I just wanna ask: Did Naka or Iizuka lose a bet or something? Did someone point a gun at them(hah), forcing them to convince everyone else at SEGA that this was a good idea? What happened here?

This game helped me in realizing just how much I fucking despise this setting for Sonic. The plastic-y models for Sonic & co. return from Heroes, but now we have the dumbass humans back in the story, which leads to some ridiculous whiplash every time cutscenes with Shadow and the President/GUN Commander play back to back, shit's almost as bad as the Pirates of the Caribbean world in KH2.
Some stages look nice, like Digital Circuit, but most of them are so drab and boring when compared to Heroes. I mean, I get why, they were trying to make this one gritty and all that other bullshit, but it just falls flat in its face.

It's almost adorable how much it fails at being cool, actually. They go SO FAR(but not far enough, more on that later) in trying to ramp up the edge that it loops around and turns into some lame ass shlock instead. Shadow, you don't need a fucking glock to be cool. You were already cool in Adventure 2. That first shot in the opening FMV where he cocks a gun is as imposing as a Disney World costume character holding a super soaker.

Not that using the guns is bad by itself, mind you. In fact, actually playing Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't the worst thing in the world. The controls are not as tight as Sonic Heroes; I guess they noticed Shadow had those Air Shoes and thought "Hey, he should like. float a bit, right?", meaning you slip and slide a lot easier now. But the homing attack works just fine, the spindash is back(even though you can't use it while running), and the guns' lock on works well enough. Mission structure is a bit repetitious though, even for someone who loved Mission mode/Trials in SA1 and Team Chaotix in Heroes. Sure, Chaotix had you looking for 60 candles in Mystic Mansion, but that's like 10 stages into the game. Shadow the Hedgehog asks that you kill 45 Aliens in the very first mission, and looking for them with slippery controls like these isn't as fun.

Speaking of missions: Branching paths. What kind of herb were they partaking of when they cooked this shit up.
Like, the idea of having hero/neutral/dark routes isn't bad, but what's the with overabundance of paths? Three hundred and twenty fucking six different paths are available for the ultimate gamer to make Shadow the perfectly balanced life form. Oh yeah, I love taking the hero path all the way to the end, only to heel-turn at the very last second just to screw Sonic over like some bipolar fuckhead. Why not just have 3 routes to follow determined by what objective you complete in Westopolis?
Kill all Aliens = You're on the hero route where you help Sonic and friends defeat the Black Arms. Head straight for the goal = Neutral route where you don't really give a shit about either faction and end up using the emeralds to find the truth by yourself. Kill all cops = You side with Black Doom to help him take over the world in exchange for your memories(kind of a disproportionate trade if you ask me). That's all they had to do.
Instead, you can choose to/accidentally complete a mission from a different alignment, but because you're so far in a specific route, the next cutscene will act as if you're still a good/bad guy.

I finished 3 runs for my playthrough: Full hero, full neutral, and full dark, meaning there were some stages and story bits I missed, but I looked them up.

This story fucking blows. You're telling me the Commander watched Maria getting a bullet through her back thanks to a GUN soldier, an event which traumatized him, only to join them years later? And apparently he hates Shadow too. If that's the case, why the fuck does the military go after Sonic in Adventure 2? If this mike pence looking piece of shit really had his asshole in a knot because of Shadow and was also a part of GUN, you'd think he'd let everyone else in the organization know. Also Gerald actually had good intentions and we should honor his legacy, I guess?
Not only that, but this is the same Shadow from Heroes(and by extension SA2 since he's the original), right? If so, he already made a bond with the rest of the cast back when fighting Metal Overlord. Why does he think that Black Doom is his only alternative to finding answers about his past when Sonic and the rest of the gang, including Rouge who spent enough time with Shadow and snooped around Eggman's PC/Shadow's containment room in Heroes, are right there? Sure, they don't have all the answers to his past, but what makes him think Black Doom does? Wasn't the moon fucking blown in half when Eggman pissed on it back in SA2? This IS the same continuity, right? "Blah blah, it's a game for kids and things are just supposed to look cool", well if you're gonna give me 326 possible routes and ask that I complete 10 endings to play the actual final stage, AT LEAST pretend to give a shit.

