Fun Fact about Shadow the Hedgehog: Every path in this game has an individual name, depending on which stages you complete. That's *300+* paths if you technically want 100%.
And one of the routes for the Semi-Hero Hero ending(which is the most depressive of the ten endings) is titled "Shadow's Second Death...?" implying that Shadow decided to kill himself lmao
I just imagine him attempting to directly network with things, and slowly realizing that he doesn't have any wifi or blutooth. Then he demand these things be installed, and a robot comes in to examine him, and declares his fleshy biological internals do not support additional hardware, and in fact don't support _any_ hardware. "Oh. Well. Damn."
If each ending is fully canon, then that ending implies he actually IS one? I figure each ending path is a whole different set of rules compared to the others.
The most likely route that’s actually canon is the one where Shadow meets all three Chaotix members, since he gets the most information in those routes.
Fun fact: If you unlock hard mode, every stage is treated like Shadow is doing training simulations with the help of GUN, and there's dialogue from every character you can't hear anyone else. One of these bits is the GUN Commander apologizing for how he treated Shadow and LITERALLY INVITING HIM TO A PICNIC WITH HIS GRANDCHILDREN.
That leads to Sonic 06 too. A fantheory of mine is that they actually wanted to end Shadow as a character in this game, then the 06 team decided they want him in, so Last Story and Expert mode were written in last second. Of course, I may be completely wrong on that.
I personally would have ranked the "I should never have been created" ending higher on account of the incredible moment of Vector the Crocodile telling a depressed Shadow "hey man don't go there... YET"
Thinking about it, the Chaotix are on this weird mission to get the transmission from Professor Gerald going, right? Hence why they were searching for top secret discs on Prison Island, hacking into Eggmans Database and finding the Arks computer room? So, did Vector know what this message entailed at this point? As in, he knew why Shadow was created and instead of helping him out with that information when Shadow literally wished that he was never born, he was just like "Well, can't spoil the surprise now!"? Cause that is the only thing that he could be hinting at with his whole "Don't go there yet, things might not be what they seem" thing
@@BlueDragonKnight77 There are WAY too many instances where someone should have said something to Shadow. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, AND Rouge were present during the events of SA2 (Eggman too, but we have established he liked fucking with Shadow's mind too much to tell him right away as his excuse for not explaining anything). Somebody, ANYBODY, should've sat Shadow down and said "Wanna know about your past? Here's what I know." All Shadow had to do was ASK THEM. But no, let's listen to the obviously evil alien, because he knows my name." BRO, SHADOW. WHAT THE HELL. THESE OTHER PEOPLE CLEARLY SEEM TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE. ASK *THEM* QUESTIONS, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
@@KingRaatz I mean, at least Rouge must have had a talk with him at some point during Heroes. Otherwise his "Some things never change" line when she said that she'd go after the Master Emerald now that Knuckles was busy wouldn't make any sense. But do they even know the whole Maria story? Afaik Shadow never said a word about it aside from "I have to keep my promise to her" to Amy. Gerald only ever mentioned that she died in his message, not that Shadow and her were close. That seems to be the part that haunts him. Plus Rouge wasn't even sure if that was the real Shadow or just a Clone.
2:31:09 It’s funny how you asserted that this scene is why “Mike Pollock continues to prove why he’s the best Eggman” when this game was his in-game debut as Eggman! He originated the role in the dub of the Sonic X anime, and Sega decided to carry over the cast of the then-recent show into Shadow the Hedgehog for the sake of consistency.
I fucking love that shadow ended the call in the beginning of the video with an "I love you." It's just such a random thing he did and is probably the literal last thing you'd imagine he would say.
According to Sean (voice of Goku) from the recent collectAcon, he apparently had to go to the hospital a number of times while voicing Doom. Considering how monsterously deep the voice is, that makes sense.
Really? All he's doing is throat bass. I started using it really early on in voice acting once I learned it in beatboxing. I voice dragon/large/evil characters with it. It sounds exactly like his voice, most voices sound similar when using it, to be honest. If he went to the hospital because of it, he may have been forced to push the voice too hard, too long. It's crazy painful, when I was first starting I did that accidentally, before knowing my limits and getting more stamina. I can only imagine what it would be like voicing an entire game in that voice. Whenever I voice with it, I have to give myself a large amount of rest time so I don't hurt myself. Just to make sure- I'm a bit out of it because I'm sick. I'm not trying to come across as bragging- I'm curious as to what happened, and happy that I have some experience that relates to the situation
@@elae4051I thought that was the Spanish VA for Goku that had passed out during the recording or am I trippin? Because Sean had went on do to Fusion Reborn and he screamed for even longer than in the first time going SSJ3 and he was fine.
9:56 the guy who directed the sonic movies actually happens to be the same guy who directed the cg cutscenes I think so there will definitely be a reference to this game
Fun fact about the game: despite not having a split screen story mode. A second player can control the characters that pop up in the stages. Like sonic, knuckles, and even maria
“Welcome to the Salty Spitoon how tough are ya?” “I beat Shadow the Hedgehog” “Sorry to keep you waiting sir” “ *ALL ENDINGS* “ “Oh uh…. This place is too soft for ya”
One of my favorite things about this game is that I'm pretty sure most of the cast doesn't know Shadow has amnesia. Like, it is never a subject of conversation. I don't know if Sonic even knows who Maria is.
I *think* he was told about Maria in SA2 but I could be wrong. Regardless, I agree that it’s interesting how Shadow doesn’t think to ask all these people who know him about his past. Maybe they even had a big “oh my god” moment when Eggman told Shadow that he had amnesia. 🤔
@@emperortohoI think Rouge didn't even fully know. I mean... she knew who Shadow was for the most part, but she didn't know about Black Doom or if this Shadow was the real Shadow.
Maria's death in Sonic Adventure 2: A touching scene where she sacrifices herself to save Shadow, probably after being accidentally hit in the crossfire Maria's death in Shadow the Hedgehog: Some dude with a pistol just shoots her right in the face
Notably, it is actually possible that the memory in this game is not real. In SA2, Gerald's diary reveals that he manipulated Shadow's mind and memories to make him vengeful against humanity, but the memory seen in that game is really a positive one misunderstood, which does not make much sense in that context. My theory is that the temporary amnesia finally got the fake one to trigger, leading to this whole thing.
@@AnAverageGoblin She didn't die of it. She had an auto-immune disorder (flippantly referred to as 'Space AIDS') so she was sent to live in the space station, which was a necessarily sterilized environment. She still got shot in the Archie continuity.
YOU HAVE BECOME THE VERY THING YOU SWORE TO DESTROY. Jokes aside, the fact he blames Shadow for the death, not GUN, plays into the fact that he'd join GUN. He considers GUN blameless in the situation.
55:45 "give us a chao mobile game" The things I would do for a Mobile Chao garden that is based off your steps/physical activity. A man can dream I guess...
I didn't expect this game to give me a newfound appreciation for Shadow as a character because I'd only seen it memed, but it did. A fun playthrough to watch, and thank you for enduring all the endings so we got to see all of them.
@@peteynutt4104 Honestly I'd say the only A rank I suffered on was the Doom's dark mission... other than that, all of them I managed to do after a few tries
I love how there is just an ending where Shadow does all the good boy hero stuff and randomly decides that his rivalry with Sonic is way more important now and beats the shit out of Sonic and the GUN commander.
The Vegeta ending He still takes out Black Doom at the end of the day and saves the world he's just "you know what fuck you sonic I'm going to beat the shit out of you I can't stand you"
@@meta1429 I meant the Snapcube Shadow fandub; likely a coincidence but he could and just be throwing out little references to mess with the people in his audience who’ve watched it
choctopus, i stopped watching letsplayers a long time ago because i thought it wasn't for me anymore. but then i stumbled upon your channel. i haven't laughed this hard in a long time. watching you relive my struggles i remember so clearly as a child coupled with your commentary is just gold lmao
Listening to the actual dialogue in this game after watching the Snapcube dub is giving me some sort of whiplash seeing the context of what they are parodizing lmao
While the writing could definitely be better, I really love the idea of this amnesiac who already made peace with that(in Sonic Heroes) but then has to face the past he lost; both mentally, as the amnesia wears off, and physically, as the results of previous events(some he never knew about to begin with) start unfolding around him.
Kat from Gravity Rush is like that. The sequel tries to make her go through long extensive flashback gameplay moments and she’s like “that was a weird dream, anyway back to what I was already doing.” With zero reflection. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen media do with someone with amnesia. Kat is a airhead with a good addatude. Shadow the hedgehog’s plot should have just been a Team Dark Game with eggman and the gun commander gaslighting him.
