Shadow the Hedgehog (character)

Shadow the Hedgehog is a prominent anti-hero and the rival of Sonic the Hedgehog in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. He was created to be the "ultimate life form" by Dr. Eggman's grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. Shadow does whatever is necessary to achieve his goals, and because of this he has fought both alongside and against Sonic the Hedgehog; Shadow and Sonic have somewhat of a frenemy relationship and rivalry. Shadow often fights alongside E-123 Omega and Rouge the Bat, who became his closest friends and allies. While Shadow typically shares most of Sonic's abilities, Shadow primarily uses a variety of "Chaos" powers to battle enemies, most notably Chaos Control, a power that allows him to distort time and space.

He was originally voiced by David Humphrey, then by Jason Griffith (who also voiced Sonic and Jet the Hawk), and has been voiced by Kirk Thornton since Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Sonic Adventure 2
Shadow first appears in Sonic Adventure 2 as well as Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Here, Dr. Eggman released Shadow from Prison Island. Shadow asked Dr. Eggman to collect the Chaos Emeralds, and to then go to the Space Colony ARK. When Eggman came to ARK, Shadow showed him the Eclipse Cannon, which required Chaos Emeralds to zap the Earth. Rouge the Bat overheard Shadow, and joined both Shadow and Eggman in their quest for the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow raced into the city to steal a Chaos Emerald, whereupon he met face-to-face with his first rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. After a conversation between the two, Shadow used Chaos Control to escape to the Space Colony ARK. Afterwards, Eggman made a plan for him, Shadow and Rouge to all go back to Prison Island. Eggman would destroy all of the guard robots, Rouge would steal three Chaos Emeralds, and Shadow would place time bombs everywhere to blow up Prison Island. When Shadow was placing the bombs, he saw Sonic again, so the two hedgehogs battled to see who was the better fighter. Both of them ran off when Eggman called to Shadow that the island was about to explode.

After collecting the three Emeralds, Rouge was trapped, so Shadow used Chaos Control to save her. After the escape, Shadow and Rouge made it to ARK, and Rouge revealed a newspaper article that reported that Miles "Tails" Prower saved Station Square from a missile launched by Eggman that was about to explode (Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut). Tails was awarded a Chaos Emerald, so Eggman ordered Shadow and Rouge to steal the Chaos Emerald from Tails.

Later, Eggman fired Sonic inside a capsule into space, and Shadow convinced himself that Sonic was a normal hedgehog after the capsule blew up in space. When Shadow went to the Eclipse Cannon, he found out that Rouge was a government spy, and Rouge found evidence of another Shadow and alleged that this Shadow wasn't the real Shadow (despite him not believing her), then Eggman called Shadow to get the person who was heading to the Eclipse Cannon. When Shadow found Sonic, he was surprised that Sonic was alive after the capsule exploded. Shadow asked for Sonic's name, so Sonic told him his name and that he liked adventures, to which Shadow replied to Sonic that his adventuring days are coming to an end, and the two fought for the last time.

In the last story, Eggman placed the Chaos Emerald he stole from Tails into the Eclipse Cannon, fired the Eclipse Cannon, but Sonic used a fake Emerald to destroy the cannon's point. Suddenly a hidden program initiated sending ARK falling to Earth. Professer Gerald Robotnik's (Eggman's grandfather) diary explained about Gerald's plan and motivations for this program, so Sonic, Tails, Knuckles the Echidna, Eggman, and Rouge teamed up to stop ARK for falling to Earth. Amy Rose saw Shadow looking out the window, so Amy tried to convince Shadow to help the team. Then Shadow had a flashback about Maria Robotnik, and ran to Sonic and Knuckles. When Shadow found Sonic and Knuckles looking at The Biolizard, the prototyep of the ultimate life-form, Shadow told Sonic and Knuckles that he was going to handle the beast, while they stopped the Chaos Emeralds. While Shadow was stopping The Biolizard, Knuckles stopped the Emeralds. Then the creature warped out of the room as Eggman informed Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles that The Finalhazard (the Biolizard molded to ARK) was pushing the ARK to Earth, so Sonic and Shadow changed to Super Sonic and Super Shadow, and fought with the beast the last time. After the fight, ARK stopped falling, Sonic made it back on ARK, everyone went back to Earth, execpt Sonic, and Shadow fell to Earth after the fight. Before Sonic left, he said to himself, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog".

