I'm playing through expert mode in Shadow, and having never reached it in SH I'm quite intruiged by what some of the characters say.
For anyone who never bothered getting all A's, it's quite simple. Shadow has to rush through ALL of the levels in order (top to bottom) with a finite number of lives and when you run out you start again. It's not as difficult as it sounds, you gain a life every time you have 100 rings and go over a save point, you only loose 10 rings if your hit and if you fill up the egg vacuum that's 3 lives automatically.
Also, there is no companion. You play as Shadow, ON HIS OWN, in a training mission. There's no annoying commentary throughout the level, except for a small bit at the beggining (which is 90% of the time optional).
This little bit involves 1 character form the game praising you/challenging you/egging you on...
Usually it's just "Good luck with your training Shadow" but some bits are more interesting...
For instance Black Doom's "I hear you are training to be the ultimate, as is right for someone of my bloodline".
But, the most interesting come from the GUN Commander, President and Gerald, so far. I've not actually finished it but these are some gems I have to share...
First off, as you may well know, the GUN Commander eventually resolved his feelings for Shadow at the end of the game. In the Expert mode, in his level he actually addresses the imbalance. This isn't exact but, it's something like this: "Shadow... I'm sorry about what happened.... The other day... .... .... Actually, I became a Grandfather last week and I was planning on having you over. Anyway, good luck with your training."
If Expert mode is cannon, then that's quite interesting. Not only has he forgiven Shadow, but he's planning on Inviting Shadow over. Plus, he's a newly made grandfather, we never knew that before.
Perhaps the most unusual is the Presidents... "Shadow, word of your training has reached the top brass."
"Excuse me sir, your late for your tea time with the cabinet secretary of japan."
"Ahh, yes, I almost forgot. Excuse me Shadow, we'll talk later."
That's right folks, Japan EXISTS in the Sonic world, properly. It's an actual country with it's own leaders who take the President out for dinner every now and then 
Thirdly, Gerald explains how the Artificial Chaos' went out of control. Apparently they Positive and Negative Electrode Connectors were switched... Oh no, how terrible.
Still, it's a reason.
As I play through the game, If i learn anything else interesting I'll report it. Till Then, just mull over what happens when SONIC goes to JAPAN!
WHAT!? That GUN Commander is seriously a moron.
He's angry at Shadow for causing GUN to attack the Ark Unjustified. (So he joins GUN WTF?) He waits until an alien invasion to make his presence known to him. and now he's inviting him over for tea and cakes?
I think this guy rocks simply for being SO scitzofrentic. =P
Holy crap! I never knew such interesting stuff lie lurking in the depths of the game.
Dang it, Swift. You've got me wanting to get all A's just to hear Crazy GUN Commander say that, sounds like a great line.
Of course, if I hear the word "training" in that sense, I feel obliged to change Shadow's name to Vegeta.
I don't get it. Black Doom is still living? The G.U.N Commander is a grandfather? The G.U.N. Commander is/was MARRIED?!
I've heard there's another such quote in which France is mentioned...
And something about a lenghtly comment by Cheese translated by Cream.
But, I'll be tempted to do it again and record all of the comments from each said person as I go...
Seriously though, some of them are boring, some are pathetic and some are just wacked out.
Expert mode is MUCH more fun than the original, there are no missions (Except in one or two levels which couldn't of been done any other way... Ie Mad Matrix... Gamma's chllenge: "I hear that you are training... As You know I am the best but if you disagree then I challenge you to locate all the world's Four databases..."
There's no companion, no annoying commentary, better level design and more varied gameplay...
No plot to distract you...
And despite the problem with lives running out, it's actually VERY easy to accumulate lives as you get 1 by having 100 rings when you go over a save point, and 3 lives for filling the Egg Vacuum...
Unfortunately there IS a limit, 99 lives, which you can't go above...
It annoys me because I should have 101, but I've gone down to 98 
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don't get it. Black Doom is still living? The G.U.N Commander is a grandfather? The G.U.N. Commander is/was MARRIED?!
I wouldn't count it as canon. Like Snake vs Monkey in Metal Gear Solid 3, it doesn't actually happen. But having 326 storylines, I'm not sure what's canon exactly so maybe it does take place after all. 0.o
Expert mode isn't too hard, since lives add up fast. The level I had the biggest trouble with was Cosmic Fall. The camera caused me many deaths.
