During 1996 development of Sonic X-Treme had shifted platforms from the prototype NVIDIA based cartridge system to the Saturn. At this particular time multiple characters were considered as a possibility, and while a storyline was yet to be devised that would incorporate these characters into the game, Christian Senn had a clear vision in his mind for the way in which these characters were to be played.

In total four playable characters were planned (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Tiara), with management insisting that an effort be made to tie the game in with other Sonic franchises such as the SatAM cartoon series. Senn had hoped that each character would have a style of play unique to they’re own abilities, and a unique perspective from which that player would view the action:

“I made the Knuckles Demo exclusive to Knuckles, the Sonic one for Sonic, etc. The idea was to explore not only the technical and gameplay pros and cons of these game concepts, but to consider making them unique to each character’s strengths, etc. This whole concept was very short-lived, though… Tiara’s side-view test was done around the same time, as well… Initially, management hoped we’d incorporate characters from the Saturday Morning Cartoon show (i.e. Sally Acorn, etc.).”

Unfortunately as the project progressed it was clear time would not allow for the use of more than one playable character, and so the idea was scrapped:

“In the end, and for the majority of the project, the decision was to stick to the minimum that would allow us to make a great Sonic game… which meant only Sonic as playable.”

Knuckles Sprite Sheet:

These sprites were modelled and animated using Imagine 3.0. If the Knuckles test demo was allowed to continue then Senn would have developed more complex environments with which to make use of them:

“We’d planned for Knuckles to be a playable character early on. I modeled and animated him in Imagine 3.0 to create these run frames to suit the different angles running through loops and corkscrews would require.”

Knuckles Demo:

The Knuckles demo was devised to explore how his character would play in two different environments. The top left demo show Knuckles in an environment with a rotating camera, while the bottom right does not. Had the concept for multiple characters been allowed to continue, then Senn would have developed environments that made use of Knuckles and his unique abilities.

Sonic and Tiara Demos:

Tiara’s demo is an example of how multiple characters could be played from a unique perspective, and how that perspective would effect the gameplay.

This Sonic demo was devised to explore the effects on Sonic’s shadow and camera issues within a rotating environment.

NB: Article written by Kieran Butcher, proof-read by Christian Senn.

Prologue:

By 1996 the Sonic X-Treme project was severely behind schedule, and time had taken its toll on the members of SEGA Technical Institute (STI). After two years of development the team had little solid production to show, after experiencing key personnel differences, three platform shifts and internal politics. Much of those two years had been spent on the development of Sonic X-Treme’s game editor, created by Ofer Alon. Alon had a vision, he wanted to create an engine and editor that would bring to life the videotape demos created early on in the project, but which would also allow a game to be programmed relatively easily, severely slashing production times, and thus recouping the years that had been lost whilst in its development.

Tension was now mounting, increased pressure from SEGA of Japan, and personal prejudice from the games technical director Robert Morgan, were to spell disaster for Alon. Morgan disliked Alon; he withheld a vital development kit that would allow the transition of Alon’s editor from PC to Saturn, while frequently emailing SOJ to inform them of Alon’s poor behaviour. In reality Alon was a hard and dedicated worker, he’d often isolated himself from the other workers in order to focus his effort upon the development of his editor. Concerned only with coding he’d often neglect others when they required his assistance, and on some occasions he’d work from home just to avoid office politics, and spend time near his family. The way in which Alon conducted his work often drew negative attention from management, but Senn vigorously defended Alon’s position:

“Keep in mind that I had been extremely loyal to Ofer since he’d first arrived. I knew he was extremely talented and respected his abilities. I found myself protecting him many times throughout the course of development out of loyalty and respect for him. Management in particular viewed him as a maverick, not communicating or “playing well” with others, etc. They couldn’t control him and he wouldn’t play politics, nor did he choose to spend time managing other programmers – he spent his time coding… ALL day and ALL night.”

It was these circumstances that lead to Alon\’s removal from the project. Both he and Senn had been ‘Summoned’ to Roger Hector’s (CEO of Sega of America) office. Unable to gauge the reaction his news would provoke from either of the two Hector had a security guard station outside. It was only when the pair had entered that Hector and Morgan decided to voice their concerns over the current development of the project. Morgan also revealed that he had contracted outside help from the then recently established game studio ‘Point of View’ (POV), to which he had co-founded. POV was to handle all of the projects technical development, and that meant Alon was no longer required.

Maintaining their cool, Alon and Senn accompanied Hector, Morgan and the executive producer Manny Granillo to Morgan’s office. Here they demonstrated POV’s work that had helped convince management to choose this course of action. What Alon and Senn witnessed shocked them, for what they saw was rudimentary at best, making it extremely difficult to understand why anyone would scrap the project\’s current course in favour of the POV technical demo. Granillo, sensing their surprise, stated, “See… we’re on a mission,” to which Alon remarked, “have a nice trip.” as he and Senn left the room.

From this point on Senn separated himself from the rest of the team, he began working alongside Alon to produce their own variation of the game. The humiliation and betrayal suffered, not only by Alon, but also by Senn (who believed so strongly in Alon and his abilities), gave the duo the fiery motivation they needed to work quickly and efficiently. Senn reflects on this issue:

“To witness such blatant disrespect and destructive behavior not only by the TD but by management siding and encouraging that behavior, lost my respect for them. Ofer and I discussed this whole charade and decided to blow their socks off with our own version. We were going to come back stronger than before. This treatment fueled our resolve to return with a vengeance!”

It was only when Senn and Alon learnt that that Irimajiri Shoichiro (president of SEGA Enterprises) was to visit STI, to view the current development on the other X-Treme project, that they decided to use the visit as an opportunity to showcase their own version. Alon worked hard to make sure his editor would be complete on time, but when the day of Irimajiri’s visit finally came, Alon was insistent on working out a few minor bugs that were still present. Fearing they may miss the games chance at redemption, Senn took what other materials they had and dashed to meet Shoichiro. By the time Senn arrived at the presentation room he found the Japanese president, fuming with rage at the apparent lack of work which had been attempted on the other project. Unable to approach him in his current state, Senn decided to wait until a time when he had enough courage to inform Shoichiro that he and Alon had been working on an alternative. Unfortunately by the time Senn had found the strength within, and Alon had arrived, Shoichiro had already left the building.

