The Sonic the Hedgehog series has reentered our lives recently through the box office success of the feature film. The movies have a tragic omission, however.
The moody black hedgehog with the slick red accents. We think he deserves his own self-titled film in the near future, not a costar or villain role.
Shadow the “Ultimate Life Form” Hedgehog only wants two things: his purpose in life and to defeat Sonic.
The former gets answered (kind of) in his PS2 title, where we got to play as the anti-hero for the whole game.
He had a gun; it is a unique game. It’s about time that Shadow took chaos control of his own life. (We can hear your boos at that joke, and we don’t care.)
A newer addition to the Sonic canon compared to Tails and Knuckles, Shadow serves as a much-needed foil for Sonic in more recent Sonic Team releases.
Keep reading to learn a little more about this edgy hedgehog.
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Shadow the Hedgehog’s Age and Creation
Shadow shows up in recent Sonic games and shows like Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and Sonic Boom.
Most people’s introduction was through Sonic Adventure 2, his debut title, where he was a playable character in the Dark story mode.
You may remember him saying “Maria…” when you died while playing as Shadow. Good times. Shadow was also playable in Sonic Heroes for the few of us that played it.
It is said that Shadow loves the chaos emeralds more than Sonic loves chili dogs, but this sounds impossible.
How Old Is Shadow the Hedgehog?
Shadow has been through a lot. He was initially created by Professor Gerald Robotnik nearly 30ish years before Sonic was even born. (Going by Sonic Adventure 2.)
Project Shadow used Black Doom blood to infuse the ancient DNA into a hedgehog (We guess?) that would become the Ultimate Life Form.
Shadow was created to provide a cure for Maria, Gerald Robotnik’s granddaughter.
How infusing a hedgehog with this ancient magical beast’s DNA would lead to this end is unclear, but we love it.
Shadow is 16 years old, psychologically. Similar to Sonic. He was frozen for 50 years but did not age or mature in that time.
Plus, he’s a talking magical hedgehog. Standards of human chronology don’t matter at all to beings like him.
Is Shadow the Hedgehog Evil or Good?
As one of the world’s top anti-heroes, Shadow is neither and both. His goals in Sonic Adventure 2 were noble to him because he was avenging Maria, a young girl.
He seldom seeks to do harm for simple self-gain. Shadow is good and evil.
Being Sonic’s equal and rival makes him seem like the antagonist, but he’s not a villain at heart