In 1996, the former game magazine now turned game developer, Game Freak, released Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Green Version in Japan. The games were inspired by the CEO and creator of Game Freak, Satoshi Taijiri's childhood.

In his youth, Satoshi used to explore the forests of his hometown in Japan, catching bugs.

That's right, the phenomenon of Pokémon started with origins as humble as these, and has gone on to become the number one multimedia franchise on the planet.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the first Pokémon game to truly capture that feeling of exploration and intrigue as you explore the wild, ancient world of Hisui.

This game combines aspects of JRPGs, Third Person Shooters, Stealth Games, and Open World Sandboxes to give the genuine experience of wandering into the unknown and encountering these deadly and terrifying creatures.

Mechanically, I like how there are multiple ways to take on capturing or distracting a Pokémon. You can throw food in front of them to get the drop on them either in combat or with a more effective Pokéball hit. You can wait until they see you and put some dirt in their eye by throwing a ball of mud in their face to stun them.

I love when games provide multiple ways to surmount an obstacle, it's why I like Fallout New Vegas, and it's something I like in this game.

There is nothing more fulfilling than filling up the Pokédex, and thanks to there only being one version of this game (and I hope it stays that way for the sequels that I hope will be released), every Pokémon (of the Hisui Region) is available to catch.

There are a few snags with that, like Shaymin and Darkrai being locked behind you owning Sword & Shield and Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl respectively, which is scummy, but they are also not required for Dex completion.

Without spoiling anything, the plot is relatively barebones, but I am a fan of the increased stakes. Death is implied to be commonplace and waved around as a normal thing. That isn't to say that just saying the words "death" and "kill" are going to bring depth to a story, but given how it does incite a twinge of fear for the encounters you'll have with Pokémon, I think it works well enough.

The final 3 hours of the main story was some of the most hype shit, I will say that, with the third to last final boss being a borderline shmup in regards to gameplay. It was like Sin & Punishment, but with Pokémon.

Sin & Pokémon.

Graphically I think the artstyle of this game is great, cell shading is definitely a good choice for Pokémon and it really gives a similar vibe to Ancient Japanese artwork.

I will say I noticed a lot of graphical hiccups like grass moving weirdly mid battle, or textures on rocks looking like a chessboard, but these things don't ruin a game for me unless they're directly assaulting my eyes.

At the end of the day, this is the first Pokémon game since Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver to have fully fulfilled me with both the amount of content, and love that I know this franchise can deliver. This is a game I have been waiting for, for 12 long years.

I went into Legends with the cynical view of someone who had witnessed the Dark Age of Pokemon, from Black & White 2 onward. I thought this would merely be another soulless cashgrab pile of garbage like SwSh and Let's Go, but this game genuinely surprised me.

I think Game Freak has found a formula that is worth continuing, and I think that if they can further flesh out the game mechanics and provide us even more options for Pokémon Encounters, we'd finally see an end to the Dark Age.

This is the Pokémon game with the most soul, since Soul Silver.

Sonic Frontiers is going to be one of those Sonic games I think. One that determines the direction of the series going forward, for better or worse.

The type of game that will have Youtube "Reviewers" make statements similar to "Sonic has had a rough transition to 3D", I mean it's not like certain Youtube "Reviewers" haven't already tried to completely shoot this game out of the sky like they're trying for a High Score in Duck Hunt.

Hell, I'm sure there will be a review in the near future that will completely demonize this game and refuse to see any remote positives whatsoever, because that's just what Sonic as a franchise gets at this point.

So moving on from this preamble, what exactly is Sonic Frontiers?

Well, I would make the comparison that it is what Sonic CD attempted to be. A sandbox game focused on using Sonic's movement in satisfying ways, but instead of having completely dogshit levels and the horrid Robot Generators, we have other, not spectacular collectathon stuff.

Yeah, I won't beat around the bush, the general collectathon stuff this game has you do isn't really too interesting. You mostly go through little obstacle courses and do short little bursts of Sonic to get a collectable, usually the one to progress the plot.

