Images that Defined Gaming – Shadow the Hedgehog

August 25th, 2007

Images that Defined Gaming is a featured series showcasing the various images that changed the way we thought about gaming, the characters and franchises within it. To view more entries in this series click here.

Today’s image is the first leaked image of art from Shadow the Hedgehog. This turned out to be the game’s final box art.

shadow the hedgehog boxart

I remember when this image first circulated around the internet, people initially didn’t think very much of it as the piece was leaked. So they assumed that it was some sort of fake artwork made for the fans or something. Seriously Sega would never give Shadow a gun, how stupid is that?

Well as we all know this was not fake, Sega actually did release a game dedicated to the anti-hero Shadow and he did actually wield a gun. People where shocked that Sega would do this to a character in a series which generally is picked up by children.

I’m not sure if Jack Thomposon was around when this image was released but he probably would have jumped at the opportunity to send Sega to court. Infact he probably would have had a large following of gamers behind him because everyone was starting to get tired of Sega butchering the poor hedgehog and buddies in 3D.

It turned out that the game didn’t really have much gun use or realistic like violence. The whole reason behind this beat up was for Sega to get more game sales from this aeiling franchise. Once again just slapping the Sonic franchise onto something that “looks cool” in order to make a quick buck. And just like every game Sega has done this to, it turned out to be a complete turd of a game.

So why is this image so important? Because it represents not only the pinnacle of 2D to 3D franchise butchering but also how such a mighty emperor like Sega could drop oh so tradgically low.