Sonic Heroes
Shadow returned again in Sonic Heroes as a hero and a rival with Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega.

Team Dark's story begins when Rouge was looking for Dr. Eggman's secert treasure, inside his base. While she was searching, she she saw Shadow inside a capasle, and released him, whereupon a E-series robot named Omega tried to attack Shadow. Shadow dodged all of Omega's attacks and tried to attack Omega, but Rouge stopped the fight. She then discovered that Shadow had lost his memory and Omega was angry at Eggman for locking him in a room, so the three formed a team to get back at Eggman. When Team Dark saw Eggman, Omega told his team to destory Eggman. Eggman was surprised that his creation wanted to destory him, so Eggman battled Team Dark in his Egg Hawk plane, and lost. When Shadow, Rouge, and Omega met The Chaotix, Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy Bee thought that Team Dark were evil, and Rouge thought that the Chaotix were going after Eggman's treasure, so the two teams battled each other. When Team Dark saw Eggman again in Casino, Shadow asked Eggman about his memory, but Eggman made up a story that Shadow didn't have a past, and eventually Eggman sent out his robots to get Team Dark. After escaping the casino, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were looking for Eggman's base at Rail Canyon, then they saw Eggman in his Egg Albatross (with the Egg Hawk), so they battled again. Shadow, Rouge, and Omega discovered that the Dr. Eggman was a robot and Shadow also found a broken robot that looked like Shadow, so Team Dark went to Frog Forest. Team Dark noticed Team Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna running past them until finally Team Sonic noticed them and fought them. After the battle, Team Dark finally got on the Egg Fleet to find Eggman. The team found the doctor in his Egg Emeperor battle suit and battled him for the last time, and he lost again. After the fight, Team Dark found out again that the Eggman wasn't the real Eggman. Rouge left her team to Eggman's treasure, but she saw nothing but clones of Shadow inside the same capasle Shadow was in.

The last story begins when Team Chaotix found the real Eggman locked up in a room because one of his robots named Metal Sonic wanted to rule the world. All the teams and Eggman joined up to see Metal Sonic's new form called Neo Metal Sonic trying to change into a newer form called Metal Madness. Lucky, all the teams got all the Chaos Emeralds to beat Metal Sonic, so Team Rose, Team Chaotix, and Team Dark was fighting Metal Sonic until he turned into his last form called Metal Overlord. Team Super Sonic fought Metal Overlord and won. After the final battle, Neo Metal Sonic turned back into Metal Sonic.

Sonic Battle
The dark hedgehog is playable in handheld Sonic fighting game called Sonic Battle as a hero and a villain.

Shadow's story begins when Dr. Eggman was talking to himself that Shadow won't give his Chaos Emerald (Which is the last Chaos Emerald) to Emerl, but if he does, Eggman can rule the world.

