Se a primeira impressão for a que fica, esse jogo é a exceção. Esse jogo é o mais focado em vender pra criança, não que os outros não fossem, mas começando pela estética do jogo que parecer ter sido desenhado por aqueles lápis de crayon, é bem óbvio, e ótimo, é bonito e estiloso.
E acabou os elogios, apesar de eu achar que esse Kirby tem a melhor movimentação, as fases dão um sentimento de que duram 10 horas cada, e ainda tem umas quests muito específicas pra pegar os colecionáveis desse jogo, os Heart Stars, — que assim como nos jogos anteriores, levam ao final secreto — de forma alguma tem como você fazer elas sem um guia. E falando no final secreto, o boss secreto continua super divertido, ou eles manjam muito nisso ou eu sou fácil de agradar, mas o DeDeDe desse jogo é muito buxa... nem com uma segunda fase ele causou dificuldade.

Veredito: Bonito, fez um uso bem melhor dos poderes pros animais, mas foi cada escolha questionável pro level design...

Todo mundo já sabe né, o jogo que é famoso por ser uma merda e ser muito bom ao mesmo tempo.

Demorei muito pra jogar esse pela fake news de que pra pegar todos os finais você precisava upar todas as armas do jogo pro nível máximo, vi isso até em reviews de pessoas que disseram jogar o jogo, mas é MENTIRA, efeito balela. Sabendo disso, resolvi desperdiçar minha vida 100porcentando esse jogo feito com a bunda.

O taro realmente odiava a ideia de você se divertir com esse jogo, POR QUE FAZER INIMIGOS IMUNE A MÁGICA? Maior parte do conteúdo tá nas 64 armas e suas diferentes magias... btw esse jogo devia ter investido muito mais nas sessões aéreas, apesar de no começo ser bem difícil de controlar, você se acostuma e se torna a parte mais divertida do jogo, praticamente todas as boss fights são no ar, inclusive aquela famosinha (apesar de que nessa o jogo muda totalmente).

E que partyzinha viu.. só os imperdoaveis.

i've had a rocky relationship with this one to say the least

it may go without saying, but i'm the kind of person who thoroughly adores absolutely everything about this game's initial concept and presentation. i didn't grow out of my 'edgy phase' - it wasn't one. this shit's cool as fuck. it was cool as fuck 20 years ago, it still is today and it will be forever

shadow the hedgehog is a game carried by ideas, but they're executed to mixed results. this permeates the plot, script and gameplay. nothing's completely unscathed

narratively, it's incredibly ambitious - especially for such an obviously rushed game. the route structure is somewhat insane, even if the endings do split into 3-4 similar templates - almost all of which have really awkward line deliveries (shout out to 'journey to nihility' though - that one goes hard)

scriptwise... man, it's a mess. black doom is the biggest issue. he's effectively a caricature of a shounen antagonist who never shuts the fuck up. conversations tend to be pretty stilted across the board, but this dude just amps it to fucking 13. i contemplated dropping a half star here just because of how annoying his presence was during the final episode. in fact, i better stop fucking talking about black doom or else this game might be a 2/10 by the time i'm done

...on the contrary, shadow himself is thankfully as strong of a character as ever and the ability to constantly jump between routes really suits his whole mysterious/badass/what-the-fuck-is-he-thinking demeanor. that said, his stages could easily give you a positive or negative impression depending on which of those paths you end up on

personally, i started with the pure dark route... then after a neutral-only palate cleanser, pure hero - this was a fucking mistake! depending on your whims as a player your first run could consist of varied but mostly straightforward objectives, or menial tasks such as combing through multi-pathed environments for torchs to light and killing exactly specified quantities of enemies (it'll be a cold day in hell when i replay lost impact)

at his best, shadow disappoints as the star of a sonic game but actually excels as a shooter more akin to gamma's role in sa1, boasting faster movement and a solid variety of weapons that all feel fun to shoot - which is especially important because this game wants bullets to rain constantly, as it actively rewards killing enemies of both alignments, encouraging the ambivalent carnage no matter which route you're aiming for

in fact - i feel like this game would've likely gone over better with some fans if its A-ranks were stricter in places. you can basically hold forward and pass any normal mission with flying colors, but beyond that there's tons of room to optimize runs via effective usage of shadow's chaos blast and especially control powers. definitely a missed opportunity here!

with a few more months in the oven, some slower bits axed and some added speed to shadow's spindashing, homing and walljumping, this'd be a classic for sure

as it stands, it's pretty confused. i've come to enjoy the chaos quite a bit, but i'd only recommend it to someone who wished gamma had more of a presence in sa1. if you go in expecting sa3, then everything's all over before it can even start

the soundtrack, however, i can - and will - recommend to literally anyone with or without a pulse