Faced with the knowledge they would never get another chance to present the game to SEGA’s Japanese division, Senn and Alon had only one other option. The two of them continued to work upon the game and build a presentation in order to pitch the concept to SEGA’s PC division ‘SEGA Soft’.

“Our objective was to present our work and convince the PC division to fund production of Sonic Xtreme for the PC. Ofer created a test world and I designed and created four worlds. Our presentation went well, but the PC group decided not to fund Xtreme. Meanwhile, STI had set up Project Condor with a handful of people moved to another building to work in isolation. This ultimately failed as well and Mike Wallis had to pull the plug. And so ended three years of extremely extreme difficulties!!!”

NB: Article written by Kieran Butcher, proof-read by Christian Senn.

Senn took four weeks to prepare the demos for SEGA executives and Sonic Team. This was one of many hurdles that could make or break the project; if the demo didn’t manage to impress the executives then it would have been terminated, and if it did impress, then it would mark the start of a long and arduous journey.

Understandably Senn didn’t sleep much during the four week development, but it was the inspiration provided by Michael Kosaka’s original game design and the music track ‘Stardust Speedway-bad future’ (from the Sonic the Hedgehog CD soundtrack) that gave him the creative energy to complete his task. In fact Senn was so inspired by the music that he decided to include it in both of the test demos.

Senn produced both demos on his Amiga 3000 using Imagine 3.0 and DeluxePaint Animator. The demos weren’t playable, both were merely pre-rendered animations.

At this particular time Sonic had never appeared in a truly 3D game before, and the game’s ‘pitch’ was based on this premise. Senn set out to create a game that would have a visual appeal, a wow factor. In Senn’s own words:

“The intended audience… wanted to see something that would take Sonic someplace new… they wanted dollar signs in their eyes. It was supposed to be playful, fun and colorful. Granted, all the 3D was flat-shaded and didn’t/doesn’t look that impressive, but I think the cleanliness and colors keep it charming in a simple way. Overall, it still shows some basics of Sonic moving around in 3D… The assumption was that if we could visualize the slower, more tedious gameplay, we could definitely have fast sections that went by in a blur…”

Demo 1:

Senn created this demo in two halves. The first half was the animation of the level itself. Later he overlaid the HUD, for which every ring and second that past was manually animated.

“I’d already designed some enemies… and went ahead and modeled those in 3D using an Amiga 3000 and the software Imagine 3.0. I’d already modeled Sonic for use in a demo prior to this one (a bonus round design concept of Michael Kosaka’s). The entire rendered scene was blocked out so it had a small view rectangle so that the rest of the space would be filled in with a HUD I’d design/draw later. I designed a simple 3D playground and planned a route for Sonic to run, coming up with environmental hazards (like the spike plate, the pumping platform, etc.) along the way. I had to tweak Sonic’s orientation each frame, too. (oy) Since I was working with 8-bit (256 colors), I needed to have the 3D images from the Imagine renders to mesh with the 2D HUD I created in DeluxePaint Animator… so I limited the color output of the renders to something like 192… and used the remaining 64 or so colors to draw the HUD. Then I manually updated each frame of the HUD to match what was going on in the game window. I even updated the ring counter graphic and number every time Sonic ran over a ring!”

Demo 2:

The second demo was designed to demonstrate some faster gameplay which had be absent in the first.

Senn’s plan for the geometry of Sonic, the enemies and the background was to work with as few polygons as possible. This would serve as a basic technical test to analyze whether the eventual game could even be done on the target platform (32X). Following the 3D rendering process, Senn went over the demos touching up Sonic’s low-polygon model using DeluxePaint Animator. In this demo the camera zooms in for a close up of Sonic at the end, and DeluxePaint Animator was used to touch him up.

“…You’ll see the detail ‘rez in’… and that’s me cheating with 2D! The Sonic model stinks… but it’s probably the most efficient use of polygons you’ll ever see, baby! lol (that’s me impersonating modesty) …I built 3D models like I did 2D graphics, as efficiently as possible (learned that from some of the most amazing 2D artists at Cinemaware)… and for this demo, the fewer the overall polys, the faster I could work with the wireframes – and faster to render the flat-shaded output. BTW, another reason for the flat-shaded final output choice was to keep the look clean. Knowing that I would need to work with 256 colors, and knowing that the HUD was the only element I could control exactly how many colors and how they were used… I chose to not have shadows or shading. Honestly I think it reads better without them.”

Conclusion:

Both demos helped gain support by management to continue development of the project. But, Senn and the team had planned to use these demos not only for presentation outside the team, but to discuss within the team potential benefits and problems in their game plan.

“Ultimately, these demos were simply exploring what could be done… and the result would inevitably be riddled with all sorts of problems – obvious or not – to discuss when attempting to make the actual game. The first 3D Sonic game wasn’t magically going to fly out of someone’s butt… it was going to take lots of discussions, testing, etc. – and one of the most beneficial forms of exploring the game was to visualize it. From that point, true ‘development’ of the concept began…”

Practically everything was unknown about Sonic X-Treme. How it felt to play, what the levels were, how many bosses, the story… When information was revealed about a female character, people wondered whether she was going to replace Amy Rose, and if she’d be the timid ‘damsel in distress’ type.

Chris Senn, co-lead Designer and Art Director, has revealed concept artwork of Tiara Boobowski. Tiara is a Manx kitten, according to Senn. The concept was going to be a bandicoot, but the resemblance beared more of a Manx.

The character of Tiara was not going to be the helpless girly type, but rather someone more of a match for Sonic. “I didn’t steer towards or away anything other than what seemed to work right as a character I could see Sonic interacting with… she needed to be spunky, and match Sonic’s “tude.” I think the final sketch design of her captures that (at least for me).”

