Shadow the Hedgehog
A quick recap of my Sonic feelings in case you haven’t read my Sonic Heroes review: Loved the 2d games in the franchise, love Sonic Adventure 1, liked Sonic Adventure 2, and didn’t care Sonic Heroes.
So how does Shadow the Hedgehog (the next entry into the Sonic franchise) hold up? Well I’ll tell you off the bat that this is the absolute low point in the series for me. Translation: I feel this is the worst Sonic game. Just as in my Sonic Heroes review I know there are some Shadow fans out there that love this game and are about to send me some hate mail, but I have to go with the general opinion that this is a terrible game. I’ll give Sega’s Sonic Team props for trying to do something very different and very unique in this title, but it still falls into the same traps as the previous game: terrible controls and a terrible camera. Not only that it seems even with all the new innovative features, the game designers couldn’t break away from the typical 3d Sonic formula. They weren’t fully committed to the change, and we end up with a strange hybrid game that could have been great, but isn’t.
So I won’t re-hash all my problems and waste time hating on this game. Just know that the game controls are terrible, and the camera causes you to die constantly.
So what’s different from the last Sonic game? First off is the level structure. The game takes the unique approach that Team Chaotix had in the last game and really tries to flesh it out. Basically there’s a level roadmap, there are many ways to complete each level and depending on which objective you complete you follow a different path and go to a different level.
In each level you will get a good and bad sidekick. Each one tells you what objective you need to complete in order to beat the level. In each case you’re basically choosing if Shadow should be good or evil. Of course you can just run through the level to the goal and not complete any objectives, but that’s just playing the old way (which is much more fun I should add). The first level for instance is a city scene where humans are battling monsters that are attacking the city. In this level Sonic joins you and asks you to kill a certain number of monsters, also an unknown dark figure joins and ask you to kill the same number of humans. Running through this level is a pain, because hitting either a monster or a human causes you to lose rings and knocks you down. Another example of an objective is the next level in the video where Knuckles joins you, the same dark sidekick asks you to destroy 5 generators in this level. The objectives are an excellent idea, and I really dig the concept. The problem is that the execution fails miserably because of the level design. Just like Sonic Heroes the level designs are as linear as ever. The game is designed like the old Sonic Adventure games, the idea being to just burn through the level as quick as possible. But the new objective settings just aren’t conductive to a linear game like this. I can understand not wanting to move to a more open and explorable level structure since that removes the speed of the game (which is the main draw for a Sonic game), but they could have came up with a level design that balanced the two. In the end this game is the most fun just speeding through the levels, but if that what you love, grab an older Sonic title, or the new Sonic Unleashed.
Finally the other new addition to this game is that Shadow can pickup guns from enemies and use them. The shooting mechanics are simple and decent, but really don’t fit in a Sonic game. Speaking of not fitting, another new feature is that Shadow can hop into vehicles (some with mounted weapons) in some levels. Again the vehicles are okay, but also unnecessary.
All in all, I can’t recommend this game to most gamers. If you fall into the small percentage of gamers who loved Sonic Heroes, there’s a chance you’ll also be in the even smaller percentage of gamers who love Shadow the Hedgehog.
Like this game? Order it online
