Shadow the Hedgehog Officially Revealed as a Rival in Sonic Generations

SEGA has just officially revealed Shadow the Hedgehog as the next rival character in Sonic’s upcoming 20th Anniversary title Sonic Generations. New artwork for the black hedgehog has been released showing him in quite the angry pose. No other details or screenshots have been released at this time regarding which stage players will battle Shadow. But with the Tokyo Game Show coming up this week, hopefully SEGA will release more info and media. We’ll keep our eyes peeled.

Source: SEGA Blog

Thanks to Eternal X at the SSMB for the heads up!

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153 Comments

    1. That’s why I said “officially” revealed. Besides, you get new artwork, and this is news to those who have been staying away from the leaks.

  1. well……this looks…..nice? no, NO NO! NO NO!!! NOT THAT POSE! ’06 pose was one of better T_T man, but….i hope only a Silver pose will be better :/

      1. Wait nevermind. The website wont let me lol. Just know that i wont say stuff like this Ricardo did: “So I’ll be kicking his ass with MODERN and CLASSIC???
        Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”

        Im not like that, and i most of the time dont cuss 😛

    1. I honestly lol’d seriously hard at this.

      That’s like one of the only lines I remember from that confusing ass game

  2. I guess this means silver artwork is on the way soon (since everything else found out in the leak has been true so far), I wonder what pose he’ll be in.

    1. He’s a spin-off character.

      Shouldn’t you be jerking off to his “WANTED” poster on City Escape?

      1. Silver has only been in one main series game, and it was a discontinued and low rated one. He’s basically a spin-off character and yet he gets a spot. Logic doesn’t work with most fans or Sonic Team themselves at times. Nevertheless I’m still looking forward to this game being a fan if the series more than any individual characters.

        1. You gotta remember, not only is it Sonic’s 20th and Shadow’s 10th, it’s Silver’s 5th. He was created for an anniversary game that was supposed to be a classic like SA2. Obviously that wasn’t the case, but just the fact that he was in an anniversary game puts him above Fang/Nack.

          1. But….he wasn’t. I mean, he was in the game that was supposed to be an anniversary game. But he was not created for that game. Silver was an unrelated character designed and meant to be in his own game with no connections so the Sonic franchise at all. It was only when they decided to cancel that game did they move the character and his abilities into the new Sonic game they were working on. And redesigned him into a hedgehog I’m guessing.

      2. I’d rather we didnt have either nack or silver. But whatever, the game should be great nonetheless

      3. Nack is a Main series character, hes just not had a chance to be in the Main series, he was going to in sonic extreme, Sonic extreme had him as one of the boss battles and sonic extreme was meant to be the next main series game before cancelled.

    2. Someone who’s been in one main (handheld) game and a few spin-off titles is “worth” seeing more than someone who’s been part of the game series continuously for the past 10 years?

      1. Pretty sure people are allowed opinions. I was expecting Shadow in the main console version, would have been nice to see Fang/Nack on the handheld as a Rival. They seem to have thrown out the idea of having the handheld version represent the handheld games tho from what we have seen so far. Poor Gamegear gets no love. Shadow was in Adventure 2, Heroes, and ’06. that isn’t much more than Fang/Nack if you are not counting spin-off games. Even less if you don’t include ’06 for being so terribly received by the majority and Sega recalling it.

        Shadow was a great character for Adventure 2, but after that personally in my opinion he had served his purpose, he was supposed to be dead, bringing him back just because he was popular didn’t do the series any favors in my eyes. It ruined the emotional ending of Adventure 2 where he sacrificed himself and they brought out that totally bonkers back story in the Shadow game.

        It’s a good choice to have him as a rival tho for this game and I’m looking forward to seeing how the fight will be showcased. And the classic fans can be happy he isn’t a support character and they get to beat him up, it’s win win, I don’t know what everyone is complaining about >.<

        1. It ruined the emotional ending of Adventure 2 where he sacrificed himself and they brought out that totally bonkers back story in the Shadow game.