“Michael Kosaka wanted her to have this type of character, so we went in that direction. You’re right in that the “damsel in distress” was not what we were looking for and I think that exemplifies some of the (at least then) cultural differences between the Japanese and American markets.” If we’re going to be talking about cultural ideas as well, Tiara’s ‘well rounded’ figure not only is quite a link to the definition and traits of a real life Manx cat (long hind legs, raised rump and large chest) but also perhaps a (probably unconscious) decision to exercise some ‘girl power’ within the series with the ‘X-Treme’ (sorry!) feminity of the character.

“Personally, I still like the idea of Sonic meeting his “match”… and seeing that involvement evolve through experiences together. Unfortunately, the back story that would support gameplay like this was never really a part of Sonic Xtreme. The storylines we had all pretty much focused on supporting the worlds and basic plot premise between good and evil… but didn’t delve into the involvement of the characters with each other as much as we could have. To make it a deeper, more rewarding game, I think this should take place…”

Not only did Tiara have a matching attitude, she had matching gameplay too. Concept images were made showcasing how Tiara would look if played in the game. This shows that Tiara was under consideration as a playable character instead of a simple storyline piece, but as the project progressed Tiara was removed as a playable character due to time constraints. Click on the thumbnail to see an entire animation of Tiara running through the level, it also displays a lot of the 3D level manipulation that had been designed for the game.

As for Tiara’s occupation and background story, that’s still not been fully revealed to date. We know she is the daughter of a Gazebo Boobowski, who is a revered Professor living in the Castle of Light. An official ‘myspace’ account was created to reveal more on Tiara’s character, which can be accessed here. On this profile it states Tiara is a “Princess”. Which would make sense given her father’s abode and her name – Sonic characters are usually named in relation to their abilities or status. In fact, certain blogs being posted on Tiara’s myspace even appear to reveal certain plotlines to Sonic X-Treme, with references to “climbing the tower” and a recent entry containing the following:

“Breaker says station lost communication with Base Orbit – and I haven’t heard a peep from Dad. I’m worried. He never gets anywhere without contacting me. I’m gonna go run for awhile. Hopefully that will clear my mind a little.”

A blog on January 15th is written as an “Emergency Transmission”, with a broken ‘May Day’ message. Also of equal interest is Tiara’s apparent dislike for Sonic the Hedgehog – her profile mentions ‘arrogant hedgehogs’ as a turn-off, while she openly claims she wouldn’t ask Sonic for water if she was dying of thirst. Pretty bold statement. But is there real dislike there, or is it all a front? Time will tell, when information on the rest of the game is revealed…

Amongst all the mess that was happening with development of Sonic X-Treme itself, there wasn’t a lot of things left for Chris Senn and co to hold on to. SEGA America believed in SEGA Technical Institute and released promotional box artwork to publishers – but it wasn’t quite the box any of the development team had in mind.

“Behind schedule and over-stressed, I found out through the grapevine that the marketing department had chosen box art for our game – without us having ever seen any of it.” recalls Senn, who went out of his way to design and propose an alternative cover (Click image to view full size). “Needless to say, after working so hard and trying to coordinate a team atmosphere, this lack of “departmental coordination” came at the wrong time for me. To top that off, I hated this cover with a passion. Cutesy, poor posing, nothing dramatic, no energy (no fire!).”

So, taking (FUNKEE) action, Chris decided to send a letter to the marketing department with his cover proposal (click the images above to view them in full size). As you can see, the proposal Chris designed is full of character, and would have likely suited the game presentation. Alas, we can only imagine as this becomes another archived pleasantry on the most mysterious Sonic X-Treme.

Well, 2005 has come and soon it will be gone. While it’s been the drag of many Sonic fans to see years pass us by without much to cling onto, 2005 has been a year with a lot of action in it, not just for Sonic but the community. We take a recap of this year, with the highlights of what will make for a bit of an exciting 2006.

#1: SEGA Back on Track
Poor SEGA. After dropping the Dreamcast they became a pale version of their former self, reverting to unappealing ports and massmarket whoring of its IPs. E3 2005 saw a totally different company emerge from recent years. This SEGA had new versions of Afterburner, Outrun, Virtua Fighter, and Sonic running on current and next-gen hardware. And they looked absolutely stunning, dammit! We thought going third party would make them soft forever, but this generation has merely been a recovery stage. We’re about to see the real possibilities of SEGA in this new generation, and Lord knows we’re all very excited.

#2: The Walk of Game
The Walk of Game was a celebratory event congratulating video game stars and creators that had made fantastic achievements in game creation since the inception of the industry. Much like its Hollywood counterpart, the Walk involved immortalising game characters and developers in the floor of Game Fame. Alongside Master Chief, The Legend of Zelda and Hideo Kojima, Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the very first names to be placed onto the floor for all to see. SEGA took this opportunity to announce one of the biggest shocks of the last five years. See #4.

#3: Sonic Rush
Sonic Rush was a huge surprise. Especially considering it wasn’t nearly as hyped by SEGA as it should have been, compared to Shadow the Hedgehog. You’d have thought they’d have put all their marketing efforts on the release that wasn’t a turkey. What’s more, people almost passed this off as yet another Sonic Advance. The problem with the Sonic Advance series were immediately evident, no real level design, run left-to-right and you’re done – with just a hint of bottomless pits and confusing drops where you couldn’t see where you were going. Leaps of faith galore. None of that in Sonic Rush. Well, one or two. But still a vast improvement. And the levels! By George, they’ve finally done something! The classic feature of stage gimmicks return with full force, a tension meter to charge forward whenever you’re in a pickle, and a simple-but-effective storyline seals the deal in making this just about the best damn Sonic game in recent years.

#4: Shadow the Hedgehog
This was one of the biggest shocks of the last couple of years, let alone this year. Not because such a game existed – Takashi Iizuka had been banging on about the possibility of a Shadow game for ages and lord knows lots of fanboys/girls wanted one – but due to the sheer reaction of it. SEGA was probably expecting that in announcing Shadow the Hedgehog, they’d have fulfilled the wishes of all the fans. In actual fact, they had done pretty much the polar opposite. Despite the game not being nearly as bad as the caning it got from the naive print journalists out there, such a game was not necessary. We knew all about Shadow. We knew what he was about – and more importantly, we knew we weren’t going to get a straight answer out of playing this game. Shadow the Hedgehog turned out to be exactly what TSS feared – a cash cow for the black hedgehog’s “mysterious past”. A past that will probably never be revealed in full until SEGA gets every last penny out of a dying rabid fangirl’s hand.

