over the place, I could go on and on.

But I enjoyed the neutral route, I found some hidden gems in the soundtrack, the gun mechanic was fun and I have nostalgic feelings overall. Especially with the multiplayer.

Not the worst game I played, but I can't say it was good.

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Oh man, Shadow the Hedgehog. I remember the day when I first saw the trailer and I was so hyped for. (being the crazy, 11 year old Shadow fangirl that I was) So I was very, very disappointed when first played it. The biggest problem I have with game is that it's so boring and dull. The missions are such a chore to do and the controls caused me so many game overs. I eventually stopped playing the game until 2009. The games tries way to be edgy that ends up being stupid but in a funny way. Especially the damn dialogue.. 

I did had some fun memories playing the multiplayer with my younger brother.  The game's theme song " I Am" is one my favorite crush 40 tracks. The unused track " Who I am" is such a great song.  The intro, while ridiculous, is pretty entertaining to watch. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPWrHPNekvE

 

Edited by CottonCandy
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My biggest sticking point with ShTH is that the gunplay is designed in such a way that it's completely counter-intuitive to flow. Ideally you'd want a gunplay mechanic in which you can shoot accurately regardless of context, be it running or jumping or walljumping or whatever, but because the radius for auto-aiming at nearby enemies is so damn short you can only spray and pray at best - and spraying bullets carelessly is something that just doesn't work with the small amount of ammo they allow you. More often than not, you have to move right up to an enemy and come to a complete stop in order to hit enemies reliably, which somehow defeats the point of being both a Sonic game and a third person shooter at the same time. It's fucking insane that they didn't just make ShTH's gameplay an offshoot of Gamma's and Eggman's regardless of the weapon you're packing, because not only did both of those work just fine it would've allowed for some gun-fu shit that probably would've actually looked cool in spite of everything.

Ultimately though, ShTH is the victim of a bandwagon jump with no meaningful direction or purpose. Sega didn't care whether or not they could make this work or whether it would fit in with anything they'd already established with the series, tonal or mechanical - it strikes me more as a shallow attempt to make a quick buck off the Halo market of the time, and kids who wanted the privilege of being "cool" and "mature" without the responsibility of abandoning their affinity towards cute cartoon mascots in the process. Say what you will about Conker's Bad Fur Day, but at the very least they didn't pull any fucking punches with it - there was swearing, gore, sexual themes, the whole nine yards, and it could be legitimately funny despite (or because of) its crudeness. Meanwhile ShTH gives everything green blood and is ashamed to say anything harsher than "DAMN". Sega, you can be kid friendly or you can be edgy as shit, but it just doesn't work when you try to have it both ways.

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lol.. i didn't know it was the anniversary and just yesterday i was playing it again XD

i felt so nostalgic and i decided to start playing it again... after all there is still a lot of endings to complete before to unlock the definitive one.. XD

i'm on the ark again. completing the whole hero side story...XD this time everything has been a lot easy than when i started...

i really like this game.. its kinda frustating sometimes..but it results to be very fun...... sometimes :lol: hehe ok  well the most of the times..

happy annyversary Shadow the Hedgehog the game

bless your awesome soundtraks and the All Hail Shadow..theme (not by crush 40 version)  its one of my favs, and bless all the times i fell to a cliff on Digital Circuit zone..they were funny the first 5 times..

tumblr_lvuvoq9C671r2x5r4.gifcling!*

:Dheheh

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I love this game to death, and seeing so much negativity towards it since...well since the beginning, it's gotten grating over the years when nearly every time I mention I like the game, someone makes fun of me, or questions how I possibly could, or just laughs at me like I'm stupid. But it's still just a game in the end, and I never take any game too seriously, so if I like it, I just like it, regardless of how everyone else feels, even if a majority of people hate it and hate me for liking it, if I like it, that ain't gonna stop. :P Also if I haven't made it clear enough before, Shadow is my favorite character, so you are fully free to believe I am biased as all hell and dismiss me as crazy if you want.

Is the game flawed? Of course, but then again, so is SA2 and S3&K. Is the story silly? Yeah, but so is SA1. Glitchy? Well, I never found any horrible glitches that ruined my gameplay experience, I only ever died to my own incompetence. I wish the game didn't reuse the not very good looking and short and shiny as hell Heroes models, the CG stock art for the game would have fit the style more, same with the slippery movement, also from Heroes too, it's not exclusive to here.