I already disliked the story in Adventure 2. I think it tries to do too much for a series that really has no excuse to fall into plot holes or inconsistencies given how simple Sonic is in concept. The story there was dogshit, this is even worse somehow.

A half-hearted, cowardly attempt at turning this series into something it isn't, and more than that, something it never wanted to be. Why can't I see Sonic's brain fucking oozing out from his bazooka-blasted hedgehole after I kill him? One of the endings implies Shadow kills himself. Why won't they show me the body? Where's the pool of blood next to Maria's cold ass corpse in that flashback? (Granted, all of these things would make this game even worse to me lmao)
The answer? They didn't actually want to take any of this seriously. They didn't want to commit. It's still Sonic, like you've always known, but now we have gunshot SFXs in the menus, the saturation is turned down on most stages(which hilariously clashes with the McDonalds ass character models for the main cast), and Shadow says damn here and there. This game has all the cool-factor of a kid grabbing a gun from his father's closet and waving it around to show how crazy and messed up he is, but he can't pull the trigger. It's not even loaded. It's not even a real gun. Fuck this game.

POST PUBLISH EDIT: Back in my Adventure 1 review, I mentioned that despite its many flaws, that game still managed to win me over thanks to it wearing its heart on its sleeve. Shadow the Hedgehog is the complete opposite of that, as I alluded to previously by calling the game "cowardly"; it feels like this game doesn't want to be here. It doesn't want to do what it's doing, but someone else is pulling the strings so it dances to the tune anyway. It's not honest or confident in itself the same way Adventure 1 was.

Not only that, but it feels like a lot of the people who do fuck with the presentation here kind of enjoy it "ironically"? Like "Haha look at how weird this shit is" or "well, it really is stupid, but try to enjoy the stupid!"(Nothing wrong with that, mind you)
Speaking for myself, I don't really like laughing at something, I'd much rather laugh with it, which is why RE4 is one of my favorite games ever. THAT game knows how bullshit bonkers everything is and it shows that off like a badge of honor. But because this game lacks any self awareness, and also seems embarrassed of itself at points, it really feels like the only approach you can take with it is the former: laughing at it.

(It has some great music though, I can't take that away from it. Shoutout to the GUN Fortress theme, which I had on loop when writing this. If the game went for this kind of energy instead of trying to be more like "All of Me", maybe it would've been better.)

Talk about a wasted opportunity. A fighting game with Sonic characters is such easy money, but this ain't it.

First impressions were all over the place. The art is out-fucking-standing, this is SUCH a good look for the gang, but I swear I felt my ears bleeding a little bit with that Mode Select BGM. Whoever decided to use that guitar sample for multiple tracks in the game, you have a special place in hell set aside for you. The soundtrack as a whole is pretty weak, with a couple exceptions (Holy Summit is so good, no wonder they brought it back for Advance 3.)

The writing is cheeky and fun, and the story itself was entertaining enough but good lord the progression here is absolute dogshit. How do you like fighting the same character twice(or more!) in a row, with more rounds each time? How about selecting a random building just for shits and giggles since it's your first time playing, only to be assaulted by Emerl clones because you dared to explore a little bit?
The moment I realized I could win most battles by either spamming normal attacks or special R attacks, you bet your ass that turbo button was on and the frameskip was rolling. While the combat system is interesting on the surface, it's just not very satisfying. Even when customizing Emerl with new skills, every fight feels like a slapfest, with everyone waving those foam spaghetti things in the air.

Uh, what else... Oh, it looks really good. Sonic's GBA entries always had beautiful sprites, and Battle brought so many great animations to the whole cast. I also love the 3D environments, always cool to see that on the GBA, even though I wished it was a normal 2D fighting game instead.

That really just sums it up. I wish this was a regular ass 2D fighter on the PS2 or some shit. Instead, we have a weird arena fighter with some interesting ideas that ultimately aren't very satisfying. The story isn't good enough to warrant playing this all the way to completion, I feel. Cute character moments don't make up for all the "fight Gamma again for the millionth time" you have to sit through.

Some days I just feel totally braindead, and too tired to dive into a 70 hour JRPG with complex mechanics and more text than, uh... Anna Karenina. Those are the days I pop up Mario Kart.