@@infiniteoctopaw I kinda like how the Black Arms and GUN Commander slot in though; someone who's come to collect a debt only Shadow can pay off on one side, and a fellow survivor who blames Shadow(and knows more about his past than Shadow ever did) even while leading the force that actually carried out the massacre on the other. Eggman in the middle trying to gaslight Shadow back under his control is a fun kind of messed up though; arguably one of his more evil schemes when you think about it.
I love it how they keep a planet destroying massive thing casually floating by which seems to be too easily broken into and humans are just fine with it
Hot take: I wouldn’t have an issue with Shadow using a gun if it wasn’t so illogical. There’s nothing inherently “edgy” about using a weapon in fights but, well, he’s already *much* faster than any bullet. The only thing wrong with him using guns is that literally would be better off fighting unarmed and his amnesia just made him forget that. Maybe the supposed edginess comes from how he’s using a lethal weapon as a handicap? 🤷♂️
@@BrunodeSouzaLino I got it! The problem is that they waited until he wasn’t antagonist to have him use a gun! The edginess of acting like a villain in a game where the player can make him a villain protagonist or make him a hero must be the problem. For the record I don’t even know to what extent I’m joking. 😅
@@DissedRedEngie Eggman is seen wielding a gun a lot of times, including the recent comic series. So your statement implies that Eggman is not a Sonic character and is from goddamn DMC or something
Supposedly the director of Shadow the Hedgehog got the idea of guns for him because he played Jak 2 after Sonic heroes. Which sadly makes a lot of sense.
Idk, I could see Shadow Generations being a potential lead in for remake of this. If SonicxShadow Generations is Sonic Generations + a shorter Shadow Campaign AND the levels from this game using Shadows moveset from the Generations campaign, that is well worth its price. With the revelation that the Chaos Emeralds aren't from Earth, it makes a lot more sense that an alien plan revolves around them.
@@Dualsynergy The game tracks every single route you took. And I do mean EVERY, SINGLE, ROUTE. So for true 100% completion you'd have to get many of the multiple endings multiple times, not just the 10 ingame runs that let you experience each ending once and unlock the Last Story. The most insane part is they took the time to name EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM with unique names. Like, bruh, they could do that with the game's route names but not the dialogue???
As someone who completed this game in his childhood, I honestly feel like the best thing about this game is the lore it adds. Shadow's origins are rather interesting, and confirming that this Shadow is the original is a relief, ever since the mystery was placed during Sonic Heroes. The only other thing I can praise the game for is the alignment system, as a concept. It could have been done better, particularly without having to repeat bosses, cut scenes, or reusing so many assets in general. But having a goal to work toward in the form of multiple endings is a good motivator. Other than that, the game is clunky at best, and frustrating at worst.
I just finished watching a reaction video to the Shadow the hedgehog fandub by Snapcube and as soon exit the video I see this was posted an hour ago. Talk about perfect timing lmao
1:16:50 most class rooms have projectors linked up to the teachers computer, so nowadays they just pull the movie up on UA-cam, but every now and again they wheel out those tvs, usually the same one the school's had since the 80s
Using this video to kill 2 1/2 of the hours left to go until FF7 Rebirth is out is such an easy decision that it is like taking candy from a baby which is fine by me.
I JUST now finished rewarching your Sonic Unleashed playthrough and thought to myself I want to see him play Shadow the Hedgehog so badly... And here it is!!! Right there!
Fun facts: there are 326 possible paths within this game and they each have their own unique name, giving a slight idea of the story for that path. Also, the amount of people that don't know you can just use the d-pad to change the mission your doing instead of opening the pause menu is concerning.
I just imagine when i was playing this game to get to the endings, Shadow has paper notes on each level "Do Good" Shadow: :D "Do the bad thing" Shadow: >:D
i can't help but think of an interesting video i saw: you can have a second player join in and control Sonic or Omega or the other "companions". THAT youtuber was trying to see how many levels he could finish with the second player doing ALL the objectives! killing aliens or solders, etc. it wasn't very many, since the second player can't pick up the Chaos Emeralds, he couldn't even get any of the endings properly! also, i really loved your silly joke: "a chicken gun? what the CLUCK?"
SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: FAMILY GAME OF THE YEAR After the release of the multi-platform Sonic Heroes, everyone questioned what the Sonic series would do next. Would there be a sequel to the new Heroes style? The release of Sonic Adventure 3? Or would it be something really new? Rumors began to circulate when an official Sega poll was put up asking people their first choice of which character in the Sonic franchise they'd like to star in their own game. With choices ranging from the already spun off like Tails and Knuckles, to total nobodies like Espio, the winner of the poll would be none other than Shadow the Hedgehog by a fairly wide margin, the "Ultimate Lifeform" that had stolen enough hearts in Sonic Adventure 2 to be resurrected in Sonic Heroes. Only a few weeks after the poll results were revealed, it was announced that Sonic the Hedgehog would be an inaugural inductee into the Walk of Game, a monument in San Francisco designed to honor icons of video gaming, both the characters and the minds behind them. In an explosion of marketing synergy, Sega thought it the perfect time to unveil the trailer for the next installment in the Sonic series. The trailer came in two parts: the first being a celebratory montage of all things Sonic over the previous fourteen years. The second part of the trailer would show off the latest title by Sonic Team...and it was introduced with a hail of bullets punching through the footage of Sonic's history. This was the world's first ever look at Shadow the Hedgehog, and for many of the Sonic faithful, it was the perfect herald of The Troubles. Now, Sonic Team USA, having renamed themselves Sega Studios USA after the completion of the absolute trial that was Heroes, were not so foolish as to begin development of a game based solely on an official poll. In fact, the poll was made simply to gauge potential fan reaction for the unveiling. Honestly, something like Shadow the Hedgehog had been gestating ever since Sonic Adventure 2, where Takashi Iizuka had come up with a plethora of angles to tackle using the character during development, and he hadn't managed to use them all to his liking. After wrapping up production of Sonic Heroes, Iizuka had become a bit bored with how the previous titles has been aimed at a younger audience, and was wanting to appeal to an older demographic, and attract those who might not otherwise play a Sonic title. With an older demo in mind, he was also wanting to capitalize on the story elements of the previous games, putting a focus on the mysterious nature of Shadow and his origins, answering the many burning questions fans had been asking over the previous two games. The fact that he was wanting to appeal to an older demographic with what was still at heart a children's cartoon mascot never seemed to merit any closer examination from SEGA leadership at the time, especially when he started having the staff watch films like Underworld, Constantine and Terminator for tonal guidance. With the tone for their anti-hero cartoon mascot decided thanks to, of all things, Constantine, the team then began to add other much-requested features to the game such as the ability to ride vehicles and the use of weapons, which was given real emphasis to make Shadow the Hedgehog stand apart from the Sonic franchise before it. Though shooting mechanics had been implemented in the two Adventure titles, the team wanted to challenge themselves to include it as a core mechanic this time, creating a 'gun action' game that focused on both speed and shooting at the same time. Since Shadow was the only remotely-appropriate character to do this with (Omega didn't count as he had guns for arms instead of needing to pick them up), production was able to get fully underway quite quickly after Heroes wrapped up. Another element the team worked hard to put in the game was the use of branching pathways within the story. The concept had originally been meant to feature in Sonic Adventure 2, but a lack of time and resources had shelved it. Taking the Hero/Dark dichotomy from Adventure 2 and running with it for what they hoped was a touchdown, even the game's tagline ("Hero or villain? You decide.") advertised how each playthrough of the game would theoretically be a wholly unique experience. Though only playing through six levels in any path, with 22 total available, this meant 326 different ways a player could complete the game. The game initially received a "T" rating from the ESRB. Sega even tried to play up the higher age rating, asking those at trade shows and events where the game was being demoed to only play if they were 13 and up. However, many SoA marketing execs worried that a T rating would lose them a large chunk of Sonic's customer base that bought titles exclusively for kids, and Sonic had been heavily associated with that branding. As luck would have it though, during the game's production, the ESRB decided to update their rating system after years of complaints, adding an "E10+" rating to be slotted in between "E" and "T." With maximized dollar signs in sight now, the Western translation gunned for the rating, haphazardly removing some of the mild swearing and leaving the rest. The blood was also sucked straight out of all G.U.N troops, and then tinted green for the Black Doom armada. This purposeful censorship managed to