I love the gameplay aside from that, the multiple branching pathways are fun and I appreciate choice, I find it much more enjoyable than a linear game like Heroes where you have to play through it the same way 4 times, and Heroes is long, a story mode game for Shadow is a lot shorter, and you only need to play the first level the same each time, so it's less frustrating and tedious to me. Gunplay is great and it never felt forced or out of place to me, I always like seeing what the different varieties did, and which was most useful in each situation. Music is awesome too, some of my favorite in the entire series, from the opening, level music, to the ending themes (all of them) to even the unused songs, I love the music so much, it gives me goosebumps upon listening to it by itself. >3<

I actually barely knew anything about the Sonic series when I first played the game, it was in 2007, and I had only just barely started to really like the series the previous Christmas. I went to a gamestop with someone I knew, and she suggested I get Shadow the Hedgehog to play, as we had fun with SADX, I had no idea what it was, but I went for it, and from the opening cutscene, we laughed at the sillyness, and had fun the whole way through the first playthrough. I had no idea that there was a branching gameplay, I just kept running to the goal, not knowing what was going on, but I had a blast the whole way too, poking fun at the sillyness, but loving it all the same (I did this with SADX and SA2B all the same) Egg Dealer is one of my favorite bosses just because of how silly it is!

As much as people poke fun at the game about how 'srs' it is, I find it to be more silly than anything, and I love the sillyness. Ow the Edge? Nah, it's too silly to take it too seriously and to get angry at it, this isn't a game to get angry about, in my opinion. I enjoy the story for what it is regardless.

tl;dr, All the negativity makes me sad, but I still love the game anyway, and that will never change.

Now have a cute Shadow image so you feel better.

shadow_join_me__by_icy_cream_24-d62id0r.

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I got this game as a gift around the time it came out, when I was ten. I started playing the first level, died, heard Shadow say "damn" and elected to stop playing. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made. Good on you, kid-me.

Oh well, even if the game is awful, at least it gave us this absolute gem of a cutscene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veSFrIVKXOY

"This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me." - Shadow the Hedgehog, 2005

Edited by Weh
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Aw, I was planning on making this topic tomorrow, but I must admit, the OP is much better than what I've could have done. Well done wraith.

Just like the good Tenth Doctor, I recently completed every single pathway in Shadow the Hedgehog. What can I say? It's a flawed game, but still has great elements of fun.

I feel that because of the branching pathways, as well as a unique first level, I never really got tired of the game.

The tone; yeah at times I took it seriously, and other times I just laughed at it. It's the same attitude I have when watching a mystery science theater movie. Using swearing was a misguided decision, but that doesn't take away from the games charm.

I quite enjoy the gunplay; it stays accurate and almost always I hit what I wanted to. Take a look at Black Bull boss fight in Death Ruins; the gunplay is so good that you can just shoot him from the ground with impunity; despite the game designers intending for you to jump on the higher rail and fight him the hard way.

The music; I quite enjoy the music. It's has a soundtrack that is varied and conveys atmosphere. Particularly Gun Fortress. That songs greatly conveys the feeling that humanity's last hope is destroyed and the cutscene music before that, I know professor, a chilling short tune that shows just how dark the situation has become. watch?v=CiKA_QywrOAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiKA_QywrOA

There are some moments that are simply silly however. Such as at the beginning, the GUN commander decides to deploy all the troops after being told of a possible sighting of shadow.....

Six cities have been severely attacked....and you're just now deploying troops because of a possible sighting of the individual you want revenge on?

Another silly element, though you won't see this until Sonic 06, both Gun commander and Shadow join the organization that killed Maria....To 06's credit though, Shadow says to Mephilis, ,"Don't try to deceive me; I know who I am." Great tie in.

There's a variety of other silly moments as well, such as just with the story progression. My favorite is giving the ARK to Black Doom in Space Gadget. You can get to the level by possibly resisting Black Doom at every turn, when then when you get to the Ark in Space Gadget....you can give Black Doom the Ark with the Eclipse Cannon and everything. And Black Doom expects you to, and still calls you a traitor even when you have brought down his precious flying fortress in sky troops. There's no logical consistency.

Another element....I love all the arm flapping in the game, especially in the Egg Breaker scenes and Last Story. I'm envious, because no matter how fast I flap my arms, I can't make that flapping sound.

