Shadow the Hedgehog Review - Quickies Don't Cut It 

As soon as you asked “What does Shadow the Hedgehog have?” after talking about gimmicks, I got an ad for redbull saying “A little bit of everything.”

This is honestly the most fair review I've seen for this game. Most people just hung up on the tone and guns. While I agree they went way too far with both of those I don't think that automatically makes it a bad game. I will admit I do like the game and I agree don't think it deserves as much hate it gets, but I do get why people wouldn't like it (especially with like lost impact and the doom seriously screw those levels). I think this was a great review that goes over both positive and negatives of the game really well. So good job on the review. I might have to check your other reviews.

8:25 Ok sorry but that right there was just plain funny.

I'm happy to hear someone else praise the soundtrack. It's not one of my favorites in the series but there are a lot of good themes in this game. In general, this game doesn't offend me as much as it does to others, I enjoy a bit of it and I still pop it in once every two years or so

That was a fair review. I'll be honest, I do dislike the game myself. I can't see myself playing it again anytime soon. The gameplay felt sloppy. Things such as turning or colliding into things got annoying. I think the only thing I liked was the path system. It was an interesting concept but poorly executed. Going through the story multiple times to get the 10 endings was tedious. And there wasn't really much difference between some of those endings either. And by the time you get to the final story you realize that none of those 10 endings were canon. Felt like a waste of time. Anyway, nice work.

Shadow The Hedgehog(Game) was amazing to me, I really welcomed the dark and edgy tone it had. the gameplay was pretty solid to me, I never had problems with the controls or anything of the sort and 100% the game with ease. Just like you I also got all A rank and beaten expert mode, this game was a load of fun to me. The soundtrack was excellent as it also fit the tone of how a 'SHADOW GAME' should be. This game was better than SA1,SA2 and Hereos by far.

I'm so glad you didn't just blindly bash this game but actually praised the things it got right (the controls *especially* compared to other Sonic titles) as well as pointing out the flaws. And yes, the soundtrack deserves so much more love. It's fantastic to me.

to be honest i never knew why people didnt like the controls they were just fine to me

Eh. I repleyed that game recently for "research" purposes, and you know what. I still like it. Gameplay is good, soundtrack is heavy, just the way I like it. I like the story overall, but the general execution is sloppy, you can even tell that certain cutscenes are not supposed to happen when they do. And if anything, I find the "edgyness" of the game hilarious.

I honestly love this game.

My favorite line in the game is Shadow: this is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me

"The Sonic Avengers"- Retropolis Zone

Another flawless review, really wish this channel got more views. So refreshing to see someone who is truly able to take the good with the bad rather than just pandering to the preexisting negative feelings known to be associated with the game. Another case of decent if questionable ideas executed with mixed results, but I definitely feel there is something worthwhile there buried under the rubble for those willing to dig. Would still love to see you give Metroid Other M your treatment haha, but regardless great video man :)

This is the most balanced reviews I've ever seen of this game. Honestly, it's a game that isn't great in my opinion, but that I still have enough fun with that I come back to it every once in awhile!