#5: Banging Soundtracks
Call us crazy for putting musical compositions in a list of surprises, but some of the musical accomplishments in the recent Sonic releases have been nothing short of stunning. This year has also been a celebration of past Sonic music – SEGA had an official interview with the original composer of Sonic, Masato Nakamura of Dreams Come True, while Nakamura’s work was homaged in the ‘Video Games Live’ concert that had been touring the USA all Summer. Jun Senoue composes dark tracks for Shadow the Hedgehog – maintaining his excellent flow while cranking out some well-crafted techno during some stages. The big surprise this year came from Sonic Rush, wherein Hideki Naganuma – famed for his excellent audio work in Jet Set Radio – had a dab hand at Sonic composing. And wins. The Sonic Rush soundtrack is one with such groove, feeling and upbeat bounce that hasn’t been really achieved since the Mega Drive era.

#6: Sonic X Gets A New Lease of Life
When Sonic X ended its 52-episode run in Japan, we were to think there would be no more animated blue blur escapades on our screens. Especially considering TV ratings hadn’t been kind to our game hero. When a burst of images arose out of the blue featuring a green character, the world was quite taken aback. Even more surprising was the fact that the ‘Second’ (or third, depending on your viewpoint) series aired in France first, instead of Japan. In fact, Japan kindly waited until China, America and even Australia started their airing before bothering. This second season is darker than the first, with our heroes battling The Metarex, an race intent on removing the face of everyone living. Just about the most shocking thing though – and almost warrants its own bullet point here – is the death of Cosmo in Episode 77. After having a bit of a fling with fox-pimp Tails, you’d have thought she’d have stuck around for a bit.

#7: Yuji Naka Acknowledges BETAs
And here we were thinking he was just being annoying. He simply forgot about them. When being interviewed by GameSpot back in October (check out the SONIC NEWS article for more on that), Yuji Naka was quizzed about hidden aspects of the early Sonic games that dedicated fans had since uncovered. Namely, Hidden Palace Zone on Sonic 2. At first, Naka-san seemed surprised himself that us mere mortals had knowledge of anything of the sort. Then he revealed that – as is a trait with SONICTEAM – a BETA Sonic 2 was stolen at an event back in 1992. If you cast your minds back a few years ago, SONICTEAM lost some pre-release showcase PSO figures to some E3 thievery. The idea behind Hidden Palace was similar to that of Hidden Palace in Sonic & Knuckles, in that it would be a haven for the Chaos Emeralds and would explain Sonic’s origins somewhat. Time constraints prevented that from happening – and a stolen ROM cartridge probably didn’t help. But a pleasing, rare insight into the background and original concepts of the Sonic games from the horse’s mouth itself.

#8: Sonic Websites Grow Up
The Sonic Stadium has done pretty well over the years, but 2005 saw it lead the way to professionalising Sonic Fansites. We took the first steps in bridging the gap between Fansite and Official Source in 2005. We approached SEGA directly and worked on events that has ended up benefitting the Community at large. Acknowledgement from official sources that fansites exist and are there to support the cause has been a growing theme over the past year, with the Australian Center for the Moving Image even dedicating an event to the blue blur, while profiling sites such as TSS and the Green Hill Zone. As has been shown by other Sonic fansites too, professionalism has fast become an important aspect of the larger Sonic websites. The Sonic Community has also become less naive of things on a general level. We truly have grown up.

#9: Sonic’s 15th Anniversary
Even though it’s not due until next year, preperations are already underway, with SEGA chatting to TSS stating that they’re about to hype the event up big-time. Which is no real insider information, considering 15 years is a bit of a landmark, really. Just hearing of the news that Sonic will have been around for a decade and a half makes us all really happy here at TSS, and we have some things planned to make next year a real treat.

#10: New Games
2006 will bring plenty of Sonic goodness with the 15th Anniversary. The two announced headlining titles will hit in the first half of the year. These games look to be the business though, no kidding. Sonic Riders will kick off about February time and seems like it will give a much-needed revival to the Sonic Racing idea. The big title though will no doubt be SONIC the Hedgehog, due on PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 in the Summer. No title has ever made us feel that Sonic’s classic gameplay can be represented in 3D better than in Sonic Next-Gen. The graphics are superb, the speed is amazing, the physics look fine and from what we’ve seen of the stages, it appears a lot more free-roaming. Fingers crossed that Yuji Naka has finally got it right this time, and that they don’t rush this game. They know their heads are in the noose this time, so we’re hopeful for a surprise.

Hello all, it’s ArchangelUK here!

Yes, before you all react with mass horror and possible projectile vomiting this does not mean SW is merging with TSS. I’ve already had one email demanding answers to questions that aren’t there. I am though now, a TSS in-house-article-writer-person-person so every so often I’ll be waxing lyrical (possibly with turtles, undoubtedly with pizza) about this, that and/or the other. In essence I have a lot to talk about and Sonic Wrecks simply isn’t the place to do it. So roll on article one!

Soooo, did you buy Shadow The Hedgehog? Did you win Shadow The Hedgehog? Did you beat Shadow The Hedgehog? Did you take Shadow the Hedgehog out for strolls in the moonlight and tell him you… no don’t answer that one. I did (buy it that is), the GameCube version, as I don’t own the one that breaks down four days after the warranty expires as if by magic; or the X-Suitcase; but that’s another story for another day.

I should point out here that this article may well be a thing that makes you go “MMMmmmmm”. Oh, and contains some spoilers.

I’m not actually going to give the game a score, but I am going to tell you about it. At the time of writing I’ve completed all the game finales, final story and have 41 A Ranks. (Swish!) And all in all I’ve come to a decision: the game is very good for the most part, it was never going to be a bone trembling, sphincter tightening classic but that’s not the point and never was. The aim of Shadow the Hedgehog was to take the series somewhere new just like Sonic Heroes… okay, bad example, but is it though? It’s amazing to think that the critics loved Sonic Heroes, which for the most part was royally panned by the fan base. It got on average roughly 8 out of 10. 80%. That’s not bad for a game that took the fundamental principles of the Sonic series and gave them so frickin’ big a twist Eggman’s moustache nearly fell off. Incredible to think then that Shadow the Hedgehog, which has done the exact same thing in giving us a Sonic style game with a really dark centre, has been universally panned by the critics and been getting in the region of 4’s and 5’s out of 10 – with even fans calling it the ruination of the Sonic series.