I could on forever, but the final element I would like to discuss is the Last Story. In other sonic games, the last story was a continuation of all previous chapters; the previous chapters logically concluded into the last story. This was done well in Sa2 and Heroes. However, in Shadow....nearly all the endings contradict the last story, and that is sad. Out of all the endings, only 3 fit into the last story. Semi-dark dark ending; semi-hero dark ending, and Hero dark ending. Confusing isn't it?

In the semi-dark dark ending, Shadow says he will serve Black doom and build a dark empire. And its on the Black Comet; perfect for last story. In the lighter pathway of that level, Shadow kills Eggman. Not good for last story. The neutral endings have the same result and outcome. Poor Eggman. The Gun fortress endings don't fit either; either he certainly won't consider giving the emeralds to Black Doom like he does in the final chapter, or he just won't care what happens to the planet.

Cosmic fall, if Shadow goes against Black Doom, he's not going to give the emeralds to him in final story; in the dark ending of Cosmic fall, Shadow doesn't kill Eggman...so that ending can fit right? Well, despite what I said earlier, not really; the ark is heavily damaged. I doubt it would be able to fire the Eclipse Cannon, and it looks perfectly fine in the Last story.

Lastly, the Hero endings. The dark hero ending could work with the last story, but the hero hero ending, Shadow defeats Black doom and declares Black doom is finished. He certainly won't give the emeralds to him in Last story now. Ugh, explaining this is a confusing mess.

So yeah, nearly all the endings could have been greatly reworked....and don't kill Eggman! Even though I would say he deserves it....yeah, a lot of folks will hate me for saying that.

As for the Last Story itself, I like it, and I never get tired of seeing super forms....but why did Shadow leave everyone to get munched on by alien spawn? But in the following cutscenes, there seems to be no ill effects. Were the alien spawn just giving massages?

And then....Shadow finds out who he is by....the recording discovered by Chaotix...not the Emeralds. The entire emerald hunt was a waste; shadow would have been better off by just hiring the chaotix...and speaking of them, who hired them? Why were they looking for information in the first place? Furthermore, the recording plays everywhere, from the GUN fortress to the black comet. Why didn't that happen when Rouge played Gerald's diary in SA2? Was it because Charmy smacked the terminal?

Yeah, I could go on and on, but I've rambled enough...I did appreciate the epilogue offered in expert mode; all the characters cheering shadow on at the last mission, despite some of them being dead, touching moment.

It's a very flawed game, but it's a very fun one; one that I am very happy to have played. All hail Shadow!

One last note; one I believe is probably the most canonical pathway through this messy story. Shadow starts of neutral from Westopolis; cause he just wants the Emeralds; Second mission, Shadow stays neutral, he won't be intimated by Doom and still just wants the emeralds. Third mission, Prison Island, Shadow follows doom this time, because he has faint memories of already blowing up the place...and GUN is probably starting to irritate him. Fourth mission, The Doom, Shadow helps Maria, of course. Fifth mission, Iron Jungle, Shadow fights off GUN again because he's still ticked off at GUN and he's introduced finally to the shadow androids. I'm very tempted to say he follows Omega, but that leads to cosmic fall; the ARK gets the stuffing blown out of it because of Alien attack, and it looks perfectly fine in Last Story. Besides, Shadow does not seem to like Omega. He does not mention him once in his monologues, the ones you listen to when you quit a story and then begin again. (Why does Doom attack the ark before getting the Emerald? Why does it suddenly stop when Shadow gets the emerald? Logic...poor logic, its stomped on).

So, last level, Black Comet, Shadow sides with doom for the last time, avoids killing Eggman, and then dramatically turns against Doom in Last story.

What do you guys think? Do you agree this is the best way to make sense of this story?

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I thought it was GREAT

Didn't like the swearing when it came out because I was young and sensitive but it doesn't really bother me anymore.

It... Honestly was like a much better Sonic Heroes to me. And I hate Sonic Heroes. :V For some reason Shadow felt a lot less slippery than everyone in Heroes. He still controls like he's on butter sticks but it's not too horrible. I dunno.

Oh the guns were super helpful too. Heroes always had these enemies with soooo much health. So does Shadow but the guns make things much easier.

I will say that the Artificial Chaos Hunt can go STRAIGHT TO HELL (sorry tara :^)) though, seriously.

