Shadow the Hedgehog is an action game released on November 2005 for Xbox, Playstation 2 and GameCube. While Sonic does feature in the game, the protagonist is his dark rival, Shadow.
Story[]
Following on from the events of Sonic Heroes, the amnesiac Shadow is struggling to remember who he is and make sense of the image in his head of a young woman named Maria being killed. Without warning, darkness falls upon Westopolis and hundreds of aliens fall from the sky causing havoc wherever they go. Just as Shadow is about to leave, the aliens' leader appears before him. "Shadow, as you can see, the day of reckoning is almost here. Find the seven Chaos Emeralds and bring them to me as promised." Reasoning that finding the Emeralds is the key to unlocking his tangled memories, Shadow sets forth to find out who he really is.
Gameplay[]
The story's progression and ending is determined by the player's actions in each level. Shadow will be attacked by G.U.N. soldiers, the marauding Black Arms and occasionally Dr Robotnik's Egg Pawns. Depending on who he attacks or spares, and which missions he chooses to take, his allegiance will shift towards Dark, Hero or Neutral and he will unlock a Chaos Control or Chaos Blast technique. The game is notable for being the first Sonic title to introduce weapons, such as guns or swords, and vehicles such as motorcycles or jeeps.
STC Adaptation[]
Shadow the Hedgehog has not yet had a full adaptation within Sonic the Comic Online, but some elements of the game were used in the Chaotix Crew story, Rage Inside the Machine. In an investigation attempt to see how much damage Robotnik has done to the internet, Espio enters the digital realm, which resembles the Mad Matrix level of the game, and soon encounters a digital recreation of Shadow, now wielding a handgun.
The game was reviewed twice in Sonic the Poster Mag 2005, once by Stuart Gipp, who awarded it a rating of 89, and again by Sonic, who was heavily biased against it, and gave it a rating of -1000000. When Megadroid chipped in trying to tell Sonic he couldn't give it that rating, Sonic responded with a simple 'watch me.' It is unknown who ghost-wrote Sonic's review.