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Shadow the Hedgehog - Shadows of the Past

RK128

Member
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Boy, this is a massive game for the Sonic series, as it is what I consider the 'start' of the fabled 'Dark Age of Sonic'. Games that fit among this start with Shadow and continues until Sonic Unleashed launched in 2008.

So, what is so bad about this game?

I mean, LOOK the damn cover XD! Its a small cartoon hedgehog packing heat; it was going to fail regardless of its quality :'). But that is jumping to conclusions. So, lets dive into this trainwreck of a game and pick apart what makes it tick.

I'm not alone in covering this mess, with NeoGaf Member Village helping me out :D! Here is his introduction to this mess of a game :).

Village:

This game is, a massive disappointment and an exercise in...well, doing to much. To be quite honest , a lot of sonic could actually learn that lesson. But to keep the focus on this game in particular, the sad part is, there are very " simple" solutions to a lot of thematic issues presented in this game. We'll get to that in a bit.

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Some history and background before I continue; this game was concieved on the idea of Naka and Sonic Team USA trying to make the series appeal to older gamers. In addition, they wanted to explore the backstory of Shadow the Hedgehog, a character they had a lot to cover based off events in Sonic Adventure 2 and with the idea of him losing his memories in Sonic Heroes......its ripe for a game staring him.

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Sonic Team also wanted to explore shooting mechanics within a game title before but unlike past Sonic Team ventures where if they had a new concept, they made a new IP that fully explores it (Billy Hatcher, NiGHTS, Ristar, Burning Rangers, Samba De Amigo, ect)......they tried to make the idea work within the Sonic series.

So, what does this mean? Because of the above, they had the bright idea to give a cartoon hedgehog guns. Yep.....instead of using chaos powers that he has and fleshing out his Chaos Spear ability into a really cool mechanic, they just give him guns.

This issue will appear in future Sonic titles during this Dark Age of Sonic, throwing concepts and ideas into the series without serious thought.

So, lets get to the story, as considering how its going to explore the darker elements of Sonic introduced in Adventure 2 (the ARK, experimentation, military, ect)......it must be done well, right? ......Right?

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Guess not, huh :(?

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I'm going to let NeoGaf Member Village take the floor with this section, as both of us have ALOT to say about horrid the story is.

Village:

This games story is is an perfect example, of the biggest issue this whole game.

Its actually quite simple, kind of star wars-ey in its presentation, and not horrible. But crowded buy a bunch of unnecessary mess that deludes the whole thing.

Again, this could be a description of a lot of sonic games.

The story is as follows, Shadow is chillin. His alien dad comes up, tells him he's an alien, the alien attacks the planet trying to get the chaos emeralds. He goes on an adventures with his friends, reminding him why this planet has value and why he chooses to live on it. Has his bi-weekly PTSD maria flash back, faces his dad, beats his ass, blows up the aliens. The end.

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And on a more "technical level", they find out that shadow's powers, design, and a lot of other stuff is a result of Dr. Gerald working with black doom rather than him getting inspiration old pictures of Echidina myths. I actually like this part, because it retroactively makes Sonic adventure 2 make a lot of sense. There were a lot of very reasonable questions in sonic adventure 2 as to why the plot went the way it did.

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And not only that, it shows the differences with shadow as a character from the rest of the cast, explaining why he is designed the way he is. While the "Shadow looks like Sonic" baton will be thrown forever, heck even by Sega themselves sometimes. His design is fairly striking and unique as sonic character goes, and still kind of is to this day. And its explained, and while it wasn't necessary... its kind of cool.

So at this point, you might be like "Village, you just described only the good pathways and the one ending and a flash back section", Yes.

The game's own final ending shits on your work by denoting the true ending was hanging out with your friends, facing your dad and winning the day. And there is where we get to the bad part of the narrative, everything the hell else. Completely unnecessary fluff, instead of trying to design a game with multiple pathways. Why not just focus the story down, into more complete well designed sections, that allow for endearing interactions with the characters, and comes to a nice conclusions. If Eggman getting karate chopped to death was a joke ending rather than a legit one, not only would people be lessed pissed because of gameplay time. Well' get to that in the gameplay section. It wouldn't have this air of a bad ending.