Glad to see this uploaded, nice production values. As for the game itself, I thought this game was alright when I first played it, but as I actually completed it, I dreaded the experience for how shallow it truly felt to me. Yet when I look back on your review of it, I can definitely see the positive aspects of Shadow's spinoff title, as little as they are, such as the few stages that are actually well-designed in a dynamic way if the objective you were going for didn't obstruct you from enjoying it that is, or how Jun Senoue's music wasn't bad and actually catchy like with Lava Shelter and Egg Dealer to name a few examples that I personally enjoyed myself. As for the gameplay itself, while the good/evil pathway concepts aren't horrible, the consequences of picking one side over the other is very minimal, only affecting which stages you go to when you complete a specific mission and if you care for the A-ranks, that you need to avoid killing off too many enemies of the alliance you're going for on that certain mission so it won't detract from your score and rank too much. (not that it actually mattered much giving how they're pretty lenient on that.) Games like the first two BioShock games and from what I saw from footage of like the InFAMOUS series on the PlayStation put a much more heavier focus on the good/evil aspects and the pro's/con's that come with it, and I know that Sonic games usually don't really pay much attention to that kind of stuff, but it felt rather poorly executed in the long run given that the final story pretty much puts the status quo in your face that Shadow still is a good guy at the end of the day. Control physics weren't ever truly a issue for me except for the homing attack physics being awkward in the range and enemy programming affecting it as you pointed out. I usually just learned to delay my next homing attack to not overshoot the enemy because button-mashing the homing attack wildly can easily result in overshooting a enemy like with Heroes or even the Adventure games when crossing a bridge. And finally the gunplay was fine for me. While Shadow only being able to carry 1 type of melee weapon/gun at a time can be bothersome, the semi-auto lock on feature on enemies with most guns worked fine and if anything, I liked mowing down enemies with a few bullets and be done and over with, rather than how cumbersome the few tough robots in later Sonic Heroes stages had to be dealt with, and it makes the 'destroy x amount of enemies' objectives not that horrible to complete either, if you can find them that is. Ammo conservation I didn't mind either, because limits are there for a reason, it forces you to adapt to good aiming to some degree rather than spraying around, that's always been like that in most games that features guns as a means of offense. I think I been on a tangent long enough, but case in point, great review and I appreciate what little support I can usually offer you in your reviews when the end result is a good quality product.

finally a fair review of this game, nice vid

So are we just not going to acknowledge the fact that in order to 100% the game, you have to beat Westopolis 326 times? No? Okay.

Such a great review, I watched it all and I really love your style. I'm playing this game 11 years late to the party, and I actually like it a lot, not the best game in the world, but it's enjoyable, a lot more enjoyable than Heroes in my opinion.

Shadow the hedgehog is my second favorite 3d sonic game first being Sonic Adventure 2 on the dreamcast. I dont know why I love this game soo much but i guess i just do

This has got to be one of the ebst Shadow the Hedgehog reviews I've seen. The game has a lot of cons, but it sure does have a lot of pros as well. Most reviews forget about all the good stuff (which there's enough of) and only mention the bad parts.

I want to replay this game now

I despise this game with a burning passion, but you've earned my respect for your opinion with just how great, fair and detailed your analysis was of this game. Your best review yet man, I wouldn't care if this review came out in 2030, I would still be satisfied! You have not wasted forty minutes of my life.

I really like your reviews! You put a lot of effort into them! Keep at it! :D

You're amazing, I'm so glad I stumbled upon you. Your reviews are long and entertaining, you really deserve more subscribers and views. You got yourself a new loyal fan, keep up the superb work.

l spent 40+ MINUTES to find the last artificial chaos

It is nice to see another positive review of my all time favorite Sonic game, Shadow The Hedgehog because most of the reviews for this game are just people bitching and complaining about how dumb and or stupid/bad this game is without even giving it a chance and that's just sad.

Absolutely fantastic. Saw a lot of the missing potential I've noticed as well. Those chase missions in particular were fantastic, and Lava Shelter is such a joy to play.

I am a huge fan of your style of reviews. I love how you talk about what you like AND don't like, and you give a lot of time to each. It's also very well written, your sentences feel very thought out and descriptive of your experience. I wonder if this is what Extra Credits was referring to when they discussed changing how people talk about games in a review space...

Great channel you've got here. Keep up the great work!

39:15 "When I booted up my Wii U to start the game..." Wait what?

Yesssss, been waiting for this review.

"The start of the dark age." Well, I liked the game _slightly though._

Tbh this is my favorite game out of most sonic games (I've only played sonic the hedgehog 1 - 3 and sonic adventure 1 - 2 and shadow the hedgehog and I consider it the most fun at of all of them) The reason for this being is that I just love the level design it's so wonderful, The music in the game is wonderful, The powers are wonderful (Chaos blast/chaos control are awesome.) You did miss some flaws tho, for example when using "Chaos control" you can often boost past mission objectives missing them completely it can also be very misleading on the last level, When doing the good mission with sonic if you use "Chaos control" you will go flying to the Evil Missions area making you have to backtrack all the way back, Otherwise I love the game great review!.

