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An actual gamer review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: February 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Briefly, my thoughts on the issue of the game's "appropriateness":

-Maybe the word "damn" isn't as generally taboo as it used to be, however up to this point the Sonic series has been, to my knowledge at least, squeaky clean, much like the Mario games. Even Sonic and other good guys use the word here. And kids still do go around imitating their favorite video game heroes, so it's not to be dismissed so lightly. I think having them use it was a bad idea.
-The "blackness" of the aliens has nothing to do with racism or Africans. The game is not racist in any way so shut up about it.
-This is the first Sonic-themed game where you fight against humans (besides Dr. Eggman), but even when you shoot them they don't die; they just lay there wounded and there's no blood.
-At first glance, one might think that this puts Sonic just a few steps away from "capping hookers" a la Grand Theft Auto. I'd say that's too alarmist and point out that Shadow is not the same character; Sonic says in the game that he "wouldn't be caught dead" with a gun.

Okay, now to the gameplay.
-Basically, this game plays like Sonic Heroes with guns. If you didn't like Sonic Heroes, you won't like this either (I obviously did hence the high score). Instead of having teams like SH, Shadow has a "mission character" who follows him and gives advice on how to fight enemies and beat missions.
-The guns are only semi-new to the Sonic series, since Tails would ride robots with gun-arms in the Sonic Adventure titles. Using them takes some getting used to, but soon became intuitive for me. I thought they fit okay with Shadow's character but I'm glad Sonic doesn't ever pick up a gun.
-Whether or not it "captures the feel of old-school 2D Sonic" depends on the level. Some of the levels are well-designed and succeed at this, and some are too cramped and frustrating, requiring trial-and-error to beat. You can pick your path through the game, though, so you can avoid the lame levels once you know them.
-The camera is needlessly frustrating to control, and this is what breaks some of the levels. Fortunately, you don't always need to worry about it, again depending on the level.

The storyline and production values are excellent, as we'd expect from the Sonic series. The voice acting is better than in Sonic Heroes but still isn't perfect.

The pro reviewers overreacted in my opinion when they said Sonic Team was losing the plot with this game. I say it's worth at least a rental from anyone who likes Sonic (and that should include everyone who's ever picked up a controller). But parents of <10-yr-old children should be wary of the "damnits."

Sonic the Hedgehog Advances to the Next Level

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: December 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Even with recent advancements in video game technology, very few games offer a mix of everything gaming has to offer. First person shooters, and racing games come by the dozen, as do games about soldiers, crooks, or mystical anime-like worlds. Shadow the Hedgehog, the newest addition to the classic Sonic series, combines the best aspects of these popular gaming concepts, enhancing the over-all Sonic experience.

Simply, Shadow is an inverted version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Those unfamiliar with Sonic Adventure 2, might assume this to be cheap characterization on the Sonic Team's part, but it is actually just the opposite. Visually, yes, Sonic and Shadow are extremely alike. Shadow's colors are just flipped from Sonic's and his look is more menacing. The actual background of Shadow's character however, is more complex then any other character's in the series. In fact, Shadow's past and personality are the bases of the game. This is a huge step up for the Sonic Team. Sonic Adventure 2, which also centers Shadow's motives, is the only other Sonic game that has ever truly regarded any kind of thought out story line. Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure, and pretty much all of the Sega Genesis Sonic games, gave you a very clear mission; Defeat the Evil Doctor Robotnik using some Chaos Emeralds, and thus, save the world.

The Story line in Shadow the Hedgehog is: who is Shadow? Is he good, evil, misunderstood, indifferent? Does he want to help human beings, or does he want to kill them all? It is the player's job to decide. And the great thing is, you can change your mind right in the middle of game play.

Here's how the system works, the order of stages depends on the mission you choose with in each level. For example, level one, Westopolis, throws Shadow into a situation where aliens are attacking the city. You have three options: You can either, help Sonic and the G.U.N. army defeat these aliens; You can assist the aliens in killing off all the soldiers; Or... you can blow everyone off and snatch one of seven chaos emeralds, hidden near the end of the level. There are over twenty levels, all of which are huge 3-D environments, with lots of directions and little crevices to choose from. It is actually a combination of the path-set levels in Sonic Adventure 2, and the exploration based levels in Sonic Adventure.

