Shadow the Hedgehog Language! Jason Griffith Reveals Shadow The Hedgehog Was Originally Rated M?

[The DOMinator]

We all know the ill-fated story of Shadow the Hedgehog, SEGA's risky attempt to take the Sonic franchise to the uncharted waters of grim, gritty gunplay to stand toe to toe with the ever-growing love for first person shooters at the time. With that bold direction came the advent of Sonic characters speaking with mild swears that are just fowl enough to earn the game an E10+ rating.

But what if I told you, it was supposed to be worse? So, so much more worse.

Recently at the anime convention Momocon, mid-2000s Sonic and Shadow actor Jason Griffith went on stage at a panel with a shocking revelation to Sonic fans: Originally, the game was slated to be rated M.

Quote

“You know, let me tell you a funny story. Back when I was recording for that game, for Shadow the Hedgehog, I don’t remember what year it was, but they sat me down in the studio and they weren’t sure what rating the game was going to get. They told me they were going to shoot for an NC-17 rating… or what the is the game version of that?"

Jason was then educated that the game version of film's NC-17 rating is M.

Quote

“Right, they were going for an M-Rating with this game and they hadn’t heard back from the agency if they were going to get it yet. So they had me record two takes for every line, and I swear, the version that was for the M-Rating, they had me say f*** in every single line. It was just every sentence, I would be yelling ‘Sonic, give me that f***ing Chaos Emerald!’ or something like that. I had no idea what was going on but I just went with it, and I had fun. There’s a hard drive somewhere with hours of recordings of Shadow yelling f*** at Tails and Sonic and stuff."

Isn't that shocking? Somewhere out there in the wild are recordings for a version of Shadow the Hedgehog that never was. One where Sonic characters would be out there speaking the most explicit of vernacular. You know, for kids!

What do you think would have happened if we got the M-Rated Shadow? Do you ever want to hear these recordings?

All I know is Conker almost got competition, that's for sure.

Sonic News Tips Credit:
The DOMinator

Original Post Content:
At Momocon this weekend, described as "one of the largest annual anime conventions in North America," a writer for the website GameLuster (as linked below) was able to sit down and talk with former Sonic and Shadow voice actor, Jason Griffith. There, Griffith relayed to him a funny story regarding the development of the infamous Sonic spin-off, Shadow the Hedgehog. Specifically, he noted how when he was sat down at the studio for voice work, he was told that Sega was aiming for an M-Rating. Since it had not been confirmed regarding whether they got the rating or not, he had to record two versions of every voice line for Shadow (the character), with the mature version, as he recalls, having him "say f*** in every single line. It was just every sentence, I would be yelling ‘Sonic, give me that f***ing Chaos Emerald!’ or something like that." Of course, Shadow (the game) would end up getting the then new E10+ rating, and the closest proximity to the aforementioned swearing in the final version would be "damn". What's additionally neat about this fun fact is that it lends credence to the old rumor that the Shadow game was going to have a T-Rating, with there being enough development on this version that it's considered that a build with more mature content has since been lost. Except, well, apparently the "maturity" was done to a further extent then what it was originally thought to have been, at least in terms of the dialogue.

What a (coincidental) surprising addition to the current Year of Shadow celebration! What are your thoughts on this more edgy take of Shadow's solo outing?

Source: https://gameluster.com/there-are-hours-of-recordings-of-shadow-saying-the-f-word-reveals-shadow-the-hedgehog-voice-actor/

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Edited May 29 by The DOMinator

[Lorekitten]

So you're telling me that one of Sega's most infamous Sonic games was almost even more infamous? I don't even want to think about what an M-rated Shadow game would've done to the brand as we know it.

[cosmichaos]

R.I.P. M rated Shadow game, I would have loved you even more

[Maple Syrup]

Ooooooooohhhhh.... Shadow said the F-word...

GET READY FOR THE F-BOMBS....

Spoiler

SONIC GIVE ME THAT FUCKING CHAOS EMERALD NOW- I WILL FUCK ALL WHO OPPOSE ME- WHERE'S THAT FUCKING CHAOS EMERALD- HOW DARE YOU HARM MARIA! Fucking humans.  I'm done now.

hehehe...

Edited May 29 by Maple Syrup

[Chili Dawg]

We could have had the FUCKING fourth Chaos Emerald!? Though I dunno, the fact that they place emphasis on perhaps the mildest swear word there is might make it a funnier meme.

[Indigo Rush]

The way I held my head with both my hands and yelled "NO WHAT"

We got the TAME version???

Spoiler

 

 

[Salamander]

Absolutely reads like an April Fool's Day headline.  Simply laughable prospect.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Oh, so not only was the idea of getting T rating somewhat valid, but actual undershot what they were really aiming for.