This game did way too much, when there was a simple endearing concept in there, and its sad.

As an add on, whats even weirder, is that sonic 06 in its monster design and some character interaction. Maybe hint at one of my favorite concepts... in everything. Gods are just aliens people at the time didn't understand. And maybe the monsters presented in sonic 06 were just a weird form of the aliens from shadow the hedgehog.

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I don't think that is going to get explored, but its weird and sort of related.

I agree with a lot Village's points honestly, as the game hold promise for its story but how it does things really leaves alot to be desired :(. But the story has a so-bad-its-good story at times, in the sense that we got a lot of really funny lines out of it. If I try to take it seriously, I....just start laughing to a bit.

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Thankfully Sonic 06 fixed Shadow's character a lot.....but that game was quite horrid sadly :l.

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So, how is the gameplay? Its Sonic Adventure 2......but with guns and worse control :D!

Sounds great doesn't it :D?! No it doesn't, it sounds horrid X(.

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But, the combat elements with the guns work very well, as every gun almost always locks on to your foes and ammo is far from rare, leading to it not being an issue at all. Unlike other platformers with gunplay though, Shadow lacks strafing and the weapon wheel that Ratchet & Clank has, making the weapons lack personality.

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Its a fun mechanic, but not fleshed out enough honestly. So, the core gameplay is Sonic Adventure, but with no gimmicks. You are just controlling Shadow and that's it; you can hop into rides if you want but they are so useless, there is no point to them.

Shadow can run very fast, spinjump, homing attack, spindash (though it sucks), slide and even has a few punches/kicks (which are useless). The problem isn't what he can do, but how badly the movement controls are. In Sonic Heroes, you have three formations and the speed one felt uncontrollable. That was fine, as you could swap to the Power or Flight formations for more careful movement.

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Here? Its just the Speed formation but even worse regarding its handling. You will be slipping and sliding all over the damn place X(. Leading to your deaths being common, frequent and annoying.

The camera is an element I really loathed during my first two playthroughs of the game, but the most recent one....its better then Heroes at the very least.

The big gimmick here is the mission system, as every zone has two/three missions that lead you down one of three paths; good, evil, neutral. Good and Evil are mostly collect X amount of things/kill x amount of things while neutral is just running to the goal ring like in most Sonic ventures.

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.....But these missions can be a real pain for a lot of reasons.
1) The missions can be BS a lot of the time: Lost Impact can go f***k itself for all I care X(. You have to kill exactly 35 foes and if you miss ONE of them, you have to backtrack throughout the entire level over and over and over and over...........and then you find out you spent a good hour in the level. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it.
2) You have to go down the same path twice to get both endings: Each path has two endings (five paths) and you can't just start the level at the level select, no....you have to play through the entire paths AGAIN just to clear that dark mission you missed.
3) Story is a mess and it has a TRUE ending: This is the real kicker; the story has a true ending. Yes, the game billing itself on multiple paths and missions for YOUR Shadow......has a true ending. SEGA can't have Shadow be a bad guy NOOOOOOOO, he has to be a hero after all!

So, for the three reasons above, the mission system is stupid, pointless and dumb.

......But before I comment on the visuals and music, lets some more thoughts on the gameplay :).

Village:

As mentioned before, well instead of creating a bunch of unnecessary pathways, focusing the level design would have fixed many of the issues. And focusing shadows combat. Shadow himself suffers trying to be an action game and a sonic game. And I don't think those two things exist in the same levels. Sonic Unleashed got close in separating it, but thematically ruined it for many with the Werehog and they weren't that good to begin with, and given it was game with sonic's name on it. Most people just kind of wanted to run.

