Last weekend at Anime Expo Sega hosted a panel focused on Shadow the Hedgehog – specifically the character’s past and his starring role in a new animation project. Sonic x Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings will be looking at the hedgehog’s history and attendees were given a first look. This included the expected return of both Maria and Gerald Robotnik (key figures in Shadow’s backstory and the plot of Sonic Adventure 2) along with a deep cut from a seldom-referenced Game Boy Advance game.
Emerl, a robot known as a Gizoid, was the lead character in Sonic Battle, the series’ second attempt at a fighting game. Both the robo and his game of origin are rarely featured in Sonic games. Sonic Generations had a single music track representing the game, for example, and beyond some narrative continuation in Sonic Advance 3 Emerl was more or less a footnote in the video games’ larger lore.
Back to Dark Beginnings, the scene appears to be adapting a journal entry from Sonic Battle that discussed a Gizoid destroying large portions of the Space Colony ARK. It’s a brief (albeit eye-catching) look at what’s to come and shows that there are further corners of franchise history that could feed into Sonic x Shadow Generations. A Sonic Battle stage may not make much sense, but could this mean an Emerl boss fight?
Emerl in Sonic Battle
Fans can look forward to the full debut of the three-part animation later this fall. If you’re curious how Shadow plays in the upcoming remaster/expansion of one of the best Sonic games, check out our Summer Game Fest hands-on of Sonic x Shadow Generations. The game will arrive on October 25th.
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Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