Now, I will admit, my Mario Kart experience is pretty much limited to Mario Kart 8, 7, and DS; also having experienced some of the Wii game at parties and such, however.

I do know what I love about Mario Kart though, and that is the interactive environments (all the different shortcuts, things that pop up on stage, and the like), and in general just a ton of possibilities and learnable skills that make getting better at the game fun. Hell, even the times I lose in Mario Kart (which have been frequent recently, since I'm pretty rusty), I still have a lot of fun. The adrenaline rush of all the shells being thrown, all the karts being bumped, and the acceleration to the finish line all add up to one of the best competitive/multiplayer game series. When I was younger, my sibling said that "there was always a way back in Mario Kart" (or something like that). Meaning that even if you get into 7th place on lap 2, anything could happen and you could very likely get into 1st place in lap three. This ability for comebacks is really what makes these games shine, in my opinion.

I think the problem with Super Circuit is that it foregoes a lot of the aforementioned things - yet, I can't find a reason to blame it for doing so. Mario Kart on the GBA seems like a tough enough thing to attain. Still, a lot of sacrifices were made for this goal.

The tracks are kind of boring, is my first critique. To explain: I think while the idea of having a static backdrop and a pseudo 3D track is kind of what most GBA kart racers opt for, I also think it kind of takes away a real sense of exploration of these tracks. A sense of landmarks. Luckily, there are environmental obstacles and little graphics scattered about in a lot of the stages, such as Snow Land with all it's penguins. However, it never really breaks up the monotony of the stages.

Of course, I can't imagine any way they wouldn't have static backdrops and integrated some kind of pseudo 3D onto the GBA (kind of like some games did). This would likely not turn out well.
Yet, the theming of the levels was kind of bland - in other games we get stuff such as theme parks, cruise ships, and generally atmospheric areas to explore. I think the problem is this game opted more for "enviroments": swamp, sky, etc. which are kind of basic and not as fun to explore - since they are environments without landmarks or places to go.

Drifting is also kind of miserable, though I can't blame this game in particular, since the F-zero GBA games also control miserably in this way. Maybe (probably) I'm bad at the game, but it is a complete bump-fest and boy is there no sense of sticking to the ground or generally of being able to drift around corners smoothly. In fact, I found my strategy was always to slow my kart when going around corners. This was probably the basic Mario Kart strat before drifting came into play, but still, I don' like it :( (it's probably a me issue).

Super Circuit was a game that I found had kind of a blandness, even a loneliness to it. It definitely doesn't pop out at you, and while a lot of this can be attributed to the inherent difficulties of trying to put a Mario Kart game on the GBA, I think the game can take some responsibility for what seems like a rushed game without much intrigue as far as level theming, fun mechanics and the like go. It is fun, don't get me wrong. I do not want to be too hard on it, but it's just not my first pick for Mario Kart, although I can see myself playing it to wind down.

This one I remember blew the mind of my ex as her old PC couldn't play more modern games (for the time) but my laptop could! So they build upon the previous game, however, at this point in history EA were starting to get greedier and the amount of additions were dizzying!

The options for traits to make your character unique were always a major selling point and that was still true with this game, just not the next one coming up. However, the idea that you could fulfil all kinds of aspirations and become your ideal self!

The many hours I spent in this game cannot be measured and I believe this was during the time they were forcing you to use EA's "Origin" platform which, as of typing this review, has simply been called EA because they probably realised too many people took offense of the company wearing the flayed skin of one of their kills (Origin Systems), as a bit too tasteless.

I think I bought this with the special Plum bulb thumb drive, however, no idea where that is today! Could be anywhere. Regardless, lots more memories and customisation that was pushing the boundaries and improving the game greatly.

I did just look over it and remembered the disgusting "Simpoints" where you pay real currency for this "Freemium" kind of cash to purchase all kinds of items to unlock for your game. The existence of this system certainly soured my taste for this game and my experience of it too.

