Shadow The Hedgehog - Appearances in Video Games

Appearances in Video Games

Shadow's debut in the game Sonic Adventure 2, where it is explained that he was created fifty years prior to the game's events, by Professor Gerald Robotnik. He created Shadow as "The Ultimate Life Form", a first step towards achieving the goal of immortality, but the government deemed Project Shadow a threat, and dispatched G.U.N. troopers to the space colony ARK. G.U.N. destroyed the research, shut down the ARK, and killed all those present, including Robotnik's granddaughter, Maria. Before she died, she ejected Shadow towards Earth in an escape pod, telling him to give people "a chance to be happy". Gerald, driven insane by her death, designed a program that would cause the research station Space Colony ARK to crash into Earth once all seven Chaos Emeralds were placed inside it.

Fifty years later, Shadow was released from suspended animation by Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik, grandson of Gerald Robotnik, who sought after Shadow after learning from Gerald's diary that he was the ultimate life form his grandfather had created. Dr. Eggman hoped to use Shadow to conquer the world. Shadow, having sworn revenge on the humans who caused the death of Maria (due to Gerald's plan), tricked Eggman, along with Rouge the Bat, into helping him collect all seven Chaos Emeralds. The trio placed them in the ARK, nearly allowing it to crash into Earth. Amy Rose managed to trigger Shadow's true memory of Maria and her wish, and the ARK was placed back into orbit using his skill, Chaos Control, using up the last of his energy and sending him falling to Earth, seemingly dead.

In Sonic Heroes, Rouge discovered Shadow in a stasis tube in Eggman's secret base. Suffering from amnesia and unable to remember anything except his name and brief images of Maria's death, Shadow joined forces with Rouge and E-123 Omega in order to track down Eggman. After defeating the final Eggman robot, Rouge stumbled into a room full of what appeared to be Shadow clones, and deduced that Shadow was also a clone. Omega then walked in and stated that the original Shadow must be alive for clones to exist, and began to search for him. They then went on to fight Metal Sonic with the others.

In Sonic Battle, Rouge saves Shadow while they are investigating Dr. Eggman's secret base. Believing that he is a weapon, he insists the people of Earth must destroy him, but it is revealed that he ultimately has the heart and soul of Maria Robotnik and so is not the enemy of humanity. In one of Gerald Robotnik's journal entries, he mentions that "Project Shadow" was put on hold because of Project Gizoid. In his story of Sonic Battle, Shadow and Emerl travel together in order to discover more about Emerl. Seeing as both of them were created as weapons, and under the same creator (Emerl was tweaked by Gerald Robotnik), they form a bit of a bond as Shadow's story develops.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow, still with no memory of his past, meets a malevolent race of aliens called the Black Arms and Black Doom, their leader, who seems to know Shadow. Throughout the game, Shadow has constant flashbacks of his past. Black Doom also baits Shadow with the knowledge of his past, while Eggman tells him that he is simply an android created by himself to mimic the real Shadow. In the final story, Black Doom reveals to him that while working on his immortality project, Gerald Robotnik contacted Black Doom and made a deal with him. If Black Doom helped him with his research, Gerald would deliver the seven Chaos Emeralds to him in fifty years' time. Using his own blood, Black Doom helped Gerald create Shadow, a life form that would both help with Gerald's research and collect the Chaos Emeralds for Black Doom in the future. However, once Gerald learned of Black Doom's plot to take over the world, he created the Eclipse Cannon as a means to destroy the Black Comet (the Black Arms' home), and left it up to Shadow to stop the Black Arms. While fighting Black Doom, Shadow learned from Eggman that he in fact was not an android, but the original Shadow, whom Eggman had rescued with one of his robots after Shadow fell from space (Sonic Adventure 2). He destroys both Black Doom and the Black Arms, and vows to leave behind his past. While the game features several alternate endings and certain routes leading to those endings, this ending is generally accepted to be the true outcome of events, since it is the only one that features Super Shadow, a common way to conclude stories in modern Sonic games.

In the 2006 Sonic the Hedgehog video game, Shadow, now an agent of G.U.N., works with Rouge and Omega after confronting Mephiles the Dark, a manipulative darkness spirit created when a time travel project went haywire. One of Mephiles' goals is to interfere with Shadow's future, but along with Silver and Sonic, Shadow super transforms and manages to defeat Solaris for good, and Mephiles (as part of Solaris) with it. But due to the time paradox caused by Sonic and Princess Elise, Shadow, along with everyone else, doesn't remember this.

Shadow appears in Sonic Rivals as a playable character alongside Sonic, Knuckles, Silver, and Metal Sonic, where he locates and uncovers the truth about Dr. Eggman. He also appears in the sequel, Sonic Rivals 2. He is an unlockable character in the game Sonic Riders, as Speed type character, with his trademark shoes, and also appears in the sequel, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. Shadow also appeared in the game Sonic and the Secret Rings, being the first unlockable character for the Party Mode and also appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an assist trophy and a sticker. Shadow's other appearance was in Sega Superstars Tennis and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games as a playable character.

He also appears in the Sega racing game, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. In the game, he rides a modified black and red G.U.N. motorcycle called Dark Rider, with the symbol from his own game on the sides and jet boosters on the sides of the back wheel. His All-Star move involves him turning into Super Shadow and using Chaos Spear to attack his foes while speeding across the track.

He also appears in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games where he is categorized as a "speed" character, rivaling Sonic.

Shadow appears in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, the Sonic RPG by Bioware. In the game, Shadow is searching for his friend, E-123 Omega, who has gone missing after Omega began to try to find any of the notorious Dr. Eggman's robots so he could destroy them.

Shadow appears in Sonic and the Black Knight, portrayed as Lancelot, one of the Knights of the Round Table. He is the first of the knights encountered in the game, and the closest to Sonic in terms of gameplay. Shadow is also the only Knight of the Round Table that appears as a boss fight twice, the second mission titled, "Lancelot Returns."

In Sonic Free Riders he is a playable character in normal race mode and in story mode along with Team Dark.

Shadow has appeared in Sonic Generations. In the game, he is not a playable character, but a rival boss to Sonic in the game. He challenges Modern Sonic to a battle for a Chaos Emerald. This battle takes place in a location originally from Sonic Adventure 2, the Space Colony Ark. In the battle, Sonic and Shadow race to get two 'power cores' (three in hard mode) and unleash their super attack on their opponent. If Shadow gets the cores, he will unleash multiple Chaos Spears at Sonic, which Sonic can dodge using quick step. After he finishes his Chaos Spear attack, he yells, "Chaos Control!" and launches a large energy attack at Sonic, which can also be dodged with a quick step. If Sonic gets the cores, Sonic gains a purple-colored boost, and hits meteorites to slow down Shadow, in order to defeat Shadow. He keeps his purple boost for a minute, so he can boost into Shadow and cause him to lose rings. Thus, Sonic would win the fight. He is also seen in the Center of Time alongside Rouge and all of Sonic's friends, who were supporting the two Sonics to defeat the two Eggmen and the Time Eater, and restore the time-space continuum. After the Time Eater's defeat, Shadow decides to stay at Sonic's birthday party, unlike the beginning party where he and Silver the Hedgehog (the third rival in the game) were nowhere to be found. This, however, does not hold true for the 3DS version of the game, as he and Silver are not present in the ending scene.

He also appeared in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games as a playable participant.