On Shadow the Hedgehog (the game)

Have you ever died and as a result lost your memory? Maybe not. At least, I hope you haven’t.

Then, there’s no way you know how Shadow, a hit character from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise feels. Somewhere between Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Sonic Heroes, is a story line centered around Shadow that granted him his own game, filled with angst, pain and the ultimate decision for him to decide to leave the past behind or to continue in search of who he is.

I remember the first time I picked up this game. I was close to ten years old, and I had interviewed around two people who played the game previously for their opinions, what they liked about the game, their experiences, etc. (It was two boys; one being my cousin and one being a kid from my middle school whom I just happened to ask if he’d played it. (Look at me, my little interviewing skills kicking in so young!)) I knew my mother wouldn’t buy it for me because of the cursing (yes this game had some minor swear words) so I asked my father, who took me on a trip to visit my grandparents and cousins during the summer. Sneaky, yes. Manipulative? Yes. Do I regret it? No.

Rated 10+, I knew I was going to have to finesse some lies in somewhere. I had asked my grandmother if I could buy it, but she replied “Baby, you’re an evangelist, why would you want to play that game?” (but I guess she forgot how I’ve learned every curse word out there through her lips but that’s another blog post on its own). I didn’t even know what an evangelist meant, still don’t. Really don’t care. But at the time, all I wanted to do was get my hands on a copy. After seeing my cousin play it at my grandparents’ house (he couldn’t play it long because of the cursing, which isn’t anything major nowadays, just “damn” and “hell”) I was completely mesmerized. I needed to experience this game in all of its entirety, and on my own.

I was exposed to more than just a game with guns and minor violence against humans (Shadow despises humans but for a good reason throughout this game) but to me was an excellent written story about a hedgehog who was dedicated to find his identity and past himself. Yes, he got manipulated by some people, like Doom who knew all along who he was, but refused to tell him the truth and what he was created for out of control and a desire to destroy the planet, but this game for me was an experience. In this game, you get to experience the fullness of finding out who Shadow is and why he was created.

For this piece, I watched an hour’s worth of cut-scenes to refresh my memory of the game. I wanted to talk about the different endings, and discuss my thoughts on them. I also want to discuss the game’s design, story-line (my favorite part!) and what this game meant to me, a 9 year old playing it for the first time on her GameCube.

The game starts off with a cut-scene out of this world. The music is angry and there’s electric guitars, darkness, and you get an automatic feeling that it’s time to riot. Shadow steps out in front of a brightly-lit moon and cocks a gun. I’m not ready, I’m not ready, I’m not ready.

Graphics and design

For lack of a more proper word…this game was edgy. Everything about it screamed rebel, confused, and I’m bouta do my own thing. The graphics to me were on par for a 2005 game, and as I look back at them, I still think they were ahead of their time. I’ve always had an eye for CGI and graphics, not sure why, but seeing how clean the graphics were, especially the CGI scenes placed throughout the game, were awesome. The graphics are very similar to 2003’s Sonic Heroes. I mean, I wouldn’t blame SEGA if they used old models to save time, but I enjoyed that game’s graphics as well so I was barely interested in that anyway. Still, good job nonetheless.

Story-line and plot

“Shadow the Hedgehog”… Why does that name haunt me? It’s the only thing I can remember. And that gruesome image…

– Shadow from the prologue cut-scene

If you remember playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, then you remember that Shadow dies at the end of the game, after teaming with Sonic to protect the Earth. He made this promise to Maria that he would protect the world before her own death. Well, fast-forward to Sonic Heroes and mans is in some kind of capsule (found by Rogue) in Eggman’s…something. Found in Team Dark’s opening plot video, I was immediately glad to see that my favorite character was indeed alive. Couldn’t remember anything, but he was here and was good. So after playing these two games and following his plot closely, I was eager to find out more about him but as I was only eight turning nine, there was no Twitter to follow or internet fan-sites I knew about to constantly check out. I only saw what my cousin offered me (as he had the game at the time) and soon ended up owning it myself.

The game’s story-line is rich. It starts with Shadow’s necessary and obvious distress with not remembering who he is and only remembering his friend Maria and her gruesome death (?) in front of him. (I am actually not sure if Maria died by gunshot wound or by that disease she supposedly had. I don’t know which one came first.) A huge, demonic-looking dude then appears out of nowhere causing the sky to turn red. Named Doom, he somehow knows Shadow already. Doom, along with other main members in the franchise offer to accompany Shadow through his quest to find out the truth of who he is (you can choose to follow their missions or not). The commander, a leader over the military and also a friend of Maria as a child, remembers Shadow and absolutely despises him.

There are about…I’d say…10 different endings in this game. They all range on the type of decisions you make as you play. Each ending involves the members you choose to accompany you until the final boss. If you choose to ignore Sonic’s plea to stop the aliens, you are welcomed with two bosses from the military. If you run into Eggman, you are faced with a massive robot from him. Throughout each ending, Shadow assumes who he is. He always starts with “I am Shadow the Hedgehog” where he tries to piece together why he was created. These multiple endings in my opinion were ahead of their time. Nowadays, you see games with multiple endings and the outcome is based on your choices. This game was one that was definitely a precursor, in my opinion.

While there are several endings, there is one canon ending, which is where he saves the world from Doom who tries to wipe the Earth clean. He does this as he remembers his friend Maria, and he remembers his promise. In this ending, we, along with Shadow, learn who he really is:

• he was created by Dr. Robotnik, Maria’s grandfather in the 1950s.
• He is old.
• He was created with Doom’s DNA and is related to him
• Dr. Robotnik, although long gone and dead, admits he was wrong to include Doom in his creation process, but that Shadow was created to essentially save the world in this moment.

Shadow wasn’t created to hate humans. But as he witnessed the death (?) of his friend, Maria, he lost something special to him in his early weeks of life. So his hatred for them is understandable.

The game ends with Shadow saving the Earth from the destruction that would have been caused by the Eclipse Cannon blowing up. He hands a photograph of Dr. Robotnik and Maria, stares into the dark, endless stars, and says “Goodbye forever…Shadow the hedgehog.” He has decided to leave the past behind and create a new Shadow.

Who knew I would remember this game nearly 15 years later and feel so compelled to write about it? I think although this was just a video game, Shadow’s story is a good one and really impacted me. This game decided to go deep into his past and show him in a vulnerable spot; naive and unknowing of who he was before he lost his memory, before he died. This game also saw a softer side to him, different from the cocky, mysterious and arrogant hedgehog we are used to seeing and growing up with.

I may not know why a 4 foot hedgehog knows how to drive a motorcycle, car or truck or why he also knows how to shoot a gun or curse; but I do know if he can make the decision to leave the past behind, then maybe, I can too.

(P.S.: the original Japanese voice over does NOT beat the English dub. Hands down. “Where’s that D*** fourth Chaos Emerald!?” for the win.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.