Now I'm not saying the current Shadow we have is BAD, though I do think it's lacking. For starters it's very unfair and prone to spamming specific abilities (cough cough dtilt cough cough fspecial), and it can just straight up one-tap you sometimes. So I was bored and decided I wanted to make a concept for a new Shadow, since I can't do good pixel art for the life of me and my coding abilities are very limited. I'm not asking for this to be made into an actual thing but if someone wants to, pls credit me

Mechanic - Chaos Meter
Similarly to the Shadow we have now, this Shadow would have a meter over his hud, along with the Icons for a few of his Specials to show their cooldown progress. The meter will start out empty and fill with dark red when Shadow lands attacks, but also drains slowly and passively after not landing attacks for too long. It has a 2 second pause before it starts to drain after landing an attack. A big chunk of the meter is depleted when Shadow loses a stock, and he needs to use some of the Chaos Meter to use his Specials.

Jab
Description: Inspired by Shadow's first 3 attacks in Sonic Battle, Shadow does a quick chop forward, then he does a small-hopping high spin kick, then he ends with a reverse spin kick that has a short lunge forward.
Damage: 3%, 5%, 6%
Base Knockback: 5
Knockback Scaling: .5

FTilt
Description: Shadow does a side kick with small flames coming from his Air Shoes, the flames being a sweet spot.
Damage: 6%/9% 
Base Knockback: 6/7
Knockback Scaling: .7

UTilt
Description: Shadow does a quick uppercut forward.
Damage: 4%
Base Knockback: 4
Knockback Scaling: .5

DTilt
Description: Shadow slides along the ground a short distance with his leg out.
Damage: 5%
Base Knockback: 6
Knockback Scaling: .5

Dash Attack
Description: Shadow puts his feet down and suddenly ends his dash, facing the Air Shoes' thrusters forward with some flames emitting from them for added range and damage. Has a bit of end lag.
Damage: 7%
Base Knockback: 8
Knockback Scaling: .6

NAir
Description: Shadow does a flip backflip with his foot out, hitting all around Shadow.
Damage: 6%
Base Knockback: 4
Knockback Scaling: .3

FAir.
Description: Shadow reels his arm back a bit, then does a powerful hook punch that curves down a bit at the end.
Damage: 8%
Base Knockback: 7
Knockback Scaling: .4

BAir
Description: Shadow leans forward and puts his feet back, then makes a massive burst of flames come from his Air Shoes, boosting Shadow forward in the process.
Damage: 6%
Base Knockback: 9
Knockback Scaling: .3

UAir
Description: Shadow does a high kick with one foot, his leg reaching above his body.
Damage: 7%
Base Knockback: 5
Knockback Scaling: .5

DAir
Description: Shadow does the splits and swings both fists downward in-between his legs.
Damage: 7%
Base Knockback: 4
Knockback Scaling: .6

FStrong
Description: Shadow clenches his fist and leans down a bit while charging. Once released, Shadow lunges forward a short distance with a punch. If he hits someone, he teleports behind them as they get knocked back and kicks them in the back of the head, sending them the other way.
Damage: 5%, 9%/7%, 13% 
Base Knockback: 6
Knockback Scaling: .8

UStrong
Description: Shadow bends down to ground level with his fist out while charging. Once released, Shadow does a quick but powerful uppercut. If he hits someone, he grabs them as they're being launched up and slams them into the ground, popping them back into the air.
Damage: 7%, 9%/11%, 14%
Base Knockback: 4
Knockback Scaling: .9

DStrong
Description: Shadow closes his eyes and spreads his hands out while charging. Once released, Shadow jolts his arms down and causes a moderately sized explosion around himself. He's also probably say "Chaos... BLAST!" while charging and releasing respectively, but I don't really care that much. This would also take like 10% of the Chaos Meter to use.
Damage: 12%/18%
Base Knockback: 7
Knockback Scaling: .4