land the game right into the ten-and-up designation, leading to high fives all around the Sega offices. Which was strange, because the whole point of the game was to court a more mature audience, wasn't it? Multiple vocal tracks were composed for the game, with each meant to be played for a specific path through the game. However, not all the tracks made for the game actually ended up in it. Despite strenuous protests, Jun Senoue, the lead composer of the game, lost out on two songs he had his heart set on. The first was a track titled "Who I Am," written by the band Magna-Fi, that was forced out due to copyright and licensing issues. The second song, however, was lost for a sadder reason. "Broken," a song previously released by the band Sins of a Divine Mother, was the other track that Jun wanted in the game, specifically as the Neutral-Hero theme. All the band members were in agreement except the singer, Wylie B. They couldn't track him down to get his permission to use it. Unable to discuss the licensing of the song, it was dropped, instead creating a new song "Chosen One", written and performed by the band A2 (which actually featured quite a few members from Sins of a Divine Mother). Despite all the risks taken by Sonic Team to make a darker, more mature tale to attract older audiences, their effort proved laughably ineffectual, as the released product was thoroughly trashed by critics and snubbed by the very demographic they were chasing. Although it still managed to sell reasonably well despite the drubbing, this effectively killed its potential in the eyes of SEGA to become a companion franchise to Sonic. Though criticism at the time has paled in comparison to what the passage of time wrought, as many fans and critics alike have cited the game as a Happy Days style "jump the shark" moment for the Sonic series. Now, a whole heaping helping of criticism for the game stemmed from what many felt was an unearned sense of maturity and the unwelcome addition of guns. To quote one critic, Game Informer's Matt Helgeson "not only is this new 'adult' interpretation of Sonic painfully dumb, it’s also ill-advised and almost feels like a betrayal to longtime fans." Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell felt similarly, stating that "the game's other selling point - its darker edge - is not really meant for us." Though, not everyone had it out for Sonic's own Vegeta spinoff. In fact, Nintendo Power's Steve Thomason rated the game an 8.0 out of 10, stating that a darker take on Sonic's universe "succeeds for the most part, giving the series a bit of an edge without going overboard on violence." (Hilariously, this kind review would be retracted with prejudice in the last issue of Nintendo Power, with Thomason not only stating that this rating was his worst mistake in the magazine, but that the game itself was an "abomination".) What was an even bigger target for criticism in Shadow The Hedgehog, more than the gunplay or scattershot tone issues, was the controls. What many found especially egregious was Shadow's homing attack, as it caused many unexpected and cheap deaths. Game Informer's Matt Helgeson complained that the attack "frequently sends you careening off into nothingness, resulting in cheap death after cheap death." This was a sentiment echoed countless ways by Nintendo Power, X-Play, Eurogamer, Official Xbox Magazine, and GameSpy, among others. While the homing attack took the brunt of criticism, other mechanics were not spared, as seen in Greg Mueller of GameSpot's complaint that the guns were nearly useless because of a lack of an aiming ability. IGN staff writer Matt Casamassina, 1UP.com staff writer Greg Sewart, Game Informer, X-Play, GameSpy, and London's The Times also criticized the mechanics of Shadow's weapons and vehicles, and other aspects of the game's controls. Of course, even this mixed-to-negative reception didn't stop the game from gaining the coveted status of "Best Game of 2006" by the Official Jetix Magazine Reader Awards. It even received a nomination for a Golden Joystick Award as 2006's "Family Game of the Year" on the website of British newspaper "The Sun".
“Why did they include tripping?” It was reactionary, as I understand they weren’t overly keen on the hyper competitive scene that formed around Melee so they hard wired in an inherent degree of randomness to the games most prolific component - movement.
On the topic of Shadow in the movie, back when Sonic 2 came out, one of the writers, Pat Casey, spoke about how they were hoping to approach writing for Shadow. The example they gave was that Sonic would see Shadow and think 'Well I'll just do the whole power-of-friendship thing I did with Knuckles and that'll win him over' but that wouldn't work. Shadow is too damaged and motivated by revenge to fall for that sort of thing. And that's what will make Shadow distinctly different to Knuckles as the antagonist.
I swear when I saw the thumbnail I immediately remembered Jehtt’s videos. Imagine my surprise when I saw the intro. Keep up the good work man and thanks for a Shadow the Hedgehog let’s play 🔥🔥🔥
17:03 It's funny how when you're younger, Charmy is like an annoying younger sibling, but since Choc is older Charmy's random comments are more akin to an endearing nephew... Vernias.
I never said alcohol was involved. 😂 that said, you and king of skill should have a gaming session. See who can make reach over 9000 nautical amd nonsensical references first.😂
Fun fact for those who don't know you can do a ShadAmy path in this game called The Miracle of Love where you do all the Dark mission's until you get to the stage Cryptic Castle and help Amy look for Cream and Cheese which is already obvious from this video that its Amy's hero mission and so once you complete that you can do all of the hero missions afterwards and you get the pure hero ending. Basically it's thanks to Amy Shadow has seen the light and will do good henceforth the Miracle of Love which is really sweet and i love this as a cute ShadAmy path! ❤️🖤
Everything about this video is amazing. The editing. The gameplay. The GAME. Shout out to yall for making consistent bangers after bangers after bangers man. You’re still not a SonicTuber, but your Sonic videos are always my favorite. Love ya, and stay safe yall!
It's both cheesy and unnecessarily edgy. It might be the most perfect encapsulation of both Shadow and the Sonic series writing in general. It's dumb as hell and I love it.
i guess the line means he doesnt mind it being easy, not literally meaning that taking candy from a baby is fine by him, but the way its worded is just... 😭
It's bad in a way that's funny at least, which applies to a lot of this game's dialogue If it can at least be enjoyed ironically then I wouldn't say it's the worst it could be
Given what we know from The Last Story; there are only a few potential canonical endings for the main story. A vital thing in The Lasy Story is that Team Chaotix have been gathering data relateing to Shadow and the Black Arms. As such; the canon route must help all three members of Team Chaotix. conveniently; doing Charmy's mission in Prison Island takes you to Mad Matrix; where Espio's mission is. Doing Espio's mission will take you to Lost Impact [a flashback level] and doing the neutral mission there [since it's a flashback; what you do dosen't actually matter] will take you to Cosmic Fall; where Vector's mission is [and then you fight Black Doom]. It's entirely possible to do all three Team Chaotix Missions in 1 playthrough. The only unclear part is which mission from Westopolis is "canon". Dark takes you to Digital Circuit; where you must help Rouge to get to Prison Island. You can do Neutral-Neutral; or do Hero-Dark. This flip flopping makes little sense, so it's likly Neutral-Neutral-Hero-Hero-Neutral-Hero. However, Charmy copies how Shadow enters Mad Matrix in The Last Way to get the computer to work [The Chaotix were there]. So it could be Dark-Hero-Hero-Hero-Neutral-Hero is canon. Perhaps Shadow initially took Black Doom's claim as true [he WAS the only lead Shadow had]; but Rouge snapped him out of it. Shadow helping the Chaotix even makes sense. His motivation is to find the truth of who he is; and the Chaotix *are a detective agency*.
So that would be either Path 89: "I Am Shadow" or Path 90: "Shining Within Memory..."? Okay. Edit: My bad, that's Path 92: "Requiem For A Fallen Angel"
@@LiMe251 Yep; it must be one of those. It's worth noting after every stage 2 there is the president call scene where a cyber-attack is mentioned. This might suggest Digital Circuit... but Shadow would do the Hero mission from here. So the cyber attack could just happen regardless.
Fun fact: The GUN Beetles in this game use MP5s as their weaponry. Just look on the beetle's bottom at 15:15. Oh, and at 2:04:10, the commander updated his audio equipment.
2:02:25 reminds me isn't there a wallpaper cover story where silver blocks the cannon from destroying soleanna, it wasent charge by the emeralds but i think it had to do with the artificial gravity cylinders? on the ark and what ever reserve power Eggman could muster
It was planned to be rated teen until the E10 rating came out. On one hand it was gonna be way edgier, but on the other hand they could at least be a bit more creative than just saying "damn"
@@aliasella488 The arbitrary swearing does not belong in the game anyways. The original japanese does not particularly have more than any other Sonic game, the localization just throught "wow, we really have to push it now! Or else it would never sell well!"(Sega not make horrible choices every 5 minutes challenge, impossible)
2001 baby here I can confirm that when I was in kindergarten back in 06/07, my teacher did roll out one of those TVs and put on a movie while she took it easy for the day. The entire class would just sit on the floor and watched a random Disney movie
2005 is also the year the G1 Transformers movie, or The Transformers The Movie, takes place in. I will sometimes just hear “It is the year 2005”in my head because of the way the narrator says it; I don’t technically have an inner monologue,at least not in the way that’s like talking…but in your head, although I can still think about stuff I’ve heard (I also can’t control it sometimes) so I’ll just randomly hear stuff…mostly music .