Also you're force to stay on the back of the Black Volt during The Ark, and if you jump if you'll have to start again. It wasn't until this that I realised how Panzer Dragoon-like the level is.
This is all very intriuging, and the proposed prospect of it being superior to the main game makes me want to try to see if I can snap the game up for cheap...gah.
I suppose that we can assume that station square & locales + most of SA2 is supposed to be America?
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Thirdly, Gerald explains how the Artificial Chaos' went out of control. Apparently they Positive and Negative Electrode Connectors were switched... Oh no, how terrible.
Still, it's a reason.
I thought that the red slime oozing out of their craniums explained it well enough.
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I suppose that we can assume that station square & locales + most of SA2 is supposed to be America?
Yeah, that's what I'd assume, personally. This post has how SA2's world is based on SanFran (most of us know City Escape is based on this area, but that thread explains about more stages).
Ah, how could I forget? Omochao mentions San Fransisco in SA2 as well.
3 great new additions, they really tried hard for the later levels...
Firstly, Cosmic Fall is THE Evil level of the Hard Mode... If you thought the original was hard then... phew.... Still, lives add up easily, my total of 99 has gone down to 89... 
On the other hand, you were right. "Chao, chachachachachachao... Chao, chaochao, chao..."
Cream squeeks for about 30 seconds before Cream tanslates to "Good Luck Shadow."
The President's back, "I'm sorry about earlier Shadow, I've been busy discussing the reconstruction."
"Excuse me Mr. President, your late for your karaoke part with the Minister of Finance."
"Ahh... I almost forgot. Shadow, I'll talk to you later."
... Karaoke party? 
Lava Shelter has Gamma and Rouge... "I will defeat Eggman and proove I am the strongest."
"Oh grow up Gamma, don't you have anything better to do?"
*dissapointedly* ".... Oh..."
And the Chaotix are STRAIGHT out of how they were in the Fleetway Comics. "Training... Training"
"Shut up Charmey"
"Hey, can't you leave me alone Vector... Anyway, You ate my pudding."
"Ahhh... Busted"
"You OWE me now Vector..."
Strangely enough, Vector's voice WASNT that bad, WHY couldn't of the actor controlled himself more in the actual game?
...
Anyway, Im on final haunt, so if there is the last bit or not, I'll be able to report back soon.
Also, no mention of France, I get the feeling that was a mishearing Finance...
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Lava Shelter has Gamma and Rouge..
Err... what?
....er....damnit Swift, you make me want to sell my soul and buy the damn game now! >_<
Still, this is quite fun to learn....I'll see if I can find it second hand or something....maybe....<.<
While I admit it's pretty cool in the same way that the What If? mode cheat on the original Spiderman Playstation game(s) were, no number of minor easter eggs - especially if it requires clearing the game in its entirety again (I think I deleted my save.) as well as going for A-ranks - are going to make me want to play this game once more. 😮
What-If was awesome. I'm assuming it was the same in the Dreamcast version... but watching Venom and JJJ play Marco Polo, Spidey's snide remark about lava, and when Venom and Spidey went crashing through that building in that one cutscene... hilarity!
Yeah, that's the same one...wasn't it Scorpion and JJJ who played Marco Polo though?
Yes, it was. But it's been a long time since I've played it, so...
Kinda bummed that Spider-Man 2 was PS1-only, though. Should check it out anyway, but still...
But I like the name Gamma, it sounds cooler... Omega's been done before and it's SOOOOOOO glib.
Anyay, the final level is EVERY character from the game wishing Shadow luck... EVERY character, urging him to hurry to the goal ring, every character wishing him luck and so on...
And I can confirm, you get nothing for finishing Expert Mode, even with 98 lives...
Although I'm now tempted to do it and finish with 99...
Wait, so you're saying it's Gamma? Or it actually is Gamma and not Omega?
EDIT: Wow, I was not aware that weekend. I obviously meant to ask.
So it IS Gamma? Or it's Omega as intended?
It's Omega. He just prefers the name Gamma, even if it is incorrect.
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The President's back, "I'm sorry about earlier Shadow, I've been busy discussing the reconstruction."
