I appreciate the better controls and the fact that the kill 'em all missions now feel like they were designed by a sane human being, but eh, it's still largely the same game but more polished. My issues with Shadow the Hedgehog are mainly its bland level design where 90% of the time you'll be just holding forward and spamming the shoot button, and the utterly nonsensical story that gets even more confusing when you actually make use of the choice system instead of just following a linear route where you're always doing evil, dark or neutral missions all the way to the end, none of these things are really addressed in this version.

Credit where it's due, I do enjoy a few stages where this mission system is well used, like Lava Shelter, where doing the hero or dark mission will lead you to wildly different paths in the actual stage, with your actions even altering the layout by making the stage more or less flooded by lava. Why isn't the rest of the game like that instead of the same "kill 50 enemies" missions plastered all over the place?

The game isn't bad however it is easily one of the weaker 2D games in the franchise. I'm not a massive fan of the aesthetic, Zelda music has some of the best soundtracks throughout the entire franchise, however this soundtrack sits in the middle, with some great track, and then those that stab your ears. The sword play is frustrating to say the least, maybe coming off of the Oracle games but the sword hitbox felt smaller than the sword, and there was an obvious deadzone, something I did not feel in the original game.

Although I have played the game multiple times, this is the first time I have finished it to completion. Don't expect what some call the greatest game of all time, It's not even the best in it's own sub-series, let alone the franchise.