However, while these sections aren't really that amazing, the process of traveling in the open world is the most fun I've had in a 3D Sonic game since Generations in 2011. The sheer amount of flying off of things at super sonic speeds to traverse over miles worth of land all while doing air tricks is just inherently satisfying to me. Drop Dashing down a long slope and rolling super fast across the ground, using the maximum boost, all of it was just a joy for me.

They even fixed what I thought was most broken about the boost, that being that it no longer damages enemies. This forces the player to consider their movements more than they had to in the previous boost games.

It also puts an emphasis on combat which... isn't good, but it is nowhere near the sense of tedium and misery of Sonic Heroes. Combat is much faster, and very automated, which while resulting in a boring CAG feel, is much better than the absolute sloggy shit from Heroes and 06 where enemy health bars were massive and took so long (and in Heroes' case you had to do everything FOUR FUCKING TIMES OVER).

The Cyberspace Levels were fun, but yeah they're not nearly as good as Generations, made even more noticeable when the game outright uses level design from that game wholesale with barely any changes. The best levels were easily the ones referencing SA2, but even then I still don't like one specific thing about them.

The Cyberspace Levels only have 4 aesthetics, two of which I am already tired of.

Short little rant here: I am so tired of seeing Green Hill and Chemical Plant. They've been borderline stock aesthetics for Sonic for the past half decade now and I am fucking exhausted of seeing them. Please, Sonic Team, use any other fucking level aesthetics I beg of you. I get that Green Hill and Chemical Plants are staple levels of the franchise but still, they've been overused so much to the point of just being a visual bore.

Another major issue I have with this game does come down to the worlds themselves aesthetically. None of the worlds feel like a place Sonic would belong.

For what I think, and keep in mind this is just me being subjective, a better concept would be to use the "Zone" concept of the classic games to have Sonic go through more colorful areas, and have them all connect to one another like a Metroidvania. That way we can have beautiful, cartoony areas to run through with hopefully less melancholic music as we blaze through loops and the like.

This is because while I enjoy boosting through these islands, I still think that they don't suit Sonic as a character. Maybe that's the point, but I'd still prefer something that goes back to the visuals of Classic/Adventure Era Sonic, or hell even the early boost games like Unleashed and Colors, because what we have in this game is just incredibly forgettable as a world.

Boss Fights are peak, I'm not gonna spoil on that, just know I think they're peak.

The plot itself, while I don't think is super deep, I do like how the characters all interact. For the first time in years we probably have the best character writing I've seen in a Sonic game. They don't feel like one-dimensional jokes, but rather multifaceted people all with their own sets of problems. Amy goes from being one of the most obnoxious characters to being a sensible girl who wants to spread positivity to the world around her, Knuckles and Sonic easily have my favorite dynamic in the entire game with their rivalry being given a good focus as we see them goof off with one another and even having Knuckles have an introspective moment on his place in the world. They even fixed the problems with Tails that were made in Forces, making him not fully dependent on Sonic, and given that Tails is my favorite Sonic character, this made me super happy.

If I had to say who the best written characters were though, the relationship between Eggman and new character Sage takes the cake. I will not go into details, though I will say it's kind of fucked up that the stuff showing their relationship is locked behind Big the Cat fishing, because it's so fucking good.

Oh yeah, Big the Cat fishing, almost forgot. This is basically an alternate way to get the collectables the game provides. It's really simple and honestly a relaxing break, it also is the only way to get the Eggman Records which I definitely recommend getting.

The ending too, god it's so good.

Minor Spoilers Ahead:

Firstly, this game gets the "forced shmup section" right by
A. Having you experience the gameplay multiple times before hand so you get practice instead of it completely blindsiding the player.
B. It's essentially optional as it's only in the Hard Mode of the game, and there isn't anything other than a different ending theme locked behind it.