          Everyone is doing this… Marvel, DC… heck even Archie broght back Sally (even though I wished she stood dead since she was a damn Mary Sue). But yeah, that is nothing new to the genre, so don’t act like “I didn’t see that was coming”. It was more than obvious.

          1. I don’t see how? It received that Platinuim 360 thing, plus I was able to buy it a year after it came out?

    3. He could be a boss in the handheld version of the game, for all we know. Given that it’s supposed to reference handheld games like Sonic Advance, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he appeared as a boss.

    1. D: No man, now I gotta change my name because people will confuse me for you :/

      @Everyone: You first knew me as Rickyrick, then Ricardo. Soon you shall see me as Ricardo Gutierrez :/ 🙂

      Prob the only ppl that will recongnize me are HUNTER297&C.J 🙂

  3. Shadow: Where’s that “damn” fourth Chaos Emerald!
    Classic Sonic: ???
    Sonic: *covers Classic’s ears* Don’t listen to him… Just don’t…

  4. Sweet artwork, trying to avoid the leak like the plague though! For once i’d just like to play a Sonic game not knowing what to expect, maybe I’ll turn off the internet until it’s out xD

    Seems all the haters are out on facebook though, such a shame, I feel sorry for the admins on that page -__-“

    1. Most of those haters also don’t know what they’re talking about in relation to Shadow being in Generations.. so it’s not too much of a shame. Ignorance is all over Facebook/the internet.

      1. That’s true, I kind of wrote a tiny little rant on there asking why people think the games quality has just gone down the drain, just because of the announcement of a RIVAL character, I mean come on, for a start he isn’t even playable and will probably only appear once or twice. I do wonder about the expectations of some fans sometimes, I’d like to see how they would make the game.

    1. It’s a grab bag of classic and modern. Because there is a fanbase for the next-gen games, believe it or not.

  5. I think this was pretty expected, even for those who weren’t following the leaks.

    Anyway, I’m interested to see how the battle will look. I hope they make it epic and take place on the ARK.

    1. Of maybe you’ll fight in one type of arena for one Sonic and a different one for another. For example, you’d have Shadow fight Classic Sonic in the jungle, and Modern Sonic would fight Shadow aboard the ARK.

        1. Idk, Sega’s been pretty badass lately, maybe they will.

          Especially since the race between Sonic and Shadow in the ARK was another MASSIVE event in Sonic history. It was loved by many fans and it was just epic!

          I just wanna hear Sonic say “Haha Shadow, it’s been 10 years and you still haven’t managed to beat me xP”

  6. You know I just thought of something. This really is kind’ve a highlight for Shadow. He’s standing in a pose ready to fight. So it’s obvious what his role is in the game. But that being said it’s a major highlight for the “Light/Dark” head-butting theme of SA2 with Sonic vs Shadow which we haven’t genuinely seen in quite a while as more than just a trend or gag. And SA2 was Shadow at his best.

    I wonder how they’re portray his personality if they portray it much at all. Whether it’s on Prison Island Space Colony ARK I can imagine the redesign of the sceney easily for some reason. o0

      1. Well, he kind of was if you’re thinking of Sonic History, but in real life there will never be a proper classic Shadow.
        I was just pointing out that if you wanted to see that, you might as well search deviantART or something…

  7. Would it be okay for me to mention that his eyes look a bit too orange, or are remarks about eye colour officially a faux-pas within the Sonic community?
    Either way, it’s good to see him opposing Sonic again. c:

  8. Oh PLEASE Sega, may we fight him on Space Colony ARK as we’ve once done 10 years ago!

    I honestly hope it’s the case. IMO, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Rival fights were speed/constant running based. I mean, we got Metal Sonic for Bad Future!Stardust Speedway, so it should make sense if it’s the ARK fight from SA2 being portrayed. ‘sides, enough greenery and buildings!

    WE

    WANT

    SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!

    …”I’m in space!”

      1. @Kadeem – Did you NOT see Sonic 2006 Silver’s Story Opening? At the end, he uses his kinetic powers to do a boost just as fast as Sonic. Silver can fly just as fast as Sonic can run(Dont take this LITERALLY)

        Anyway, i doubt we will be racing Silver. It’ll most likely be the Solenna one, which was such a boring battle. Though i have faith in SEGA that they will make the Silver Boss Fight epic.

