Shadow The Hedgehog is one of the top favourite characters and fan favourites in the entirety of the Sonic franchise, and according to several polls online, Shadow's popularity is only 2nd to Sonic himself, and his presence continues to be strongly featured in Sonic media to this day, ever since his first iconic appearance in Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast in 2001.

Shadow's popularity continues to grow overtime, and SEGA has taken the opportunity to make 2024 the official "Fearless Year of Shadow", with a whole new marketing campaign focusing on Shadow The Hedgehog.

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SEGA gave their own explanation about the Year of Shadow through the official website for the event:

In 2024, we’re bringing Shadow into the light with a new fan celebration campaign – Fearless: Year of Shadow.

While we ran with our successful Fast. Friends. Forever. program last year, our new annual campaign this year celebrates what it means to be Fearless, and embracing your inner Shadow:

BREAK BARRIERS
BE UNAFRAID
BE AT YOUR BEST
AND DO IT ALL WITH A POWERFUL CONFIDENCE.

But don’t just take it from us, witness it from the Ultimate Lifeform himself as we take you on an action-packed ride throughout the year filled with countless energetic moments.

Hang tight and check out “News” section below for updates as the Fearless: Year of Shadow unfolds.

The Year of Shadow consists so far of several events:

• Started off with the early announcement back in February of "Sonic X Shadow Generations", which adds new content into the original Sonic Generations with a Shadow-centric campaign and story, as well as a remastered version of the original Sonic Generations.
  

  
• SEGA created a brand custom motorcycle "Dark Rider" to honour Shadow The Hedgehog and his motorcycle from the self-titled game and later modified for All-Stars Racing, where it got the Dark Rider title. The chopper will be on tour for people to see it, starting off in Austin, TX on April 12-14.
  

  

  
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• A brand new LEGO set featuring Shadow The Hedgehog will be available, which includes Shadow, his motorcycle and a Dr. Eggman Tower.
  

  

  
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• New "Fearless" events will be available in both Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash, with a chance to unlock variants of Shadow, like Super Shadow, Shadow Lancelot, Vampire Shadow and Dragon Hunter Lancelot.
  

  

  
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• The Sonic Speed Cafe will offer special Shadow product themes, photo opps and menu items.
  

  

  
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• The incredible Sonic Symphony will now feature original Shadow The Hedgehog scores in their world tour, alongside some of Shadow's coolest moments on-screen.
  

  

These are so far all the events related to Shadow The Hedgehog in honour of his year, but it still remains to be seen if SEGA will make any further announcements or releases during the year focusing on Shadow The Hedgehog (or perhaps even a remaster of his self-titled game, who knows).

Fearless: Year of Shadow Official Website

 

[DragonMals]

It's great to see one of my favorite Sonic characters do justice! I just hope that the new Generations game is great and all and they don't pull back to something more like Sonic Origins.

 

[ShadowOne333]

It's great to see one of my favorite Sonic characters do justice! I just hope that the new Generations game is great and all and they don't pull back to something more like Sonic Origins.

Tell me about it, I'm super excited Shadow is getting good recognition, he's my fav character of all time.

 

[DragonMals]

Tell me about it, I'm super excited Shadow is getting good recognition, he's my fav character of all time.

I can tell from the profile picture and the name

 

[GengarsGhostlyGiggles]

Tell me about it, I'm super excited Shadow is getting good recognition, he's my fav character of all time.

hmmm i would have never ever guessed lmao

 

[BlusterBong]

I have a bad feeling this is going to end up just like when Nintendo tried to market a year as a Year of Luigi and lost half a billion trying.

 

[The Catboy]

April
We are in April and we are just hearing about this now. Ok

 

[PopcornSweetie]

Tell me about it, I'm super excited Shadow is getting good recognition, he's my fav character of all time.

Same for me. I got him even on my New 3DS as a custom theme. I love Sonic's speed. But the bad-ass that is Shadow The Hedgehog will always be my favorite.

Post automatically merged: Apr 9, 2024

I have a bad feeling this is going to end up just like when Nintendo tried to market a year as a Year of Luigi and lost half a billion trying.

Unlike Nintendo... SEGA actually gives a fuck about their fans and embrace fan art or fan games of mainly the Sonic series. Even after 06, 1 (GBA) and Forces.

 

[SDA]

Well, this is some really great news. I can see everybody who likes Sonic likes Shadow as well.

(For the record, my favorite Sonic character is Tails.)

 

[raxadian]

There is an improvement mod for the Shadow the hedgehog game but I can't link it cause copyright.

 

[ChibiMofo]

I have a bad feeling this is going to end up just like when Nintendo tried to market a year as a Year of Luigi and lost half a billion trying.

In fairness, it wasn't Luigi's fault.

 

[DJPlace]

this fearless year of shaodw needs Guns MAKE IT HAPPEN sega make it FUCKING happen or me and my partner in arms mr ronlad mc donald will have a talk with sega.

 

[ShadowOne333]

There is an improvement mod for the Shadow the hedgehog game but I can't link it cause copyright.

What do you mean?
It's not copyright infringement, the one you mention is Shadow Reloaded, it's a romhack and the release is just the patch, not the ISO itself, so you are safe there.

Btw this is the hack he's talking about:
https://github.com/ShadowTheHedgehogHacking/ShdTH-Reloaded/

 

[KingVamp]

Creative, but I wasn't expecting that video.

Anyway, port/remaster his game already.

 

[raxadian]

In fairness, it wasn't Luigi's fault.

It was the Wii U fault.

 

[Quore]

Finally Shadow is becoming a full main character ln the franchise

This reminds me of back in 2013 when Nintendo announced the Year of Luigi

 

[KingVamp]

Also, I hope Blaze and Silver gets the same or better treatment.

 

[raxadian]

Also, I hope Blaze and Silver gets the same or better treatment.

They do get used in the comics so that's something.

 

[Jayinem]

Should I be excited?

 

[Robert Newbie]

What do you mean?
It's not copyright infringement, the one you mention is Shadow Reloaded, it's a romhack and the release is just the patch, not the ISO itself, so you are safe there.

Btw this is the hack he's talking about:
https://github.com/ShadowTheHedgehogHacking/ShdTH-Reloaded/

I didn't know about this, thanks for the link. I'll have to check it out later.

So, is Sonic x Shadow Generations a direct sequel to Sonic Generations? I thought Sonic Forces was essentially "Sonic Generations 2," but if this game gives Generations a second chance, I'm all for it. Generations is a personal favorite of mine, so it'd be nice to get a proper sequel.