This is how you get me to want to play shmups, not shoving the shit in at the last minute and calling it a day, resulting in a complete halfassed section.

Then there's the scene right before the credits...

Egg

Spoilers over

I'm sure in time this game will be culturally reevaluated as either the game that sent Sonic down an even worse downward spiral or as the beginning of a new era of Sonic titles that people genuinely enjoyed. I'm hoping for the latter, but as a Sonic fan, I can never be too sure.

There was another review I saw here that complimented how Sonic as a franchise is always experimenting, and how admirable that is. I think that's ultimately what's kept me coming back to the Blue Dude in these past 10 years. Regardless of whether it absolutely sucks or is a great time, Sonic isn't afraid of shaking things up. It's what makes it more than just another platformer to me.

So I salute you Frontiers, may you be the stepping stone to a brighter future to the Snarky Speedster.

Bayonetta has ended up being one of the biggest disappointments I've had in gaming for quite a while and it's honestly not even close. Basically everything about this game screams pure greatness on paper, but then you need to actually play it and properly experience what this game has to offer, and it honestly falls flat almost across the board for me. Almost every element of this game feels as if it severely falls short of the mark and just has me thinking "why?". On the surface, this game seems like yet another character action game with super flashy combos and an insane sense of scale that manages to outdo itself at every turn, but the dynamics and mechanics that are built upon feel consistently ill conceived and end up falling far below the mark of what this genre can typically provide.

That's not to say that this game is without virtues however, there are definitely some fantastic things I can appreciate, especially the game's style. I love the really excessive, self-aware tone that Bayonetta brings to the table at some points that creates a manic, over the top experience that has the hype completely flow through the player. You know that a game starts off well when the opening sequence involves summoning angels just to kill them with a coffin of guns, all while an upbeat, jazzy rendition of Fly Me To The Moon plays in the background, or that time where you're fighting a boss in the middle of a tornado. Basically, when the game wants to, it brings forth some jaw dropping setpieces that make full use of pure spectacle. Where this falls flat is the way that the narrative itself, both the plot and the way it's delivered, feels completely nonsensical even for crazy action game standards, often feeling obnoxiously stupid while also being completely incomprehensible. For as much as Kingdom Hearts gets relentlessly (at times rightfully) mocked for its writing, at least it's told in a way that doesn't feel like it's intentionally keeping things hidden while also feeling like it literally says nothing. I genuinely feel like the story feels so disconnected from the gameplay that I'd get the exact same experience if I just skipped every overlong cutscene, I wasn't looking forward to fight a boss because of any sort of character drive or anything, I just wanted to rush up to the mountainous behemoth that I knew would be a badass fight. This issue would be more acceptable if not for the fact that the game feels so often halted by its insistence on cramming this element down your throat, making it harder to ignore with each interruption.

The combat is where this really falls flat for the most part, which is a problem with a game that is almost entirely based around its combat. I personally consider a few different issues with the game to culminate in an experience that feels fundamentally flawed, where certain problems feel as if they run deeper than something that can be fixed just by tweaking a couple of values. The encounter design is especially problematic to the core gameplay loop with how difficult it feels, sometimes being a great challenge that requires keen awareness of the players surroundings along with effectively utilising the plethora of attack and crowd control options, but other times boiling down a bit more to an enemy going "lol I'm going to throw out an attack with no proper telegraphing". If it were something that happened only once or twice it'd be an annoyance but nothing major, but the fact that almost every enemy seems to have at least one attack like this, it just feels unreasonable, especially with how much you're punished for getting hit. The game just feels too fast all around, almost never providing the player with ample opportunity to properly deal with the situation without abusing certain mechanics, and this is where witch time comes in, the things that ends up almost singlehandedly ruining the game flow.

