A Sonic Frontiers modder has made one of the Sonic franchise's most iconic characters playable in the game. That would be Sonic's black-and-red enemy-turned-friendly rival, Shadow the Hedgehog. When players first received information about Sonic Frontiers, many were wondering if any of characters aside from Sonic himself and his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman would make an appearance in the game. While the usual suspects did appear, Sega had flatly stated that Shadow would not be in the game, aside from a mention in one of Sonic's idle dialogues. With Sonic games having an active modding community for many games released on PC, it's no surprise that Frontiers would follow suit.One of the most popular mods of any Sonic game is to make Shadow the Hedgehog a playable character in place of Sonic. Ever since the rival's first playable appearance, if a game has featured Sonic, there's bound to be a mod that replaces him with Shadow. The last playable appearance Shadow ever had in a mainline entry was 2017's Sonic Forces in the Episode Shadow DLC, which resulted in mods giving Shadow more levels to play in Forces. With Frontiers however, fans can fully explore the open-zones of the Starfall Island as Sonic's iconic rival.This mod was created by mastaklo, a prominent video game modder who has modded games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and many more. His latest release showcases a playable Shadow in Sonic Frontiers, which includes not just making him a model swap of Sonic, but going the extra mile to add his own aesthetics. This includes a yellow spin, boost, and other attack effects for Shadow, along with a unique red-and-black effect for the Cyloop. The mod even has a unique skating animation as opposed to Sonic running on the ground.
The video showcases how this affects other aspects of Sonic Frontiers, such as the cutscenes and the battles against the Titans. Shadow's model in the game emotes just like Sonic would, so players can be treated to the sight of Shadow doing the same little dance he does when collecting a Chaos Emerald, or just smiling in general. The battles with the Titans also naturally replace Super Sonic with Super Shadow, where players can pull off the same feats that Sonic did, just as Shadow.
Even with it being a mod, it perfectly showcases a possible Shadow the Hedgehog solo game inspired by Frontiers. Many players are hoping that with the bar set by this game, future games can improve the formula and even have multiple playable characters in the open-zone. There are modders already building upon this initial mod, with additional features such as Shadow's voice instead of Sonic's for not just grunts, but cutscenes via AI voice generation.
Sonic Frontiers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.