We love a "Year Of...". 10 years ago, Nintendo wrapped up the Year of Luigi and now, a decade on, it looks like SEGA is getting in on the action as it has declared 2024 the "Year of Shadow".
Accompanied by a toe-curlingly cheesy trailer (above), the 'Fearless' Year of Shadow is now underway. It even has its own website, that's how official it is.
According to the website, this campaign is all about "embracing your inner Shadow" (yes, really) with the titular moody hedgehog encouraging us all to "Break barriers, be unafraid, be at your best and do it all with a powerful confidence." And there we were thinking he was just a meme.
Of course, the Year of Shadow is also marked by merch. The 'Shadow the Hedgehog Escape' LEGO set is now available to purchase from the LEGO store, Sonic X Shadow Generations is on its way this Autumn and 'Fearless Events' have kicked off in the Sonic Forces and Sonic Dash mobile apps too.
SEGA has also announced that it is bringing a custom Shadow-inspired motorbike to the upcoming MotoGP American Grand Prix, California's Sonic Speed Café is now serving Shadow-themed food items and there are even some Shadow tracks being added to the Sonic Symphony World Tour.
All of that is set to be capped off by the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, which we're assuming is going to feature Shadow rather heavily — hey, these "Avengers-level events" have got to start at some point.