On paper, the inclusion of a mechanic that temporarily slows down the absurd pacing of the game, rewarding careful dodging seems like a good idea, allowing the player to dish out massive damage in a relatively unimpeded state by timing a couple of dodges really nicely, but what ruins it is the simple fact that you feel like you often absolutely need it for a chance of getting past most challenges. This essentially results in the game having a dominant and recommended strategy that eliminates almost any actual variety, you just wait and dodge an attack, and use your few seconds of time slowing to deal a bunch of damage, and then rinse and repeat. Not only is it riskier to attempt to perform combos outside of this state, but the game often feels as if it's outright punishing you for even attempting such a thing, and nothing really feels as snappy or flashy in slow motion, making this mechanic not only detract from the core loop itself, but it also indirectly tanks a lot of the spectacle and flair at the same time leading to a game that never can feel truly enjoyable even in a "turn your brain off and watch awesome explosions" sort of way.

And as if that wasn't enough, this is also the sort of game that I'd say is directly responsible for the visceral hatred the mere concept of QTEs often receives. Along with the pace breaking nature of witch time, an even more pressing concern is the sheer amount of obnoxious button mashing that occurs in this. Not only is button mashing required, but the player is heavily rewarded from smashing those controller buttons at a carpel tunnel inducing speed and intensity, and that's if you're not having to rotate the analog stick around with just as much speed. Other problems include when cutscenes suddenly require you to quickly time a button press or else you straight up die, basically none of the weapons contributing to the fluid movement that Bayonetta builds itself around, essentially making the game feel worse to play if you try and diversify your moveset that much, and the fact that there are a bunch of these other ideas that don't fit with the way the rest of the game plays. Having to do a little first person shooting gallery stage at the end of every level feels tacky, the level with a motorcycle controls far too heavily to be satisfying, you get these random on rails flight sections where it feels like nothing happens, there's just a bunch of nothing tacked on throughout the experience that makes it all feel like a confused mess, and frankly, by the time I hit the 12th stage and yet another enemy attacked me the moment its intro cutscene ended before I could properly react, I was done. I feel like I played enough of this game to be able to form an informed opinion on this, and unfortunately, Bayonetta was mostly an exercise in misery, occasionally lit up by a cool boss fight or amazing setpiece, but it didn't stop the fact that for the vast majority of my playtime, it was a frustrating, uneven, and boring experience.

I'm not going to make this write-up long or put it on a different document first so I can copy-paste it here, I'm just going to be completely frank.

I came into this game genuinely excited because my friends are very into it, and I was looking forward to a genuinely good and entertaining ride but now having finished it I'm just... tired.

I know that's going to get me a lot of flack and my complaints aren't so much that the game is hard, I didn't expect myself to be good at it but y'know it's made me reflect on things I just don't appreciate about the developer.

Platinum Games' self-mastubatory approach to scoring is just something I genuinely dislike as someone who enjoys playing games simply for the sake of having a good time and having a distraction from the real world. The constant reminder every 5 minutes or less about how well I did in each encounter is both annoying and demoralizing. It's not something I can so easily ignore either given that it takes up the entire screen while blurring it for about 5 seconds.

This constant repeated need to show the score to the player wouldn't be a bad thing if it was either A. Smaller, or B. Something I could turn off, but it isn't and because it happens so frequently it just grew to be more and more irritating as the game progressed.

I already know I suck at the game, I do not need to be constantly reminded that I suck at the game, I can already tell. Having a finger pointed at me and laughed at by the game is just fucking annoying.

Another issue is simply that the game fucking drags so fucking long at points, especially with certain levels which are just entire minigames. I do not think I need to go into excruciating detail into just how awful the After Burner tribute level is, and how it takes what is already unpleasant control change and stretches it to the point of utter absurdity and misery.

I did not buy this game to play fucking After Burner, and having to play it for what feels like 25 minutes is fucking exhausting, especially when the camera angles were giving me motion sickness and I felt like I was going to throw up.

Boss fights are also a fucking drag because Bayonetta's mechanics change to suit these large scale fights and it again, just drags. The only boss fights I genuinely enjoyed were the ones with Jeanne because those don't change the inherently good combat mechanics to compensate for size.

