Prerelease:Shadow the Hedgehog

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Shadow the Hedgehog.

Director Takashi Iizuka presents the three versions of Shadow The Hedgehog, while giving a smile that shakily sends mixed signals about his game.

Shadow the Hedgehog was an attempt to attract a "teen audience" to the franchise, where they wanted to explore more of the character's dark nature while trying out the new "gun mechanic". Overall reception of the game was considered to be heavily divisive, where fans thought that it signaled the downfall of the franchise before the advent of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

Concept Art

Storyboard for the game's opening Sequence, from SEGA's U.S. archives.

Music & Unused Tracks

During the production of the game, Jun Senoue went into the project creating songs that fit the game's radically different atmosphere, much closer to metal. Because of this, Jun started reaching out to other, smaller artists in order to create tracks for the game that fit the darker atmosphere, giving the artists a general outline while giving them mostly free rein.

Broken

"Broken" by the band "Sins of a Divine Mother" was originally intended to be the game's Hero ending theme, previously being released on the band's MySpace page in 2005. Jun Senoue originally contacted the band's producer and bassist, Danny Parker and Kyle Keiderling respectively, in order to try and get the track into the game. However, the band had already broken up and neither Jun or the two contacted were able to track down the band's lead vocalist, Wylie Biechler, in order to receive permission. Danny and Kyle suggested they record a track for the game with their new band, A2, in a style very similar to "Broken", which would end up becoming the track "The Chosen One". The track actually ended up in a prototype of the game from September 16th, 2005, just one month before the game's release date, suggesting that "The Chosen One" was made extremely late in the game's development. The song has since been released on an extended play titled "Sins of a Divine Mother" August 24, 2023, marking the first official release of this song.

Alternate Dialogue

Rumors have persisted that the original English script was more "mature", featuring much more swearing than there is in the final game (i.e. Sonic saying "Hate to piss off G.U.N." instead of "Hate to tick off G.U.N."). However, Jason Griffith, the voice of Sonic and Shadow in the game, has given contradictory answers:

• In a 2016 interview with Fund the Charity Room, Griffith stated he did not recall ever recording any sort of lines like that. However, he does mention that he does recall recording alternate takes for lines which censored the swearing, such as saying darn instead of damn.
• In a 2024 interview, Griffith stated he did record more swearing in case Sega decided to aim for an M rating, later clarified to be limited to only a few alternate takes.

The final game uses mild swearing due to its E10+ rating, with none of these censored/uncensored takes being released.

E3 2005 Trailer

This is the E3 trailer for the game.

• There is no HUD.
• There are no street cones at 0:23. (You can tell here since objects are visible)
• The taxi is in a different position, the brown object on the left of the mailboxes is missing, the tree was replaced by a phone booth and there are shelves on the buildings to the left at 0:24.
• The second battleship in a different position at 0:25.
• Some parts are different at 0:26.
• We can move Shadow's body around while skydiving instead of straight forward at 0:37.
• Seems to be the end of the Sky Troops but there are no jewel-like objects at 0:48.
• Enemy on the Square-like platform while the rest seems mostly barren at 0:49.
• The last Battle Ship is much closer since there is Grass on the bottom at 0:51.
• The blood color is different.
• The missile launcher reticle is different.
• The sound of the drums in the song I Am...All of Me in the trailer itself is different. The drums sound more simple, and it's as if the drums were recorded last and created in some program like FL Studio and the like.

I Am...All of Me E3 2005 version restorated

Trailer

This is a trailer for the game.

• There is no HUD.
• The Chaos Blast was blue instead of red.
• The missile launcher reticle is different.

Uncut Opening

An early version of the opening movie done by Blur Studio. This was uploaded on Vimeo by Cemre Ozkurt for his portfolio.

• It does not cut to any other FMVs made, instead being one large video of the Black Arms attacking Westopolis.
  • Because of this, the scenes that are also in the final are extended here, and connect with one another.
• It uses placeholder music, as well as sound effects from The Chronicles of Riddick and Star Wars.

Similar to the Broken song above, the extended version of the scene where a soldier gets shot by one of the Black Arms can still be found in the Beta 4 build, implying that this was trimmed very late in the game's development.