Choc talking about the different endings is so bizarre, he's like "these different story endings are all the same, the only part of the story endings that's different is the story" wow it's almost as if that's the point /lh
Fun fact: On the gamecube version of this if you plug a second controller in, you can actually control your alley who follows you and make them attack stuff. (Everyone except Black Doom's eye and Dr. Eggman robot). Of course, they can only go as far as Shadow is on the screen but still neat. Unofficial two-player. :)
All the voice actors being the same ones from Sonic X means every time I hear Knuckles I hear a bit of Yugi (Dan Green) 😅 EDITS: The President is also Yugi's Grandpa (Maddie Blaustien) And Mike Pollock was Prof. Bonaparte in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, and Jason Griffith was some tennis dude in GX as well as Atticus Rhodes (I had to throw them in as well) Marc Thompson (GUN commander) voiced many characters in Yu-Gi-Oh, notably Duke Devlin in DM and Chazz Princeton in GX.
It will never not be cursed that Yugi, Knuckles and Mephiles were all voiced by the same dude. In addition to Sonic and Shadow with Atticus(And by extension Nightshroud because...ya know).
Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh, do you also know that Chip and Chazz has the same Voice Actor? Atticus and Chazz (Tony Salerno) were an awesome duo in Sonic Unleashed 😆
I was blown away when I found out that Black Doom was voiced by Sean Schemmel, he didn't need a voice modifier to alter his voice at all. Just gave him an ethereal-sounding voice.
My favorite thing to think about that if Shadow was trully amnesiatic, he would have little to no social memories. That plus the fact that he was raised on the ARK, implies that when he saw the red storms clouds roll in, and the aliens fly in, he could have thought "huh. so I guess that's normal weather for Earth... and the humans still aren't used to it, pathetic"
@@GoodNeutralEvilChaos oh stars please no we're all gonna feel like boomers "Back in my day it was against the app store's rules to have a single digit app name"
@Pearl_Blossom still baffling that Musk was kicked from another company's board of directors for trying to name it X(I think it was Paypal?) and then, not taking bring yeeted from the company as an indication of how dumb the idea is, tried it again. And people think he's smart because he bought a successful company and had an excellent PR run...
My favorite thing about the neutral ending is that the game begins with an alien invasion, introduces characters like GUN Commander and Black Doom, and then ignires them entirely to fight eggman who, at this point, has really just been mindibg his own business conosratovely speaking
I am at ALDI chain (subs only)
I am at ALDI!
I am at Aldi!
I am ALDI
I am at ALDI
I am at Aldi
Fun Fact about Shadow the Hedgehog: Every path in this game has an individual name, depending on which stages you complete. That's *300+* paths if you technically want 100%.
Ow, my brain.
326 to be exact
@@SpammytheHedgehogno
Ow The Edge
thank you for saving my time on telling him this.
And one of the routes for the Semi-Hero Hero ending(which is the most depressive of the ten endings) is titled "Shadow's Second Death...?" implying that Shadow decided to kill himself lmao
the neutral ending where he goes full skynet is so funny cus like, hes not an android, eggman was literally just fucking with him
I just imagine him attempting to directly network with things, and slowly realizing that he doesn't have any wifi or blutooth.
Then he demand these things be installed, and a robot comes in to examine him, and declares his fleshy biological internals do not support additional hardware, and in fact don't support _any_ hardware.
"Oh. Well. Damn."
thats why its so funny when he goes "Whaaat?". he was just messing with him and it bit him in the ass
If each ending is fully canon, then that ending implies he actually IS one?
I figure each ending path is a whole different set of rules compared to the others.
@@gittonsxv126 The canon ending is hero then true.
The most likely route that’s actually canon is the one where Shadow meets all three Chaotix members, since he gets the most information in those routes.
Fun fact: If you unlock hard mode, every stage is treated like Shadow is doing training simulations with the help of GUN, and there's dialogue from every character you can't hear anyone else. One of these bits is the GUN Commander apologizing for how he treated Shadow and LITERALLY INVITING HIM TO A PICNIC WITH HIS GRANDCHILDREN.
That's so sweet.....
That leads to Sonic 06 too. A fantheory of mine is that they actually wanted to end Shadow as a character in this game, then the 06 team decided they want him in, so Last Story and Expert mode were written in last second. Of course, I may be completely wrong on that.
There's ones from Maria though. And Eggman. And Black Doom.
Wow that's good to know and it's cute honestly
Movie GUN Commander DEFINITELY gonna invite him to Olive Garden.
I personally would have ranked the "I should never have been created" ending higher on account of the incredible moment of Vector the Crocodile telling a depressed Shadow "hey man don't go there... YET"
The "yet" always fucking slays me. Like, NOT THE TIME OR PLACE FOR THAT, VECTOR!
The audacity of this man to rank Shadow’s depression ending as the worst
Thinking about it, the Chaotix are on this weird mission to get the transmission from Professor Gerald going, right? Hence why they were searching for top secret discs on Prison Island, hacking into Eggmans Database and finding the Arks computer room?
So, did Vector know what this message entailed at this point? As in, he knew why Shadow was created and instead of helping him out with that information when Shadow literally wished that he was never born, he was just like "Well, can't spoil the surprise now!"? Cause that is the only thing that he could be hinting at with his whole "Don't go there yet, things might not be what they seem" thing
@@BlueDragonKnight77 There are WAY too many instances where someone should have said something to Shadow. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, AND Rouge were present during the events of SA2 (Eggman too, but we have established he liked fucking with Shadow's mind too much to tell him right away as his excuse for not explaining anything).
Somebody, ANYBODY, should've sat Shadow down and said "Wanna know about your past? Here's what I know." All Shadow had to do was ASK THEM. But no, let's listen to the obviously evil alien, because he knows my name."
BRO, SHADOW. WHAT THE HELL. THESE OTHER PEOPLE CLEARLY SEEM TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE. ASK *THEM* QUESTIONS, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
@@KingRaatz I mean, at least Rouge must have had a talk with him at some point during Heroes. Otherwise his "Some things never change" line when she said that she'd go after the Master Emerald now that Knuckles was busy wouldn't make any sense.
But do they even know the whole Maria story? Afaik Shadow never said a word about it aside from "I have to keep my promise to her" to Amy. Gerald only ever mentioned that she died in his message, not that Shadow and her were close. That seems to be the part that haunts him. Plus Rouge wasn't even sure if that was the real Shadow or just a Clone.
2:31:09 It’s funny how you asserted that this scene is why “Mike Pollock continues to prove why he’s the best Eggman” when this game was his in-game debut as Eggman! He originated the role in the dub of the Sonic X anime, and Sega decided to carry over the cast of the then-recent show into Shadow the Hedgehog for the sake of consistency.
I fucking love that shadow ended the call in the beginning of the video with an "I love you." It's just such a random thing he did and is probably the literal last thing you'd imagine he would say.
That was my favorite part
Eh, perfectly in character imo.
BRONZE TROPHY UNLOCKED - understand how a joke works
@@kieranshearer8943You beat me to it lmfao This comment is so dumb
You never know the last time you'll ever see someone you care about, so it's best to say "I love you" every time.
Fun fact: In every single path... Shadow ends up collecting the Chaos Emeralds and says "Finally. I've got all the Chaos Emeralds!"
Well DUH.
THIS IS WHO I AM!
Don't forget about this is who I am.
I am the most Powerful Hedgehog in THE WORLD!
Wait, did they use the *SAME VOICE RECORDING FOR EACH ONE!?*
According to Sean (voice of Goku) from the recent collectAcon, he apparently had to go to the hospital a number of times while voicing Doom. Considering how monsterously deep the voice is, that makes sense.
Really? All he's doing is throat bass. I started using it really early on in voice acting once I learned it in beatboxing. I voice dragon/large/evil characters with it. It sounds exactly like his voice, most voices sound similar when using it, to be honest. If he went to the hospital because of it, he may have been forced to push the voice too hard, too long. It's crazy painful, when I was first starting I did that accidentally, before knowing my limits and getting more stamina. I can only imagine what it would be like voicing an entire game in that voice. Whenever I voice with it, I have to give myself a large amount of rest time so I don't hurt myself.
Just to make sure- I'm a bit out of it because I'm sick. I'm not trying to come across as bragging- I'm curious as to what happened, and happy that I have some experience that relates to the situation
@@amsgamingandmusic I mean he apparently passed out in the booth recording the first time goes SSJ3, so this wouldn't surprise me
@@elae4051I thought that was the Spanish VA for Goku that had passed out during the recording or am I trippin? Because Sean had went on do to Fusion Reborn and he screamed for even longer than in the first time going SSJ3 and he was fine.
