Sonicoman tells us not to jump the gun on Shadow the Hedgehog.

Indeed, the newbies are very good at lucky guesses. In fact, I think I lost a few bucks because of this title being announced. Who could have known? The official Sonic Adventure 3: Shadow the Hedgehog featuring live ammo and weaponry. When I first saw this 2 days ago I thought it was an extremely early April Fools joke. Nay, it is true, and I was taken back in a shock that was last seen at the Zelda showing at last year’s E3. Did I curse Sonic Team to the gates of firey hell? Did I try to commit suicide? No. My good sirs, I was ecstatic!

I am not a Shadow fanboy. Infact, I do not consider myself a fan of Shadow all that much. I like him as a character, he had a lot of charm in SA2 and all in all I like the cut of his jib. Sonic Adventure 2 openede us to a side character determined not to go down in history as just another annoying add on. Frankly though, the odds have been stacked against him ever since. As I mentioned in my last article, Shadow sacrificed himself and left his story on a clean and impervious slate. However, when he was brought back for Sonic Heroes and given little reason as too why or how, a lot of the charm that he brought to the Sonic series was destroyed and humiliated. He was brought back from the dead with no memory, no reason to live, no friends, no enemies. He was just there, and frankly it was a real slap in the face. This brought about a number of Shadow haters and put a lot of the series downfalls to blame on his burdened shoulders. Sonic Team was ruining his character and it was unfair. To quote Shadow himself “The creators will never know the pain of their creations”.

And so, with all of this placed on our 4 foot tall confused masochist he did what any other pissed gaming mascot has done in the past (Conker’s Bad Fur Day come to mind?). Shadow went postal.

Shadow the Hedgehog, as the game currently dubbed, features a mixture of Sonic style speed and platforming with Rachet and Clank inspired 3rd person shooting (Making Shadow the second character in Sonic history to use a gun, remember Nack?). If you haven’t seen the trailer yet you wont realize how well this actually seems to pull off. The game shows that Shadow is off on a quest to find his past (levels show signs of Shadow appearances like the Ark, GUN boxes on prison Island, and possibly the echidna dynasty where Emerl was found). His game poises itself to ask the ever bugging questions that weve all been wondering, including the one all Sonic fans have been asking for a few years now “Why aren’t I dead yet?”

This seems to be the best opportunity for shadow to regain the fandom that was once rightfully his. He once had a bunch of people with him, now hes been reduced to a minority or very scary newbs. Now, he stands to bring in new comers and give a hilarious twist to a tried and true formula. Infact, I already know of about 3 people who are now saving up money to buy a GameCube this year strictly because of this title. These are people who aren’t big on the mascot titles at all. I figured this would have the same effect on the rest of the classic gamers from the 90s, but when I read Dreadknux’s article, I was almost as surprised as I was when I heard about the title. It seems he was not only outraged but actually wished it to become just another spin-off failure. Is this fair? Are we to be angry because for once they were right? Are we to hate Sonic Team for trying something new? No. This is not the case.

I don’t blame Dredknux for being so defensive. When SonicTeam was merged back into an internal development team thanks to Sammy’s reintegration we knew that this new game was as important to SEGA and the Revolution was for Nintendo. With the entire SEGA company working on its mascot title as a whole, we knew that the next Sonic game was to be a great one. It had to be, otherwise we knew that the series downfall was not SonicTeam’s fault and that the series was truly gone from us. And so, with Shadow the Hedgehog, I think they got it right.

It’s not a Sonic game no and it wont affect the rest of the series mind you, but it has its platforming influence with an innovative difference. In a sense, hasn’t every Sonic game done that from the start? Sonic 2 brought us the spindash, Sonic 3 allowed co-operative gameplay with a fully controllable Tails and shield abilities, Sonic 3D allowed for a isometric view and a bigger emphasis on exploration, Triple Trouble gave us vehicles and a villain with a gun (GASP oh no!!! *sarcasm*), Sonic Adventure gave us an rpg element, SA2 gave us kick ass multiplayer, and Sonic Heroes brought back the running elements with a team system. That’s just some the flexibility the Sonic series has brought itself. Notice how only the things that worked were carried over.

When you think about it, Shadow the Hedgehog is what I like to call a ‘Spinball’ game. This spin off with a mixture of old and new elements is only coming round once and is sure to be a great if we gave it a chance. I remember playing Sonic Spinball for hours on end, and I enjoyed what it brought to the table. Was it a great game? No. Will we see another? No. Was it fun? Hell yes.

As I mentioned in my last article, “The Downfall of Sonic fandom (and back again)” I spoke on this before. We ask for something that couldn’t possibly happen and SonicTeam delivers. They like to surprise us that way. With Sonic X getting a new season, the new gaming surprises to come this year, and SEGA actually BUYING other companies rather than the vice versa, SonicTeam wants to right its past wrongs, which could be where the Shadow game gets its theme from. They are attempting to breath life back into the character we once all loved and apologize for screwing around with characters for the sake of demographic balance.

Apology Accepted.

I feel its high time we stopped worrying about the problems of what might happen and start being grateful for what’s to come. This could very well be Shadows last outing, lets not shun it while its in its late beta stages. I mean, it was only announced three days ago and already its torn the community apart. Stand tall Sega fans. I feel this is one of the greatest ideas they’ve had in years, and as ironic as it sounds, we owe this in part to Sammy studios. I turn towards all those who feared and hated the merger and laugh loudly and proudly. This was nothing but good news and the further we go along the further we realize it. As a third party developer, SEGA is making itself known as a big name again. Instantly it sprung up out of the red bankrupt tomb of which it was left to expire 4 years ago.

So lets not shoot down the gun toting rodent before we even play it. Give it a chance at E3 and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. Now lets all get back to asking the real question: Why isn’t Chris dead yet? ^^;