Summary
Segaseemingly wants fans to forget that Shadow was inSonic 06, as it has completely missed the game out of its “brief history of Shadow the Hedgehog”.
As anyone who has been a Sonic fan for long enough will know,the Blue Blur’s career has been a bit of a rollercoasterover the past few console generations.It’s a lot more stable and exciting now(especially withSonic x Shadow on the horizon), but the absolute worst of it was whenSonic the Hedgehog released to near-universal hatred in 2006.
Sonic 06 isn’t receivedquiteso poorly nowadays, but even the most passionate fans agree that it’s a bit of a mess. Sega clearly thinks that too as, even when it likes to make fun of Sonic’s rocky history, it very rarely brings up one of its biggest shortcomings. In fact, it seems that Sega would rather fans forget about it altogether, as it’s trying to make everyone forget that Shadow the Hedgehog played a role in it.
Shadow Wasn’t In Sonic 06, According To Sega
Sega recently hosted a panel at Anime Expo 2024 to promote Sonic x Shadow: Generations, which included a first look at the Dark Beginnings anime. Before showing off the anime, though, Sega gave a bit of background on Shadow for newcomers, which included a “brief” summary of his history with the series.
As pointed out by Twitter user UltimaShadowX, the word “brief” is definitely accurate here, as Sega seemingly decided that it wasn’t worth mentioning that Shadow played a huge role in Sonic 06. The timeline mentions every other mainline game that Shadow has been in (and even mentions bloody Sonic Battle and Sonic Boom of all things), but there’s a very noticeable gap between 2005 and 2014.
The timeline also makes you realise that Shadow hasn’t actually been in that many Sonic games, or at least not as many as you’d expect from one of the series' most popular characters.
Even though it’s pretty funny that Sega is trying to pretend that Sonic 06 didn’t happen,some fans have pointed out that some of Shadow’s best characterisation actually happened in that game. Others have argued that Sonic 06 technically retcons itself and therefore shouldn’t be mentioned, but it doesn’t ignore the fact that it’s been purposefully missed out of a summary of games involving Shadow.
In fairness, the summary also misses out Shadow’s appearance in the original Sonic Generations and in Forces, so it’s clearly not meant to be definitive. That doesn’t make it any less jarring that Sonic 06 has been completely erased from Shadow’s history with the series. Guess we can count out a Sonic 06 remake, then.
