Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)

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Shadow the Hedgehog
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Sega Studio USA
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Takashi Iizuka (director/lead designer/scenario writer) Shun Miyanaga (event scene director)
Artist(s)	Kazuyuki Hoshino (art director) Hiroshi Nishiyama (field art director)
Composer(s)	Jun Senoue (sound director) Yutaka Minobe Tomoya Ohtani Mariko Nanba
Platform(s)	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release date(s)	NA November 15, 2005 PAL November 18, 2005 JP December 15, 2005
Genre(s)	Platform, action-adventure, third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: A ESRB: E10+ OFLC: PG PEGI: 12+
Input methods	Controller

Shadow the Hedgehog is a 2005 video game developed by Sega Studio USA, the former United States division of Sega's Sonic Team. Featuring the titular fictional character Shadow the Hedgehog from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game was revealed at the March 2005 Walk of Game inauguration of Sonic, the series' main character. Shadow the Hedgehog is the third game (and the last in the Sonic series) developed by Sega Studio USA, which was merged back into Sega's Japanese division in early 2008.

Following the trend of recent Sonic games such as Sonic Adventure and Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog is a 3D platform game. Most levels have three possible missions—"Hero", "Dark", or "Normal"—that the player may choose to complete; some levels have only two. The missions completed determine the game's plot, a feature referenced by the game's tagline, "Hero or villain? You decide." The plot centers on the attempt of Shadow, a creation of Doctor Eggman's grandfather Gerald Robotnik, to learn about his past after suffering from amnesia. To defeat enemies encountered, Shadow can use various weapons and special attacks.

Shadow the Hedgehog was created for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox video game consoles, and released in 2005 in the United States on November 15, in Europe on November 18, and in Japan on December 15. It received mostly negative reviews; critics criticized its unwelcome "dark" theme, particularly the addition of guns and other weapons, but praised its replay value.

[edit] Gameplay

Shadow the Hedgehog is a platform game that incorporates elements of action-adventure and third-person shooter gameplay. Like previous games in the series, basic gameplay involves running quickly, collecting rings, and destroying enemies.^[1][2][3] As is standard in the series, Shadow collects rings as a form of health; when he is attacked by an enemy, his rings bounce in all directions. If he is hit by an enemy and has no rings, he loses a life.^[3] Levels are completed by undertaking missions, labeled "Hero", "Dark", or "Normal".^[4] The Hero missions involve the completion of tasks for the series' "hero" characters—such as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and sometimes Eggman^[5]—whereas the Evil missions involve tasks for the Black Arms (the alien race led by Black Doom) or Doctor Eggman. The Normal missions involve simply reaching the Chaos Emerald at the end of the level.^[3][4] Enemies attack Shadow regardless of the side chosen.^[2][3] The mission types selected affect the plot, the levels played, and the ending received out of ten possibilities.^[4][6] Each level features cut scenes and boss battles.

Shadow uses a gun to defeat a G.U.N. soldier. The weapons' violent theme and mechanics were two major areas of criticism.

New gameplay features distinguish Shadow the Hedgehog from the previous games in the series that feature Sonic as the main playable character. For example, Shadow can optionally use weapons^[3] or parts of the scenery, such as traffic signs, to combat enemies.^[4] Also new are optional vehicles, such as motorcycles and alien aircraft, that Shadow may drive.^[1][3] Although Shadow can outrun the game's vehicles, the latter have some additional capabilities, such as hitting and running over enemies, or traversing an otherwise impassible acid-covered area. As in most Sonic games, the Chaos Emeralds play a major role; they aid Shadow's memory^[7] and allow two "Chaos Powers"—Chaos Control and Chaos Blast—to be performed. They can only be performed after the Hero and Dark gauges—one blue and one red gauge at the top of the screen that are filled by defeating Black Arms soldiers and G.U.N. soldiers, respectively—are filled. Filling the Hero gauge allows use of Chaos Control, and filling the Dark gauge allows use of Chaos Blast. Chaos Control allows Shadow to move more quickly in levels and slows time in boss battles, and "Chaos Blast" creates an explosion that destroys all nearby enemies.^[1]

[edit] Plot

Completing Hero, Dark, or Normal missions affects which levels are played. The white boxes represent levels, and the smaller red and blue boxes at the end represent the boss missions at the end of the game. The red-, blue-, and green-colored lines that connect levels show how the completion of certain missions affects the storyline.