Mechanically for a game on the 2600 this kicks ass, you could have released this on NES with a mild graphical/control facelift and it would have fit in. It's an action platformer with 20 levels to go through of increasing length and complexity. You have an inspector-gadget-ass helicopter helmet that you can use to fly around levels, a laser cannon to destroy enemies, and bombs that you can place to break walls, and there's a power meter that serves as a level timer. My only gripes come from the controls and the level design; I had to pretty much immediately switch to a mega drive controller instead of a 2600 joystick because its really easy to misinput down on the stick and drop a bomb that kills you instantly (i need to buy some new atari controllers ngl...). The way you hover and fly is really weird too in that you have to hold up for like a whole half second before you start flying, and tapping up holds you in place for like a half second if you are falling. Considering the fact that roderick hero over here has a rather swift movement and falling speed, the delay between flying and falling can and will absolutely fuck you up at points. I wish they went for a more like lunar-lander style of physics and momentum system with flight instead of the 3 phases of flying, hovering, and falling that you can slugglishly toggle between. The level designer is also an asshole starting from like level 7 onwards, with levels that know exactly the limitations of your moveset and will capitalize on your weaknesses in a very dirty way. You can't shoot things below you, so there are lots of holes with enemies under them that work as dead ends in a sort. There are also enemies placed precisely where you'd go if you need to charge up your flying ability, and so many holes where your high fall speed will launch you into a block of lava before you can even register what is going on. It's difficult, but in the way of just needing to memorize the whole level layouts to mitigate any of the designers nonsense. The point threshold to become part of the Order of the H.E.R.O. is honestly pretty low at only 75k, which on a decent run you'd get that much by level 13. Honestly pretty crazy to see a game of such solid quality right in the dark year of 1984 between the big Atari Shock and the release of the NES. Makes ya wonder what other games could have existed to expand upon early 80's hardware if everyone didn't panic pull out from the market then.

My favorite JRPG of all time. A bizarrely structured and designed game from top to bottom. The story of which is you (yes, you sitting there) and the player character work in tandem to recover gems for a curiously 8-bit professor.

Beyond the story, there's so many weird little parts of this game like the weapons, food items, cooking, lockpicking, fishing, romancing, and even just petting the dog on your freetime that just require you to just...do the same tasks a lot.

It's an unconventional, grindy game that strives more to look and sound wonderful and it definitely stands in an interesting spot with its very rough game design. It often focuses on combat, which is mostly automated and works with you applying stickers for your stats and just having a better weapon/buff set up.

The main draw to me was the story which, I won't spoil, but definitely has some twist and turns that made me wonder if I even did the right thing or what you do through the entire ordeal was actually correct.

A strange enigma of a game that I adored but recommend with much caution.

Raizing's first game tows the line between the literalism and weight of 4th gen art production with the maximalism, polish and particles of the coming 5th gen of shooters. The shmup loop is nothing special but the use of space and physical presence is something you rarely see in shmups - crowds tossing non-lethal crap at you during a boss rush, enemies that slam giant marble columns across the broad side of your ship, airborne fighters that buckle and lose altitude as you destroy their jets, just to name a few. This is a standard of visual design I want to see much, MUCH more of in the indie space.

part of me wonders if sega mandating all sanwa parts (JLF lever and OBS buttons) in VF2 tournaments had something to do with familial ties or something. (us seimitsu enjoyers are still feeling the ramifications of this today)

it's the first fighting game that's actually good that i personally enjoy. (i respect SFII and AOF more than i like actually playing SFII and AOF) it plays like fighting and not like what one would see in a fantastical shonen manga. VF2 picks up the pace and framerate from the first (both in arcade and at home), and as a result it just feels slick and immediate, which is necessary in a game where 1-2 frames between inputs changes just enough of the move to make a difference. performing combos is less like inputting an arcane sequence of 20+ inputs on an 8way lever and 6 buttons and more like just getting more hits of varying strength in fast enough, like you know, fighting. decry the admittedly uninspired character designs (save for jacky) all you want, but the moment-to-moment tension and 100% mental capacity required by a round is unparalleled by anything, save for tekken 3 and 5. one of service games amusement machine research and development #2's finest moments, only matched by Daytona USA, later installments of Virtua Fighter and Outrun 2[006/ Special Tours] . AM2 said Fuck The Kick Harness, and it was beautiful.