From now on, this will be my go-to source for video game reviews due to the unbiased views and opinions expressed in these videos. Keep it up, retropolis☺!

Dope review man. Very comprehensive

I don't understand why you have only 921 subscribers. You deserve so much better than that. What's wrong with people today

Great job sir, I think this is the best review I've seen from you yet, it's up there with Nickonaquamagna's Shadow the Hedgehog review. I personally had a good time going through this game as well and never had any of the problems everyone else had with it. I'm glad you compared it to other platform games that had darker tones and themes in the beginning like Jak 2 and Banjo Tooie, Conkers Bad Fur Day also comes to my mind. Anyway, keep up the good work!

Great review. But when you started playing the Lost Impact music, I actually had to stop the video and skip ahead. Gosh that level is my nightmare

It's been like a week since I found your channel and I've been spending most of my days watching your reviews (I've watched them all, give me more please), and MY GOD YOU REALLY GOOD AT IT! When I first found your channel it was Mega Man X6 review, I just though "Meh, I bet it's just another one complaining about everything in the game" and then I did watched the entire video for curiosity and holy moly I was really surprised! Even putting aside your personal feelings toward the game as much as you could so you could give the watchers both pros and cons about the game were really awesome! I do agree with your review and opinions with Shadow The Hedgehog aswell, I do think people exaggerates about this game, but that's not what this comment is about. Well, What I wanted to say is, your content is really well made and I see your effort to make really good reviews! Thanks for being such contribution to the youtube with your content and keep the good work! Thanks for the attention!

I really like this game and Heroes. I played them both on PS2 and for some reason never noticed the differences. I guess because I didn't know about the other versions.

I feel like the way you covered the games story was still very well done. So I would say still keep em In there.😋

So what's the next sonic game you plan of reviewing? Would love to see you tackle the boost games

Shadow the Hedgehog (the game) is probably the definition of "trying way too hard". I mean, the concept alone of a 3 foot hedgehog going on a genocidal rampage is so ludricous, you'd think it was some sort of joke. Yet the game expects me to take it all seriously? Now, I won't lie, I like me some serious and edgy moments in my games, even in my Sonic games, but this is just too much. Know your boundaries, game!!! That said, I avoided this game, mostly for the reason I mentioned above, as well as the repetitive mission structure. But thanks to your review, you've convinced me to give this game a shot, if only for a neutral run and expert mode. So thank you and awesome review, as always.

26:37 My fastest completion of that boss is 7 seconds. LOL Also great review, I think we share nearly all the same views.

I so freaking love this music 24:44. It fits the stage amazingly and is amazing itself

This game is deserving of a remade/remastered version of some kind. Nothing needs to be removed, just add quality of life changes to for missions (enemies respawning when using the teleporters and the radar), predetermined paths if players don't care about choices they just want to get to the final story, and an easier way of getting expert mode. Aside from that fixing issues where you can go flying due to multiple factors or fall/get knocked down for no apparent reason would be enough.

i really like when someone talks about this game... and the better thing about it, its the opening that song just rocks my soul

I personally didn't like this game for a long time mainly due to Shadow's controls, but I decided to give it another fair chance a few months ago and I had a lot of fun with it. I was bored during the last few days of school, and I brought my laptop and started playing it through Dolphin (a Gamecube emulator). I ended up adjusting to the controls and started genuinely enjoying it. A little while later, one of my classmates came up to me and said he remembered playing this game when he was a kid, and asked if we could play together. I agreed, handed him a controller, and we had a blast playing the Versus mode. Honestly, the multiplayer is flawed as all hell, but that didn't stop us from having a great time regardless.

Great DAMN review as always, hahaha! Really enjoyed it. Don't ask me why, but i really like this game. Has it share of problems but is far from awful as Sonic 2006, for example.

31:02 As I'm known for saying, "Bollocks to the max!"