Fifty years before the game takes place, Professor Gerald Robotnik began an experiment, Project Shadow, while working deep in a military research space station. There, he was trying to unlock the secrets of eternal life on the government's orders.^[8] The experiment culminated in the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog,"^[9] The Ultimate Life Form", who could harness the mysterious power of the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow is thought to be dead in Sonic Adventure 2, which was his first in-game appearance,^[9][10] he but returns in Sonic Heroes with amnesia, a condition which persists into the events of Shadow the Hedgehog, three months later.^[3][6]

At the beginning of Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow remembers only three things: his attempt to escape the ARK—a large space station—with Gerald Robotnik's granddaughter Maria, Maria's death by gunshot from Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) soldiers—a military federation that is run by the G.U.N. commander^[8]—and his name.^[11] He wonders whether he is actually an android.^[10] The game begins in the city of Westopolis, which the Black Arms are invading; their leader, Black Doom, tells Shadow of an old agreement to bring him the Chaos Emeralds.^[8][12] Stunned that Black Doom knew his name, Shadow realizes that he must find the Chaos Emeralds to learn his past.^[13]

The game progresses through several more levels. As Shadow's completes missions involved, he learns more of his past.^[1][10] He can choose to help the Black Arms or Doctor Eggman (both Dark), who want the Chaos Emeralds for themselves; to help the G.U.N. army and other familiar Sonic characters (Hero), who wants to protect the world from the Dark side;^[8] or to choose neither side and keep the Chaos Emeralds for himself (Neutral).^[7] The missions completed determine which one of ten possible endings will be seen after Shadow collects all the Chaos Emeralds and defeats one of the game's final bosses.^[14] The possible ending events range from planning to defeat the Black Arms^[15] to planning to destroy the planet.^[16]

[edit] Multiplayer

One feature included in Shadow The Hedgehog is it's multiplayer mode. It is similar to Sonic Adventure 2 in that there are multiple characters to choose from (all variants of Shadow)which have different abilities and disabilitiesfor each player, and that there are two play options for multiplayer: single and 2-out-of-3. After choosing multipayer, players are presented with a player select screen. There are 6 players to choose from: two black shadows, one with red streaks on his spikes, the other with yellow streaks, and 4 metallic shadows. What is unique about the metallic Shadows is that instead of two arms, they have a certain type of gun replacing half of their arm. The benefit is that the the guns replacing their arm have infinite ammo, yet that is the only weapon they can use. The Black shadows can use any weapons found, yet each have a certain amount of ammo and when it runs out, the weapon is unusable. The only way to win multiplayer mode is to eitherhe kill the opposing shadow, or having the opposing Shadow fall off the stage, which results as an automatic round victory. In a single round match, the loser is the person who's Shadow dies or falls off the stage. The winner of the round wins the match. In best 2-out-of-3, players try to kill the other player's Shadow. when one player kill the other player's Shadow, that player wins the round and earns a point. The play is moved to the next stage of the three. If the player one the first round and wins the round after that, the player who won the two wins the match. But if both players win one round, the third round starts,which serves as the tiebreaker. Whoever wins the tiebreaker wins the match. There are three stages availible, which include a stage surrounded by Lava. THe only special feature is that when a story in story mode is completed, a special weapon is unlocked for single player and multiplayer mode, and since there are more than 5 different weapons unlockable.

[edit] Development

Shadow the Hedgehog was developed by Sega Studio USA, the former United States division of Sega's Sonic Team, and published by Sega.^[6] The game and its tagline ("Hero or villain? You decide.") were revealed at the March 2005 inauguration of Sonic the Hedgehog into the Walk of Game.^[9] The game was formally announced by Sega on March 23.^[10]

In a pre-release interview with Patrick Klepek of 1UP.com, director Takashi Iizuka, who had worked on the Sonic series since 1993, stated that he targeted a younger audience with previous games, and wanted to target an older audience with Shadow the Hedgehog.^[17] In another interview with Nintendo World Report staff writer Lasse Pallesen, Iizuka stated that the team wanted to make a game featuring Shadow to resolve plot mysteries that began with the character's introduction in Sonic Adventure 2.^[10] The team felt that Shadow's design—inspired by films such as Underworld, Constantine, and the Terminator series—would make the story darker and allow for elements, such as vehicles and weapons, otherwise considered inappropriate for a Sonic game.^[4] The game contains profanities—instances of damn spoken by Shadow—a first for the series.^{[3][16][18][19]} 1UP.com's preview of the game listed it Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating as T,^[17] but the final rating was E10+.^[1][8]

