To ARK & Back Again: The Shadow The Hedgehog Story

The gaming universe's most geriatric anthropomorphic being is here! He's the Ultimate Life Form and he wants to prove it to you, Shadow's past used to be a really messy mystery, walking in to it wasn't so much a stroll down memory lane but an absolute minefield despite what Crush 40 would have you believe thank you very much. But now this 'dark' Sonic-esque incarnation has had some light shed on his backstory and it isn't that shrouded anymore. Can something become 'less shrouded'? Hmm... perhaps we should call up Turin and see if they can help.

Shadow was the brainchild of Eggman's grandfather Dr.Gerald Robotnik, that means he made him - he didn't father him using his frontal lobe... what ARE you thinking you freak? Not only that he was created as the Ultimate Trojan Horse when Prof G bluffed Dark Doom into helping him create the angsty one, the result being that 50+ years later (gee, talk about a long term game plan) he brought about the destruction of Dark Doom, The Black Comet & all of the Black Arms.  Some All Blacks also perished in the attack, but since they were really rubbish ones no one minded. In the short term though the cost was almost too great, as ARK was invaded by the scared Earth's military, Professor Gerald captured and the staff and creations annihilated - including several varieties of Chaos creature and most regretably his best friend Maria Robotnik. The only survivors of the entire space station were Professor Gerald who was jailed on Prison Island and ended his days insane and alone. Nice. Shadow of course and Shadow's half-brother by intellectual conception (and Ultimate Life prototype) The Biolizard, who's since been given the old heave-ho off this mortal coil by Super Shadow and Super Sonic anyway.

Shadow was thought dead after the ARK incident and then that he was really some sort of android (which was an incredibly stupid idea, what do you think this is some kind of B-movie?) Thankfully however. more recent events have shown quite the contrary and he's alive and well and immortal apparently.  That's a cool party trick if you can pull it off. He remains traumatised by the loss of Maria, however he has now attempted to put this all behind him and lead a life of his own now that his 'purpose' has been fulfilled.

Shadow's our REAL star, much to the chagrin of Sonic. His emotional range has lifted from the Sonic Adventure 2 days of: "*Angst* *Angst* Maria! Urrgghhh!" and despite his serious nature he's been known to throw a right prima-donna fit. Now he wants to be treated as a serious actor, his dream being to play MacBeth in Shakespeare's Hamlet or was that play Shakespeare in Hamlet's MacBeth... something like that. Anyway, he doesn't want you to treat him like some gun-toting Sonic-wannabe. He gets along, well, 'okay' with Sonic but Shadow's figured out he's a little above Sonic in terms of maturity though whether this is actually true is up to much discussion.  He had a bit of a revelation when talking to Angelus but that didn't lead to anything much, is still in contact with Dr Eggman and has been known to converse regularly with him but to be honest he's more comfortable with Knuckles than anyone else, or Rouge obviously but not both at the same time - can anybody say gooseberry?

You can? Good for you.

Of course he also has to fend off the attentions of Miss Rose though he does tend to get a bit more flustered by it than Sonic. He's also a former ninja, multi-time recovering amnesiac and was once addicted to Reader's Digest but after several RDA meetings quit due to the pressures of stardom.  That and Knuckles had recovered so he didn't have anyone to get a lift off of anymore.

Not only that but he also plays the flute. Filthy beast.