Its easy to choose which path to take, as the game's other characters are always meeting up with you as you play, and trying to sway you to follow their directions. You can also reference each mission by pausing the game. This takes you to a menu of your options. Often I would be very close to finishing a mission, and at the very last minute, decide to just blow everything up. This is possible because for good deeds, a meter on the top of the screen fills up in blue, eventually giving you a special move called, Chaos Control, allowing you to wiz through the level in double the speed.. If you choose to be wicked though, another meter fills up in red, giving you the power of Chaos Blast, which is the equivalent to a mini-nuclear bomb. Each move is very nicely animated and easy to control.

The weapons are also a nice addition to the game. There are special weapons, which can be found in Shadow-colored boxes. Each box has four weapons to choose from. I recommend the vacuum chicken, which sucks up all your enemies, but the chao doll shooter is nice too...

Regular weapons, which you steal from your enemies, include missiles, bazookas, machine guns, plasma lasers, hand guns... basically all the good stuff. This might seem violent for a Sonic game, but aliens just turn into green blobs when you shoot them. Soldiers and army fighting machines? ...Okay, I know, shooting soldiers is a bit dark, but again, its not like blood flies every where. Soldiers just yelp and beg for mercy after you shoot them. There are no violent graphics or real solider deaths, so its hard to feel too guilty once you get into blasting them all. That, and its fun to watch their machinery explode.

Getting back to the "darkness" of the game... Some very minimal, almost silly swearing has been added to the dialogue. Trust me, it is not offensive. Its actually kind of goofy. Also, the voice actors have all been re-casted, so, aside from the harmless cussing, lines are delivered a lot better then those of previous Sonic games. Though, be warned of the cheesy "mwhahaha" crap every now and then.

Other problems that have been addressed: The angle issue that the Sonic Team is notorious for, is actually a lot better. There are a few levels where I had some problems with it, but very rarely did they cost me one of my Shadow lives. The animation, especially in the major cut scenes, is really nice, great actually. It is very clear, textured, well lit, and nicely directed, though some of the human characters move a bit awkwardly. Still, in Sonic Adventure 2, the animation of a human character, Maria, was practically deformed. She looks a lot better in this game, I promise.

Lastly, the soundtrack to Shadow the Hedgehog features digitally mixed, guitar-heavy, electronica-like themes. The tracks with vocals, which are played during the introduction of the game, and as the credits are rolling, range from Marilyn Manson rip-offs, to even a semi-eighties/The Cure techno track. The best theme is one called The Chosen one. Its very pop-rock, but actually has a really somber chord progression. It almost stands alone from the game, just as Suteki Da Ne does in Final Fantasy X.

Over-all, Shadow the Hedgehog is a major advancement in Sonic games, that features very polished animation, and a detailed story-line, which the player has control over. It is "dark" but not offensive or truly violent, and includes well-produced music and voice acting.

Better than its made out by some ...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I remember when I ordered Shadow the Hedgehog and decided to read some of the major reviews for it, from the large gaming sites. The first one that I found was trying to portray the game out to be terrible, I didn't believe it though. I then moved on to another site to find the same thing, review after review from the top sites all saying it was pretty bad. I firstly though of cancelling it, then though, they might not be right. I was right in thinking that.

The game isn't like a normal Sonic game, obvious because; it isn't Sonic. I have seen countless reviews complaining about the game having guns and it not suiting a Sonic game, but the fact is it isn't one and that's all there is to it. I go as far as to say the guns are a nice touch.

The game graphically is pretty similar to Sonic Heroes as far as level detail is concerned, although the characters seem to have been updated. The game still suffers from occasional game play issues such as the homing attack having a mind of its own, but that's just a small setback. The game has a fair selection of guns to choose from, ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. Aiming is pretty simple and easy to work. It's basically face the enemy and shoot, that's it and the game has slight auto-lock to make it even easier. The enemy AI was something I felt let the game down, most enemies just stand around and some don't even attack. The biggest killer in the game ended up being falls from cliffs and ledges, infact the only trouble killing the monsters caused was the time consumption. This ultimately effecting your rank at the end all for stopping to kill the enemies to complete the good or dark missions. But apart from that the game play seems to be quite solid, the camera is occasionally awkward but most of the time It's good when you need it. The music for the game is good as always, as are the sound effects. The voice acting is alright, its one thing that could have been better. The size of the game was great, spanning over 20 reasonably sized levels each with their own twists and turns to keep you happy and then you have the two player battle mode (which I haven't yet seen). And to make it even better the game has level select and allows you to re-watch cut scenes and listen to all of the games music from the main menu.

Overall I found the game to be quite good, like every game it has some problems but I found it made up for them. Totally worth it.