Shadow didn't have this problem. There are no other shadow games, they could have hypothetically speaking just made it a more traditional character action game. I mean its not like a edgy yet cheesy game came out in a similar time period that had characters with similar powers and move sets could have been an example for this sort of thing.

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Oh... oh, wait what. huh maybe you could have.... not rushed your development cycle and took pointers and made like at least a competent type of game working with the powers your character already has, and you prevent him from using in game. In such way that provides a fulfilling experience both game play and story wise. Maybe rushing that dev cycle ruined a lot of sonic games, maybe they should have been willing to take a few more pointers.... maybe.

This game is a disappointment sandwich.

So the guns, I actually don't mind. Some of the guns, being the alien weapons. Its the presentation of the normal human ones that bother me. Whats worse, is that the alien, and secret unlockable weapons in this game are way better and more interesting. Like a katana, you can get a katana in this game. Its rad as shit. And like this sucking up Billy Hatcher inspired chicken gun which... plays extremely well.

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If they would have actually gave shadow a legit combat system, and then you could optionally pick up alien weaponry, and have fun joke unlock weapons, that would be great. But no. God no. We can't have good things.

Lastly the movement, its Heroes movement so its ass. Even as a child I felt how hit the Heroes movement was. I didn't know what to call it, I just knew that Sonic Adventure 2 felt better, and it does, because the characters have weight, and they stop, and they don't feel sliding, despite because of being a Dreamcast game, features characters actually sliding. but here you feel like you are on skates, but not in good jet set radio future kind of way. Just, like you are on soap, and not the shoes, just soap.

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The game has some fun level tropes, like the cyber theme in Digital Circuit, the sky ruins theme of Sky Troops, and the Ark levels ASIDE from the Doom and Lost Impact. They lead to things being fresh and unique from the bright locations from Sonic Heroes and have some semblance of Sonic, even if its still coated in bleak colors.

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I really like Sky Troops and people did too, as it got remade into Sonic Generations as a Modern Sonic level.

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The music in the game is very strong as while many tracks kinda overlap each other, a handful really stand out.

Gun Fortress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo44M2uW5RY&index=38&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T
Sky Troops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETVMXs8EerQ&index=28&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T
Cryptic Castle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jcwSlHVfas&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T&index=20
Westopolis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_OJy_0qkY&index=10&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T
I Am All of Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V1pMQKDPco&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T
All Hail Shadow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqphtVEiwg4&index=6&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T
Digital Circuit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RglxkcgMXPQ&list=PLvNp0Boas7217wlSWYj25AHEB-oYZ_Q-T&index=15

Gun Fortress is one I want to highlight, as this GUN base being on the final verge of attack would be action packed, right? No, its a slow, sad piece that really hits the note that "Its all over man".

Village:

I find a lot of the levels generally to be some of the most visually interesting in Sonic, I really enjoy the music, the Black Comet and the gun base themes are two of my favorite sonic tracks in general.

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Back to visuals, this game has Tron internet levels, this weird alien infested ancient ruins, radio active streams, a dark carnival, a haunted castle. A non completely ruined space colony arc, and a even more damage arc, where you play the level on falling pieces of the space colony.

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Yes, like Bayonetta. No bull shit, this game, has Bayonetta shit in it. Before Beyonetta came out. You just start the level are you are falling and I remember ... how old was when this game came out... like 12? I remember 12 year old me loosing my shit. Games like "move your ass" And its not floating, the stuff will fall you will die. Move ya ass.

Again, interesting ideas, surrounded by dumb bullshit.

Gotta agree with you Village; despite how bad the core game is, its level design and ideas hold a lot of potential and when the BS mission system isn't in the way, the game can be really enjoyable at points :).

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Presentation though, its one of the weaker Sonic games. It looks very dated, with bright character models ripped right out of Heroes and Adventure 2 alongside the stages being covered with muddled assets and textures.