        1. @Ricardo – you’re right i just don’t know how we will be able to fight a flying boss with THIS Modern sonic

    1. you win 1 internets point, my friend.
      Nice Portal 2 ref.

      “Space. Ba Baa Ba Ba. I’m in space. Love space. Ooh, here come the space cops, play it cool, play it cool…”

    2. Yeah, there’ll be a Shadow race in the ARK. There’s a screenshot of it if you look up “sonic generations screenshots” on Google images. Shadow boosts just like Sonic!

  9. i would love the ARK fight to be the scene for this boss. But i wouldnt complain if it was the prison island setup. The scene before Sonic and Shadow fight on prison island is cool. “That blue hedgehog again of all places!”

    1. Actually the scene before both of them are pretty cool!

      (Actually if it’s on the ARK it’d be cool if the boss started off the same with the camera circling them while they say their line. Tho only the oppoent spoke. It’d be cool if they did do that in this one both spoke. It’d be like…
      Sonic: Alright, Shadow. Time for me to finish this!
      Shadow: Before this is over… I’ll show you the true power of CHAOS CONTROL!”)

      I guess either one would be especially cool if they recorded the exact same lines word for word. Heck even close enough would be awesome to see them remember that kind of detail. =3 lol

      1. you know what would make that even more epic? if Live and Learn was playing in the backround during the fight with Shadow…this boss fight would be complete.

        1. Probably but it doesn’t fit to me. I guess it’s because if you’re gonna play this boss it’d make more sense to have this boss’s music track instead of another one’s. (That’d be like if Chemical Plant played Metropolis Zone’s theme for some reason. o0)

  10. I personally am happy Shadow is in it. He’s been one of my favorite characters ever since his creation for one, very important reason: he has a story. He has a personality, a character arc, and an actual back-history. I’m not saying the other characters are bad because their stories aren’t as complex, nor am I justifying aspects of Shadow which lead to the downfall of his spin-off game. What I am saying is that the personalities and stories behind characters, like Shadow, is what separates them from yawn-inducing, soulless characters like Mario, who have less personality than a rock.

    We can thank Shadow for linking many games in the series. His history has carried on through many titles, like Adventure 2, Heroes, ShadowTH, and even 06, giving them a chronological order. If all the games were like Sonic Colours (which I enjoyed) in terms of story, we’d all be lost in a chronological cluster-f*ck.

    1. Ever played Mario & Luigi? Super Mario RPG? Paper Mario even?

      There’s nothing yawn-inducing to Mario.

  11. Interested to see how it works tbh, hoping for some screenshots soon like metal sonic had…
    Also, i may have missed this somewhere along the line but do we know if you face rivals as both sonics, or if certain rivals have a certain sonic? Like i really wanna go against metal with modern sonic and shadow with classic lol

  12. Where’s the next classic stage reveal!!
    Shadow : “This is the Ultimate!!”
    Shutup and learn to finish your sentences!

    1. Actually he does finish it! XD

      He says “This is the ultiate power!”

      (Even if he didn’t, I think “This is the ultimate!” could still be a complete sentence. Not a proper one but in casual common speech it wouldn’t be abnormal. XD)

      1. Really? Everytime I played it on both the Dreamcast and the Gamecube he never finished the sentence. He says “This is the ultimate” and then cuts off the line saying “Chaos Control” and teleporting. From memory there’s a fair few audio and speech muck ups in Adventure 2. Sonic talking to Shadow before the boss fight, I remember some of his lines becoming hard to hear and drowned out by the music and the sound effects of them running.

        1. Yeah. He says “This is the ULTIMATE power.” You rarely HEAR him say the full line unless you get lucky. (I don’t recall how to do it.) But I’ve also heard the voice clip that has the full line.

          He also doesn’t say “Chaos Control”. He just says “This is the ULTIMATE…” and teleports.

          You’re probably thinking of Sonic who also gets cut off when he says “I’ll use you… Chaos Control!”. (He actually say something like “I’ll use your power!” or “I’ll use your skill” or something like that. I forgot.)

