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Big News - Yuji Naka at Leipzig Games Convention, new Shadow info and videos, and "Sonic Next" info
This is a big update. Recently, Yuji Naka was at a European Games Convention, held in Leipzig, Germany. August 17th was the special developer's-only day which Naka-san attended, to present the three latest Sonic the Hedgehog titles in the saga (that's Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Gems Collection and Sonic Rush in case you haven't been catching up). He also revealed "Sonic Next", the next gen Sonic game.


First up, thanks to SuperDragon, who attended the convention, we have a wealth of new info and videos about Shadow The Hedgehog. His post here says it all:

-Almost the whole game was playable, but it was still an incomplete alpha version.
-In regards to the GameCube's controls for the game: The B Button is for shooting. Light Dash, Spin Dash and so on is now made with X Button. Y Button is for throwing the weapon away or to do the special attacks (Chaos Blast or Chaos Control).
-In every level there's a partner who gives you a mission (Black Doom/Doom's Eye is giving you the Dark Mission, Sonic and others are giving you the Hero Mission. Sometimes Eggman is also giving you the Dark or the Hero mission).
-If you don't want to help Sonic & friends (every character from Heroes just about except Big and Omega, apparently), Eggman or Black Doom, enter the goal ring and you finish the normal mission. Often you will get a Chaos Emerald with the goal ring.
-(Small spoiler warning) The "Last Story" was also "playable", but really, it was just some cinemas for the time being. And apparently, Super Shadow appears in them.(End spoiler)
-The Multiplayer was playable but incomplete. You can choose the color of your Shadow. Your Shadow can have red stripes (normal), blue and yellow stripes. Only the ARK level was playable and there were no weapons, so just an empty ARK stage.

We have new video footage of Shadow as well, also courtesy of SuperDragon, whose crew filmed it.

NOTE: To those not familiar with how to download from Rapidshare, it's easy. First, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the button labeled "Free." Then, once it takes you to the next page, scroll down to the bottom again. See the timer counting down? It takes about 30 seconds. Then, you can download your file.

The CGI intro for Shadow The Hedgehog

(I apologize, I would have taken screencaps as well, but I couldn't get anything to cap properly, so sorry about that)
In this video, it begins with Shadow standing on what I assume are the outskirts of Westopolis. He has a flashback to Maria's death on ARK. In the flashback, Maria is running down a dark corridor when a GUN soldier points a pistol at her and shoots her, killing her. Shadow then snaps awake from his memory to see that the sky over Westopolis has turned black and red. The Black Arms have invaded. A figure that I assume is Black Doom appears before Shadow. They speak briefly (can't hear what's being said), then Shadow runs off. End.

Shadow multiplayer footage

The two players begin by choosing the colors of their Shadows (and they seem quite amused by seeing Shadows with blue and yellow stripes XD), then the "battle" begins. One Shadow defeats another from what I can tell, and it enters into a victory pose. Then, the two Shadows run around the ARK stage and explore a bit. That's it for the most part.

SuperDragon promises that there are more videos to come, and you can be sure that I'll share them with everyone here once he uploads them.

Also, regarding "Sonic Next": At the convention, Yuji Naka revealed that a next generation Sonic game is indeed in developement. There weren't any further details, but apparently more will be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show (September 16th-18th).

Oh, and for the hell of it: Again, the new Sonic Rush trailer I posted earlier today, in case you somehow missed it.

That is all.