Probably a good thing they chickened out, although I was interested in a T-rated Sonic game.

[Lorekitten]

12 minutes ago, CrownSlayers Shadow said:

Probably a good thing they chickened out, although I was interested in a T-rated Sonic game.

To be fair, a Sonic game with more mature themes wouldn't necessarily have been as objectively terrible as, well...

As Shadow the Hedgehog actually turned out.

I don't think it's the content rating that was the root problem, although with the way they handled it, it was definitely an offshoot of the main problem. Said main problem being that whoever was in charge of the project clearly had no idea what they were actually doing.

[castell-neath]

Lol, it sounds like a script full of memes before memes existed. I can just imagine the following:

"Who am I? I'm Shadow the Fuc**ng Hedgehog, Motherfu**er!"

"Black Doom you say? more like Black Fuc**ing Gimp, with that head"!

"Get your fuc**ing hands off her, you fuc**ing GUN cu**t!!....she's only Fuc**ing 12!"

Lol

Edited May 29 by castell-neath

[Knight Terror]

[niaco]

Mr. God of Company Data Security, if you're up there, I see what you've revealed in those Nintendo gigaleaks and I want you to do the same for us. Let these recordings appear someday. It would fix the entire world.

[screwball]

please god please let these voice lines leak so somebody can mod them in

[SupahBerry]

Hey, miracles are everywhere.

 

[A super no.2rookiemusician]

Feels like we always knew this but it's cool that it came from the horses' mouth,... which needs some soap.

Edited May 29 by A super No.1 washedupgamer

[SageOfTheStars]

Ok, someone needs to get ahold of these M-rated recordings and post them online. I want to hear them so badly. XD

I don't think Shadow dropping F-bombs would have suited him. Using some milder words like the d-word are one thing still, but Shadow doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would resort to that level of explicit language. Even at the more troubled points in his life, he was a little angry and rebellious at times, but I feel he also had a little more dignity to him that would find him avoiding overly foul language (I'm sure Maria taught him better than that). I mean, this is the guy who, in Japanese, uses the more polite "boku" pronoun even while Sonic and Knuckles use "ore." That doesn't seem like a guy who would lower himself to using the F-word.

Still, the mental image of Shadow using M-rated-level curse words is hilarious. I will forever wonder how things would have played out if the Shadow game had gotten this rating. 

[StreetSonic2022]

I could've sworn that I heard that the English writing team did wrote swearing for the characters in this game. But I guess the higher-ups at SEGA wasn't pushing it because the franchise was supposed to be for kids, hence the creation of the E-10 rating for ESRB.  Though, they let this game made anyway, thanks to Iizuka "admiring" GTA series.

[Lytan]

I am...very glad they didn't go through with this. Given how polite Shadow is in SA2, it always seemed strange to me how they chose to have Shadow of all characters swear. I mean, he doesn't even call Eggman anything other than "Doctor" most of the time! He's formal. I just can't imagine him saying "fuck" every second sentence after presenting himself so carefully and formally in SA2.

That said, I desperately hope these files leak. It's a hilarious near miss on Sega's part and I want to hear Shadow tell Black Doom to fuck off.

[Ash Hikari]

... WHAT?! Shadow swearing!! I'm glad that game didn't get an M rating. Well- if it did- then people would meme the heck outta it. 

[Scientific Genius]

Hahaha, Shadow dropping the F-bomb all the time makes me curious (During bossfight: Die, mother****, die). Unless he really uses it every 2nd sentence, that would probably be too much.

But even more interesting; how do the other characters react to Shadows language. Does Sonic do a new Sonic says fragment about swearing. Is Cream asking Vanilla what F**** means? Does Knuckles adapt his language? Is Amy asking him to stop using foul language? Does Tails burst out in tears upon hearing Shadow speak like this? Ohh man. Now I want to know how the M-rated dialogs were supposed to be.  

[HywelAtTheMoon]

Now I can picture Vanilla either giving Shadow the cold death glare, or whacking him like the "Penguin" in the Blues Brothers. 

 

 

[Shiny Gems]

Well, I think I kind of saw this coming. Whatever the case, it was said that dark and edgy games, and games with guns were popular around the time Shadow's game was being made, was it not? That said, Sega and Sonic Team did NOT have to go this far with the guns, let alone have the game M-rated with bad language.

I guess you could say this game was not 4KIds.

Sorry, but I had to.

[IHaveACaseOfSonicMania]

My god, it's so weird to think of that it's so funny to think of that.

[Scritch the Cat]

1 hour ago, Shiny Gems said:

I guess you could say this game was not 4KIds.

Yo ho ho, I'm gonna be the motherfuckin' pirate king, bitches!

[Ratchet25tx]

Where's that *Ring noise* Darn Fourth Chaos Emerald?