Some places could look nice, like Sky Troops and maybe the Ark levels. But the game as a whole is one of the few Sonic games that really looks ugly. Super Shadow is a great showcase for this, looking really horrid compared to Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast......which came out four years prior :l.

This game got a short development cycle (and it was Sonic Team USA's final project before being shut down I believe), so the visuals look weak is understandable.

Village:
Game looks rough. I feel like a lot less time should have been spent on making extra levels, and just polishing what you had into something worth selling.

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My thoughts on this game is that......its really weak and in many cases is worse then Sonic 06. The visuals look dated, the music isn't as good and the controls ironically are better in 06 then in Shadow.

But, I appreciate what Shadow TRIES to do with the level progressions system and if they did it better (gut the story and have the paths linked to goal rings instead of stupid missions), it could of been great.

However Shadow the Hedgehog is a very weak game that while funny at times, really is just a poorly put together title that sadly is just an indication for a much worse title looming on the horizon.

Now, lets hear Village's Final Thoughts on this trainwreak:

"My thoughts are simple, its a game that thought it could wow you with its quantity more than its quality and failed. A game with out actual substance, but potential. A game that should have been more focused, and took lessons from its peers. Maybe things would be a bit different.

So on that note, I shall use this section to look towards to future. This should be attempted again, I mean not ... as it is. We just talked hot shit about this game. But a focused, title with one of their most popular characters, that doesn't have to be expensive, with a well excited combat system and doesn't have the obligation to be sonic go fast because its not sonic. They should have tried this again...years ago.

Even more so now, considering they have worked with a studio, who is good at making pretty good action games on a budget. That transformers game, basically has spindash combo's in it.

That's my piece."

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So, are we going to be talking about Sonic Rush next? No, as I want to get one more horrid title out of the way first. Lets talk about something really head scratching; fucking up Sonic 1.

Yes, it IS possible to mess up porting the most ported game of all time and Sonic Team themselves are to blame. Lets see the Genesis of quite the horrid port.
 

RK128

Member
Yall know that opening was great though.

You mean where Shadow kicks ass and takes names, rides a motocycle, cocks up a gun as he walks with the FULL Moon (that was blown to pieces in SA2) behind him, and he flies into the screen?!

For how stupid that was......it was amazing :').
 

maxcriden

Member
Awesome OP bro but I think you need to correct a link or something because the taking candy from a baby image didn't load 😆
 
You mean where Shadow kicks ass and takes names, rides a motocycle, cocks up a gun as he walks with the FULL Moon (that was blown to pieces in SA2) behind him, and he flies into the screen?!

For how stupid that was......it was amazing :').

It got me super hyped when it first came up.
 

Welfare

Member
One of my first Sonic games (along with 06. RIP me) and I have to say, it was alright.

The opening however was great.
 

RK128

Member
One of my first Sonic games (along with 06. RIP me) and I have to say, it was alright.

The opening however was great.

M....My god :'(. I'm so, so sorry for you buddy.

Please, tell me you played other Sonic's outside of those? The series got better over time.

Just such a horrid way to start the series X(.
 
Complete garbage. I had the luxury of borrowing the game from Gamestop during my brief tenure there as a seasonal hand - y'know, through that thing where they open a game, take it home to play with it at no extra charge, then bring it back and sell it as new? The one GAF was understandably up in arms over when they caught wind of it? That program. It was a goddamn mess. The only thing I really remember about the game is the Lost Impact stage and trying to find all the Artificial Chaos-es, except the last one I needed was hidden in a secret room you had to access by sliding under a wall down a corridor that was already off the beaten path, so I spent over an hour looping through the stage trying to find the damned thing.

Not to mention its utterly tonedeaf announcement - at this thing called "Walk of Game", where Sonic was just inducted, Sega celebrated with a collab of the series' best hits to that date, immediately followed by Shadow shooting up the screen while Sonic 2 was playing. "Hey, remember all those bright, blue skies everyone loves the series for? NONE OF THAT, WE'RE MATURE BITCHES"

I'm not sure if this or 2006 was the nadir. 2006 is certainly the more well-known of the two, and was more obviously rushed, barely breaking beta status - at least Shadow is a finished product. However, it's still not really a polished product, and the concept just flies in the face of the franchise, both tonally (obviously) and mechanically (why do you need a gun when you can just slam your entire body into them to do damage?).

