Shadow the Hedgehog: Reloaded is an improvement mod of Shadow the Hedgehog designed to make the game less tedious, increase challenge, fix bugs and oversights, restore some unused content, and generally remix levels.

Reloaded is for the GameCube version, and is playable on Dolphin Emulator (recommended), Nintendont for Wii and Wii U, and Swiss for GameCube.

Below is only a summary of Reloaded's changes. A more exhaustive changelist is available here, and in the Preferences & Dolphin Addons.zip download.

Main Changes Summary

• Unlocks and Story Pacing
• Cutscenes are always skippable.
• Last Story now unlocks after 3 Story endings, instead of all 10.
• Expert Mode unlocks after beating Last Story, instead of requiring all A Ranks. Expert Mode now has a unique ending animation. You can also practice Expert levels in Select Mode by locking in a stage with the X button.
• Missions
• Many missions are more forgiving, allowing you to miss a few enemies or objects instead of needing to find ALL of them.
• Partner characters won't stop you with their "camera zoom" introductions when you first meet them.
• Partner characters won't automatically swap your active mission if you manually "lock in" your desired mission, either via D-Pad or by the Pause Menu. D-Pad Up will reset back to automatic swapping.
• Levels
• S Rank has been added to the Rank system. Good luck!
• The Secret Door system was reworked into additional pathways instead of one-time bonuses. You can now find extra routes and secrets, even on your first playthrough.
• The Secret Keys have been replaced with Red Rings, and have been shuffled around for many levels.
• Many "forced waiting" sections, such as elevators, are faster than before, or are skippable if you're skilled enough. In-game timing can be used for speedruns, as we apply the timing mechanisms from ShadowSX
• Player Actions
• Shadow is generally faster and more responsive.
• Hold L to always perform a Jump Dash instead of a Homing Attack. This is useful if you don't want to target enemies while platforming.
• You can toggle between Original and Reloaded melee weapon styles with the Z button. In Reloaded style, hold B to activate the weapon's hitbox, and hold B+L to perform rapid swings while running. You can also lock-in the weapon's hitbox by sliding while holding B.
• Go faster or slow down while riding the cyberspace circuits by pressing the A and B buttons.
• Shadow can now slide out of a spindash, homing attack, and jump dash.
• Sliding duration is player controlled. Hold X to slide as long as you want.
• Air Saucers are much more mobile. Pressing A twice results in a downward spike instead of a double jump.
• You can tap A to make cars and motorcycles accelerate much faster and maintain a higher top speed. You can dismount at any time. Press Y to brake.
• Unused Content
• An inaccessible area in Lost Impact is now reachable.
• Some unused dialogue was restored/added where appropriate.
• “E.G.G.M.A.N. (Doc Robeatnix Mix)” was added to Lava Shelter's Egg Dealer fight. This was normally only played briefly during a cutscene.
• "Who I Am", a planned track, was added to GUN Fortress Hero and Final Haunt Dark endings.
• "Broken", a planned track, was added to Black Comet's endings. (Black Comet normally reused a GUN Fortress ending track.)
• Visuals
• Widescreen and 4:3 ratio options. Before our work on widescreen, the UI was either stretched or incorrectly placed on the screen.
• The bloom effect was reduced.
• The palette of some similar-looking stages were changed to differentiate them.Maria's eyes were adjusted.
• Stray HP Bar pixel was removed.
• Wrong Artificial Chaos eye glow rotation was fixed.
• Unrigged GUN Bigfoot Type B cockpit glare was fixed.
• All unlit ring inhibitors in cutscenes featuring Shadow were fixed.
• The PS2 exclusive hand rig/animations for the Commander were fixed.
• Chaos Emeralds have a darkened texture in all cutscenes.

RetroAchievements integration

Reloaded has a RetroAchievements set. Try the unique challenges, and compete on the per-level and per-playthrough leaderboards!

Setup summary

Patch your original GameCube .ISO of Shadow the Hedgehog (NTSC-U) with your chosen patch (4:3 or widescreen) with any Xdelta patcher.

The download on this page includes both NTSC-U patches (widescreen and 4:3) in one 7z. If your copy of the original game is in .RVZ format, then Dolphin can be used to convert it to .ISO.

Follow best-performance.txt for better framerate.

A step-by-step setup guide can be found on the original project page.

Alternative patches for the PAL and NTSC-J versions of the game can also be found at the original project page's download links.

There is no difference in the final ISO even if patching from these versions. They will still result in a NTSC-U ISO.

Credits

Direct Contributions

LimblessVector : Project Lead, Designer, Programmer/Developer, Art Direction/Implementation dreamsyntax : Programmer/Developer, Widescreen, work on Heroes Power Plant, other misc tools TheHatedGravity : Model, Movie, Widescreen, Font (Universal MET) BlazinZzetti : Code Contributor, Developer of Shadow SX

Thanks

SEGA and Sonic Team : for the original Shadow the Hedgehog igorsabra4 : for Heroes Power Plant and other file reversing assistance Sewer56 : for HeroesONE Reloaded and other file reversing assistance MainMemory : for HeroesONE DonutStopGaming : for symbol map and struct research metaconstruct, UnclePunch, psiLupan, and DRGN (Melee modding community) : for Melee Code Manager and assistance with DOL modification Shadowth117 : Model Help SonikkuA : Model Help The Spectral Star, Jesus_PK, $$$Link, Angry Waiter, Bloodedge and many more! : Testing, Feedback Sanglish, Jesus_PK, TheFetiʂhMachiոe, dreamsyntax's mom : Custom Hint Translation assistance aldelaro5 and DME contributors : for Dolphin Memory Engine InternetExplorer : for "Intro to Wii Game Modding" guide Jos / Josjuice : for help with some tricky hardware only exceptions and all the awesome Dolphin work they do kiwi515 : for help fixing weird hardware-only exceptions Every Dolphin Contributor : for Dolphin and its debug features Link Master, gamemasterplc, CosmoCortney, and TeconMoon : for various RAM reference codes and discoveries And the Heroes & Shadow Hacking Central Discord community for their input, motivation, miscellaneous help, and friendship. We could never have gotten this far without all of you. <3