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A mod is looking to improve the Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off Shadow the Hedgehog, adding several quality-of-life improvements and changes. When fans think of a period of low points for the long-running Sega franchise, it's around the mid-2000s. Before the critically maligned Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, there was the just as ridiculed Shadow the Hedgehog spin-off game. It was mocked for its attempts at being edgy, giving Sonic's red-and-black rival the spotlight through a focus on his amnesia and backstory. The game also gave Shadow weapons and a different gameplay loop in order to differentiate himself from Sonic, which fans immediately balked at.
Nowadays, Shadow the Hedgehog is viewed by some fans as a laughable game that did damage to Shadow's character, or by others as a game that had at least a smidgen of potential. This was the basis for Shadow the Hedgehog: Reloaded, a quality-of-life and enhancement mod of the original game that aims to make the gameplay less of a hassle, created by modders LimblessVector and dreamsyntax. In an interview with GameSpot, LimblessVector notes that there are a lot of strong points and fun ideas in Shadow the Hedgehog, but the game ended up being hampered by the level design and some other decisions.
This mod creates a less tedious gameplay loop by lowering the mission objective counts, increasing the objects, and even decreasing the number of Shadow the Hedgehog's endings needed to access Last Story. Not only that, but other changes were made to controlling Shadow himself, like making it so that he can swing melee weapons at a faster rate and giving the vehicles he drives a much smoother control scheme along with a speed boost.
This mod can be downloaded off of GitHub, where it contains a full list of changes that have been made to the game. This mod works with the GameCube version of the game, and can be loaded through an emulator. The three emulators it works with include Dolphin, Nintendont for Wii/Wii U, and Swiss on GameCube, with the GitHub page recommending the Dolphin Emulator specifically for this Shadow the Hedgehog mod.
In the interview with GameSpot, both Limbless and dreamsyntax note they both had different goals when modding the game, with LimblessVector wanting to adjust the mission objectives and dreamsyntax wanted to make a multiplayer version of the game's campaign. While console game modding is usually considered a tough task, both mod developers praised Dolphin's mod loading abilities, allowing them to complete this project in a short time. Hopefully, this mod will make the Shadow the Hedgehog-focused spin-off less of a slog to get through.
Shadow the Hedgehog was originally released for the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox.