Strong words then. So let’s go back; back to the beginning.

CHAOS CONTROL!
Done, and without so much as an emerald.

So who – when they first saw the Shadow trailer and saw he had a gun – thought this was such a bad idea. (Though you can’t tell from this type I’m raising my hand at the moment.) When you first saw the art you may have thought this was ‘pandering to the whims of the fans’ or ‘further diluting the quality of Sonic games’. I did, and I’m supposedly one of the out-and-out Shadow worshipers, so this may surprise you that of all the Sonic Wrecks comics so far (at the time of writing) Sonic and Shadow have appeared in 19 each with Knuckles on 18 and next on Amy on 15. So, yeah I’m real biased against Sonic. The words I’ve just used above I found paraphrased several times in a fair few reviews by people. So I think it’s time I went through everything about this game and the reaction to it…

1. j00 Shadow loverz suck. T3h gunz are ru66i5h.
Yes, terrifying… are you sure your keyboard isn’t broken?

The big drawback for the game was the immediate negative reaction for it, what surprises me if you look at the reviews that have given 2’s and 4’s and that bracket they’re all from Sonic fans who haven’t played it. Giving the reasons mentioned above, oh Sonic Team have ruined everything with this Sonic game, etc. Hold the phone. Sonic game? This is not a Sonic game. Sonic is not a playable character, not even in two-player mode where you get some metal-esque Shadow clones and one Shadow with the campest orange quill highlights known to mankind. Sonic himself says on the first level (regarding guns) “I wouldn’t be caught dead using those things.” That’s the whole point; Shadow doesn’t care about rules, just about getting his way.

So the gameplay sucks because you have no intentions of playing it? Er, okay but isn’t that a little childish? Surely you give a review of a game if you’ve at least played it first? That’s like me saying the Mona Lisa sucks because it’s not hanging in my room and I can’t see it. This is a Shadow game folks; it’s another Hedgehog operating under different rules.

Another whinge I’ve heard is that there doesn’t seem to be a lock-on mechanism for the guns. Well surprise, surprise! Welcome to the joys of realistic game play. This is a great example of someone reviewing a game they’ve played and not reading the manual for it. A pistol, or handgun does not have a lock-on mechanism; this is because in reality bullets don’t ‘magically’ arc around in mid air. The hi-tech weapons, missile launchers and other related things do because they can in real life. The manual clearly states that with the weapons Shadow will aim for you when you fire and are pointing in the correct direction. He has eyes you see – although you will still need to position him so he faces them. This will only occur though if the enemy is in the physical range of the weapon, so DON’T start pointing your uzi at an enemy ahead of you on the periphery and wondering why your bullets aren’t hitting. It’s out of range of the weapon therefore it can’t be hit.

Also remember the guns are an ‘option’, there’s nothing saying you strictly have to use them or the sword weapons – though to be fair getting past some of the steel doors is rather tricky without them – or there’s the debris which incidentally is a great addition. The only ‘weapon’ you ever need to pick up is the blue torch in Cryptic Castle to light the torches. It’s more difficult by far not using a gun but that’s just part of the challenge (should you choose to accept it).

Overall Verdict: Good.
After years of being shot at in Sonic games a character picks one up and fires back… and this annoys you for some self-righteous reason? Guns add a new dynamic to the game play of this game, you’ll never see them again and Sonic will never use them.

2. Graphics
This one swings wildly from one end of the spectrum to another. The levels are lusciously designed as this dark dystopia the world is sinking into with the Black Arms invasion – an interesting counterpoint to Heroes’ cartoon styling and rainbow visuals. However it doesn’t appear quite as polished as Heroes, many have said in the reviews that they look rather DreamCast-ish. I wouldn’t say that, but I would say they are certainly below what I was expecting. A great example of this is the FMV sequences, the ones done specifically by the CG crew are absolutely mind blowing, these are the ones you’ve seen in the trailer and there are blissfully yet more in the game. Some of which you haven’t seen and are even better, others though use the game engine and game characters and these are in the most part shoddy. At least the Sonic Adventure 2 ones looked good reasonable; some of these are Sonic Adventure quality in places.

The secondary characters, your partners for the most part, too look slightly odd in places; Rouge has gone back to her Sonic Adventure 2 outfit for reasons unknown. Incidentally they’ve also made her ears bigger and yes, her enchanted cleavage has also changed once again in size but at least they aren’t tennis balls wrapped in purple rubber this time. Cream’s cameo looks like they’ve used the Sonic Adventure DX version of her when she made her brief flying appearance in that; though the fact you can knock her down onto her ass is rather fun. Amy looks as though someone has been forced to create her against their will and is bitter for not getting to do Shadow, Sonic, Tails or Knuckles. I swear there’s no need for Eggman to have those strange teeth either, and as for Omega… if you have to feel sorry for a character in this, feel sorry for old E-123.

His appearance in the latter stages of the ‘evil’ arcs has seen him go down in the world. Do you remember him in Heroes? A lovely shiny metallic ball of destruction screaming FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Like some crazed whirling dervish of steel alloys? Time hasn’t been kind to his paintwork. Imagine you stripped him of his shininess and then recoloured him more or less exactly as before but with dreary versions of those hues and no metallic effects. That’s what’s happened here. Poor sod.

Overall Verdict: Okay
All in all, the graphics are good, though I am informed they’re a mite better and a little faster on X-Box and Gamecube than PS2, but little things that seem to have been left out due to trying to get the game out on time have really cost it.

3. Gameplay and Speed
Here are the top five most common technical complaints about Shadow the Hedgehog as far as I can tell:

1) “It’s too slow!”
2) “I can’t get to any speed without hitting something!”
3) “I can’t stop!”
4) “It’s too short!”
5) “[Insert old bug here] IS STILL HERE!”