The introduction of new enemies is also cool, but what sucks is how most of the time they're introduced and are already attacking you in the cutscene, which makes the transition back to gameplay where you're expected to immediately dodge extremely fucking awkward and unfair to the player.

And then of course, there's the QTEs, which on the PC version, don't fucking function properly, making some QTEs flat out impossible to pull off.

Does this make Bayonetta a bad game? No, but it was a game that quickly exhausted me with these issues, and really left me wanting to replay DMC1 instead, a game in which I didn't even understand the fundamentals of its combat and yet still had a better time.

A lot of these problems aren't so much reflections of Bayonetta but reflections of Platinum Games' mentality of putting arcade like elements into their games without understanding the inherent satisfaction of that style.

Putting a motorcycle section in your game is cool, making it last 15 minutes is not.

Bayonetta does have style however, and that's something I can't take away from it, but honestly it feels like they put more emphasis on the style than on making the game enjoyable.

I think the reason people think so fondly of another Platinum title, Metal Gear Rising, is that despite that games absolutely abysmal gameplay, it is a far shorter game with less mini-game focus, and boss fights that genuinely feel cathartic and freeing. Bayonetta is the opposite of this, a game with gameplay that is genuinely engaging but is marred by an obsession with avoiding that playstyle for lengthy periods of time, while not having nearly as enjoyable boss design.

I didn't come into this game intending to dislike it, and in fact even now I don't fully dislike the game, but the problems it has, or rather the problems that Platinum themselves have are the reason I don't see myself coming back to this game, or playing Bayonetta 2, at least for some time.

I really, genuinely wish I had enjoyed my time with this, but if I'm playing a score centered video game from now on, it's going to be Ultrakill and not this.

Bayonetta 2’s story may be slightly more subdued than the original, but even still, it’s hard not to fall in love with it for its cast of colorful characters and those moments that go exceptionally hard (trump card scene anyone?). However, what it lacks in scale from the original it makes up for with gameplay improvements in spades. Overall, everything feels more free-flowing and natural, the new weapons are a load of fun to mess around with, and the frustratingly hard to control vehicle sections are a thing of the past. That’s not to mention the environments are a hell of a lot more eye-catching this time around as they play around in shades of blue and purple. At this point I am poised to totally fall in love with Bayonetta 3 this October, so here’s hoping the immaculate design of this Wii U darling will be carried on into the future.

If there was ever a series that "got it right the first time", it's Bayonetta.

The core is still as solid as ever, and the new additions initially seemed to be a net positive. The "oh wait, having this means I can do that" potential of the summons, the creativity of the new weapons, the cute little dancing animations. I was ready to fall in love with it...

But after a while it becomes apparent how much that core is being diluted by weaker ideas: Encounters skew so heavily towards summoning vs larger enemies that Bayo's regular moveset barely gets a chance to shine; Set pieces tank the performance so hard that the accompanying minigames feel like wading through sludge; Viola's kit is so unfit for purpose that she regularly struggles to meet the requirements of her own trials... It's great that Platinum want to try new things, but my good will only goes so far.

I hate to make the DMC5 comparison, but for all the issues that game may have had, it's really hitting home how much I preferred its leaner, more focused approach when compared to all this unpolished excess.

Can't recall the last time I had played a game where I honestly did not want to stop playing and lose sleep just to keep going. Had plans to get to this one eventually and was thrilled I made the purchase a few weeks ago when the game went on sale. The job system for the game is fantastic and the gameplay constantly changes with the playstyle you see fit for your taste to top it off, you can even coop with friends. The item management does get a little crazy and the story definitely had some points where I was like "what the hell is even going on right now..." certainly didn't expect the English dub to have killer one-liners and conversations with the party that would just crack me up as I was playing through the different castles and environments. The ending though was definitely one of the highlights for sure! OOOOWEEEEEE! Have a little chaos in your life and play this one!