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I hated Shadow the Hedgehog when it was released, and I still have absolutely nothing positive to say about it ten years later. It was a trainwreck of a story, the gameplay was abysmal, the vocal music was angsty schlock, the graphics were putrid and ugly, and Eggman gets murdered for no reason whatsoever in three of the game's endings.

Terrible game, glad it quite rightfully bombed, never want to see anything like it again. Happy anniversary.

Edited by Dr. Mechano
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Ah, I remember those olden times, back when I was young and a lot more easily impressed due to such low standards. Oh, and the heated arguments I got into. Good times.

I was interested in this mainly because I thought this would allow the franchise to touch things with greater maturity...boy was I wrong to see it as such.

Looking back, it becomes hella obvious this was a cash grab and one with not that much thought. I mean, honestly, a Shadow game could work, heck the general premise of the game was solid - Shadow discovering more about his past would have brought everything full circle and made more sense of what they did with SA2, using GUN and their ruthless past as a means to explore why Shadow was created and the conspiracy surrounding all that culuminated into the ARK raid. I once used to think this game would have been better off deleted from continuity, but nowadays I see what they could have done and done better for its story. No really, this could have actually worked well had they knew what they were doing and actually built upon what they established in SA2.

But the result we actually recieved was...aliens. Aliens completely out of nowhere in Shadow's original backstory, aliens that were only around because of the hype surrounding games like Halo, and a whole smorgage board of bad writing: an incoherent and disjointed narrative with gratuitous swearing, misuse of darker and edgier tone, hardly anything that built upon what was established, and missed opportunities. And that's just the story - we've already ripped apart the gameplay who knows how many times.

What's even funnier is that these so-called "mature" elements they wanted to work could have actually worked without trying to ride the Halo/GTA craze that was going on at the time. I've seen this stuff handled with greater tact in the Megaman X and Zero series and Pokemon, so it's not like they ShTH couldn't be darker and edgier than SA2 - heck SA2 was already proof enough they could handle it. But with how they handled things so gratuitously in this particular direction just put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.

At the end of the day, there is something of value in ShTH, mainly as a learning lesson of things a franchise can and can't do when you want to going a particular direction. Darker and Edgier, Sonic can do - There are examples of franchises doing certain things ShTH tried to do, but without losing their identity in the process (the Megaman X and Zero, Pokemon examples, and hell even Mario). But Darker and Edgier with guns swearing, poor handling of stuff so out of nowhere that it makes the work suffer? That's something hardly any franchise can do well, at least one that wants to be taken as seriously as ShTH wanted to be.

All in all, what it set out to do ended up failing, but even then you can learn a lot from failure.

Terrible game, glad it quite rightfully bombed,

Actually, it was technically somewhat of a success in terms of sales, but the poor critical reception from fans and critics alike sent the shockwaves that told Sonic Team "no".

Edited by ChaosSupremeSonic
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Actually, it was technically somewhat of a success in terms of sales, but the poor critical reception from fans and critics alike sent the shockwaves that told Sonic Team "no".

Which didn't stop them from attempting to shoehorn some aspects of the game into Sonic '06 to debatable levels of success.

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Terrible game, glad it quite rightfully bombed, never want to see anything like it again. Happy anniversary.

It didn't bomb. Neither of the really bad Sonic games did. It's Sega noticing how many people were actively and openly mocking them that made them decide to change things. 

Makes me wonder what would have happened if we didn't make such a shitstorm over this and 06. 

 

Edited by Wraith
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Which didn't stop them from attempting to shoehorn some aspects of the game into Sonic '06 to debatable levels of success.

What? The vehicles?

Honestly, them still being around in Sonic 06 is the least of that game's problems.

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I think it would be accurate to say both ShTH and Sonic '06 "bombed," but only critically.  People tend to define the success of movies in a sense that segregates critical reception and financial earnings.  There are a number of movies that are critical failures but financial successes and vice versa.  Video games are pretty much the same way.  Sonic '06 was a critical bomb, but was a financial success of sorts, and ShTH is largely the same, albeit not to nearly the same degree.

What? The vehicles?

Honestly, them still being around in Sonic 06 is the least of that game's problems.

And I'm not denying that, just affirming that it shows that even after the severe critical backlash of Shadow, they still seemed convinced that they had something really special going with Shadow.

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Goddamn it Vector, it's been 10 damn years and you still haven't found the damn computer room. You are just damn bad at your damn detective job, and you can be damn well sure that you are a damn sad excuse of a detective for not finding that damn computer room in 10 damn years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn

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