Starting from the top then, the game is too slow apparently which is news to me I must say. Shadow moves very fast indeed when he needs to, though I must admit he does seem a little slower to gain speed from a stationary position but is essentially, as per tradition, roughly the same speed as his fellow hog. As for the game being slow, remember the PS2 version is a mite slower on the frame rate than X-Box and GC but the game itself is as fast flowing as any fully 3D platformer that I’ve ever seen. In terms of the previous sonic games, when you bare in mind the advancement of the graphics and how much is going on around you compared to the likes of the two Adventure series with explosions and other effects going on all over the place the speed is amazing.

The fact is the IS the fastest of the 3D generation so far and makes Heroes look positively pedestrian. Let me put it another way. If Sonic Heroes is the Batmobile from the first Batman film with Jack Nicholson in it, then Shadow The Hedgehog is the Batmobile from Batman Begins, but with a Ferrari badge on it. Also there is a lot to do in this game that doesn’t involve speed, such as puzzles and looking around for items. If you are looking for five nice shiny secret discs with Charmy (*shudders*) in one particular level then blasting around at 100mph isn’t going to help you unless you are truly relying on dumb luck.

Number 2: This one really irked me because again it’s a question of people not really thinking this through. You’re racing along a city road, the city is being destroyed around you, there are flaming cars everywhere and police and attackers are swarming everywhere. This means one of two things, and if you’re not in Paris then that means you must be in the middle of a war zone.

The roads are not going to be clear for you! If I sprinted down the street at a car and I hit it, or rather it hits me; chances are I’m going to be rather hurt. Unless I’m a ghost – and I’ve checked my pulse which confirms I’m not – if I ran full tilt into a person I’m going to hit them and probably end up flat on my arse, not somehow magically run through them. With all this chaos going on around you it’s up to you, the player, to avoid the debris, friends and foes to keep your speed up, to time your jumps to avoid things and think ahead. Use some style and panache; don’t expect it to be handed to you on a plate. To quote a certain green dude, and ‘Hi-ho everyone!’

Wait wrong green dude, er, what I meant to say was ‘Control, control, you must learn control!’ You need to play more than once to master this particular hog’s movement. Yes, it is annoying when you run into a grey clad GUN soldier you didn’t see, and sometimes its difficult to make out the objective arrows, but the game is dark and dingy in most places. Westopolis is a mess of explosions and smoke and I’m pretty sure the Shadster doesn’t possess radar.

It might be bad in some respects trying to avoid the obstacles, but you may have noticed the pedestal placed Sonic Rush getting some bad comments regarding some of that games tendency to be a ‘memory recall’ game.

Number 3: Slowing down, or rather stopping isn’t instantaneous. Sonic and the others can screech to a halt no problems but with Shadow it’s not so easy, granted. Unfortunately, this is one of those things where the game assumes you know all about what’s been revealed about Shadow’s past over Sonic Adventure 2 and Heroes. It’s a flaw that undermines the first few levels of ShTH, it’s Shadow, you know him from ‘this’ and you don’t need to be informed about it again unless its absolutely storyline relevant. Not a single mention I can tell you now is made of the events of Sonic Heroes anywhere except in a couple of brief freeze frame flashbacks I’m going to criticise later anyway; in fact, Omega’s first line to Shadow told me everything I needed to know about the Shadow I was playing. Why? Because I’ve played Heroes and know what happens at the end of it.

For a newcomer to Shadow you’re right in the sticky stuff from the off, thrown in at the deep end the equivalent to being stuffed in a meat suit and thrown into a vat of sharks. You don’t know that if you’d just played him before you’d know about him and his fancysmancy footwear.

Shadow’s air shoes are the problem, we the fans know about this, his almost friction free air shoes. Aha, friction. Don’t you need that to stop as I recall? It also rather explains nicely how worn and flaky the fronts and backs of the air shoes are on the hi-res artwork as that’s where the ‘breaking points’ are and hence where the wear occurs. This whole thing so could have been solved simply by the addition of another ‘hint marker’ in Westopolis; you can just see Shadow hitting it, Sonic turning to you and saying:

“Hey Shadow! Those air shoes of yours are really cool, it’s like you’re skating on a cushion of air – take care though, you won’t be able to stop as quickly as I can!”

That’s really all it needed.

Number 4: Good grief, it’s a game with only six levels and a few boss fights thrown in! Come on now, it’s also a game with 10 different endings to unlock ranging from Shadow ending up as personification of darkness, the saviour to mankind or emotionally crippled in one instance. So that’s ten full playthroughs minimum before you unlock the end story and finally learn the truth, play another level and fight the final fight. No, it hasn’t got 147 mission targets like Sonic Adventure 2 to complete (okay, 148 if you count finishing the Green Hill Zone remake); it does though in fact have 146. That’s not possible! How so you ask?

Elementary my dear Watson, for you see there are 71 missions spread over the levels available, these include the three path choices when applicable (i.e., Dark, Hero or Emerald) and the boss fights (mid and final). Once you’ve done all those and A-Ranked them you unlock the expert mode so that’s another 71 missions to master. Making 142 by my maths, then you simply add to that the completion of the final story in both instances – one level and one final boss twice over – one hundred and forty six. That should keep you going for a long time trying to complete that.

There is in fact a mind boggling 326 paths to choose… 326! I’ll get back to this later, but… I mean 320-bloody-6? Yikes!

The levels themselves are no quick fire finishes, long gone are the days with sub-minute levels my friends. They are very big, imposing, and highly complex for the most part with the usual multiple paths available. They also come in the SONIC LEVEL STANDARD SET! What do I mean? Well. I’ve made a checklist:

City Level? Check.
Ancient Ruins Level? Check.
Ghost Filled Haunted Level? Check.
Jungle or Forest Level? Check.
Military Installation Level? Check.
Sky Based Level? Check.
‘Surrounded By Liquid’ Level? Check.
Fire or Lava Based Level? Check.
Casino Level? Check.
Final Space Based Level? Check.

