Shadow The Hedgehog


 * For this game's titular character, see Shadow.

Shadow The Hedgehog is a video game for the Gamecube, PS2, and XBox that centers around the story of Shadow trying to recover his memory (which he lost at the end of Sonic Adventure 2, and was seeking in Sonic Heroes. The story involves a three-way war between the Black Arms, the G.U.N. Federation, and Robotnik, in a story that is similar to Shadow's backstory in the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie) continuity.  Shadow the Hedgehog was developed in the United States.

Many of the game's enemies are mutated animals, similar to the Biohazard and the Artificial Chao of Sonic Adventure 2.

Story
The story begins with one element of Shadow's memory being restored: The leader of Black Arms, Black Doom, called out to shadow, and instructed him to bring him the Chaos Emeralds 'as promised.'  Torn between his desire to seek out his past, and to remain loyal to his promise to Maria Robotnik, the player in the game decides the path Shadow takes.

If the player chooses the Hero missions, Shadow will team up with various allies (including Amy Rose, Knuckles, Rouge, Sonic, Tails, and Vector) in order to provide combat support, and most importantly, guidance on his path to identity.

Equipment
One of the game's more controversial features is that in many parts of the game, when Shadow does not have Chaos Emerald energy, is that Shadow relies on 'mundane' equipment for power.

Vehicles included an 'Air Saucer' (similar to the spinning disks of Sonic the Hedgehog 3), a motorcycle, a Black Hawk (a mutated dragon controled by the Black Arms), and a GUN Humvee (used for crashing through barricades).

Weapons included a pistol, a rifle, swords, a machinegun (and one scene in a demo video showed Shadow using two machineguns at once), a rocket launcher (in single-shot or four-shot versions), a 'flash gun' (the typical fast-firing energy blaster), chainguns, a 'worm shooter' (a biological Black Arms weapon similar to the rocket launcher), and various weapons of opprotunity (such as picking up trashed road signs or fallen enemies to use as weapons). Ammo can be picked up by defeating the enemy of that type.

Zones
Shadow the Hedgehog has over 20 stages that do not have to be visited in order, including:
 * Circuis Park
 * Cryptic Castle
 * Digital Circuit
 * Glyphic Canyon
 * Lethal Highway
 * Westopolis

Each zone has three 'missions'. In Dark missions, you gain points for destorying nature and attacking GUN forces. In Normal missions, you gain points by collecting rings and items. In Hero missions, you gain points for taking out Black Arms facilities and rescuing people in need. In any mission type, bonus points are earned for finishing quickly. In addtion, in Dark or Hero missions, it is possible to find characters who will give Shadow special missions.

Music
The themes for this game were composed by Crush 40.