[edit] Music

Lost and Found: Shadow the Hedgehog Vocal Trax is a video game soundtrack album released as a CD in February 2006. The album contains seven songs, six directly from the game and one remix:^[20]

1. "I Am (All of Me)" by Crush 40 (Trailer theme, main game theme, and final boss theme) – 3:50
2. "Almost Dead" by Powerman 5000 (Dark and Pure Dark ending theme) – 3:24
3. "Waking Up" by Julien-K (Neutral ending theme) – 3:20
4. "E.G.G.M.A.N. Doc Robeatnix Mix" by REMIX Factory featuring Paul Shortino (Doctor Eggman's theme; featured in a brief cutscene) – 3:38
5. "Chosen One" by A2 (Hero ending theme) – 4:11
6. "All Hail Shadow" by Magna-Fi (Pure Hero ending theme) – 3:23
7. "Never Turn Back" by Crush 40 (Final ending theme) – 3:58

[edit] Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings GC: 53% (27 reviews)[22] PS2: 49% (33 reviews)[23] X: 52% (25 reviews)[24] Metacritic GC: 51% (22 reviews) PS2: 45% (28 reviews) X: 49% (24 reviews)[21]
Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com PS2: D-[2] GC, X: C+[25] Eurogamer X: 5/10[26] Game Informer 4/10[27] GameSpot GC, X: 4.8/10[28] PS2: 4.7/10[1] GameSpy [29] GameTrailers 8.3/10[3] IGN GC, X: 4.9/10[30] PS2: 4.7/10[31] Nintendo Power 8.0/10[32] Official Xbox Magazine (UK) X: 7.0/10[33] X-Play X: [34] Herald Sun 3.5/5[11] The Times [35]

Shadow the Hedgehog was created for the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, and Microsoft Xbox video game consoles, and released in 2005 in the United States on November 15, in Europe on November 18, and in Japan on December 15.^[36] It received mostly negative reviews from critics upon its release;^[32] the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions are respectively rated 51%, 45%, and 49% on Metacritic^[21] and 53%,^[22] 49%,^[23] and 52%^[24] on Game Rankings. However, more than one million copies were sold worldwide,^[37] and the game was later released as a part of two budget lines—Greatest Hits for the PlayStation 2^[38] and Player's Choice for the GameCube.^[39]

Much criticism stemmed from the unwelcome sense of maturity and, in particular, the addition of guns.^[32] Game Informer staff writer Matt Helgeson said that "not only is this new 'adult' interpretation of Sonic painfully dumb, it’s also ill-advised and almost feels like a betrayal to longtime fans."^[27] Eurogamer staff writer Tom Bramwell felt that "the game's other selling point – its darker edge – [is] not really meant for us."^[26] G4's X-Play and GameSpy staff writer Patrick Klepek thought similarly.^[29][34] In contrast, Nintendo Power staff writer Steve Thomason rated the game 8.0 out of 10, stating that "[t]his darker take on the Sonic universe succeeds for the most part, giving the series a bit of an edge without going overboard on violence."^[32]

The game's controls were criticized, especially because Shadow's homing attack caused unexpected character deaths. Game Informer's Matt Helgeson complained that the attack "frequently sends you careening off into nothingness, resulting in cheap death after cheap death."^[27] Nintendo Power, X-Play, Eurogamer, Official Xbox Magazine, and GameSpy agreed.^{[26][29][32][33][34]} Other complaints focused on the mechanics of weapons and vehicles. Greg Mueller of GameSpot felt that the guns were nearly useless because of a lack of an aiming ability.^[28] IGN staff writer Matt Casamassina, 1UP.com staff writer Greg Sewart, Game Informer, X-Play, GameSpy, and London's The Times also criticized the mechanics of Shadow's weapons and vehicles, and other aspects of the game's controls.^{[2][27][29][30][34][35]} However, Nintendo Power claimed that "blasting Shadow's foes with the wide variety of weapons at his disposal is just plain fun."^[32]

The many possible paths through the game caused reviewers to praise the game's replay value. Rating the game 8.3 out of 10, GameTrailers stated that "this choose-your-own-adventure style gives the game replay value that many platformers lack."^[3] Melbourne, Australia's Herald Sun and Official Xbox Magazine thought similarly.^[11][33] Nintendo Power agreed, although criticizing the difficulty of the missions that require the player to locate objects.^[32] GameSpot praised the game's variety of levels and its music.^[28]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Sonic portal

• Official website (Japanese)
• Official website (English)