10 Obscure Gaming Clues That Explained Confusing Moments

The Confusing Moment

Sonic Adventure 2 seemingly ended with the death of the newly-introduced Shadow the Hedgehog, after he and Sonic entered their Super states in order to defeat The Finalhazard.

Shadow is last seen with his energy depleted as he falls towards Earth, seemingly dead.

Yet while Sega's original plan was indeed for Shadow to be a one-off character in the game, his popularity caused him to be inexplicably resurrected in 2003's Sonic Heroes, where he's discovered in Doctor Eggman's base and has no memories of what transpired in Sonic Adventure 2.

So, uh, how did Shadow survive a surely fatal plummet to Earth?

The Clue

This was briefly explained in Shadow's self-titled 2005 game, though honestly you couldn't really be blamed for missing it given that it's hardly a fan favourite title, even for the standards of the Sonic franchise.

Players who take more than eight minutes to defeat the game's final boss, Devil Doom, will receive a fleeting exposition dump from Eggman himself, who reveals how Shadow was revived. He says:

"Everyone thought you'd died during that horrible incident, but I rescued you with one of my robots! You'd lost your memory, that's all."

That's not to say this is a massively satisfying explanation for Shadow's return, but it is certainly something that many players missed, either due to beating the boss within eight minutes or just not touching the game with a damn bargepole.