(Off-topic: Gamestop was a pretty shitty job in retrospect anyway. I got one day of work out of it; they allegedly never had the hours to give me any work beyond that, and at the end of the day my payment was on some shitty debit card that I could never get working, and from which it apparently deducted money just to check its balance, so I never got paid, either. Which is a fact I now associate with this game. God dammit.)
 
Gameplay wise, it's not any more egregious than Sonic Heroes and especially not 06. It's a mediocre game, but its level of terribleness comes from that fact that it doesn't know what the hell it is. It's clear that Sonic Team wanted to cash in on a more mature trend in game, while keeping their young fan base. The game did neither and only served to tarnish the franchise's name.

I think people forget or don't know how hard Sega was trying to pander to teens with this game. This is an interview with 1UP in which Shadow, via Sega of America, says that he likes Hot Pockets, action movies, and owns a Razor cell phone. It's insane.
 

RK128

Member
Complete garbage. I had the luxury of borrowing the game from Gamestop during my brief tenure there as a seasonal hand - y'know, through that thing where they open a game, take it home to play with it at no extra charge, then bring it back and sell it as new? The one GAF was understandably up in arms over when they caught wind of it? That program. It was a goddamn mess. The only thing I really remember about the game is the Lost Impact stage and trying to find all the Artificial Chaos-es, except the last one I needed was hidden in a secret room you had to access by sliding under a wall down a corridor that was already off the beaten path, so I spent over an hour looping through the stage trying to find the damned thing.

Not to mention its utterly tonedeaf announcement - at this thing called "Walk of Game", where Sonic was just inducted, Sega celebrated with a collab of the series' best hits to that date, immediately followed by Shadow shooting up the screen while Sonic 2 was playing. "Hey, remember all those bright, blue skies everyone loves the series for? NONE OF THAT, WE'RE MATURE BITCHES"


I'm not sure if this or 2006 was the nadir. 2006 is certainly the more well-known of the two, and was more obviously rushed, barely breaking beta status - at least Shadow is a finished product. However, it's still not really a polished product, and the concept just flies in the face of the franchise, both tonally (obviously) and mechanically (why do you need a gun when you can just slam your entire body into them to do damage?).

(Off-topic: Gamestop was a pretty shitty job in retrospect anyway. I got one day of work out of it; they allegedly never had the hours to give me any work beyond that, and at the end of the day my payment was on some shitty debit card that I could never get working, and from which it apparently deducted money just to check its balance, so I never got paid, either. Which is a fact I now associate with this game. God dammit.)

I was considering mentioned the bolded in the background section but felt that it wasn't needed; SEGA really is tone deaf sometimes and the game itself is a grand example of that. But that point you brought up made many think it was an April Fools joke of something :l.

I think people forget or don't know how hard Sega was trying to pander to teens with this game. This is an interview with 1UP in which Shadow, via Sega of America, says that he likes Hot Pockets, action movies, and owns a Razor cell phone. It's insane.

This is amazing XD! Shadow really comes across as a try-hard, doesn't he :').
 
This is one of those games I regretted paying full price for, and I still have the stupid preorder beanie for it. A memento of my idiocy.

But anyways, I had hopes for this game and then it turned out to be total garbage, a damn shame, and yes the beginning of the Sonic Cycle. This game is by far my least favorite in the Sonic franchise (though it's technically a spinoff), and I wish I could wipe its existence away forever.
 

RK128

Member
This is one of those games I regretted paying full price for, and I still have the stupid preorder beanie for it. A memento of my idiocy.