"Excuse me Mr. President, your late for your karaoke part with the Minister of Finance."
"Ahh... I almost forgot. Shadow, I'll talk to you later."
Btw does Sonic, Eggman and the others appear too? And if they do what crazy stuff do they say?
No one appears, they only talk in the background for a very brief time at the start of each level.
But, Sonic doesnt say much of interest just "I know you can do it." "If you run uot of Lives, it's over so be careful."
The most amusing ones feature the PResident, Gun Commander or Chaotix. Hearing Charmey bribe Vector to let him sing is kind of amusing, but the best laugh is the way espio is embarresdly apolagising for the other two
I suspected that all the same places as our world existed... Heck. Notice the president? He's a generic fusion between two rather famous (or perhaps infamous to some{most?}) presidents.
George Bush: "Fu..."
Richard Nixon: "Shun..."
Both: "Ha!"
Richgorge Bixshun: "Mwah ha ha!"
I thought that all the places were the same when I saw that map on the Shadow. Other than a few small changes, such as Sonic Adventure II's map. At the end of Adventure II, we get a glimpse of quite a few of the famous world locales. I believe there was an Italy with some couple kissing after the saving of the world, and some place in the Middle East with a whole bunch of Arabians, or something, standing around.
Hey. Maybe we all exist in the Sonic canon! =D
~Nytloc Penumbral Lightkeeper
So expert mode is canon?
I seriously doubt it, as Black Doom is alive in it, but it takes place after he is destroyed.
The entire Shadow game is non-canon, so it wouldn't make sense for a gameplay mode in it to be canon, would it?
It doesnt make any major changes to other games plotlines, it's story is it's OWN story...
There's no REASON aliens can't be in the Sonic Universe, and it's in the same continuity as SA2 and Heroes, so unles BOTH of them are non cannon, which would also make Sonic Adventure no ncannon as well...
Oh, I see, the only REAL CANNON games are the genesis ones
I don't think there's anything in Shadow that say it's not cannon, it's a different situation but recognisably the same world as everything else Sonic Team.
I'd have to say Shadow is non-canon simply because of the branching storylines: There's so many different paths through the storyline and endings that it is impossible for all of them to be canon, and as there is no one 'true' path it just seems a whole lot easier to say Shadow is more of a side-story that didn't really happen in the same continuity.
Actually, Wonder, last story is supposed to be the "true" path. The other paths, I think, are supposed to be possible scenarios rather than actual events; though, going by what the characters say in the last story, some of the scenarios had to happen.
It's pretty obvious that Last Story is the true path of the game following the basics (aliens attack- Shadow gets the Emeralds). Just because you don't like the game (I think it's great) doesn't mean it's not canon. The branching storylines (even if there are like 350) are all there to appease all the different ideas that fans had about the truth about Shadow (good, bad evil, whatever) but the Last Story, as always, over-rides them all.
It has nothing to do with liking the game or not; But with all the storylines and nothing in the game saying "DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO ANY OTHER STORIES LAST STORY IS THE ONLY REAL ONE" Then the game can safely be considered Non-canon without too much of a loss from the series.
It's just that Sonic Team thought it'd be interesting to see what the other routes would look like, and I did, I found it very interesting...
I don't think there's anything majorly contradicting the other games and if you think Shadow isn't cannon then... well, he's still amnesiac and can't remember a thing...
Do you really want him to CONTINUE his search for his past?
Shadow ties up the loose ends from the ARK, maybe not the loose ends for Shadow himself and maybe not in a very good way, but I found nothing suggesting "This is not cannon."
I found it hard to accept that the ending is cannon at first. In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow clearly knows nothing of the aliens. He is only bent on avenging Maria and the Gerald. However, this is obviously because after realising that the aliens were bad news, Gerald wiped Shadows memory and recorded that video.
I dont think Shadow indicated that he EVER knew about the aliens...
Gerald used Black Doom to create him and then probably never mentioned it again, except in a video recording in case he should ever be killed.
He began making the eclipse cannon to fight Black Doom, but when GUN heard about that and his experiments they invaded and...
Well, from there on it's pretty plain sailing, but you are right. Gerald DID tamper with Shadow's memory, but that was about how Maria had died not how he had been born.