Meanwhile in Gimme Shelter, Emerl was talking to Shadow so he walked up to Emerl then Rouge the Bat came up and told Shadow that Emerl is a weapon until a grey-looking E-102 Gamma came up to fight Shadow and Rouge. After the fight, the Gamma attacked and Rouge brought Shadow to Club Rouge for safety until Shadow was healed. When Shadow was asleep at Club Rouge, he had a flashback when Maria Robotnik was alive in the ARK, another flashback when he was battling Sonic the Hedgehog for Emerl, and one more flashback when he was fighting Miles "Tails" Prower for Emerl. After the flashbacks, Shadow needed to find Emerl so Rouge told him that he was at Emerald Beach and Shadow left her behind. When Shadow made it to the beach, Sonic told Shadow that Emerl was at Tails's house and asked why Shadow wanted him. Shadow answered that he need the last emerald from evil, then Sonic said that he's made for good if he have a heart, until Sonic gived up and Emerl came. Sonic sented Shadow and Emerl to go to and find Eggman. When Shadow and Emerl made it to Central City, they found Chaos Gamma and it tried to attack them twice. After the two fights, Shadow and Emerl left Gamma and went to Night Babylon then to Gimmer Shelter. When the two lifeforms made it to Gimme Shelter, Shadow asked the Mother Computer why they were created and who are they until Rouge appeared again and told that Shadow and Emerl were made for good and Shadow gave Emerl his last Chaos Emerald. Shadow asked Emerl to fight with each other to see who's the better lifeform and Shadow won. After the fight, Rouge and Emerl left, but before Emerl left, Shadow told him that he needs to go to Central Highway warming up for his and Emerl's last fight. After fighting everyone, Emerl went to Central Highway to battle Shadow and Emerl won, but Shadow told him to come back for his final fight. When Emerl came back, Sonic wanted to join the fight so Emerl had to fight a tag team of Sonic and Shadow and won again. After the fight, Shadow couldn't take the thanks from Emerl and left Sonic and Emerl behind.

In Emerl's story, Emerl had to fight everybody (Shadow is one of them) before fighting Eggman. When Emerl was done, he went to the Death Egg (And all of the friends can see Emerl at the Death Egg from a monitor). After two fought, Eggman shot Emerl with his Final Egg Blaster and Sonic had to fight him. After the last fight, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow, Rouge, and Cream the Rabbit watched in horror when Emerl blew up.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow made his first appearance as both the main and titular character.

Shadow's story begins when Shadow looks at Westopolis, a newspaper flew at Shadow's leg that said ''FIRE IN THE SKY FESTIVAL: Celebration! 50 Year return of Black Comet.'', then he had a flashback about Maria Robotnik got shot by G.U.N.. After the flashback, black-looking aliens called Black Arms fell from the sky, landed at Westopolis, and caused chaos in the city. When Shadow stared at the chaos, two aliens called Black Doom and Doom's Eye appeared in front of Shadow and asked for the Chaos Emeralds to tell his past, so Shadow ran to the city to find the emeralds with the help of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Rouge the Bat, E-123 Omega, Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Dr. Eggman, Maria Robotnik (in the past), and Doom's Eye.

In the last story, another newspaper appeared in Westopolis and it said ''50 Year return of the Black Comet! Best View Tonight!''. Meanwhile in the Black Comet, Shadow got all of the Chaos Emeralds and was about to give them to Black Doom, but all the partners (expect Espio, Vector, Charmy, Omega, and Doom's Eye) told Shadow that Black Doom wants to destory the Earth, but Black Doom grabbed the emeralds and used Chaos Control to sent the comet closer to the Earth to attack it. After the attack, Black Doom told some of Shadow's past that Black Doom helped create Shadow and Professor Gerald Robotnik had to give Black Doom all the emeralds to destory Earth. Sonic and Knuckles were ready to attack Black Doom, until some kind of gas froze everybody execpt Black Doom, and he sended out his army to eat the Sonic Heroes and Eggman, until Shadow broke free and chased Black Doom. After a level, Shadow tried to attack Black Doom, but he controlled Shadow, because Shadow had the same blood Black Doom have (Which means Shadow is part of Black Doom). Meanwhile in the Space Colony ARK, Espio, Vector, and Charmy sented a video of Gerald and Maria to Black Comet and Earth that says Shadow is created for good, Shadow got out of Black Doom's control, and Shadow got ready for the final battle of Super Shadow VS Devil Doom. After the final fight, Super Shadow used Chaos Control to send the Black Comet near the ARK, the Chaotix or Shadow used the Eclipse Cannon to blow up the comet. Shadow stared at Earth at the ARK and at a picture of the professor and Maria, said to himself Goodbye forever...Shadow the Hedghog., then threw his picture away.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Shadow is a playable character on Sonic's team in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. His character type is Speed, equalling him with Sonic, but he has higher stats than Sonic in other events. In Dream Fencing, his special move is transforming into Super Shadow and charge forward with multiple stabs of his epée. In Dream Table Tennis for his Special Shot, he jumps up, twirls vertically, lands, inhales and then fires the ball super fast at the opponent. Shadow has the lowest level stamina among all the characters.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Shadow also appeared in the sequel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. He appeared as a speed character, like in the predecessor. However, unlike with the previous game, Shadow is slightly slower than Sonic, but he has the strongest acceleration abilities in the game.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Shadow returns as a Speed type playable character in the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where he appears in the opening with all of the other athletes as well as later competing in Football and Track Cycling - Team Pursuit. A Mii outfit based on Shadow also appears in the game, and Shadow appears as a character in London Party that can be spoken to in order to play certain minigames and earn stickers.