Seems to be ticking all the right boxes doesn’t it? In fact the only one it doesn’t have really is a snow based or winter level. But what of the play features?

Grinding? Check.
Lots of Automatic Loops? Check.
Strange New Way To Get From One Part Of A Level To Another? Check.
Chaos Emerald Collection Through Special Zones: No.

No. Learning I can only assume from the travesty that graced Sonic Heroes (I am still trying to get the bloody third emerald, one and a half years after starting, and if anyone can send me a UK Game Cube game file with the final story unlocked I will be eternally grateful to you) the special zones are out. Chaos emeralds are now the property of the government for the most part. Also out is any plot dynamic involving the Master Emerald, something I also welcomed as that’s been done to death at this point. The grind rail change is much smoother and safer incidentally and the spin dash seems a lot weaker than before.

Bearing all that in mind then, I really cannot agree that the game is short as there is plenty of scope for replay.

Finally point five, a section that can easily be called ‘Legacy Issues’, I’m sighing as I type this. Believe me. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it refers to problems from previous versions or in this instance previous games that have still yet to be adequately fixed or acknowledged. The prime one being the camera.

I’ve always thought the best joke ever in a game regarding a camera (specifically in a 3D third person viewpoint) was in Mario 64 when if you look in a mirror you can see the camera being held behind you. A camera is, like most things, a physical object in games such as this. It has to be so it can be forced down corridors and things and not go through walls when you move it. The problem comes when something gets between the character and the camera following it; it can’t get around it and get stuck. See Sonic Adventure 2. Or you ‘move’ the camera just like you’re supposed to and it isn’t properly free roving. The camera in ShTH is miles better than it predecessors but still nags and lags in places occasionally forcing you to do a blind jump to where you hope the platform was in order to correct the issue. Or leaving you stuck down a series of choice routes without letting you see where your objective is (Mad Matrix).

So a part-fix there. Unfortunately the dreaded ‘homing attack’ problem still occurs.

If I am constantly jump attacking a single robot that say needs more than two hits to kill it and am holding the C stick in the direction of it, I do not expect to randomly home-attack NOTHING in the opposite direction off a gangway to fall to my death. There is absolutely no reason at all for this to occur and the fact this still happens randomly on the third game having this feature is terrible. It turns the whole attack concept into a luck-based issue. Grr!

(Can you tell I’ve been on my way to A-Ranking difficult levels and then that’s happened?)

Number six… oh wait that was the last one of those.

4. Niggles, Annoyances, Continuity and OH MY GODs!
So the gameplay is for the most part great, but now I want to talk about MY play. I want to talk about things within the game that were simply ‘wrong’. Wrong in context, wrong in history, wrong in positioning, wrong in moral or ethical tastes. So wrong it left me with a nasty taste in the mouth, a sore throat from yelling in disbelief and a red mark from slapping my forehead reapeatedly at the stupidness. So let’s start off with one of the most controversial issues pre-Shadow.

The Voices:
Farewell Ryan Drummond & Co, you shall be missed, but what have we been left with in way of replacement with the 4Kids mob.

Sonic & Shadow: If these were anything except all but bang-on what they were in the previous games SEGA would have been strung up by us and attacked by small sharp teethed lizards on long poles à la Ludo in Labyrinth. Kudos to Jase (and thank god for that….)

Eggman: Who’s voice had to be replaced anyway sadly, I like the new voice for the Doc but it just seems like its lost a bit of the presence it used to.

Tails: Oh Tails, how long have we waited for a decent voice for you? The newest of the new voices fits him quite well I think.

Knuckles: This is what annoys me, the whole point was to ‘standardise’ the characters and voices between the games and Sonic X right? Now I know for a fact that Knuckles is a right gruff bastard in Sonic X, always up for a fight. So why is he some fun-loving happy-go-lucky fight-seeker-if-need-be in ShTH? HE DOESN’T EVEN SOUND THE SAME! Thus the whole point of the change is lost. Well done. *Sighs*

Amy: Another voice that I don’t mind in the slightest with the changes.

Rouge: When did Rouge become a blues singer? *Shakes head in disbelief*

Big: ISN’T IN IT! YAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

Espio: I hadn’t seen the Chaotix episodes of Sonic X so didn’t know what to expect. I’m now pretty sure whoever did Espio’s voice used to play quarterback for the New York Giants.

Vector: Oh Vector! What have they done to you! You used to be like a bouncer in the way you moved and talked. And now you’ve suddenly become Graham Norton’s cleaner. If you want to know how he talks do you remember the really mad one in the Police Academy movies whose voice is all over the place? Bobcat Goldthwait? Yeah, that’s just how bad it is.

Charmy: If you know me, you know I hate the bee. Imagine my surprise then when after listening to the new Charmy voice I found I hated him even more! Surely impossible I thought? Alas… no. It’s very wrong and yet so wrong it validates my hatred for him, so in many ways is spot on.

Cream: Had two lines. No difference.

Omega: The voice is processed you fools, don’t waste my time.

Cheese: Ya see, now you’re just being silly.

New Characters:
Two to add to our merry band. The General (referred to throughout as The Commander) and bad guy Dark Doom. There are big problems with these two, number one Dark Doom sounds like (as Dreadknux has pointed out) Dr.Claw from Inspector Gadget, which results in any menace being replaced by hilarity and derisive calls of ‘I’ll get you next time Shadow! NEXT TIME!” at the TV. The General fits in well, in that we now know who’s in charge of GUN he also suffers from a rare medical condition, heterochromia iridium. Meaning he has different colours in either iris. You see, you learn with AAUK! The problem being this makes him look like a cross between Tommy Lee Jones and David Bowie.

2 Player!
Is practically an afterthought… no way are you going to 2P this game if you want a 2P Sonic experience you’ll go straight to SA2, not passing GO! and not collecting £200.

Script Errors:
The Commander also states at one point that Maria was the only family he ever had, and yet when confronting Shadow states that because of Shadow, Maria was killed AND his family. Another one with gaps in his memory, stay tuned for ‘General the Commander’ from Sonic Team coming autumn 2006.

The Music
Kevin want CD… NOW.

