Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube) Preview

You'll be pleased to hear, then, that Shadow the Hedgehog has the famous golden rings. While you cling to that piece of information like a life boat, I should also tell you that despite the absence of the Hedgehog himself, Shadow is of the famously fast and acrobatic Erinaceinae subfamily, and as such he still runs at improbable speeds around an improbable course destroying improbable enemies in improbable ways that's probably quite familiar to you. The running, jumping, dashing, smashing, swinging and rolling all seems to be present and correct. Indeed, on some of the trailer clips you could almost think it was a Sonic game, were it not for the lack of a flash of blue.

Good news, then, for old fans. Controls for all this malarkey can be assumed to be fairly similar to previous 3D Sonic outings

The other major new power that Shadow has over Sonic is the ability to use vehicles. Again, whether this ability is down to Shadow's genetic engineering or just because he's evil enough to steal the vehicles in the first place isn't made clear, but this idea is more exciting than the prospect of guns. If Sonic Team can do anything, they can do speed, so 150Mph chases through those kinds of routes sound like great set-pieces. As well as cars there are other vehicles such as mechs. Dr Eggman's end-of-level machines from the early Sonic games could be infuriating like explaining relativity to a reality TV star would be infuriating, so being in the driving seat of one is like a revenge fantasy.
Speaking of Dr Eggman, where is he this time around? In any traditional Sonic game we would assume that Dr Eggman is doing nasty things, and Sonic must collect the Chaos Emeralds to stop him. To be fair, story has never been a Sonic hallmark. This time, however, Sonic Team has played with the formula yet again. Not for Shadow, the old good vs. evil, superpower vs. underdog, perseverance vs. adversity story. Instead Sonic Team decides to paint us a story of a three-way battle

This story sets Shadow the Hedgehog up for what could be either the best idea or the biggest waste of the game. Sega have decided to grant Shadow a conscience, through which he either becomes good or evil. If you kill a lot of Black Doom troops, you become more and more good; do the same to G.U.N. troops and Shadow will become evil. This feature is shared by games that seem a world away from Shadow the Hedgehog like Fable, The Elder Scrolls and Black & White, and has some possibilities that would take Shadow above and beyond your average 3D platform game. Multiple storylines, AI that's affected by reputation, deceiving your way into certain areas