So……. Shadow The Hedgehog, this is quite the game alright. I feel I must give my thoughts on this game. I’ll try to go into depth as to why I think the way I do about this game, with things I like in this game, and things I….. do not like about this game.

Positives: I think the Soundtrack to this game is really under-looked at, and is one of the best Soundtracks in the series, most of the people who say that Shadow’s Soundtrack sucks, most of their criticisms is that it's really forgettable, which I question, if you’re someone who thinks the Shadow OST is bland, I highly recommend listening to the Soundtrack outside of the game, cause there are a lot of goodies in this game’s OST. Tracks like Digital Circuit, Lethal Highway, Death Ruins, Mad Matrix, Cryptic Castle, Sky Troops, Gun Fortress, The Doom, Air Fleet, Space Gadget, Black Comet, Final Haunt, etc. are really great. Besides that, uh……. the Shadow Rifle is a fun gun to use since it kills most things in one hit, which is really cool, too bad it’s only available until you beat the game.

OHHHHH BOY NEGATIVES

I'm going to have a field day with this..... I'm going to boil my 3 major issues with Shadow into 3 different sections. The Controls, Level Design, and the Padding in this game.

Controls: So, lemme put in this perspective. The Classics generally controlled well with no problems I have whatsoever, then comes the Sonic Adventure Games and these control near perfectly, if not perfectly (btw, if I ever mention SA1/2 it’s mostly gonna be about the Speed Stages, not the other styles), then comes Sonic Heroes, and you may expect me to say that Heroes Controls like crap, but you’d be wrong. I personally think Heroes Controls fine with the Speed Characters, of course it’s not say SA1/2 Good in terms of Controls, but Heroes Controls fine regardless, and even if you don’t like how the Speed Characters Control, you literally have two other options that control better for platforming sake. Now we get to Shadow The Hedgehog, and what the hell happened here. Shadow The Hedgehog controls like a mess, and has some of the worst controls I’ve ever used in a Sonic Game. Shadow controls as if he has Slices of Butter on his Shoes and runs around on Ice barefoot, and it feels awful. Unlike Heroes, you have no better options to do when platforming, and I don’t know what it is, but I swear to god that Shadow controls miles worse than Heroes Speed Characters ever could. Platforming in Shadow, isn’t badly designed, most of the time it's okay, but it feels terrible to do given Shadow’s Controls, and again, unlike Heroes, there’s no Flight or Power Character to fall back on to make platforming go more smoothly, so you’re stuck with these awful controls that make the bare minimum task of platforming a complete and utter chore like no other in the Sonic Series before or even after. The acceleration is beyond screwed and feels really hard to handle sometimes. However, I can get used to controls over time and they can feel fun to use, however even after Collecting all the Keys, Getting all the A Ranks, and especially doing 326 Routes, I still don’t feel like this game controls well at all, I did get used to it, but it never felt “fun” to control and traverse through the levels. Now onto my next issue with the game, the Level Design

Level Design: Level Design in Shadow The Hedgehog ranges from mediocrity at its very best to downright atrocious and shockingly bad at its very worst. The thing is; Shadow’s Level Design isn’t really anything special, and a lot of the Missions feel like scavenger hunt bore-fests that blend together so much, it feels like you’re playing the same damn thing over and over and over again, it’s simply not fun. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for how the Level Design was paced. I would've actually liked these missions if it weren't for the pacing, that's what kills Shadow The Hedgehog for me personally. However, I’m gonna go over what I believe are the very worst Missions in Shadow The Hedgehog with those being: Cosmic Fall Hero, The Doom Dark, Lost Impact Hero, and Mad Matrix Dark.
Cosmic Fall Hero: There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with the objective, finding the Computer Room is like getting to the goal, so that’s the least of my concerns, my problem with this Mission mostly lies in how Cosmic Fall is designed, the Level constantly forces you to wait on falling platforms, and you can NOT fuck up even once, if so, you’re dead and have to restart over and over and over again, it’s really frustrating, this is a problem I have with Cosmic Fall as a whole, but the reason I chose the Hero Mission over the Dark Mission is because the Hero Mission is longer and more monotonous. Now, onto The Doom Dark

