[Jan Abaza]

I think Shadow was supposed to be a tenrec, mostly because he's a "fake hedgehog", and tenrecs are sometimes reffered to as fake hedgehogs.



Ultimate life? Blah.

[Toasty]

He's a faggot, the people who thought up his character deserve to be anal raped with a massive (black) cock every night in a jail cell for 20 years.

[TmEE]

I am not fond of Shadow at all, and the poor "music" that goes with the character in SA2 does not make things any better...

[McSnapple]

When I was also in grade school, I also was enthralled by the look and feel of Shadow in SA2:B. He was one of my favorite characters back then with a very fitting storyline and ending. Now n' days I stay away from all games past SA2 due to the crap factor being moderately too high for my liking, along with a dislike for Shadow. In my opinion, Shadow marked the point in the franchise where it became acceptable to use an over abundance of characters in the franchise with some badass attitude who feels they must follow their "destiny" to strive. Even SA1 and SA2 stretch it thin with me due to the mellow dramatic stories and the unneeded drama included, but I guess the Sonic Adventure series could be taken in its own regard as its own separate series as opposed to the Megadrive games.

tl;dr: Shadow is useless to me.

[Blanche Hodapp]

Bog off, naysayers! Shadow's an awesome representation of the youth of today - stripped of identity and disillusioned, forever trying to carve some fashion of identity and individuality, yet constantly haunted by the glaring reminder that you are just like everyone else around you. Wouldn't you be resentful if you knew you were no different to your peers yet can't shake the feeling that you should be capable of so much more?

Shadow's an awesome, well-written character and if you can't see that, you don't deserve to be playing the games

[Metal Knuckles]

Why a gun?

He was cool in SA2 when the idea of anti-hero was still fresh to the Sonic series (Knuckles doesn't count, he was just retarded up until he realized he was being tricked). But then they took his fanbase of emos and 10 year olds and decided to flesh out those aspects of Shadow while leaving everyone else largely ignored.

To this day, we still know nothing of Sonic's official history other than Uncle Chuck and "Rrrrrrico Suave!".

[Darkon]

Shadow is like a hemorrhoid, he goes then comes back and ends up being a bloody pain in the ass.

Like all hemorrhoids, he needs to go and stay gone.


It's not his character per se thats bad, its the situations and the stereotypical roles they place him in, conviniently after Sonic Adventure 2.

If he'd died and stayed dead in Sonic Adventure 2, we probably wouldnt even be having this conversation since he'd be a much more memorable character.

[Rokkan]

RedStripedShoes, on Mar 23 2009, 12:43 AM, said:

Quote of myself from another thread.

Quote

The only reason I'm not a big fan of Shadow is because he is a hedgehog. Why does this bother me? Because the idea of the ultimate life-form being an anthropomorphic hedgehog seems totally arbitrary when taken out of context. If the ultimate life-form were a humanoid, that would make sense, as this would reflect the philosophical bias harbored by the human scientists who created the life-form. But they instead made a hedgehog. And it wasn't because they were inspired by a certain speedy blue hedgehog, because Shadow was developed (correct me if I'm wrong) at least 35 years before Sonic was ever born. Nor have the games ever provided sufficient evidence that anthropomorphic hedgehogs are, in fact, the fastest living macroorganisms known to man. With all that said, the choice by the scientific minds in charge of the Ultimate Life-Form project to model it after a hedgehog is downright unreasonable. And if we say that the scientists had no control over what the final result would look like, that makes it all the more inconceivable. And if we finally see that the random choice of animal happens to be the EXACT SAME SPECIES as a spiky blue blur who has since gained world renown as a great hero, well that... JUST MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE!!!

I don't think this is official, but as far as I know, Shadow is a hedgehog because he was based upon the Echidna ruins' Super Sonic drawings, that's why he has such similar spikes and can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds so easily. This can be true since the ARK had replicas of the ruins.

Also this would be badass:

Jayextee said:

Agreeing with the Shadow staying dead thing... with a little addendum.

You know, imagine about five games from now, if Shadow had been dead since SA2, and all of a sudden he turns up, like Akuma to Robotnik's Bison (Super Street Fighter II Turbo - if you don't understand the reference, shame on you).

THAT would be badass.

lol Shadow performing a Shun Goku Satsu on Eggman

[NoNameAtAll]

My thoughts mirror most of the users here. I didn't mind him at all in SA2, though his "death" didn't touch me nearly as much as E-102 Gamma's "death". Sure, Shadow found redemption, but that's common in many things.

Basically, he should've stayed dead after SA2. They pretty much killed his character afterward. My opinions on him in SA2 were neutral. I just played as him and didn't particularly care about him as much more than that.

[Lostgame]

Quote

You could say the introduction of Shadow represents (one of) the "Jumping the Shark" moment in the series.

Wow...this is actually so true...never thought about it like that. Actually, I'd rather say that 'Shadow the Hedgehog' was the true 'jumping the shark' moment. I mean, heroes was bad enough but after that game what have we had? Riders/2? Secret rings? 2006? =/

The games just keep getting shittier. I finally got a chance to play unleashed but even Sonic's levels were largely just 'hold-right-and-go-way-faster-than-you-ever-did-in-the-genesis-games.' You don't have a hope of enjoying your awesome surroundings if you're going so fast that it requires hardly any skill to play. :/

I think it just goes to show that really, Sega only cares about Sonic as a vehicle to make money since the DC, and games like 'shadow the hedgehog' prove that.

[Blast Processing]

Nobody forces you to run fast. You can quite happily trod along Apotos annoying a pelican, destroying peoples personal property, finding medals and enjoying the scenery. It's not like the Ranks do anything in the game.

This post has been edited by Blast Processing: 23 March 2009 - 12:41 PM

[Dr. Mustache]

Pretty much going with the majority on this one, he was great in SA2 but he should've stayed dead in the games. Because he just plain wasn't well written after that.
only enjoyed the fact that shadow the hedgehog bridged some story gaps, other than that it was shit.

He's still alright in the comics in my opinion though.

[Anthall]

Shadow is a just a little gimmick to attract little kids to the Sonic universe due to his "mature" nature of holding guns and his cursing in the game.

[Ell678]

should have stayed dead. It is better to leave at the height of your popularity than outstay your welcome. The fact he is a 'Mystery' is irrelevant. If he died on the ARK, we wouldn't see him again and he would be clouded in the mystery forever more - which is better. But now, he is still here, and tries to act as though there is still a mystery to be solved, when there isn't. That attitude gets boring, fast.

Plus, we know more about Shadow than anyone else. Considering it isn't his series, that's ridiculous.

[Phos]

Blast Processing, on Mar 23 2009, 12:41 PM, said:

Nobody forces you to run fast.

Except for the boost pads. Then there's the "secret rings" sections, without the boost, you seem to randomly be hit from nowhere if you aren't boosting. And have you tried doing a run of Jungle Joyride without boosting? I had to get creative just to avoid dying.