You need to collect 35 stars in the World Tour mode, that should be at least 18 events if you're playing on Normal mode. It'll probably take 1-2 hours to get him.

hmm...much appreciated heads-up, i may just need to break it out of the box early and unlock Shadow on their behalf otherwise all hell is going to break loose on christmas day when the pictured niece realises she can't play as shadow just yet - is it going to be much work?

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are available from the start. Shadow and Eggman are unlockable, and if you pick up the Limited Edition, you can play as Metal Sonic right from the get-go.

along as its crisis city then i dont care - that has a badass theme, reminds me of the similarly awesome rooftop run but omg dude generations spoilers! i'm gonna pick up sonic racing for my sonic obsessed nieces (she's actually a twin, the other one much prefers sonic over shadow and yes, i have encouraged this obsession from a very young age) and play the crap out of it with them, i have heard good things! which sonic characters are playable? i suspect the rest will be getting ignored...

Silver is the Modern Era's rival boss in the console version as well. They used him instead of Knuckles or Blaze because you have rescue them and there weren't any other characters that would've been appropriate. I'm guessing they didn't see much reason to change things for the 3DS version. Also, if just Silver's presence angers you, just wait until you see the first level of the console version's Modern Era.

I'm so happy Sonic's awesome again. I've been playing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed recently. Excellent Mario Kart clone, probably the best game I've played all year. Chronicles...eh. It's an alright RPG, the dialogue is pretty good, but the enemies in the second half of the game are real assholes, the soundtrack is awful and the ending is kinda bullshit. Still, the game is fun enough.

further criticism is why is Silver there? his only major appearance was in the worst Sonic game ever - if they wanted another character for the race levels they could have went with Knuckles - holy shit where was Knuckles in that game? Blaze the Cat would have been a good fit too, the Rush games were pretty great. but silver? ughhhhhhh. I like Shadow if it's on the understanding that he died at the end of SA2, any subsequent appearances (sans as Lancelot, was it?) are bullshit in my eyes and only lead me to hate the character.

so yeah, knave, lets talk Sonic and rejoice in the fact that after Colors and Generations the franchise finally seems to be on the up...also Chronicles? i've wanted it for soooo long and i've just ordered it now so i'm super stoked!