I don't know why people hate this game it has so much replay value.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, THE MORE THE MERRIER!

Henlo, I played this game as a kid and recently, and I think the exact same as you, it has good stuff and bad stuff but everyone bashes it before giving it a try for the ridiculous premise and big creators riding the hate waves, this is much more informative than ''Edgy hog bad'' , thanks!

Its baffling how they never considered implementing a map for this game, HOW HARD COULD IT HAVE BEEN?!

Great review! I want someone to talk about the progression for the library though. It doesn't reward you with anything, however, if The Completionist ever reviews this game, I hope he goes and completes every possible path. There's about 326 if i recall correctly, and to truly 100% this game, that means playing through westopolis 326 times. This is a fun enough game, but completionists should stay far away unless they hope to lose their sanity.

This game is easily one of my favorites and I was raised on Sonic as one of the main franchises.

Beware of not having the footage and narration synched.

I feel the complete same. Shadow is alot of fun but does have alot of crappy levels and missions but it didn't really take away from my experience. While it isn't the best Sonic game or as good as it should of have been it was still okay. I would love to see a new Shadow game fixing the gameplay problems and whatnot, since Shadow is my favorite character. The story can be darker than the usual Sonic game but I don't think he should be saying damn or whatever and have the guns fit more with Shadow and the darker tone shouldn't be so forced and cringe-worthy. I loved this review and how you didn't let others sway your opinion!

Personal bias for this game aside this was another great detailed review. I'm glad you didn't go in with the mindset of the fan who is resistant to change and has their trigger finger ready the second they see something that doesn't click. I agreed with a lot on why you thought the game was fun and even found myself understanding with some of your criticisms. For me the whole Last Story being the only cannon ending doesn't bother me too much. I feel making multiple endings for a choose your own adventure game is a lose-lose either way. If the Last story wasn't cannon and the game only had 10 endings there would need to be one cannon ending for the story to continue, and then I'm confident people would only bitch that some endings aren't true (or maybe Shadow destroying Black Doom's army, killing Eggman and blowing up Earth are all in the same cannon, I dunno). That's just the way I see things though. Anyways once again great review.

I enjoyed the game back then and still do. Then again, I played the Gamecube version and most of the flaws you mentioned I experienced them myself. Tone, guns and damn (oh my god that word is so scary) didn't bother me since I wasn't hung up on it being Shadow game in the Sonic Universe because I'm wasn't playing as Sonic. Oh and fuck that stage where you had to deal with the bombs, I hated that mission. I didn't know Expert Mode existed since I was never good enough to A rank everything.

Shadow could have been a really good game. I love how colorful it is. It needed a lot more polish and a better understanding of 3rd person shooting gameplay. The devs should have paid more close attention to the Ratchet and Clank series and also games like Metal Arms: Glitch in the System or even Max Payne.

Good review!

Oh cool! A Shadow review! *looks at length- Well, shit. The title wasn't kidding around.

Finally a person who doesn't hate the game and a review which isn't all negative! :) Personally I found this game very enjoyable back in 2006, in fact this is one of my favourite games (or should I say it was - my gaming tastes have changed drastically since then - JRPGs and VNs are games I enjoy the most nowadays). I agree with you practically on all aspects - except for 1 thing - you said all the missions are pretty simple to complete and navigate (as in finding your targets). Well, there's one mission that I absolutely hate - kinda strange you didn't mention it - don't remember the name of the stage - it's the mission where you have to find 30-something bombs in the Eggman's cyberspace - that one was the most frustrating to get the A rank on. Yes, I had unlocked the expert mode back then - it was a great challenge - especially the Cosmc Fall and one of the ARK's memories' stage . Another thing I'd like to mention is that this was the game that helped me a great deal in learning English - back then I had played the game in English VA and with Russian subtitles. Also there was the option to change the VA to Japanese which is also great. Speaking of VA - there was one particular thing that I really liked - hidden diologues. For eg do you know that in the Final Haunt when you find’ Doom’s Eye, go to a next checkpoint, let Shadow die, teleport to the first checkpoint, select the Dark mission you can listen to some of the phrases that usually one never hears.It was cool to find something like this. Overall - a great game in my book

I had fun with it. I didn't have the patience to get all 10 endings, but I got a few of them. The controls felt sloppy and the tone got old after a while, but I did have fun.