The Doom Dark: This level’s objective like many in Shadow is a scavenger hunt where you have to either kill a specific number of GUN Soldiers/Aliens or something that requires destroying a specific number of said thing, which like I said earlier, these type of Missions blend in together so easily. The Doom Dark has you killing 60 GUN Soldiers, the number in itself is pretty damn high. The Level Design for The Doom is pretty maze like and annoying, and this Mission is extremely stop and go, you kill a GUN Soldier or Mech, then go, kill a GUN Soldier or Mech, go, stop and go, stop and go, it’s extremely repetitive and insanely inconsistent in the level’s pacing. However, there’s one thing in The Doom’s Dark Mission that boils my anger, this level is flat out glitched, in the Final Room, there’s a GUN Robot who won’t appear unless you either kill yourself or teleport between Checkpoints, which is dumb. I’ve heard this is an NA Exclusive Issue, but, quite frankly, I don’t care if it’s NA Exclusive, it’s an issue in the game no matter what and is plain inexcusable. Also, in The Doom, it’s possible to go really fast to the point you clip through the floor. Good Game. This was something that happened to me a couple times, which was annoying, although, this doesn’t happen to me much anymore. Apparently there does exist a map in this level…. which is useless, this Map is here to help, but it barely can be seen in the first place, so why even bother with it, and it’s something you’ll only notice if you look very carefully, I just find this pointless. Now, onto Lost Impact Hero

Lost Impact Hero: This is probably the most infamous mission in the entire game and for good reason. One of this Mission’s biggest problems is simply how Lost Impact is designed, everything blends together in the aesthetic, where you have to go on a scavenger hunt in a giant and unorganized maze, and also, this Mission is by far the most stop and go Mission in the game, I can describe what this level is like without any exaggeration to it:
Kill some Artificial Chaos, Go on a slow as hell elevator with Artificial Chaos to kill, get on a Turret, get on another Turret, kill Artificial Chaos that are up an elevator, kill an Artificial Chaos on the Right Door, then go onto the Left Door, travel there to kill Artificial Chaos, before going onto another Turret, kill an Artificial Chaos on another Right Door, then go another Turret, etc. Do you realize something? Do you realize just how much this Mission blends in together, and how extremely stop and go it is? At least with something like the Chaotix Mission in Grand Metropolis in Heroes, it was nowhere near as stop and go, and had much better level design than Lost Impact ever could, and had a much better pacing to it. Similar to The Doom, this level has a fucking map to it. Again, like The Doom, it’s one of my lesser complaints, however I feel the need to mention this, what pisses me off about Lost Impact Hero and The Doom Dark is that they have Maps to guide you, but they're pretty small and also useless that there's basically no reason for them to be there in the first place, it's kinda like the map for Hazy Maze Cave in Mario 64, except the fact Hazy Maze Cave wasn't a confusing mess like these 2 dumpster fires. However, these levels PALE in comparison to the ABSOLUTE DUMPSTER FIRE that is Mad Matrix Dark.

Mad Matrix Dark: This Mission is plain and simple one of the worst things I’ve experienced in a Sonic Game, the objective is to destroy 30 Bombs, but you do this task in a giant maze that’s a complete mess. The Draw Distance in this level is a huge problem, considering this Mission has you going around a huge area that requires you to destroy a certain amount of objects, in an extremely wide area. The camera also sometimes has awful angles that give you atrocious views of where to go, and can flat out be the cause of why you go in the wrong direction, which is terrible design full stop. It's like the game is going AGAINST you, instead of FOR YOU, which is like blatant sabotage. Even on repeat playthroughs, this level takes so long to complete, which just makes it a nightmare to replay.

