Nearly everyone simply remembers it as a failed attempt to make Sonic accessible to mature players with the addition of firearms being poorly executed due to a bad auto-aiming system. But that's not all it was. How many such people actually played through Shadow's panned adventure?

I acknowledge the rougher points. But what about the finer points? The level design and script style from ever so popular previous 3D Sonic titles was all there, the weapon system was almost completely optional (and moments where it was mandatory weren't a hassle at all), there were direct references to and reuses of elements from the widely adored Sonic Adventure 2, and, as always, Jun Senoue came up with an exceptionally kickass industrial metal soundtrack.