          I guess the timing/programming was just off so it cuts off the ending during gameplay due to the teleportation being activated. lol

          1. No, Sonic says: “I’ll USE YOUR- CHAOS CONTROL!”

            But in cut-off, ya, he says: “I’ll use you- CHAOS CONTROL!”

            Shadow says: “THIS IS THE ULTIMATE POWER”

            but in cut-off he says” THIS IS THE ULTIMATE”

            And i agree with you guys on the cutscenes. Its not that the music was too high, but the character’s voice sounds were so low, that at times, the music will drown the voice clips.

            For example, on the cutscene before you fight Sonic/Shadow in Space, Shadow says:

            Shadow: What ARE YOU anyway?

            Sonic:*What you see is what you get* IM SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!

            The asterisk(*) = Low voice part.

          2. the reason WHY its cut off is because of the English dubbing from the Japanese Original, they had to somehow fit the entire english script into a game already dubbed for japanese speech.

            another big example is directly after the battle with shadow on prison island when sonic says “BLOWS UP!?” in the japanese translation he just says “WHAT!?” and the whole verse afterwards where sonic is apparently thinking to himself about saving tails and amy.

            and its actually

            Sonic: I’ll use your power! Chaos Control!

            Shadow: This is the Ultimate Power! Chaos Control!

            so the whole script is jammed into a game synced for Japanese speech.

          3. I have the voice clips.

            Shadow says “This is the ULTIMATE power!” but it cuts off because the line is too long to finish before he teleports. So you only hear him say “This is the ULTIMATE!”

            And you were wondering what it is Sonic says at the end of his line.
            Sonic’s line was “I’ll use YOUR technique!” and when he teleports, it activates the clip where he says “Chaos Control!”. Since they’re 2 seperate clips and the first one is cut off, you only hear “I’ll use you – Chaos Control!”. (This makes some people think he’s saying “I’ll use your Chaos Control!” but he’s not.)

    1. He doesn’t have a game series, “series” being the operative word. So he doesn’t get a birthday 😛
      Poor guy, everyone deserves a party lol

      1. Everyone has a birthday XD Shadow came around for the tenth anniversary, after all (he’s really 10, but technically in the games he’s 50+. Confusing for him, I reckon).

        Yes, everyone needs a party. Frankly, I’m more interested in the cake myself ;D

  13. Ease off the crack Shadow; your looking a tad bit tense… O.o *Slowely tries to take it
    away*
    Shadow: “Don’t touch it!!!!!!”

    But anyway, yay! he’s been officially unveiled! =P
    I hope that the boss fight with him is on the Ark like the one after you finish the Final Rush level with Sonic.

  14. Yeah….looking at the FB comments, sheesh. I love how people get so upset over a BOSS character…haha. I for one, am glad they put Shadow, and other characters whom I will not spoil, in the game.

  15. A rival has he should be. It would be nice to see Knuckles get hit by a rock or something and act as Sonic’s rival like he did in the old school days but they’re too much considered as friends now. Heck even heroes considered Robotnik as a rival lol

  16. …*Squeals* YEEEEEEEES! I get to relive one of the hardest boss fights ever (I was stupid and forgot all about the Spin Dash…He he.) I’m also looking forward to hearing Kirk Thornton – I hope he’s improved from the one clip I heard from Free Riders (…He sounded like a rapist/smoker. I did like the slight British accent though).

    Oh boy…Can’t wait now. Although since he’ll probably have access to all his moves, the fight is going to be really difficult I imagine. Here’s hoping we get the famous line spoken before the first fight (the whole “faker” business) but get the difficulty of the second one.

    …I wonder what Sonic said to make Shadow so mad? OH! It’s because no one is celebrating the ten years he’s been around…And Sonic didn’t invite him to the party. That’s a good way to tick anyone off – deny them their cake! Even worse…Denying the Ultimate Life Form his piece of cake. That’s begging for a donkey-whoopin’.

    1. Faker?! I think you’re the fake hedgehog around here. You’re comparing yourself to me?! Ha! You’re not even good enough to be my fake!

