Name: Shadow the Hedgehog
Platform: Gamecube, Xbox, Playstation 2

Introduction

There once was a hedgehog named Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog was the mascot for a video gaming company called Sega. In the early to mid 1990's, his games were able to quality match that of rival company Nintendo's, Mario! However, when the introduction of 3D gaming made it's way into households, Nintendo managed to far out run the speedy blue rodent with Sega releasing games full of glitches and unsatisfying gameplay. So one day, Sega decided that they must try something new in the next Sonic game, thus they thought it would be a good idea to make a Sonic game that was more violent, included firearms and didn't even feature Sonic as a playable character. What was the result: Shadow the Hedgehog.

Story

This game is set directly after Sonic Heroes. Shadow has no idea where he came form and what his purpose is. 50 years ago, he was created by Professor Gerald as the ultimate life form.... but why? Well, the answer is about to be revealed, as it's the 50 year anniversary that the Black Comet flies by the planet Earth. A huge cloud takes over the sky and then an endless amount of black and red aliens start falling form the sky, destroying everything they can get their hands on. As this goes on, the big boss alien, Black Doom, approaches Shadow asking him to find the 7 Chaos Emeralds and bring them to him as was promised 50 years ago. The alien then vanishes leaving Shadow with a harsh decision to make, does he help the aliens and find the answer to who he is, or does he ignore the aliens request and drive them away? It's up to you.

Gameplay

You'd probably expect that Sega making this old franchise seem a little more teenage oriented be a little more exciting to play! Well if you thought this... you couldn't be any more wrong. The Sonic games are about busting up robots, running very fast and defeating the evil Dr Eggman. What's this game about? None of the above. First of all, you play as Shadow and ONLY Shadow. Every level you can choose to do 1 of 3 missions, you can either help the good guys, help the bad guys or do the rebel mission which is just get to the goal ring. Depending on what mission you complete will effect which level you will do next and what story you will follow. This sounds like a nice addition, but when you think about the trademark speed in the Sonic games it's really REALLY annoying. For example, this first Hero mission requires you to kill all the aliens destroying the town. When it comes to fast games like this, the last thing you want to do is keep stopping to check if you missed one, which you will do a lot because most of the time the aliens are hiding. Most times you will just get sick of the mission you're doing and will just go for the rebel mission instead. On the subject of the fast gameplay, who decided to add vehicles to the game? They are a prime example of a pointless addition to the gameplay. All the vehicles in the game are slow and hard to control, you will not be wasting any time trying to learn to use these when Shadow can run faster than them, it's a shame that some vehicles are actually required to complete the game. The guns are another poor addition, most of the time they are useless and add no fun to the gameplay at all, half of them are actually bigger than Shadow.

Graphics

The graphics are good to a certain extent. The levels look nice and characters look alright, but little things such as the weapons, vehicles and the blood and explosion effect look dangerously unrealistic and uninspired.

Sound

This game manages to feature some entertaining music, but the sound effects and voice acting are a whole new story. The voice acting is bad to an extent where you'd rather just skip the cut scenes and get on with the game. The Sonic X voice cast make a debut in this game, as none of the previous voice actors from the Sonic games are present in this title. In terms of sound effects there is a similar story. The machine gun for example sounds like you're pulling the trigger of a $10 toy gun you can buy at a toy shop.

Overall

It makes you wonder what ideas for a new Sonic game were rejected if this one was the final result. It's obvious this game was only made to tell the story of where Shadow came from, it's just a shame it had to suck so bad. The inclusion of guns really did eliminate the audiences of which this game was aimed at. The game you could say was too violent for children to want to play, but too kiddy for teenagers to be interested in. If we see a Silver the Hedgehog game any time soon I'm not gonna be happy!

Story: 2/5 - You decide what happens really, it can be very hard to follow at times depending on the mission you're doing.

Gameplay: 1/5 - Absolutely terrible. The games glitchy gameplay, jumpy camera and unbearably slow missions really get you asking.... who tested this and said it was ready for sale?

Graphics: 3/5 - The explosions and special effects are anything but special, but the level designs look pretty good.

Sound: 2/5 - Very annoying voice acting and unrealistic sound effects, only some of the music tracks are worth listening too.

Overall: 8/20