Poor Shadow. The hedgehog gets his own game, and then it gets slammed into the ground with comments like 'Omgz, why does my Sonic games have guns?', and 'Swearing? NO WAY'. I'm here to say that these things shouldn't, and don't determine whether a game is good or bad. There are other things for that.
   For those unaware, in Shadow the Hedgehog, you play as (gasps) Shadow the hedgehog! He's still suffering from the amnesia introduced in Sonic Heroes, but in return for the Chaos Emeralds, a mysterious dark figure offers him a chance to restore his memory. It's a pretty good deal, so now, we're off to to take part in a new war between aliens and humans! Which side will you choose?
    Let's observe, shall we?

Graphics 9/10
   For a gamecube game, this has amazing graphics. The environments are, for the most part, all different and lovely to look at (Sky Troops and Glyphic Ruins in particular look suspiciously similar). The character models all look colourful, clean, and clear (Except for minor clipping issues with Vector's mouth). The animations are all smooth as well.
   The guns, while fun looking, are typically so huge, that they clearly clip though the ground, which just makes things look a little ridiculous.
   Another thing I have to give credit for is the pre-rendered cutscenes. They look absolutely GORGEOUS, even if there are only four or five of them.
   My only complaints are the gun clipping, and the final cutscene, where there is so much red, that it's REALLY hard to see what's going on without hurting your eyes.

Sound 9/10
    Shadow's soundtrack... is not for everyone. It focuses very much on techno and rock. However, a very large amount of the stage songs are very repetitive, if not catchy in parts. There are some songs that, while still repetitive, manage to sound good enough that you don't even notice it (Cosmic Fall is a popular one, though I personally enjoy The Ark and Circus Park). The vocal songs are fantastic, though. All Hail Shadow is a super popular one, but Never Turn Back is also worthy of recognition.
   The voice actors sound perfectly fine. No one (other than Cream, who I just have problems with) sounds grating at all, even if they aren't the most brilliant performances you've ever seen.
   The sound effects are nothing special, and don't particularly stand out, though the death cries are an overly dramatic touch that amuse me.

Addictiveness 3/10
    Here is where Shadow starts to fall down. HARD. One of the biggest things about Shadow, is that if you want to actually fully finish the game, you have to get ten different endings. Five? I could deal with. Ten? That's a lot harder to stick with. As such, the game is hard to finish because it gets SO repetitive. Once you beat the game, you don't get much either. At least, not enough to get you to play the game after it's done. You get the strongest weapon in the game, which is great and all, but... nothing can make up for playing through every stage until you get sick of them.

Depth 4/10
    This game has little to no real depth. You attack with B, jump with A, press X to slide, get into vehicles, or switch items, press R to strafe, and press Y to either toss your weapon or activate either Chaos Blast or Chaos Control.
   This is where a little bit of depth comes in. Depending on your actions every stage, one of two gauges will increase. If you destroy boxes or attack soldiers, your red gauge will go up. If you put out fires, attack black aliens, and heal GUN forces, your blue gauge will go up.
   If your red gauge fills up, you use Chaos Blast, which will destroy everything in the immediate area, sans bosses. If your blue gauge fills up, you use Chaos Control which, when in a stage, rushes you closer to the end of the stage and when you're in a boss, will slow down time, making it easier for you to pummel the boss.
   There's also a bit of depth to the endings. Depending on what mission you do, it will determine which stage you do next. However, you can start off doing dark missions, then turn around and still get the pure hero ending. It's nothing complex, but it's still a nice little feature.
   All of the depth basically comes from the whole evil/good thing.

Story 3/10
    It is a time of war. The Black Aliens (Yes that is what they're called) are attacking Earth, and all that stands between them is G.U.N, Sonic's gang, and Eggman's army. There are two sides to this, and it's up to Shadow to decide: Will he fight off the invaders, side with the aliens, or ignore them all together and go after Eggman? His memories, and Earth itself are at stake now.
   Now, the main problem I have with the story is how jumbled it is. This is mostly caused by the multiple endings. The cutscenes differ every time (unless you take the same path twice). However, since the cutscenes still come attached to a certain stage every time, there is little to no connectivity between stages. They all just feel random and insignificant, as does the story. It's really hard to pick out the real story and how the cutscenes fit together, which just bogs down the cliche plot.

Difficulty 6/10
    This game is sort of weird with difficulty. The difficulty often depends entirely on what mission you do. If you do a mission where you have to destroy a vehicle, prepare for a lot of frustration, as if you miss even one opportunity, you'll fail the mission and be forced to start over.
    Other than a couple bosses, though, the game is otherwise very easy if you just breeze through (though if you decide to go searching for keys I wish you luck, because a lot of them are very well hidden)
   Shadow has some fake difficulty, sadly. The homing attack is buggy. You can home in on an enemy to try and get across, and you can just go right through the enemy and fall into a bottomless pit. Or, you can aim for one enemy, and instead home in on a different enemy that you didn't want to hit at all.

Things not covered above
 - They missed out on some brilliant songs. Who I am (Magna-Fi) and Broken (Sins of a Divine Mother) are great rock songs.
 - They very much copied some stage segments. Sky Troops and Glyphic Canyon in particular look suspiciously similar.
 + Every time you complete and ending, you get a new weapon. These unlockable weapons work really well and are probably the most goofy looking weapons in the game.
  - They also reused bosses. There's six different bosses in the game, all of which appear at least twice, some can be fought multiple times in one play through.

    All in all, I really wanted to love this game. For the first few endings, I actually did, but the game has so many shortcomings, and for every ending you get, you notice more and more problems. So, sadly I can't find myself giving Shadow any more than a 6.8

   Thank you for reading.

Gamin'Gal : Great review Gamin! you described everything you felt you needed to and that intro xD had me laughing at some points due to the truth  of it all.  Definitely worth the read since it was very well written and keep up the great work

Gamin'Gal : Awesome job, Gamin'! You went into each category with a nice amount of depth. The intro was probably the most fun part. Accurate, and funny when you realize this is actually how people complain. xD It was a great read.

Gamin'Gal :

Excellent review. I have always wondered about this game. And I appreciate being able to read a review not made by someone who kicked their GC off after the first five minutes.


Sounds a little like Star Fox command to me actually.


multiple paths.

multiple endings.

Similar gameplay through and through, only Shadow's gameplay I guess isn't as fun as shooting down enemy aircraft?

Mount & Blade has a lot of similar battles, but it's pretty fun, what since it's a sandbox game and all.


It sounds like a game I would really enjoy a few levels off, but would quit after a while for M&B after a while.

I'm just going to guess that it could have been pretty good, but they didn't execute it perfectly, so. . . it kinda falls apart. :/


Good review Gamin! I will look forward to more from you! f

I never liked how gullible they made Shadow in this game. He keeps thinking he can trust black doom, ignores Maria's desires, thinks he's a robot, and etc. etc. etc. I laughed alot when I saw your title