Sonic 3: Shadow The Hedgehog's Super Powers, Explained

It all starts with this, as Shadow would say: The trailer for "Sonic the Hedgehog 3." That's all it took for the latent Shadow the Hedgehog fanboy essence in my blood to start bubbling. Turns out, it's still part of what I'm made of. My adult brain knows he's just a Vegeta ripoff with a really cool run animation. But my soul, my inner child, is certain that he's still the coolest dude ever — a character hand-crafted to get 10-year-olds jumping up and down.

Shadow was teased in a "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" Easter egg, and he's back in Sonic's third theatrical outing, voiced by Keanu Reeves. If, like mine, your childhood included a DVD copy of the "Sonic X" anime's "Project Shadow" arc from the Target bargain aisle, then the trailer has a lot to get the nostalgia flowing. We've got teleportation. We've got air shoes. We've got traumatic flashbacks. It's all here, just like I remember it looking in "Sonic Adventure 2: Battle" for the Nintendo GameCube. The film looks to be borrowing primarily from that first Shadow game, understandably ignoring his more infamous appearances (there is zero chance he starts murdering people with a machine gun, though that would admittedly be very John Wick of him).

Adulthood may have reformed me, but I'll still shill for Shadow. I am, all of me, a fan. You know you had to beat "Shadow the Hedgehog" 10 times to get the true ending? And it wasn't even good? That kind of thing doesn't just leave you after puberty. So let's take a deeper look at who Shadow is, his story from the games, and what exactly his powers are.

Upon his debut in "Sonic Adventure 2," Shadow acts as a rival and foil to Sonic. His story is revealed in bits and pieces after he's awoken by Dr. Eggman, er, Robotnik from a cryogenic sleep inside a secret military facility called Prison Island. He claims to be the "ultimate lifeform," created by Robotnik's grandfather Gerald about an orbital research station called Space Colony ARK. Shadow swears vengeance against the human race after Maria, a young girl who was his only friend at the station, is shot and killed by soldiers during a military raid.

This backstory, darker and more complex than what had typically appeared in the franchise, kicked off what I like to call the grand anime-ification of "Sonic." The first "Adventure" game had already kicked the tires, and the next big game after "Adventure 2," 2003's "Sonic Heroes," returned things to a bit of a happy-go-lucky status quo, but it still continued Shadow's story with an amnesia plotline and a big clone arc tease. That led to the infamously edgy 2005 game "Shadow the Hedgehog," in which Shadow wields an array of firearms and, depending on your in-game choices, tries to assassinate the President of the United States.

This brief, lore-heavy, anime-esque era for Sonic ended in 2006, when the next big game in the series, simply titled "Sonic the Hedgehog," completely bombed. That was more because of rushed development than the bizarre story choices, which included Sonic getting Terminator-ed by a psychic Hedgehog from the future, Sonic being killed by a dark god who takes Shadow's form, or Sonic kissing a human woman. When you're 10, it doesn't matter; you're just in it for the ride. But I understand why Sega decided ultimately to throw it all away.

We almost surely won't be getting Shadow story details from the later games in "Sonic the Hedgehog 3," like how he briefly worked as an operative for the U.S. government, or how his creation was commissioned by a race of conquering, eldritch aliens. We can easily ignore all that, though, because his powers are basically the same throughout the series, and that's the fun part.

Shadow's most famous ability is called Chaos Control. There are several variations, but the basic gist is that he uses the power of a Chaos Emerald to slow down time around him. This lets him move so quickly that he appears to teleport, though at times, the power has been shown as actual teleportation. He's also used this ability at points to freeze time around him, bending others to his will — a kind of "All Hail Shadow" technique, if you will. The more basic form of Chaos Control is on full display in the "Sonic 3" trailer, and the way Shadow looks coming out of the teleport is spot-on. The film has also faithfully recreated his air shoes, which allow to "run" by skating just above whatever surface he's on.

There are more extraneous Shadow powers, like the Chaos Blast move from "Shadow the Hedgehog," or Chaos Spear, which fires a bolt of energy, but these are less likely to appear in the movie due to the games they were featured in. However, the trailer does show Shadow doing the Akira Slide on a motorcycle, paying homage to his predilection for bikes in the games.

The "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" trailer builds Shadow up as a true force to be reckoned with, which is kind of the first rule of introducing a new villain in a trailer. In reality, though, is he strong enough to beat all three of the Sonic heroes united? Well, it depends on the circumstances.

When Shadow has a Chaos Emerald in hand, he's tough to beat. Sonic is eventually able to learn a version of the Chaos Control move in the games, but he never seems to master it like Shadow does. Shadow generally has more combat-oriented moves in the games too, which suggests he's a more skilled fighter. And, like Sonic, he can go royalty-free Super Saiyan if he has access to all seven Chaos Emeralds, matching Sonic's "Super Sonic" form with his own variation called "Hyper Shadow." The games generally portray Knuckles and Tails as being a full tier below Sonic and Shadow in terms of raw power, and that seems to be the case in the movie as well.

That said, Sonic will surely find a way to beat Shadow, or at least match him, before inevitably turning him over to the side of good. That's just how these things go: You live and learn, and you stop being evil, but you keep being an edgy, cool dude. This machine that Paramount has built has fully revitalized the "Sonic" brand, and when "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is released on December 20, it may do the same for Shadow.