    1. O jeez..thats right. I completely forgot about the new voices… since they hired professionals, i really hope they give it their all on the performances. They have big shoes to fill

  17. This is what I like, nice comments about Sonic characters. Flipping TSSZ is full of guys complaining about how Shadow sucks and how he ruined Sonic forever. No problem with Tristan Oliver, don’t care for the other guys.

    1. You know, not everyone there hates Shadow…take me for example…he’s one of my favorite characters. ^_^

  18. He looks pissed, maybe cuz he realized he survived the fall from space lol?

    I mean JEsus, look at his shoes for god’s sake, looks like he got in a fight or something

    1. Someone just needs to photoshop a knife in his clenched hand and then it would be the perfect wrist cutting pose.

  19. My only question, will they finally let you use chaos control while fighting him as well xD Maybe warp to the outer rims and pillars of the ark, a little more EXTREME.
    I’ll use your- CHAOS CONTROL.
    This is the Ultimate Power.
    It’s no use, TAKE THIS……..<_< Wait, you haven't been officially revealed. Hopefully they've fixed that cheap little trick of yours.

  20. in retrospect they should have had the original voice actors for the roles of all the characters besides Sonic, since its going back in time to fight the original character of that time era.

    it’d also rock hard if they gave Sonic his Soap Shoes for the City Escape and Shadow Boss Fight c:

  21. Just thought it would be funny if Sonic died when Eggman launched him from the Ark and the Sonic that appears in front of Knuckles before the showdown with Shadow is actually the Sonic from the Sonic Generations timeline!

        1. dude im being serious. im not bein a troll here. i heard that this isnt the artwork for shadow. im not saying its not, im just saying thats what i heard. this could be the artwork i dont know.

  22. Sonic adventure 2…..welcome back. lol With the unleashed engine, the already impressive enviornment of the ark (everyone knows the final battle with shadow was an epic moment, and i asume the battle grounds will be on the ark. It was the main location peice of the SA2 plot) revamped, and a hopefully a kick-ass remix of the music– this is sounding really promising. I really cant wait to ee how this will turn out. Te screenshots from the metal sonic race-off from Sonic CD looked good, so i have high hopes for this one. 😀 As for silver…hopefully, it will at least be a challenge this time. Now what Perfect Chaos will be like on the other hand…..only time will tell.

  23. Who designed the pose anyway? The USA side or the Japanese side? Since the former is more likely.
    I wished they worked further more on it, since he looked more like a bully rather than a gentleman antagonist.

    The Japanese pose look like this: http://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/css/own-main/shadow.png
    Dignified and defiant.

    Though Shadow…, if you’re Sir Lancelot, where’s your Elaine? And no, I’m not talking about your ‘mother’/Maria.

  24. I gotta’ say, if the demo leak is genuine, then it’s a pretty boring and samey level selection considering the wealth of stage themes Sega have. Too many city/urban based stages, nothing like aquatic ruins or ice cap zone or hidden palace. I apologise if that spoiled it for anyone.

  25. OH WOW 😀 Shadow looks so cool and kinda funny with that pose lol…Epic nothing more to be said My head’s still burtsing with excitement…I saw some of the spoilers I just couldn’t resist after last time WHOA 🙂

      1. Oh no sorry I mixed that up I meant when I found out the levels unexpectetly I don’t know many of the rivals appearing…I only just found here that Shadow is a rival Im glad he’s appearing…I also know about Metal Sonic and 😛 I dunno I didn’t want to find out I’ve still avoided most so far so it won’t ruin the suprise for me…I’m glad Shadow is in this game 🙂

  26. you know i was in a store once with a friend and well he wanted to buy sonic 06 for his brother so his brother comes in and says “OMG SONIC 06 IM GONNA PLAY IT CAUSE IT SO GOOD “i slammed the game out of his hands and said”ILL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS”then my friend laughed so hard

  27. SHADOWS IN GENERATIONS OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Hes my favorite sonic character OF ALL TIME i love every game hes in and yes i like sonic 06 don’t ask

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