But anyways, I had hopes for this game and then it turned out to be total garbage, a damn shame, and yes the beginning of the Sonic Cycle. This game is by far my least favorite in the Sonic franchise (though it's technically a spinoff), and I wish I could wipe its existence away forever.

The fact Sonic 06 got a level in Generations but this didn't says it all man; SEGA and Sonic Team moved on from this game completely (outside of its music like All Hail Shadow and I Am All of Me appearing in Generations via unlockable song).
 

Crayolan

Member
That this game even exists is one of the craziest things in all of gaming. It's hard to believe a company on the level of Sega, even after dropping out of the console business, could be this blind.

I remember playing the game on or around launch and cause I was a dumb kid I just did a straight neutral playthrough, beat the Egg Dealer and thought the game was over. Disappointingly short game, but relatively inoffensive. Better than Heroes's 4 playthroughs worth of bloat.

Years later when I came onto the internet and saw how people bashed the game I was confused about what was so awful about it, and after doing a bit more research I realized I had barely scratched the surface. Returned to the game to confirm my findings and after seeing how...cringeworthy it got I just had to see how deep the rabbit hole went.

And so I did just that. All 10 playthroughs worth. And holy fuck, was it awful. To be honest, the standard gameplay of just getting to the end of the level isn't that bad, but the stupid collection bullshit compounded on top of that is just abysmal. I think the absolute worst level was the one in the ark where you have to go around looking for dumb soldiers to heal. I remember getting lost in that shitty maze of a level for like an hour.

Still struggle on whether I prefer this or Heroes though. Both are really bad, but Shadow has the hilariously edgy story/cutscenes and better standard gameplay IMO. Heroes only makes you do 4 playthroughs as opposed to 10 though and even the worst of Team Chaotix bullshit does not match up to some of the stuff you have to slog through in Shadow. It's a tough call.
 

RK128

Member
That this game even exists is one of the craziest things in all of gaming. It's hard to believe a company on the level of Sega, even after dropping out of the console business, could be this blind.

I remember playing the game on or around launch and cause I was a dumb kid I just did a straight neutral playthrough, beat the Egg Dealer and thought the game was over. Disappointingly short game, but relatively inoffensive. Better than Heroes's 4 playthroughs worth of bloat.

Years later when I came onto the internet and saw how people bashed the game I was confused about what was so awful about it, and after doing a bit more research I realized I had barely scratched the surface. Returned to the game to confirm my findings and after seeing how...cringeworthy it got I just had to see how deep the rabbit hole went.

And so I did just that. All 10 playthroughs worth. And holy fuck, was it awful. To be honest, the standard gameplay of just getting to the end of the level isn't that bad, but the stupid collection bullshit compounded on top of that is just abysmal. I think the absolute worst level was the one in the ark where you have to go around looking for dumb soldiers to heal. I remember getting lost in that shitty maze of a level for like an hour.

Still struggle on whether I prefer this or Heroes though. Both are really bad, but Shadow has the hilariously edgy story/cutscenes and better standard gameplay IMO. Heroes only makes you do 4 playthroughs as opposed to 10 though and even the worst of Team Chaotix bullshit does not match up to some of the stuff you have to slog through in Shadow. It's a tough call.

I think Heroes is a good/great game, so I feel its a LOT better than Shadow but yah, this game is really damn bad :(.
 

Mr-Joker

Banned
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All that work and in the it was for nothing as the true story was the last story.

Also how stupid does Shadow has to be to believe that he's an android when you can easily test to see if it's true or not, furthermore I also thought that it was dumb how Omega was slowly being made a villain and had plans to overthrow the human race...fuck Omega.

Yeah Shadow the Hedgehog was a mistake, doesn't make any sense and shouldn't have existed...also pffft alien daddy. ¬_¬;
 

RedShift

Member
You mean where Shadow kicks ass and takes names, rides a motocycle, cocks up a gun as he walks with the FULL Moon (that was blown to pieces in SA2) behind him, and he flies into the screen?!

For how stupid that was......it was amazing :').

