Shadow the hedgehog isnt THAT bad (the game btw)
Im finally able to replay the game again after buying a gamecube(my old controller broke so i was like might as well buy a whole console) anyways… as tedious as this game can be to play through, i honestly think it would’ve gotten better reception if it just had good level design.
Everyone who knows this franchise will tell you that the best sonic stages across the whole series have quite the focus on replay value, its been a thing since the first game anyways and that is something i will always appreciate sonic 1 on the genesis for. Because as someone born in 2006, it was always hard for me to understand the hype around that game until i looked at it along with the time it released at, cus it literally changed the 2D platforming genre. Unlike your basic retro game from that time, Sonic 1 had replay value apart from being difficult, and that is something i will always love that game for. Besides that, levels designed with replay value is something that every sonic game was created with, but i feel like shadow the hedgehog slightly strayed from that, just a bit though.
Shadow the hedgehog already suffers from a rather unnecessary story which is told in kind of a confusing way, for example, doing the neutral pathway takes you thru westopolis > glyphic canyon > prison island > sky troops > iron jungle > lava shelter. For the first three levels, black doom will pretty much ask shadows to do the exact same mission, and by ignoring him and continuing onto the neutral path, the cutscene that plays right before sky troops shows shadow working with black doom when he just ignored the nigga three times. Also, further down the neutral pathway, in iron jungle and lava shelter you’ll run into omega who obviously wants to kill eggman. In iron jungle, omega asks for shadows help to shoot down eggmans blimp, and that being the hero mission, it takes you down on the stage chart and onto cosmic fall. But if you want to help omega on his plan to kill eggman, you have to IGNORE HIM and go to the goal ring as per the neutral mission, taking you to lava shelter. See the problem here? Theres shit like that all over the game and its sooo silly. But when i say that the game couldve been saved if it had better level design, i mean it with all my heart.
My favorite level in the game is lost impact, but when it comes to actually playing through the stage, my favorite is lethal highway. Its so damn fun to speedrun that stage despite it sharing the same flaw that literally every stage has.
Anybody whos played this game knows how annoying that is because of how often you’ll plag a lot of these stages especially westopolis its the worst. And i swear sonic team knew that they were just bullshitting cus mad matrix’s dark mission gives u an A rank regardless. But thats the biggest issue with this game, the gameplay is very repetitive and it wouldve benefited sooo much if they designed the levels like the older games with theit different pathways that would actually allow you to play the stage differently. Like when i see a speedrun of an sa1, sa2 or a heroes stage i get surprised by the shit they can pull off, but not this game, always what i expect it to be. Not lethal highway tho
Lethal highway might be the purest level in this game in my honest opinion. It isnt designed like my ideal sonic level, but i think its the best level designed around shadow the hedgehogs whatever. Neither of the missions are tedious, black dooms city escape mission is my fav thing to speedrun in this game, and sonics destroy the tank mission isnt too far off from that either. Sonic team clearly knew this too with the amount of those lil squishy things u can kill to max out ur chaos control gauge for the unlimited ammo, along with those item containers things where you can get the red shield that kills any weaker enemies that come into contact with you. On top of that, the stage also compliments shadows movement very well. You can no longer turn on a dime like you could before since the turning is a bit more realistic than the adventure games. I did not like that at all initially, but when i played thru lethal highway like 20 times tdy speedrunning the dark mission, i began to actually love how shadow controls and i tried to speedrun other levels the same way like westopolis, gun fortress, air fleet, black comet, and final haunt. Now that i think abt it, its like sonic unleashed, in that game daytime sonic controls a lil weird but the stages are clearly designed around it so whooo cares. Anyways love lethal highway
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