NSpecial
Description: Shadow stands in place and closes his eyes for a few seconds, like 1-2, and says "Chaos...". If hit while like this, Shadow yells "CONTROL!", and the attacker gets put into pratfall and severely slowed down for the next 2 seconds. Their Knockback also gets slowed, so Shadow can stack attacks onto them to stack knockback when the slowdown ends. If Shadow misses this he has a good bit of endlag. This also takes 40% of the Chaos Meter to use.
Damage: 0%
Cooldown: 15s

FSpecial
Description: Shadow summons a Chaos Spear in one hand, then violently slams it into the ground, or just throws it diagonally downward if used in the air. If the Chaos Spear touches the ground, it sticks to the ground and disappears shortly after, but it being shoved into the ground damages nearby enemies. If they get hit by the Chaos Spear directly as it's being shoved into the ground, though, they get impaled by it, which damages them again after it disappears in addition to the damage they take from being impaled. If hit by the air version, they get sent diagonally downward and the Chaos Spear just ricochets into the opposite direction. This takes 25% if the Chaos Meter to use.
Damage: 6% (Ground/Air)/8% (Impale), 7% (Disappear) 
Base Knockback: 3 (Ground/Impale)/ 5 (Air)/ 6 (Disappear)
Knockback Scaling: .6
Cooldown: 12s

USpecial
Description: Shadow grows his Doom Wings and uses them to fly straight up a decent bit. If used on the ground, he leaps upward with shockwaves on either side of him as he leaps. Shadow can angle the flight left or right a bit. After the flight ends, Shadow goes into pratfall. This takes 20% of the Chaos Meter to use.
Damage: 4%
Base Knockback: 4
Knockback Scaling: .2
Cooldown: 14s

DSpecial
Description: Shadow stops moving and takes off his Inhibitor Rings, which has a bit of startlag. Once they're off, Shadow begins to glow dark red. He will passively take 1 damage every second, but all his abilities will deal 2% more than they did before, and a bit more knockback. Shadow's stats will also increase like this, and his Chaos Meter drains faster while like this, but he gains more Meter off hits. Shadow can use this again to put the Inhibitor Rings back on, but that also has some startlag.
Damage: 0%
Base Knockback: 0
Knockback Scaling: 0
Cooldown: 2s

Taunt
Description: Shadow faces away from the player and looks to the side, then raises and clenches his fist. And probably says some edgy voiceline but idgaf about that.

Alt Taunt
Description: Shadow pulls out a gun and points it at the player.


Misc Stuff

Victory Theme
youtu.be/EKGXYWbzHjs?t=22 0:22-0:28

Alts
Rival - Shadow gets blue fur with peach highlights and green eyes/Sonic Alt
Boy Genius - Shadow gets yellow fur with white highlights and blue eyes/Tails Alt
Guardian - Shadow gets red fur with white highlights and purple eyes, and the tongue of his shoes become green/Knuckles Alt
Business Partner - Shadow gets white fur with pink highlights and turquoise eyes/Rouge Alt
Naive Timetraveler - Shadow gets silver fur with navy blue highlights and shoes, and gold eyes/Silver Alt
Erased - Shadow gets slightly brighter fur and pale blue highlights and green eyes/Mephiles Alt
The Doctor - Shadow gets red fur with yellow highlights, and his chest fur becomes brown and his eyes become blue/Eggman Alt
Maria - Shadow gets blond fur with light blue highlights and light blue eyes/Maria Alt (shocking i know)
Super - Shadow gets bright golden fur and brighter red eyes, also changes his idle and walk to feature him floating, has no gameplay impact/Super Shadow Alt (this is just so mind-boggling)


Stats
Dash Speed: 9
Init. Dash Speed: 14
Init. Dash Time: 15
Dash Stop Time: 4
Dash Turn Time: 18
Walk Speed: 4.5
Walk Turn Time: 5
Air Speed: 7
Max Double Jumps: 1
Jump Speed: 10
Double Jump Speed: 8
Short Hop Speed: 4.5


ok yea thats it. i know this is a lot and i feel like this may be against the rules somehow but like idc i had fun and thats all that matters to me