@@Kingpharaohgaming I heard Sean passed out the very first time he did 3, or at the very least he passed out at one point
Hol up, Sean Schemmel voiced Black Doom?
9:56 the guy who directed the sonic movies actually happens to be the same guy who directed the cg cutscenes I think so there will definitely be a reference to this game
Crazy how it comes full circle so many years later
He didn't directed it, he was part of the crew of animation team, but it's still neat, and I think he will nod to this game in the movie lol
Fun fact about the game: despite not having a split screen story mode. A second player can control the characters that pop up in the stages. Like sonic, knuckles, and even maria
Ruined the 69 likes
So it's like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with Tails?! LOL!
This one is more distorting than STH2
I wonder how maria played, is she like.. just a normal fuckin human?
@dudledot1574 with not a great jump and her attack is just a slap
“Welcome to the Salty Spitoon how tough are ya?”
“I beat Shadow the Hedgehog”
“Sorry to keep you waiting sir”
“ *ALL ENDINGS* “
“Oh uh…. This place is too soft for ya”
I actually did get all 10 endings of this game and all I got to say is, a week never felt soo long untill I played this and got all the endings.
I did 5 times
Try all 326 endings, casual
getting all of those endings is not that difficult ngl. SA1 takes me longer to complete then shadow 05.
@@DLGanimator It only took me a week to do. Sa2 was a bit longer but it was so much more fun so it didn't feel as long.
One of my favorite things about this game is that I'm pretty sure most of the cast doesn't know Shadow has amnesia. Like, it is never a subject of conversation. I don't know if Sonic even knows who Maria is.
I *think* he was told about Maria in SA2 but I could be wrong. Regardless, I agree that it’s interesting how Shadow doesn’t think to ask all these people who know him about his past. Maybe they even had a big “oh my god” moment when Eggman told Shadow that he had amnesia. 🤔
@@WDinATX That's kinda funny to think about actually.
@@WDinATX rouge knew, she just didn’t tell him for the lulz
That’s a great point lol It’s never brought up to anyone but Shadow
@@emperortohoI think Rouge didn't even fully know. I mean... she knew who Shadow was for the most part, but she didn't know about Black Doom or if this Shadow was the real Shadow.
Maria's death in Sonic Adventure 2: A touching scene where she sacrifices herself to save Shadow, probably after being accidentally hit in the crossfire
Maria's death in Shadow the Hedgehog: Some dude with a pistol just shoots her right in the face
Notably, it is actually possible that the memory in this game is not real. In SA2, Gerald's diary reveals that he manipulated Shadow's mind and memories to make him vengeful against humanity, but the memory seen in that game is really a positive one misunderstood, which does not make much sense in that context. My theory is that the temporary amnesia finally got the fake one to trigger, leading to this whole thing.
meanwhile she (allegedly) died of aids or something in the comics lol
@@AnAverageGoblin Did that happen in an issue of the archie shadow fall series or something?
@@76o90I have no idea tbh
@@AnAverageGoblin She didn't die of it. She had an auto-immune disorder (flippantly referred to as 'Space AIDS') so she was sent to live in the space station, which was a necessarily sterilized environment. She still got shot in the Archie continuity.
“Shadow it’s me, the Devil”
"I love yoooou."
OK FINE I'LL SIN I'LL SIN
"hey bing bong, you're doing a bad job!"
*"I'VE UPDATED MY AUDIO EQUIPMENT."*
“THIS MEANS NOTHING TO ME ALRIGHT, YOU MEAN NOTHING TO ME”
The commander annoyed me. He blamed Shadow for Maria's death, but became a commander that leads the GUN army that killed Maria 50 years ago.
Well yeah, he didn't blame GUN for it
jesus christ bro this like ur 8th comment on this video😭
YOU HAVE BECOME THE VERY THING YOU SWORE TO DESTROY.
Jokes aside, the fact he blames Shadow for the death, not GUN, plays into the fact that he'd join GUN. He considers GUN blameless in the situation.
@@aidensosa9739to be fair they did name themselves “spammy the hedgehog” lol
@@joostine3720 i respect it he livin up to the name🤷🏽♂️✊🏾
55:45 "give us a chao mobile game"
The things I would do for a Mobile Chao garden that is based off your steps/physical activity. A man can dream I guess...
Boy do i have news (leaks) for you
Well don't just sit there, man! @joshuaalexander1156
All I needed to hear 😎 @@Mikopidayooo
@@Mikopidayooowhat leaks?
Every other couple of months I wonder why we don't have a Chao garden game
I didn't expect this game to give me a newfound appreciation for Shadow as a character because I'd only seen it memed, but it did. A fun playthrough to watch, and thank you for enduring all the endings so we got to see all of them.
46:01 Here's the neat thing Choc. We speedrunners do *every* ending for the speedrun. It's actually not that bad after a while.
Now getting all the A ranks.. that's the real test.
@@peteynutt4104 Honestly I'd say the only A rank I suffered on was the Doom's dark mission... other than that, all of them I managed to do after a few tries
He got shadow to say “I love you”…
IT SHOULDVE BEEN ME
It should have been @realshadowfan1.
@@anemiropenguin2241 OOOOOOOOH MAH GA-
"Hiiiii Shadowww! It's me The Deviiiil! I love youuuu! I'm having so much fun with youuuu!" /ref
@@Pearl_Blossom it’s me! Da devil from da Bible!
... ! AYO 🤨📸 💀🔫
I love how there is just an ending where Shadow does all the good boy hero stuff and randomly decides that his rivalry with Sonic is way more important now and beats the shit out of Sonic and the GUN commander.
The Vegeta ending
He still takes out Black Doom at the end of the day and saves the world he's just "you know what fuck you sonic I'm going to beat the shit out of you I can't stand you"
„Ooh a clone of yourself! Isn’t that pretty cool? I made them to take over apple“
“that’s cool… i suppose…can i have one? for… personal reasons… not what you think though! Sicko!
…he thinks im a pervert now.”
@@moocake057 wait a minute... it's not because of the clone thing. it's because i pissed on his wife!
* Flashback *
_"HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING ABOUT MY FUCKING DICK AGAIN?!?!"_
"The year is 2005"
OH THANK GOD, I'VE HAD SUCH A NIGHTMARE - oh.
I WANNA GO BACK TO 2005. (I was born in 2009, I just don't wanna exist anymore)‼️‼️‼️
@@r_mara_c So real
💔🎮This Game isn't only developed for Game Cube, but also for PS2...
18:59
Funny you mention that Choc, there's uh... there's something hilarious with this statement.
Also with him referring to Black Doom as The Devil. I honestly hope he’s seen it
it's hilarious how many times he accidentally correctly guesses the dub plot
You know what they say: when you kill someone, you get their sin points!
@@mumpas-1043 I'd be shocked if Choc saw this comment.
@@meta1429 I meant the Snapcube Shadow fandub; likely a coincidence but he could and just be throwing out little references to mess with the people in his audience who’ve watched it
19:00 I love how he (probably unintentionally) referenced the plot of the snapcube fandub
2:22 "love you!" Thats cute!
He means f### u
choctopus, i stopped watching letsplayers a long time ago because i thought it wasn't for me anymore. but then i stumbled upon your channel. i haven't laughed this hard in a long time. watching you relive my struggles i remember so clearly as a child coupled with your commentary is just gold lmao
If you’re new, I have a big library of completed games! Thanks for watching :)
This is heartwarming
"what's the green Gundam name, with the one eye"
Honestly that describes like 50 different mobile suits.
Probably the basic grunt suits.
Every zeek MS
*"Hey, Big Zam!"*
I believe he meant a Zaku 2
THAT'S NO ZAKU, BOY! NO ZAKU!!
"Don't go there yet."
Yet?
Someone should NEVER go there.
Way to go Vector.
Ding
*le gasp* CHARRIII5 reference? WHAT ARE THE RULES?!
The fact that Maria Robotnik has multiple deaths in general is the biggest *bruh* in Sonic.
Add one more to the counter with the movie (I haven’t watched it yet but it’s more than likely to happen)
@SwiftlyZone Yep Maria has a new death in the movie
@@NotAGoodUsername360 just finished the movie 20 minutes ago, peak fiction
Different-colored eyes are actually a natural thing called heterochromia; I have it. No special lore reason, he just looks cool with it.
It's also present with MLB Pitcher Max Scherzer.
At first I thought you were saying there's no special lore reason for *your* heterochromia.