Continuity Problems:

• The President has a photo of Shadow and Sonic together outside the faux-White House. Except such an event never occurred…
• Maria’s death speech, so crucial to the plot of Sonic Adventure 2 has been changed.
• For someone who’s never driven or shot a gun before Shadow is miraculously adept.
• Shadow has both his arm rings when he lost one at the end of SA2.
• Shadow’s super form is now not silvery gold but seems to be Super Sonic with red highlights.
• As Shadow doesn’t know Team Chaotix, why doesn’t he ask them how they know who he is?
• Why are the ‘Top Secret Disks’ Charmy is looking for unguarded, and for the most part sitting on the floor??
• Okay, so Shadow has been transported inside a computer by Doom’s powers and all the ‘robots’ are in fact programs but that doesn’t explain how Rouge is somehow there.
• Since when did Eggman like Chao? And why does he keep so many in his castle?
• Shadow should not be able to remember the flashback snippet of the room full of Shadow Androids in bio-tanks from Sonic Heroes as that Shadow WAS an android as confirmed by Omega.
• Ghosts are now… blue?
• Shadow ACTUALLY leaves Sonic and the others still frozen and presumably being eaten by the remaining jelly blobs at the beginning of the final story.
• Wasn’t the Eclipse Cannon damaged by being stuck up the ass of the Biolizard then?
• Wasn’t the Eclipse Cannon permanently shut down by GUN? Why not?
• In the main trailer and parts of the game, the moon is astonishing whole after being blown to bits in SA2. Miraculous. They must’ve had a telethon or something.

Continuity Joy:

• Maria now looks like she’s got some Robotnik genes in her.
• Omega’s first line to Shadow is “Are you… the Original?” which if you know the prior games should tell you everything you need to know about this Shadow’s origins.
• The Ark. Oh boy, the ARK is completely faithfully restored with large sections of the end levels of SA2 recreated perfectly; it truly is a joy to behold every last second of it. The high-res look of the Chaos creatures is simply sublime.
• Chaos Spear, Shadow’s ‘new’ attack in the final fight was one of his 2P attacks in SA2:B which makes it perfectly acceptable for once and not some mast minute idea shoehorned in.

‘I could have sworn I saw that in…’
For reasons purely unknown Sonic Team decided to rip off the following movies:

Independence Day: The iconic blowing up of the White House is ripped clean off here.

Star Wars: Doom only just stops short of saying, “I AM YOUR FATHER!” at one point.

The Matrix: Doom says they want us humans to be used as energy sources, batteries if you will. Sound familiar?

Tron: Mad Matrix and Digital Circuit are utter Tron rip offs, from the idea to some elements of the actual levels. To top it off the even steal wholesale the iconic ‘de-rez’ sound effect and use it for the (annelid) black worm’s attack! Scandalous! I haven’t found the five lock door yet, but I have all the keys I swear if I find a light cycle beyond it I might just do someone damage.

The Weakest Link
Okay, you’re facing a boss and you’re told you need to find a weak point. Where is it? Do you know? With the exception of the Egg Dealer which operates differently with it’s slot machine system every single one’s weak point is the head. Every. One. Well swipe me, how original!

Sonic The Blasé Hedgehog
I don’t know why but Sonic came across differently over this game, maybe due to the fact he wasn’t being played. In Westopolis he makes a comment about ‘feeling so sorry’ for the people who have lost their homes yet after that he reverts to his “life’s a game, let’s play” persona. Seemingly nonplussed about the clear insanity going on around him. Admittedly this is typical Sonic, seeking fun wherever it can be found, yet the planet being destroyed, millions of people homeless and the possible extinction of mankind are – the last time I checked – not typically things that promote the idea of ‘a fun time’ to someone. In fact Sonic, by the end of a couple of the arcs, becomes so consumed by the ‘this whole thing is fun to me’ aspect of himself that I started to out and out dislike him for it. Something which has never happened before and I hope never happens again.

Keys The Ruin (Again), or “Oh Goody! My Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!”
In Heroes you had to find a key and keep it until the end to get access to the Special Stage, in every level of ShTH there exist 5 identical keys all of which are required to gain access to a very ancient looking door apparently of metal but looks rather like someone’s chiselled it out of part of Stonehenge. This as you may have guessed, looks rather out of place in the middle of a city, cyberspace recreation or high tech battleship for example. I haven’t opened all the doors yet, only the Westopolis one, Prison Island one and (literally just this second) Cryptic Castle one. You might think that after long searching you’ll be rewarded by something nice? Behind the Westopolis door I can reveal lies one machine gun and an armoured car. Woo. Only problem is, by the time you’ve got the keys, you really don’t need them. You’ll know all about the level and it won’t make a blind bit of difference. It looks like these are the three options then; vehicles, weapons, (Prison Island reveals a pair of tank-like mortars which make a big earth shattering ka-boom) and shortcuts (Cryptic Castle’s door leads to a shortcut as such and some more for you rings).

When Is A Life Not A Life?
One pretty big change is that 100 rings do not automatically equal an extra life any more. You now need to have 100 rings when activating a save point. This sucks.

326 Paths…
Okay three hundred plus paths are nice and all but seriously, who in their right mind is going to sit down and work out and play through the 326 paths to unlock them all?

And Finally…
Okay, if I was actually giving this thing a mark this one item would have lost it a whole bunch of marks just for the fact it was so ridiculous and not needed. Aliens are ripping up cities around the world and asked for a response tells his secretary to say that they won’t bow down to terrorists. EXCUSE ME?? TERRORISTS? In no way should this have been written! Aliens are aliens. I cannot recall E.T. being a terrorist, the fact that he and a lot of GUN keep referring to the Black Arms as ‘The Terrorists’ smacks of pandering and cheap ass playing on real world events and is truly sickening. Aliens are always aliens. Always. Muppets…

So in conclusion, Shadow the Hedgehog is a good game, it’s not genre-shaking, it’s not ground-breaking but it’s cool and you’ll have fun. Next time I get the energy to do another column type thing I’ll be discussing the most important character in the series! Who is it? Find out next time… mwah ha ha ha-ha!

…Yes…

ArchangelUK
Postatem obscuri lateris nescitis!
So it is written.