Bad Language

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 22
Date: December 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't play the game but my son did. He's a mature 9 year old so I thought that the rating (E 10+) would be fine. Well during the first few minutes of him playing the game all you hear is 'd**n it'. I just don't believe that any game with an E rating should have cussing in it all the time or anything like that........period. As you can see in the first review on this page, a twelve year old is cussing in his review. Not cool! Shadow cusses every time he loses coins, falls and dies. Pretty annoying to hear it all the time. I think this game should be rated 'T'. So for those of you parents that want to keep your child safe from this kind of language, DO NOT GET THIS GAME!

A Darker Side of Sonic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is simply a darker version of Sonic. It's really about time that it went from its candy-coated past into a darker area.

I also hasten to disagree with the parents who find this game offensive. If you had checked the back of the box, you would obviously realize that there was mild language and fantasy violence. Racism? This is all symbolic, it has nothing to do with the color of a human's skin. Black has traditionally been the color of evil. The fact that they are known as the "Black Arms" doesn't make it any more racist.

I thought this was an excellent game because it finally lets you be truly evil. This is new in Sonic, and is vey lightly touched on in the game industry (aside from the boring GTA). Anyone who takes all this violence seriously should not be a parent, because this is obviously fiction (aliens, robots, personified animals) and it is easily deduced that you can't do these actions in real life.

In short, I found this game very fun and I think that more games should get a little bit darker. The candy-coated image is getting tiresome. If parents can't teach their children that this can't happen in real life, they should not be parents.

Inappropriate for children of any age.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: January 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was skeptical when my 8-year-old daughter came running downstairs and told me that the characters on my 11-year-old sons "E" rated video game were cursing, but I went upstairs to check it out anyway. Sure enough, one of the characters was using the word "Damn." Even worse, he had to shoot and kill people to get through another challenge. Do the makers of this game, (Kaizen Media Group), really think that this sort of game is okay with responsible parents? Well, it's not. There are so many interesting and funny words in the English dictionary, I can't believe that this is the only thing that Kaizen Media Group could come up with!

I'm tired of going to movies and buying video games rated for children that are full of violence and cursing. It adds nothing to the game/movie. Adults can choose freely in regards to what games/movies they purchase, but as parents we are responsible for what our children play/view. I really feel that we need to speak out about these issues. If I could return this game I would. It is definitely headed for the trashcan and I will not be buying another one from this company. I suggest that you don't either.

A look at the facts for worried parents out there

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: February 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I would just like to point out and possibly reiterate a few things first off.

Dear "Amy",
*Quote*If I would have known all of this I would have never spent the money for my seven year old to have this game."

It concerns me that you, as a parent, would even buy this for your seven year old. ESRB rates games for a reason, and this one, if you take the time to look, is rated E10+. Maybe that's confusing, so allow me to explain. That means ESRB finds this game is generally (please note that word, it's important) suitable for anyone over the age of 10. In fact, ESRB explains the rating as, and I quote, "Content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older." Now maybe I missed something, but if I recall my math classes 7 is less than ten, not greater...

Secondly, to "Great Parent". I believe Jim "Therum" said it best in the following quote: "THE ALIENS ARE BLACK SKINNED! THE NAME OF THE ALIENS IS "THE BLACK ARMS." THE FACT THAT YOU DO NOT REALISE THIS MAKES YOU A HORIBLE PARENT WHO LACKS BASIC COMMON SENSE. Also, the aliens having black skin is IMPORTANT TO THE STORY and to SHADOW'S LIFE."

Symbolism shows us that the color black is generally associated with darkness, shadows, and evil (Why do you think so many people judge the deemed "goth" crowd because of their clothes before that get to know them?). 'Black' does not apply exclusively to the African American community, and every time black is used it's not a potshot at African Americans. People take this racist thing WAY too overboard these days. I'm all for African Americans being treated fair and not being discriminated against and all that good stuff, but there's a point when enough is enough, and this is one of those points. I mean geesh, the next thing you know people will be screaming over the drow in DnD games and the like being racist because they're a black (and I mean black black if you don't know what a drow is) skinned outcast race of elves *rolls eyes*.

That said, I can agree that Shadow would be better suited with a rating of T instead of E10+, and if I were a parent I would probably take care about letting my child play the game too early, however if the game appals you so much, there's a very simple solution. Don't let your child play it. ESRB rates games for just that reason, so cautious and worried parents have a guideline for what is suitable for their children and can avoid unsuitable games. On that note, however, it's not ESRB's job to figure out what's right for YOUR child. They can only rate the game *drumroll* GENERALLY (there's that word again!)