Why don't u have 1 mill subs your awesome man

Yo! RZ, your vids are getting better and better with each subsequent one. keep it up! I'd sub twice if I weren't already.

There are maps in Lost Impact and The Doom on the green computer screens in various rooms but the fact that they made them as scenery/background stuff is stupid and their quite easy to miss and overlook

I enjoyed this game despite its flaws when I playerd it years ago

I legitimately liked this game. ON THE PS2. Maybe I was just at the right age for it, but Shadow was and still is my favorite character in the Sonic franchise. I didn't even mind the story so much. Just enough for me to fill in the blanks, and the difficulty was just fine for me coming off of Sonic Heroes and Sonic Adventure 2, in that order. Except one thing. Cosmic Fall has my favorite music but it was soooo haaaard. And you have to go through it in Expert mode. When you go through Expert mode, you can activate hint bubbles so characters can cheer you on. Most are optional. Except Cosmic Fall...Cheese just screaming "chao chao" at you during the "this is gonna suck" sensation just rubs salt in the wound...

Sonic X had guns and swearing, so why wasn't it called edgy? Shadow The Hedgehog is an underrated game.

Nice Review.

I liked this game as a kid. It's gameplay was good, and I appreciate the satiracle edginess. Only problems were having to constantly restart it for different endings, and the gun system being stupid. Did anyone else actually play the multiplayer as a kid though? It's sweet.

5:35 Sonic Avengers? Not gonna lie I would totally buy that

also big thanks to the programmer who made it so a player 2 can usually controll your ally like sonic knuckkes rouge omega and even maria i had way more funn than i shouldve using maria to destroy robots and stuff

Just got the CD soundtrack for this game around 4:10p.m. 9/6/2022 and it's the Shadow The Hedgehog Original Soundrax CD and I'm listening to it while watching this! 5:04p.m. 9/6/2022

After looking at all the 3D Sonic reviews you've done, what is your favorite out of all of them. Of course your least favorite is 06, but is your favorite SA2 or Heroes?

That's the thing about Sonic music, I find it largely forgettable. People go on about how cool the music is in these games but no matter how many times I may have played the games, I just don't enjoy the music and don't retain it within memory.

Its a bit late to comment this video, but I always seen this game on my childhood and just thought it was cool, and I have played the game twice in the past couple of years. I was actually surprised it was so fun that I completed it 100%. The level design is huge and allow the player to master the phisics (the jump, homing attack and spindash allow to keep the gameplay fast-paced), because the game has very few glithces compared to previous installments. Even the labyrinthine levels are entertaining for themselves if memorized properly, and easily redeemable with a map. At first I thought the bosses were ok, but they all can be taken down more effectively making stategies with the Chaos pawers and the guns that make the progression in levels fluid, its entertaining and constantly rewarding. At the time I got to the expert mode, I realised that the more you play the levels, the easier and funnier it is to use their tricks to beat them. As a matter of fact, the game is really good if you dont just monotonously beat the ten routes for the endings, but take advantage of everything it has to offer.

I'm actually impressed with such a positive view on this game, i haven't played this game i've only got a Ps2, but i'm well aware of reviews from people like somecallmejohnny that didn't like the game, but i have to say that even when i disagree with the reviewer's opinion, i love to watch great in depth reviews that challenge the common sense specially when the reviewers have great arguments to back their opinions.

you are right about this game like i fell the same about this game as you do good review

WHAT! YOU GOT ALL A RANKS! I played this game a ton as a kid but there was no way I had the patents to do that. Some of those missions can take 15 minutes.

The fact that you have less bugs than Heroes is because they use the exact same engine, but they obviously had more time to correct the bugs that were present in Heroes

Please keep the story stuff in your vids. I don't even care about the swearing anymore. BTW, can you do Rayman Origins and/or Rodea the Sky Soldier next?