Lastly, the Padding

Another huge problem I have with this game is the amount of padding in it. Mid-Late 2000s Sonic Games are so obsessed with padding the game out. Whether this be; 06, Secret Rings, Unleashed on the Wii/PS2, etc. Shadow The Hedgehog however? Easily takes the cake with the worst padding in the entire series. In order to even finish the goddamn game, you need to do 10 Different Routes of it, which means you have to do 10 Different Playthroughs of the game in order to get to the Last Story, you thought getting to play Sonic Heroes 4 times was bad? HA, this is leagues worse, and unlike Sonic Heroes, which is a fun game, this game is completely void of any fun to be had at all.

Bonus: Extra Things


Here’s some things that really annoyed me in Shadow The Hedgehog, but I didn't really think we’re bad enough to be in My 3 Biggest Issues of the game.

When Rail Grinding, switching Rails in Shadow is fine, and is the least of my concerns, the velocity you get from the Rails is awfully butchered and beyond screwed as you go way too fast sometimes, this is a minor thing, and I swear, I feel like the only person who mentions this, but if I ever go fast in Shadow while interacting with stage geometry I’ll be sent flinging across in a direction, with like no control whatsoever, which basically discourages you from going fast, in a franchise that puts an emphasis on Speed mind you. As if the level design was even designed to go fast in the first place, due to how stop and go it is. This issue also applies with the Light Speed Dash, the velocity is beyond screwed and again, you can be sent flinging across a specific direction with little to no control whatsoever, WHICH IS REALLY ANNOYING BY THE WAY.

Method of Attacking: The method of attacking in this game is so annoying, the Homing Attack in this game is so inconsistent, it’ll either perfectly target on what you want to hit, or it goes in whatever direction it feels like and sometimes I’ll overshoot, which will result in me dying, and again, it’s really annoying. Not to mention its animation is very slow, which causes the attack to be very slow, and it just feels unreliable. Shadow’s Punches and Kicks are completely worthless against enemies as they have awfully small hitboxes that unless you get extremely close to them, which will probably result in you getting hit from them, will not attack, and even then, they do the most minimal amount of damage humanly possible, so you’re better off Homing Attacking or using a weapon to defeat enemies, however, like I said with the Homing Attack, it’s kind of unreliable seeing how it can be sometimes given its inconsistencies, so your bet is to just shoot enemies, which is…… okay I guess, I suppose its this games form of Combat that a lot of 2000s Sonic Games attempted to do such as; SA2 with the Mechs, Heroes, this game, 06, the Werehog in Unleashed, and Black Knight.

Camera: I absolutely hate the Camera in this game, but like the other bonuses, it wasn’t bad enough to put on the list, although it was dangerously close to coming into the Top 3. It’s difficult to describe the Camera, unless you’ve played Shadow. Now this game is actually the first Sonic Game as far as I know to use full Analog Camera Control, which sounds great on paper, but in execution it’s very wanting. The camera can get stuck on everything all the time, which is really frustrating when you’re trying to look around your surroundings in the Missions like killing all the enemies, which need I remind you, REQUIRE TO LOOK AROUND YOUR SURROUNDINGS in Scavenger Hunt esc. Missions, so the Camera basically goes against you.

Not being able to jump after getting hit: Remember in SA1, SA2, and Heroes where you could jump after being hit? Can’t do that in Shadow, and so many of my deaths in this game are due to this, and I can’t stand it.

Final Verdict: I hate this game a lot. There’s so many issues with this game that holds it back from me liking it; from the Awful Controls, The Extremely Stop and Go Level Design, The Absurd Amount of Padding, etc. If you like this game and consider it one of your favorite Sonic Games, that’s fine, but for me personally, it’s very hard for me to enjoy this game in terms of its gameplay, when I find it mediocre at best, or downright awful at worst. I don’t recommend you play this game, if you were to ask me. However, if you were really curious and wanting to try out this game like I was, I guess go ahead.

Thanks for reading this very long review, have a good day.