Shadow has a gun. It's good. Hardest Opening FMV ever, even harder than Adventure. I really think the actual movement and level design here are really strong, apart from Shadow's weird totally vertical jump, this could be a heck of a Sonic game. The thing that ultimately shoots it in the head is its obnoxious and tedious mission system. I'm not even opposed to them principally, it's basically just a recontextualization of Adventure's stage replay mechanics and an attempt to weave them into the narrative. It makes the stages more hang-outable and gives them the breath and breadth necessary for actual exploration, as opposed to the Boost formula's games hyper-structured obstacle courses. It's just those objectives suuuuuuck. 85% of the missions are based on exterminating every enemy of one type in a level without backtracking options, and the combat is sooooo bad so bad. If it was fun this game would easily beat A2, you shoot the president and also Sonic and find out finally WHO SHADOW IS.

One of the least messy Sonic games and, commensurately, one of the least interesting. Sonic Team refined the boost formula here to a pin point, and in a better game (Generations) those mechanics could flow, but the last minute decision here to chop up and segment the levels hurts the pacing so much. And beyond that, it's just like, kind of not what I want from a Sonic game? Don't get me wrong I love going fast, but I want to go fast in these splendorous beautiful stages that evoke the grandeur of nature and the artificial beauty of cityscapes, spaces I want to explore every inch of after I blast through it on a first run. An amusement park seems perfect for that, but the stages here are just kind of visually soulless and chintzy (Starlight Glamour and Planet Wisp excluded) and the music is good but not terribly exceptional, again apart from Planet Wisp. The biggest tone indicator of the whole work is the writing, though. For some reason Sega decided to pick up some terribly obnoxious Happy Tree Friends writers to replace the furry soap opera of previous games with a vapid and meaningless string of self referential quips, with no attempt at a real story. Not looking forward to their work in future games