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WARNING: SMALL SPOILERS

Overall personal rating: 9/10[]

SONIC_X_SHADOW_GENERATIONS_-_Dark_Beginnings_Teaser_Trailer

SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS - Dark Beginnings Teaser Trailer

Shadow Dark Beginnings trailer

As most of you know, 2024 is the year of Shadow, we're getting a new Shadow Generations game, Shadow is getting introduced to the movie universe in December's Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and we have a brand new Shadow Manga. Sega's really been cooking this year, and now on top of all the excitement we have a brand new short film to get us ready for Shadow's new game.

When the promotion and sneak peeks for this began I almost thought it was too good to be true. First of all gorgeous art and animation from Studio Giggex, you could take a screenshot of any frame of this and it would make the perfect wallpaper. Second, Ian Flynn, the Sonic franchise's most prolific writer was in charge of the story. Third, legit voice actors from the games. I thought there would be a catch, but when the episodes released I was more than thrilled.

Episode 1: Shadow and Maria[]

The perfect introduction to this animated special had Shadow exploring one of his old memories of his time on the Space Colony Ark.

Without giving too much away, I was delighted to see the same beautiful animation and excellent voicing by Kirk Thorton and Stephanie Sheh as was promised. The beginning had a scene used in the Shadow Manga that helped make the comic feel a little more connected, as well as help bring back Shadow and Maria's dynamic and feel the weight of Shadow's inner conflict.

Screenshot 2024-10-11 132928

A line of dialogue from Sonic Battle, Shadow's Story, possibly referenced

The episode continued on with the surprise appearance of Emrl from Sonic Battle, in fact tying it with a possible deep-cut quote from one of Shadow's broken memories from the game it seemed to reference.

The fight between Shadow and Emrl was surprisingly and wonderfully well choreographed. After the fight, Shadow dove into a dizzying mixed up sequence of his darkest memories, ending with the appearance of Black Doom. Shadow awoke from his memories to realize it was a hallucination that began as he took a look at the Space Colony Ark, and he realized that the hive mind of the Black Arms was somehow alive and had caused his surreal experience. One last thing I noted was the half "shattered" moon, a clear reference to SA2 that we haven't seen in a while.

This episode wrapped up masterfully, keeping me interested to see the next episode.

Episode 2: Finding the Way[]

The episode began with another of Shadow's memories of back when he was on the ARK, starting of with the suprise return of the young GUN Commander from Shadow the Hedgehog, who's name was surprisingly confirmed as Abraham Tower, referencing Archie Reboot era. Shadow explained to Maria his concerns about being one of the Black Arms, and Maria assured him he was different than them and had a greater purpose.

This scene added so much more depth and "feel" to Shadow and how he saw things, and I do believe this will be considered an iconic moment in Shadow's history.

The episode continued following Shadow as he broke into an Eggman supply depot to find a spacecraft to reach the ark, when he encountered Rouge and Omega gathering intel for GUN. Team Dark, united once again, skillfully destroyed the badnik opposition which included the return of Samuri Egg-pawns and an Egg Breaker. Rouge agreed to help Shadow steal a spacecraft from GUN as long as Shadow would agree to join her at Sonic's Birthday party, confirming Shadow Generation's parallel time placement to Sonic Generations.

The exciting action and voice acting in this episode was spectacular, and the game accuracy made this episode feel like a worthy contribution to the games. The thing I loved most about this episode was the strong maverick nature Team Dark presented, it enhanced their dynamic and drive shown to us in previous media.

One interesting thing about this episode was Karen Strassmen's recreation of Rouge's voice. Fans have complained about her portrayal on and off throughout the games, but this time she managed to balance her voice enough that it actually worked. Roger Craig Smith continued his new role of Omega, which will fit the way it was presented in the prior games.

Episode 3: To the Ark[]

The finale had Team Dark infiltrate a GUN base to get to a space shuttle, on thier way they were intercepted by a GUN soldier operating a Blue Falcon unit, the thrilling action sequence had Shadow flawlessly take out the vehicle while leaving the soldier unharmed. Afterwards Shadow boarded the space shuttle and launched toward the Ark, GUN forces readied to take out the spacecraft but was surprisingly called off by Abraham Tower, who spoke with Rouge to find out what the disturbance was about and allowed Shadow to continue his quest.

Roger Craig Smith did a excellent voicing for Abraham tower, imitating Marc Thompson's voice to make it feel as authentic as the rest o This episode was very well, done, and left me feel in a strange way satisfied yet at the same time desiring that the team gets back together and something bigger comes out of this.

Final thoughts[]

All in all, this was a near-flawless, if not, flawless animated special that definitely does Shadow and the game continuity justice.

My only complaints are about minor details, like how Shadow only uses Chaos spear once, and with the influence of a chaos emerald, and Karen Strassmen's sudden change of tone in the last episode, and the 2nd episode was only 2 minuets compared to the other 5 minuet episodes.

Other than that, I have nothing negative I could say about the miniseries, this was beautifully animated, masterfully written, and perfectly executed. It was full of plenty of action and even plenty of surprisingly touching moments that helped us feel Shadow's pain.

I'd even say this short film even outdid Frontiers Divergence, which itself was an excellent and intriguing prologue for Sonic Frontiers.

Perhaps the most touching moment in the short film was when the final episode closed with Shadow sitting in the shuttle cockpit imagining how things would have been if Maria hadn't passed. The final two lines said it all, and in fact made Maria's confirmed return in Shadow Generations all the more exciting.

"Stop that! That life was taken from me long ago. I need to focus on the mission at hand. A threat lurks abord the ARK, and I must eliminate it."

Sonic X Shadow Generations is available for digital and physical pre-order and releases on October 25th. You can pre-order the game on the official site below

sonicxshadowgenerations.com