Shadow the Hedgehog Review (For Game Cube)

By David Mume

In Shadow the Hedgehog, you play as a troubled-Shadow who suffers from amnesia and cannot remember a thing from his past. The story sets off as characters in the game try to convince Shadow to take his/her/it 's side. It is up to you--the gamer--to decide. On the first level, Shadow sets off to a busy city, Westopolis, as he tries to reveal his past. Shadow (YOU) must decide whether to be the Hero Sonic and his friends try to convince you to be; the Dark Hedgehog that Black Doom tries to convince you to be; or the Hedgehog that takes no alliance with anyone.  It is all up to YOU.

If you are familiar with the control scheme from some of the previous Sonic games, you should have no trouble playing Shadow. The simple jump techniques, the homing attack, are similar to the Sonic Heroes, or Sonic Adventure games. One big thing has been added though; the ability to use guns. This is virtually brand-new with the Sonic the Hedgehog series games.  You will find guns in boxes, crates, or from enemies you have defeated. Just walk in the circle in which the gun is set, and you will obtain a gun. Pressing B makes Shadow fire the gun in his hand, while pressing Y will make him drop it, and pressing X will make him switch weapons (you can only hold one gun at a time, as pressing X switches to a gun on the ground).  Some of the changes include using the X button to go faster on grind-rails (used to be B by default) and also pressing X to use the light speed dash through rings (used to be B by default).

Shadow the Hedgehog is an exciting, thrill-ride for any gamer. You can find yourself in a variety of places, from inside of  a secret base to the outreaches of outer space. Air-diving, rail-grinding, and motorcycle riding are just some of the cool experiences you get with this game. The Hero/Dark/Normal missions for each level vary. Some of the basic missions are to take out foes and join allied forces, or to just get to the end of the level. Some are more complex and require you to collect a certain amount of rings, annihilate a spaceship, infiltrate an enemy base, or test your speed to the finish! Most of these are fun and challenging, and keep you excited for what are the next level's missions.

As far as the story of the game goes, I think SEGA took Shadow the Hedgehog a little too seriously; as portrayed in the beginning cut-scene and title cut-scene. With a more darker outlook on the Sonic series, I think SEGA also took some liberties with Shadow the Hedgehog. One, adding fire-arms to the story gave it a more extreme life-or-death account. Two, Shadow uses colorful language to portray his unhappiness (if Shadow loses rings or falls off a cliff, he practices saying the D-word EVERY time, which makes it quite frequent in the game play) towards situations and other characters he particularly dislikes. A lot of the other characters, even Sonic (if you can believe it) utters a swear word or two. That's why it's an underrated E+10 ESRB rating (for "mild language" and "fantasy violence"). 

Despite these faults, I think the story is interesting. The story is contingent on what you do as a gamer. If you do the hero mission of a level, the heroes of the story will have more confidence in you, while if you do the enemies mission, it's opposite. Based on this, different events will happen, and the story will change. Once you defeat the entire story, you'll want to try different paths and try Shadow the Hedgehog again. There are 22 different stages in all, but you only go through 6 stages in one story. For example, you start out in Westopolis, so if you side with Sonic and defeat the black arms, you'll head to Lethal Highway for your next level (Hero path). However, if you chose Doom's Eye side and defeat the GUN troops, you'll head to Digital Circuit as your next level (Dark path). However, you can just finish to the end of Westopolis without annihilating all of one side, which will make the Ancient Ruins your next level (normal path). As you might imagine, this game has a lot of replay value (based on the different paths you can take) and is worth playing again. Each time you go through one new story, you unlock a new gun or more ammo for a gun found in shadow crates, so there's something new a lot of times.

Overall, I would rate Shadow the Hedgehog a 6.4 out of 10 with the volume up, and a 8.2 out of 10 with the sound off (somehow, not hearing Shadow swear all the time made playing the game a lot more enjoyable). Ages 10 and up...? That's arguable. I think ESRB could've rated it a T rating and have been OK...or maybe upped the "Mild Language" to "Language". Still, this is a good game. Don't take this as a negative warning...Shadow the Hedgehog IS a fun game, and is good for MOST people who enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog series games.