Listening to the actual dialogue in this game after watching the Snapcube dub is giving me some sort of whiplash seeing the context of what they are parodizing lmao
While the writing could definitely be better, I really love the idea of this amnesiac who already made peace with that(in Sonic Heroes) but then has to face the past he lost; both mentally, as the amnesia wears off, and physically, as the results of previous events(some he never knew about to begin with) start unfolding around him.
Kat from Gravity Rush is like that. The sequel tries to make her go through long extensive flashback gameplay moments and she’s like “that was a weird dream, anyway back to what I was already doing.” With zero reflection. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen media do with someone with amnesia. Kat is a airhead with a good addatude.
Shadow the hedgehog’s plot should have just been a Team Dark Game with eggman and the gun commander gaslighting him.
@@infiniteoctopaw I kinda like how the Black Arms and GUN Commander slot in though; someone who's come to collect a debt only Shadow can pay off on one side, and a fellow survivor who blames Shadow(and knows more about his past than Shadow ever did) even while leading the force that actually carried out the massacre on the other. Eggman in the middle trying to gaslight Shadow back under his control is a fun kind of messed up though; arguably one of his more evil schemes when you think about it.
I love it how they keep a planet destroying massive thing casually floating by which seems to be too easily broken into and humans are just fine with it
I love watching Choc go through the five stages of grief every time he plays a Sonic game.
The SnapCube fandub is ingrained in my mind, so learning the real lines is very odd
Average SnapCube fan experience:
HEEY SHADOOOOOW
@@CronicasDeGisthia "It's meeee, the Devilllll"
@@samuelbutton7185I LOVE YOUUUUU
Ye, I kept on thinking about Sin points.
Hot take: I wouldn’t have an issue with Shadow using a gun if it wasn’t so illogical. There’s nothing inherently “edgy” about using a weapon in fights but, well, he’s already *much* faster than any bullet. The only thing wrong with him using guns is that literally would be better off fighting unarmed and his amnesia just made him forget that.
Maybe the supposed edginess comes from how he’s using a lethal weapon as a handicap? 🤷♂️
the edginess comes from him being a f**king sonic character with a gun.
@@DissedRedEngieDoes that mean Eggman isn't a sonic character?
@@BrunodeSouzaLino I got it! The problem is that they waited until he wasn’t antagonist to have him use a gun! The edginess of acting like a villain in a game where the player can make him a villain protagonist or make him a hero must be the problem.
For the record I don’t even know to what extent I’m joking. 😅
@@DissedRedEngie Eggman is seen wielding a gun a lot of times, including the recent comic series. So your statement implies that Eggman is not a Sonic character and is from goddamn DMC or something
Supposedly the director of Shadow the Hedgehog got the idea of guns for him because he played Jak 2 after Sonic heroes. Which sadly makes a lot of sense.
Idk, I could see Shadow Generations being a potential lead in for remake of this. If SonicxShadow Generations is Sonic Generations + a shorter Shadow Campaign AND the levels from this game using Shadows moveset from the Generations campaign, that is well worth its price. With the revelation that the Chaos Emeralds aren't from Earth, it makes a lot more sense that an alien plan revolves around them.
Shit, I didn't even think about that. I'd practically purged Black Doom and his shit from my memory
You know you may be onto something.
>All 10 endings.
So you only completed 1/30th of the game?
1/36.2 to be accurate.
1/32.6
Can you explain it how for me 😭😭
@@Dualsynergy The game tracks every single route you took. And I do mean EVERY, SINGLE, ROUTE.
So for true 100% completion you'd have to get many of the multiple endings multiple times, not just the 10 ingame runs that let you experience each ending once and unlock the Last Story.
The most insane part is they took the time to name EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM with unique names. Like, bruh, they could do that with the game's route names but not the dialogue???
@@extremmefan7305 damn that's some crazy dedication from Sega
1:33:40 He has Heterochromia, that's all. Although interestingly, his eyes are the colours of Shadow's and Sonic's trail effects.
As someone who completed this game in his childhood, I honestly feel like the best thing about this game is the lore it adds. Shadow's origins are rather interesting, and confirming that this Shadow is the original is a relief, ever since the mystery was placed during Sonic Heroes.
The only other thing I can praise the game for is the alignment system, as a concept. It could have been done better, particularly without having to repeat bosses, cut scenes, or reusing so many assets in general. But having a goal to work toward in the form of multiple endings is a good motivator. Other than that, the game is clunky at best, and frustrating at worst.
Fun fact: when you are in chaos control or chaos blast mode, projectile weapons have unlimited ammo for a limited time.
Cool.
_Now do the other 316 paths._
This is gonna be a marathon to enjoy, also, Jehtt absolutely nailed the voice acting
Technically you could read Eggman's dialogue there as him lying to push Shadow to fight harder...but yeah it's probably true.
I just finished watching a reaction video to the Shadow the hedgehog fandub by Snapcube and as soon exit the video I see this was posted an hour ago. Talk about perfect timing lmao
1:16:50 most class rooms have projectors linked up to the teachers computer, so nowadays they just pull the movie up on UA-cam, but every now and again they wheel out those tvs, usually the same one the school's had since the 80s
Using this video to kill 2 1/2 of the hours left to go until FF7 Rebirth is out is such an easy decision that it is like taking candy from a baby which is fine by me.
Dumbass gonna crash into the ark with that kinda attitude.
Lol, shadow saying “love you” to choc on the discord call was so funny! Choctopus lore people, wright this down!!!
I JUST now finished rewarching your Sonic Unleashed playthrough and thought to myself I want to see him play Shadow the Hedgehog so badly... And here it is!!! Right there!
Fun facts: there are 326 possible paths within this game and they each have their own unique name, giving a slight idea of the story for that path. Also, the amount of people that don't know you can just use the d-pad to change the mission your doing instead of opening the pause menu is concerning.
I’ve waited for this FOR SUCH ALONG TIME since you told me about it at the Sonic Expo. Damn do I unironically love this game
📸📷📸📷📸📸
Caught in 4K
@@RaiginAnimatorwhy?
@@JHawk-nw3ui that’s Hot take it’s just a joke don’t worry too much
Choc has a good vector voice
I just imagine when i was playing this game to get to the endings, Shadow has paper notes on each level
"Do Good"
Shadow: :D
"Do the bad thing"
Shadow: >:D
You know you're terminally online when you hear Shadow's first line at 1:24 and immediately thought it was Jehtt...
It actually was Jehtt indeed.
I just love Latinas, Sonic.
MARIA IN BIO
‘Shadow, it’s me, the Devil.’
Edit: Jesus christ, what’s happening in the comments.
“I’m here to convince you to do sin!”
“I’m here to convince you do sin!”
"Come with me, steal candy from BABIES and SMALL BUSINESSES! I'm not talking about Walmart"
"Shadow, he's got a lot of sin points, you're gonna have to catch up smh"
Hi Shadow, It's Me The Devil... I Love You
15:57 so who’s gonna tell bro that he was (and still is) missing out on peak fiction
i can't help but think of an interesting video i saw:
you can have a second player join in and control Sonic or Omega or the other "companions".
THAT youtuber was trying to see how many levels he could finish with the second player doing ALL the objectives!
killing aliens or solders, etc.
it wasn't very many, since the second player can't pick up the Chaos Emeralds, he couldn't even get any of the endings properly!
also, i really loved your silly joke:
"a chicken gun? what the CLUCK?"
SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: FAMILY GAME OF THE YEAR
After the release of the multi-platform Sonic Heroes, everyone questioned what the Sonic series would do next. Would there be a sequel to the new Heroes style? The release of Sonic Adventure 3? Or would it be something really new? Rumors began to circulate when an official Sega poll was put up asking people their first choice of which character in the Sonic franchise they'd like to star in their own game. With choices ranging from the already spun off like Tails and Knuckles, to total nobodies like Espio, the winner of the poll would be none other than Shadow the Hedgehog by a fairly wide margin, the "Ultimate Lifeform" that had stolen enough hearts in Sonic Adventure 2 to be resurrected in Sonic Heroes.
Only a few weeks after the poll results were revealed, it was announced that Sonic the Hedgehog would be an inaugural inductee into the Walk of Game, a monument in San Francisco designed to honor icons of video gaming, both the characters and the minds behind them. In an explosion of marketing synergy, Sega thought it the perfect time to unveil the trailer for the next installment in the Sonic series. The trailer came in two parts: the first being a celebratory montage of all things Sonic over the previous fourteen years.
The second part of the trailer would show off the latest title by Sonic Team...and it was introduced with a hail of bullets punching through the footage of Sonic's history.
This was the world's first ever look at Shadow the Hedgehog, and for many of the Sonic faithful, it was the perfect herald of The Troubles.
