hey i remember this

that aside, Radical Highway is pretty peak tbh. Definitely makes good use of Shadow's mechanics and has some good alternate paths, though it does make me wish the Light Speed Dash was unlocked from the start lol

...considering Shadow is the gameplay of equivalent of Sonic I do find it a little odd that two Eggman stages and one Rouge stage precedes it.

y'know I do find it a bit interesting that not counting the boss you face Shadow's first stage is the fourth in the Dark Story

like it makes sense having Eggman be the first stage due to him being the series' 'main' villain plus it sets up the whole story but (...)

eggman scratching his ass at times is funny ngl

actually a little surprised with how much i ended up liking dry lagoon as a stage ngl

having to go between two sections with the turtle feels a bit cumbersome but i like the scenery and it does make good use of rouge's mechanics

can't help but wonder if they rushed the voice direction, translations and editing in the original English dub because thinking about it now, the way the lines were delivered did often take me out of the action.

was thinking too but I do have to say that playing this game with the Japanese dub and re-translated subtitles is definitely helping me appreciate this game's story more.

Just feels like all the dialogue and whatnot just 'flows' better

though I do find it funny seeing the small animals as unlockables throughout this stage

imagine you're piloting a heavy mech through a top secret military base with security all over the place and you just see these little critters just chillin around

I won't lie, back when I played through this game for the first time, I played both the first stages of each story and I feel like playing the first mech stage was sort of what put me off from this game for a while

I will say Iron Gate is a better 'first' mech stage than Prison Lane but I still don't really care for it, kinda just feels like I'm running through the same rooms and obstacles over and over again (plus those elevator sequences just feel pretty slow)

dunno how much I'll play but let's at least start the dark story now

wishful thinking probably but would be kinda neat ngl