I had no idea you were Dutch! I thought your accent was one from New York for some weird reason!! 😂😂

I totally agree with most of your opinion! I was never bothered by the game and shift in tone and mature concepts, but I did find the swearing unnecessary. The morality system was interested, but wasn't executed correctly, and I rather prefer the Expert mode. I really enjoyed most of the music, and thought the level design was the most creative out of many Sonic game. I found the gameplay completely underrated and was expecting less from it. I did, however, thought the story was uninteresting, and found 10 endings ridiculous. In my opinion, I believe this game is a Sonic game and a spin-off, just not a main Sonic game, or as I would call it a Sonic spin-off. I can understand why it would be argued otherwise, especially with some of the Sonic cast added in it, and wished they weren't. It's a spin-off because it stars Shadow. That's what a spin-off is by definition. It doesn't matter if it's canon. That's what a sidequel is, which basically means spin-off sequel. I prefer this game over Heroes, I hated Cosmic Fall, and wished we got a sequel.

This really makes me wanna try this game out. I'm glad as hell I didn't get rid of my Wii last week, somebody wanted it and I said "sure I don't play it" but I backed out at the last minute, by asking how much he was willing to pay for it. He opted out, but he woulda had to fork over like 200 buck to bust thru the imaginary wall I'd set up. But also while I was typing this I heard the host say "I booted up my Wii U"...to play this game I assume, can you do that? Can you play GameCube games on the Wii U? I know it has a Wii in it basically, but I thought that functionality was completely nix'd with the loss of the controller ports??

I liked this game a lot. While I agree that there should have been more chase missions, you didnt bring up the fact that if you die on any of them, you get reset to the last checkpoint you touched, but the target vehicle DOESNT. So, if you happen to be near the end of the stage when that happens, you pretty much failed the mission. Also Im surprised you didnt bring up the Mad Matrix Dark mission where you have to destroy all the bombs on the circuit. Many people cite that one as one of the worst, if not THE worst mission in the game.

I always liked this game, haven't played it in over ten years so my views on it could change but I remember really enjoying it.

I don't know if I have insane luck or something, but I almost never had to use the warp, I thought the mission objectives were easy to complete, even the ark levels.

Great review

I like your reviews, but I think that you should at least mention the story of the games you review in the future. I too am a gameplay person and I don't care much for story in most games but mentioning it makes a more complete review, it gives more context.

I played the PS2 version of this game and i didn't really see lag or broken things that often. It was a smooth experience in my opinion, but in some areas there was a little lag if there was too much things on the screen, but it didn't really bother me that much. The gunplay was fun and the music is good if you listen to it, some really good rock tunes can be found there. And the game isn't that hard, it took me about a week to complete the game but it really depends if you're good at the game. This game is much better then Sonic 06 in my opinion and this is one of my favorite Sonic games somehow. (I don't know why)

I’d say the main reason why I remember it so badly was because I played the laggy PS2 version.

An understandable review, i have a lot of respect for the people who are able to enjoy a game i just couldn't like, i wish i like this game but I don't :'| but if someone likes it then go and have fun, who am i to tell you what games you should like?

Too late on the warning. I got an A on all levels on the PS2 version and beat Expert mode. I can vouch for some of the issues though, even recounts of falling for passing through a doorway in the flashback levels.

Huh. Shadow the Hedgehog on the Ps2 was my first sonic game that got me into the series...is that weird, that this is also my favorite sonic game to date?

love this game. im just a huge fan of shadow's character overall

I'm severely disappointed that you didn't remark on the multiplayer aspect of the game. It's the first and to my knowledge, only co-op 3D sonic (or sonic-esque) game! Player 2 could actually control the partner in each stage. unfortunately, certain characters could not be controlled, like the evil guy, and I think charmy, and maria, while controllable, was pretty worthless. I wish more 3D sonics had a co-op mechanic, and I wish that every mission in shadow the hedgehog had worthwhile playable characters.

How is your English so perfect in the intro