Now, Sonic Team USA, having renamed themselves Sega Studios USA after the completion of the absolute trial that was Heroes, were not so foolish as to begin development of a game based solely on an official poll. In fact, the poll was made simply to gauge potential fan reaction for the unveiling. Honestly, something like Shadow the Hedgehog had been gestating ever since Sonic Adventure 2, where Takashi Iizuka had come up with a plethora of angles to tackle using the character during development, and he hadn't managed to use them all to his liking. After wrapping up production of Sonic Heroes, Iizuka had become a bit bored with how the previous titles has been aimed at a younger audience, and was wanting to appeal to an older demographic, and attract those who might not otherwise play a Sonic title. With an older demo in mind, he was also wanting to capitalize on the story elements of the previous games, putting a focus on the mysterious nature of Shadow and his origins, answering the many burning questions fans had been asking over the previous two games.
The fact that he was wanting to appeal to an older demographic with what was still at heart a children's cartoon mascot never seemed to merit any closer examination from SEGA leadership at the time, especially when he started having the staff watch films like Underworld, Constantine and Terminator for tonal guidance.
With the tone for their anti-hero cartoon mascot decided thanks to, of all things, Constantine, the team then began to add other much-requested features to the game such as the ability to ride vehicles and the use of weapons, which was given real emphasis to make Shadow the Hedgehog stand apart from the Sonic franchise before it. Though shooting mechanics had been implemented in the two Adventure titles, the team wanted to challenge themselves to include it as a core mechanic this time, creating a 'gun action' game that focused on both speed and shooting at the same time. Since Shadow was the only remotely-appropriate character to do this with (Omega didn't count as he had guns for arms instead of needing to pick them up), production was able to get fully underway quite quickly after Heroes wrapped up.
Another element the team worked hard to put in the game was the use of branching pathways within the story. The concept had originally been meant to feature in Sonic Adventure 2, but a lack of time and resources had shelved it. Taking the Hero/Dark dichotomy from Adventure 2 and running with it for what they hoped was a touchdown, even the game's tagline ("Hero or villain? You decide.") advertised how each playthrough of the game would theoretically be a wholly unique experience. Though only playing through six levels in any path, with 22 total available, this meant 326 different ways a player could complete the game.
The game initially received a "T" rating from the ESRB. Sega even tried to play up the higher age rating, asking those at trade shows and events where the game was being demoed to only play if they were 13 and up. However, many SoA marketing execs worried that a T rating would lose them a large chunk of Sonic's customer base that bought titles exclusively for kids, and Sonic had been heavily associated with that branding. As luck would have it though, during the game's production, the ESRB decided to update their rating system after years of complaints, adding an "E10+" rating to be slotted in between "E" and "T." With maximized dollar signs in sight now, the Western translation gunned for the rating, haphazardly removing some of the mild swearing and leaving the rest. The blood was also sucked straight out of all G.U.N troops, and then tinted green for the Black Doom armada. This purposeful censorship managed to land the game right into the ten-and-up designation, leading to high fives all around the Sega offices.
Which was strange, because the whole point of the game was to court a more mature audience, wasn't it?
Multiple vocal tracks were composed for the game, with each meant to be played for a specific path through the game. However, not all the tracks made for the game actually ended up in it. Despite strenuous protests, Jun Senoue, the lead composer of the game, lost out on two songs he had his heart set on. The first was a track titled "Who I Am," written by the band Magna-Fi, that was forced out due to copyright and licensing issues.
The second song, however, was lost for a sadder reason. "Broken," a song previously released by the band Sins of a Divine Mother, was the other track that Jun wanted in the game, specifically as the Neutral-Hero theme. All the band members were in agreement except the singer, Wylie B. They couldn't track him down to get his permission to use it. Unable to discuss the licensing of the song, it was dropped, instead creating a new song "Chosen One", written and performed by the band A2 (which actually featured quite a few members from Sins of a Divine Mother).
Despite all the risks taken by Sonic Team to make a darker, more mature tale to attract older audiences, their effort proved laughably ineffectual, as the released product was thoroughly trashed by critics and snubbed by the very demographic they were chasing. Although it still managed to sell reasonably well despite the drubbing, this effectively killed its potential in the eyes of SEGA to become a companion franchise to Sonic. Though criticism at the time has paled in comparison to what the passage of time wrought, as many fans and critics alike have cited the game as a Happy Days style "jump the shark" moment for the Sonic series.
Now, a whole heaping helping of criticism for the game stemmed from what many felt was an unearned sense of maturity and the unwelcome addition of guns. To quote one critic, Game Informer's Matt Helgeson "not only is this new 'adult' interpretation of Sonic painfully dumb, it’s also ill-advised and almost feels like a betrayal to longtime fans." Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell felt similarly, stating that "the game's other selling point - its darker edge - is not really meant for us."
Though, not everyone had it out for Sonic's own Vegeta spinoff. In fact, Nintendo Power's Steve Thomason rated the game an 8.0 out of 10, stating that a darker take on Sonic's universe "succeeds for the most part, giving the series a bit of an edge without going overboard on violence."
(Hilariously, this kind review would be retracted with prejudice in the last issue of Nintendo Power, with Thomason not only stating that this rating was his worst mistake in the magazine, but that the game itself was an "abomination".)
What was an even bigger target for criticism in Shadow The Hedgehog, more than the gunplay or scattershot tone issues, was the controls. What many found especially egregious was Shadow's homing attack, as it caused many unexpected and cheap deaths. Game Informer's Matt Helgeson complained that the attack "frequently sends you careening off into nothingness, resulting in cheap death after cheap death." This was a sentiment echoed countless ways by Nintendo Power, X-Play, Eurogamer, Official Xbox Magazine, and GameSpy, among others. While the homing attack took the brunt of criticism, other mechanics were not spared, as seen in Greg Mueller of GameSpot's complaint that the guns were nearly useless because of a lack of an aiming ability. IGN staff writer Matt Casamassina, 1UP.com staff writer Greg Sewart, Game Informer, X-Play, GameSpy, and London's The Times also criticized the mechanics of Shadow's weapons and vehicles, and other aspects of the game's controls.
Of course, even this mixed-to-negative reception didn't stop the game from gaining the coveted status of "Best Game of 2006" by the Official Jetix Magazine Reader Awards. It even received a nomination for a Golden Joystick Award as 2006's "Family Game of the Year" on the website of British newspaper "The Sun".
TLDR i like bread
I thought this was a UA-cam comment, not a Wikipedia article
Wow that’s a lot of words.
Mans wrote an entire college-graded essay 💀💀
I aint reading allat
“Why did they include tripping?”
It was reactionary, as I understand they weren’t overly keen on the hyper competitive scene that formed around Melee so they hard wired in an inherent degree of randomness to the games most prolific component - movement.
Shadow is not a bad character, he's misunderstood, and that's why they call him an "edgelord"
Fun fact, Shadow the Hedgehog and Pokemon Gales of Darkness released at the same day
shadow…
it’s ME
THE DEVIL
There it is
I'm here to convince ya to do SIN!
Come with me! Steal candy from babies and small businesses! I'm not talkin about walmart
*"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the Charmy."*
This comment thread just keeps getting better and better
from the BIBLE
Chocto. Pal. It’s okay, to admit being a Sonic channel.
I hope that Shadow does get to use guns in the movie and Generations, he did in Lego Dimensions after all
I'm really excited for the movie.
On the topic of Shadow in the movie, back when Sonic 2 came out, one of the writers, Pat Casey, spoke about how they were hoping to approach writing for Shadow. The example they gave was that Sonic would see Shadow and think 'Well I'll just do the whole power-of-friendship thing I did with Knuckles and that'll win him over' but that wouldn't work. Shadow is too damaged and motivated by revenge to fall for that sort of thing. And that's what will make Shadow distinctly different to Knuckles as the antagonist.
I swear when I saw the thumbnail I immediately remembered Jehtt’s videos. Imagine my surprise when I saw the intro. Keep up the good work man and thanks for a Shadow the Hedgehog let’s play 🔥🔥🔥
17:03 It's funny how when you're younger, Charmy is like an annoying younger sibling, but since Choc is older Charmy's random comments are more akin to an endearing nephew...
Vernias.
There is nothing more relaxing and entertaining to watch at night than a 2+ hour stream keep up the fantastic content brother
This game is unironically one of my favorites in the series.
Yall want to play a drinking game? Take a shot every time he references dragon ball or SpongeBob 😂
Trying to kill someone?