As the concerned parent you are, you should be paying attention to what YOUR child is like. ESRB's raters don't live with your kid from day to day, so they can't say whether your kid is really suited for a game. That's *gasp* one of the jobs of a parent! To know your kid and know how things affect them!

So basically what this boils down to is this...you can be appalled all you like, but at the end of the day it's your parenting that's really going to be put to the question.

----------

Of other note, after renting Shadow the Hedgehog I have to say I'm not as impressed with it as I thought I would be. The guns don't appeal to me, the cameras are -terrible- and do most definitely cost you a LOT of lives, the game is (in my opinion at least) far too short, and the storyline is rather tepid so far. Honestly, there was SO much Sega could have done with this game, but it seems like they just threw together some wild idea and ran with it instead of really thinking it out. Don't get me wrong, the concept of being able to choose what path you'll take is awesome, but the way it was presented in this game was flawed.

I will say, I do love the opening theme and eventually hope to find the CD for the game (*side rant* No there is -NOWHERE- in the lyrics where it says "I am evil". There's some "I am"s and the word "evil" in the song as it's talking about Shadow trying to find his path, but never does it say "I am evil"...some parent has a vivid imagination I think), but overall I wasn't impressed with the game enough to want to buy it or even rent it again. It falls FAR short of the much better thought out Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which allows for extracirricular gameplay after you finish the storyline (LOVE the chao!) in my opinion.

That said, come on Sega...can't you match SA2:B with a cool and reasonable Shadow-based storyline? I think that's all Sonic fans are asking for here.

What are these parents talking about?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I am sick of parents basing there reviews on the content of the game. If you read the back of the game you would know that this game has VIOLENCE and MILD LANGUAGE. Second, the color and name of the aliens has nothing to do with African-American people. It is probably associated with th Nazis wearing Black. Third, do you really think that kids are going to go around saying the word 'damn' just because the heard it in a video game? If your kid starts saying damn(which I really doubt), just calmly explain to him or her that that is a bad word. This violence is NON-IMITATEABLE!!! So, stop worrying that your kid is going to cause your children to want to hurt people. Even when you attack the soldiers, they just fall down WOUNDED with no blood.

Now this is the review for the game. It plays mostly like sonic heroes. Of course, most of the levels a immpecably designed.(There are still a few duds in the bunch) This game is a great buy. And as for you parents, go blame Grand Theft Auto about something.

In answer to A. Bedlan "Amy"'s review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

*Sigh* I am getting tired of hearing and reading reviews (mainly from parents who have either watched 5 minutes of gameplay, or overheard the word "Damn" once or twice) that say this game is racist/bad for children/over use of swearing.

1. Yes Shadow does over use the word "damn", therefore, maybe it would be wise to CHECK THE BACK OF THE BOX AND LOOK FOR THE REASONS IT'S RATED E-10+!!!!!! Maybe this game should have been T. BUT THAT IS NOT SEGA NOR SONIC TEAMS FAULT, IT IS ESRB's FAULT!!!!!

2. Maybe it you're son is 7, you shouldn't give him a game rated for over 10's.

3. This isn't a Sonic game, so don't expect Sonic standards of "goody, goody, gumdrops!" all the time. Sure you can make Shadow go good, but he is someone who doesn't play by the rules of saving the world all the time.

4.ABLSOLUTLY NONE OF THE LYRICS SAY "I AM EVIL"!!! Never. As a fan of this game and of this series, I say that you either need to read the lyrics at your own link, or get an ear doctor. I figured out most of the lyrics before I read them, and none of them are evil, though even I will admit that the song "Almost Dead" is just too much, and I don't agree with that.

6. So, stop bashing (aka saying the game is bad) this game if you know only fragments of information.

Parents think carefully

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 15
Date: September 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My 9-year-old received this game as a gift. Thinking it was as harmless as the other Sonic game we own, I didn't look closely at the packaging, so I didn't see the E10+ rating on the back. It was only as my 9, 7, and 5-year-olds were playing for the first time that I became alarmed. Every 30 seconds or so, I was hearing swearing. Read the other reviews. This game is not for children, not even older children, if you are as opposed to the use of swear words as I am. The E10+ rating is misleading. This should be rated T. I won't allow my children to play this game because they act out what they play and imitate dialogue. I don't want my 5-year-old saying "D---" and it's a sad world when I have to police and screen everything that comes into my home. I definitely don't want my children being as disrespectful as the other children reviewing this game are. From now on I research every game that my children want to get.

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