I haven't played any Somic games since SA2, do they ever acknowledge the moon getting blown up in later games? It seems like a big thing to ignore.
 

Village

Member
Another weird thing apperently they had shadow show up in japanese wrestling to show the game off. There are pictures just a man in a big ass shadow the hedgehog suit.

I haven't played any Somic games since SA2, do they ever acknowledge the moon getting blown up in later games? It seems like a big thing to ignore.
Iizuke says, it still is. We just see the non blown up side.
 

Welfare

Member
M....My god :'(. I'm so, so sorry for you buddy.

Please, tell me you played other Sonic's outside of those? The series got better over time.

Just such a horrid way to start the series X(.

Oh of course! One of my favorite series. Own the classic tetralogy (might as well put CD in), SA1+2, Heroes, the story book games, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, both episodes of 4, and dabbled with Lost Worlds, plus some of the handhelds.

Not a good way to start, but hey I love the series thanks to them, surprisingly. Waiting on the 25th Anniversary game. Please be good.
 
It just occurred to me that Shadow and Sonic and all the others wear shoes. What do their feet look like? I' not Googling that.
 

RK128

Member
Oh of course! One of my favorite series. Own the classic tetralogy (might as well put CD in), SA1+2, Heroes, the story book games, Unleashed, Colors, Generations, both episodes of 4, and dabbled with Lost Worlds, plus some of the handhelds.

Not a good way to start, but hey I love the series thanks to them, surprisingly. Waiting on the 25th Anniversary game. Please be good.

Good to know you still enjoy the series :D!

Just that.....you couldn't have picked a worse place to start XD!
 

RK128

Member
Just wanted to thank you all for sticking around for my retrospective threads :).

I know this has been on-going for a while now, so I'm sorry if you guys are a bit tired of me talking about Sonic but the series has a lot of games XD!

I'm close to the end of the road soon though, with the following left for me to cover.
-Sonic Genesis
-Ristar
-Sonic Rush
-Sonic & The Secret Rings
-Sonic Rivals 1 & 2
-Sonic Rush Adventure
-Sonic Chronicles
-Sonic All Stars Series (Tennis, Racing, Racing Transformed)
-Sonic 4 Ep. I & II
-Sonic Lost World
-Sonic Boom (Cartoon, Rise of Lyric, Shattered Crystal)
-Sonic Generations

So I hope you all can bare with me for a few more weeks :D.

Personally looking forward to covering Rush, Chronicles ad the All Stars series for very different reasons (love Rush and All Stars.......have very strong thoughts on Chronicles).

So, if you can stick around, the Genesis, Rush and Ristar threads will be coming up soon :D!
 

RK128

Member
Awww. I was really hoping this was a new Shadow the Hedgehog.

Y....You really think Sega would be that stupid XD!

I would love a Platinum Games Shadow game myself but lets be real here, another Shadow game will never happen after how badly this game end up turning out :').

This is part of my on-going Sonic Retrospective, which is close to concluding with a few games left to cover (mentioned in the above post before yours) :).
 
I rented this game and I couldn't even make it past the first level because I kept falling through the floor. Really glitchy. I returned it the same week and then erased it from my memory.
 
I salute the both of you......I will never ever touch this game again. I even lost my copy and don't care about how it got lost.
 

Hasney

Member
I really didn't mind this game as much as some. The tone and story are hilarious, but it played alright. I found Sonic Heroes to be straight up garbage back in the day though, so my views aren't exactly totally aligned with a bunch of people.
 
Same as Sonic 06, the only positive thing I can find to comment on is the vocal tracks.

My younger self was a lot more tolerant than me, I recall getting all the A ranks and emblems in this shit show.
 

Maedhros

Member
I feel that your reviews are always trying to look for good things in steamy pile of shit games.

I mean, you even had an argument that the story had some interesting points...

Even if there's gold in the steamy pile of feces... I don't think anyone could try to defend these games.

I kinda feel bad for you trying to review these.
 
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