I never said alcohol was involved. 😂 that said, you and king of skill should have a gaming session. See who can make reach over 9000 nautical amd nonsensical references first.😂
@@charliecomer6001no, only a gun
Fun fact for those who don't know you can do a ShadAmy path in this game called The Miracle of Love where you do all the Dark mission's until you get to the stage Cryptic Castle and help Amy look for Cream and Cheese which is already obvious from this video that its Amy's hero mission and so once you complete that you can do all of the hero missions afterwards and you get the pure hero ending. Basically it's thanks to Amy Shadow has seen the light and will do good henceforth the Miracle of Love which is really sweet and i love this as a cute ShadAmy path! ❤️🖤
54:58 thank you Choc! I knew I couldn't be the only one that thought the balloons looked like Jack Skellington's head!
4:36 "hey it's me. the devil. f-from the Bible."
I think choctopus is the only person who actually liked Charmy in this games, wtf
Everything about this video is amazing. The editing. The gameplay. The GAME. Shout out to yall for making consistent bangers after bangers after bangers man. You’re still not a SonicTuber, but your Sonic videos are always my favorite. Love ya, and stay safe yall!
"This is like taking candy from a baby. Which is fine by me."
Me: Worst line, ever!
It's both cheesy and unnecessarily edgy. It might be the most perfect encapsulation of both Shadow and the Sonic series writing in general. It's dumb as hell and I love it.
It's a mistranslation, it's actually meant to be shadow saying he is fine with it being easy
@@darylesmith7057 That's not a mistranslation, he's just using a metaphor that means the exact same thing
i guess the line means he doesnt mind it being easy, not literally meaning that taking candy from a baby is fine by him, but the way its worded is just... 😭
It's bad in a way that's funny at least, which applies to a lot of this game's dialogue
If it can at least be enjoyed ironically then I wouldn't say it's the worst it could be
1:06
I’m sorry, did he REALLY just pump an uzi like it was a shotgun? Oh, boy… this already isn’t looking good
Given what we know from The Last Story; there are only a few potential canonical endings for the main story.
A vital thing in The Lasy Story is that Team Chaotix have been gathering data relateing to Shadow and the Black Arms. As such; the canon route must help all three members of Team Chaotix.
conveniently; doing Charmy's mission in Prison Island takes you to Mad Matrix; where Espio's mission is.
Doing Espio's mission will take you to Lost Impact [a flashback level] and doing the neutral mission there [since it's a flashback; what you do dosen't actually matter] will take you to Cosmic Fall; where Vector's mission is [and then you fight Black Doom]. It's entirely possible to do all three Team Chaotix Missions in 1 playthrough.
The only unclear part is which mission from Westopolis is "canon". Dark takes you to Digital Circuit; where you must help Rouge to get to Prison Island. You can do Neutral-Neutral; or do Hero-Dark. This flip flopping makes little sense, so it's likly Neutral-Neutral-Hero-Hero-Neutral-Hero. However, Charmy copies how Shadow enters Mad Matrix in The Last Way to get the computer to work [The Chaotix were there]. So it could be Dark-Hero-Hero-Hero-Neutral-Hero is canon. Perhaps Shadow initially took Black Doom's claim as true [he WAS the only lead Shadow had]; but Rouge snapped him out of it.
Shadow helping the Chaotix even makes sense. His motivation is to find the truth of who he is; and the Chaotix *are a detective agency*.
So that would be either Path 89: "I Am Shadow" or Path 90: "Shining Within Memory..."? Okay.
Edit: My bad, that's Path 92: "Requiem For A Fallen Angel"
@@LiMe251 Yep; it must be one of those.
It's worth noting after every stage 2 there is the president call scene where a cyber-attack is mentioned. This might suggest Digital Circuit... but Shadow would do the Hero mission from here. So the cyber attack could just happen regardless.
Fun fact: The GUN Beetles in this game use MP5s as their weaponry. Just look on the beetle's bottom at 15:15. Oh, and at 2:04:10, the commander updated his audio equipment.
36:29 *THE MOMENT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!!!*
2:02:25 reminds me isn't there a wallpaper cover story where silver blocks the cannon from destroying soleanna, it wasent charge by the emeralds but i think it had to do with the artificial gravity cylinders? on the ark and what ever reserve power Eggman could muster
That shadow impression is super good! Good job Jehtt.
24:21 This reference is a little extra funny when you remember that Choc narrated Rocko's spotlight video for NASB2.
The fact that this game was Rated *E* despite all the deaths and swearing.
This game is rated E10+.
It was planned to be rated teen until the E10 rating came out. On one hand it was gonna be way edgier, but on the other hand they could at least be a bit more creative than just saying "damn"
@@aliasella488 "man, fuck that eggman guy"
@@aliasella488 The arbitrary swearing does not belong in the game anyways. The original japanese does not particularly have more than any other Sonic game, the localization just throught "wow, we really have to push it now! Or else it would never sell well!"(Sega not make horrible choices every 5 minutes challenge, impossible)
The swearing was tame, "deaths" were just characters disappearing off screen, and it had the E10+ rating
Thank you for another entertaining video from my favorite shadow channel!
1:48 Duel of the fates was in episode I. Battle of heroes was in III
2001 baby here
I can confirm that when I was in kindergarten back in 06/07, my teacher did roll out one of those TVs and put on a movie while she took it easy for the day. The entire class would just sit on the floor and watched a random Disney movie
2005 is also the year the G1 Transformers movie, or The Transformers The Movie, takes place in.
I will sometimes just hear “It is the year 2005”in my head because of the way the narrator says it; I don’t technically have an inner monologue,at least not in the way that’s like talking…but in your head, although I can still think about stuff I’ve heard (I also can’t control it sometimes) so I’ll just randomly hear stuff…mostly music .
Nothing happened in autobot city in 2005
Choc talking about the different endings is so bizarre, he's like "these different story endings are all the same, the only part of the story endings that's different is the story" wow it's almost as if that's the point /lh
Fun fact: On the gamecube version of this if you plug a second controller in, you can actually control your alley who follows you and make them attack stuff. (Everyone except Black Doom's eye and Dr. Eggman robot). Of course, they can only go as far as Shadow is on the screen but still neat. Unofficial two-player. :)
Same for PS2, it was only missing on Xbox.
16:35 I believe what you meant was “it’s hilarious how in one ear you have the devil and in the other you have Black Doom”
All the voice actors being the same ones from Sonic X means every time I hear Knuckles I hear a bit of Yugi (Dan Green) 😅
EDITS: The President is also Yugi's Grandpa (Maddie Blaustien)
And Mike Pollock was Prof. Bonaparte in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, and Jason Griffith was some tennis dude in GX as well as Atticus Rhodes (I had to throw them in as well) Marc Thompson (GUN commander) voiced many characters in Yu-Gi-Oh, notably Duke Devlin in DM and Chazz Princeton in GX.
It will never not be cursed that Yugi, Knuckles and Mephiles were all voiced by the same dude. In addition to Sonic and Shadow with Atticus(And by extension Nightshroud because...ya know).
Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh, do you also know that Chip and Chazz has the same Voice Actor? Atticus and Chazz (Tony Salerno) were an awesome duo in Sonic Unleashed 😆
@@cliffturbo2146 nah fr when I saw that I flipped
I was blown away when I found out that Black Doom was voiced by Sean Schemmel, he didn't need a voice modifier to alter his voice at all. Just gave him an ethereal-sounding voice.
My favorite thing to think about that if Shadow was trully amnesiatic, he would have little to no social memories. That plus the fact that he was raised on the ARK, implies that when he saw the red storms clouds roll in, and the aliens fly in, he could have thought "huh. so I guess that's normal weather for Earth... and the humans still aren't used to it, pathetic"
Choc, you're not beating the "Sonic Channel" allegations 😂
36:31 this is gonna get taken out of context on Twitter, Shadow. Be careful.
Children a decade from now: What the hell is Twitter?
@@GoodNeutralEvilChaos oh stars please no we're all gonna feel like boomers
"Back in my day it was against the app store's rules to have a single digit app name"
@Pearl_Blossom still baffling that Musk was kicked from another company's board of directors for trying to name it X(I think it was Paypal?) and then, not taking bring yeeted from the company as an indication of how dumb the idea is, tried it again.
And people think he's smart because he bought a successful company and had an excellent PR run...
" *Look! Look! It's a war zone!* " *- Charmy Bee, 2005, Prison Island.*
My favorite thing about the neutral ending is that the game begins with an alien invasion, introduces characters like GUN Commander and Black Doom, and then ignires them entirely to fight eggman who, at this point, has really just been mindibg his own business conosratovely speaking
I love that you got Jehtt to do that shadow bit, that was so good
Fun fact: In every single path... Shadow ends up collecting the Chaos Emeralds and says "Finally. I've got all the Chaos Emeralds!" ....