In the Nintendo 3DS version, Shadow is included in the Challengers group, meaning that he is only playable in certain Events. In the Story Mode, Shadow first appears asking Sonic, Tails and Yoshi to share the information they know about the Phantasmal Fog and imposters after he had defeated some with Silver, and later helps the group chase down Jet, eventually being the one who challenges him to an event. With Jet's help, the group find the Fog machine, and after defeating Bowser Jr., shadow destroys it, clearing the fog from the area. Shadow also appears to offer support to Mario, Luigi, Sonic and Tails when they confront Bowser and Dr. Eggman, later appearing at the opening ceremony. Shadow also appears in the Challengers Bonus episodes, as Bowser Jr. heads to London to find him when he hears that he and Silver are defeating Dr. Eggman's robots, and accepts Shadow and Silver's challenge when he arrives and manages to take care of the robots himself. After they are defeated, Shadow and Silver pretend to be upset, but later wish Bowser Jr. good luck for the games before heading off. A badge of Shadow can also be obtained from the badge machine.

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Shadow is playable again in the fourth game of the Mario & Sonic series: Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Like previous games in the series, he is classified as a Speed type.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Shadow is a default playable character in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In the Nintendo 3DS version, he is only available to play with in the Football and 100m events. He is available in all events in the Wii U version. If the player's Mii avatar interacts with Shadow, the latter will get irritated at the avatar mixing him up with Sonic and demand he not put him on the same boat as him, referring to Sonic as an "inferior half-wit."

Super Smash Bros. series
Shadow appears as an Assist Trophy character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Shadow is an unlockable Assist Trophy, unlocked after the player unlocks Sonic, though in the later installments, as with every other Assist Trophy, he is available from the start. Shadow uses Chaos Control to temporarily slow down time around opponents (having the same effect as the Timer). In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Shadow is seen holding up a Chaos Emerald, and before the move ends, all opponents freeze for a short period of time.

There is a trophy of Shadow in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the trophy is specifically unlocked by clearing Solo 100-Man Smash with all fighters. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, it is obtained by clearing the "All-Star Battle: Secret" event on hard difficulty.

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U and Ultimate, like several other characters, Shadow is voiced by a different voice actor in different languages (e.g. he has his French voice in the French version).

Profile
''Like Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow is an extremely fast hedgehog that can give his more famous blue rival a run for his money in most Speed events. Additionally, his accuracy will help give him a leg up in the events like the archery and fencing.''

Profile
''Shadow the Hedgehog, in his black fur and red stripes, returns to test his skills in the Olympic Winter Games. With the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emerald, Shadow can perform Chaos Boost on the Wii and DS, and Chaos Control on the DS.''

Portrayals

 * David Humphrey (2001-2004)
 * Jason Griffith (2005-2010)
 * Kirk Thornton (2010-present)
 * Kōji Yusa (Japanese; 2001-present)
 * Benoît DuPac (French; 2011-present)
 * Claudio Moneta (Italian; 2013-present)
 * Klaus Lochthove (German; 2011-present)
 * Manuel Gimeno (Spanish; 2011-present)