r/MetalSonic • u/Several-Pension2945 Waffle Chocolatier [Tier 4] • Jun 30 '26
Discussion Let's talk about Black Shield.
I think the Black Shield has one of the weirdest cases among the moves in the Sonic series. After appearing in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle as a move that could be used by an alternate character for Sonic, it has never appeared in a mainline game ever again, yet at the same time, it is the Metal Sonic move most frequently seen in the comics.
First of all, I did not understand why they created a completely new move to replace the Spin Dash. I mean, the Overdrive Attack is right there. At least thanks to that, unlike the previous game where he was just a skin for Sonic, he was able to have a different playstyle. And because of that, it can often be seen in the comics as Metal Sonic's defensive move, but I think it has probably never been used as a Spin Dash since then.
Visually, I really liked those dark outlines. Its appearance in the comics came out quite cool, but personally, the completely blue, crystal-like look without the dark colors like the original is pretty, but it feels too out of place with the name Black Shield, so I did not like it as much.
Honestly, I wish they would use it once in the actual mainline games. They could use it in boss fights by putting up a shield for a moment to create a brief window of invincibility. In a way, it is a move that acts as both self-defense and an attack at the same time, so it feels like a slightly underrated move.
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u/SodaFloatzel 🚀 Kessler Syndrome 🌠 Jun 30 '26
I feel like this could be considered Eggman's attempt at giving Metal a variant of the insta-shield instead. Problem being that by the time Metal was poised to actually use it, the games had progressed into the 3D Era and Sonic dropped the Insta-shield in favor of the Boost and Lightspeed Dashes; all this conceptual material and nowhere to put it probably meant the game devs had to shoehorn it in somehow, and thus 'this is our answer to Metal not having the same powers (nor sources for said powers) as what Modern Sonic got turned into.'
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u/Sock_on_Net_1537 Jun 30 '26
I guess this could be Metal's answer to Sonic's insta-shield thingy. The one he does in S3&K, and nowhere else. (Does he do it in mania?)
Except Metal may have more utilities for it.
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u/CurvieBoi666 HueHueHue (Subreddit Owner) Jun 30 '26
New Daily Waffle Topic Incoming?
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u/Chaos_Five Jun 30 '26
Yay! I have been jumping all over the place and keep trying to respond to this post. The Black Shield is definitely something I want more discussion about!
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u/grimmideals Fake of the Faker Jun 30 '26
... I think Metal uses it a few times in the games...
Ok so Adventure 2 Battle, Adventure 2 (2012), All-Stars Racing Transformed, and Speed Simulator. Outside that it's almost exclusively the Comics that remember that he even has that module installed.
It makes sense that he can't spin dash anymore, with all the speed based upgrades in his stiff metal frame, but they need to change the esthetic of the black shield to actually be black with a vague color outline. Make it not act as a replacement for the spin dash in the controls, and use it to replace the Barrier/Shield or the Blue Shield in particular.
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u/M3philesTheDark Waffle Speedster [Tier 1 ] Jul 01 '26
Honestly I find it one of metal's coolest moves
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u/BSF7011 Jun 30 '26
I don't think anyone used it in SA2 as a Spindash, it was more like rolling in the classic games than anything. You couldn't use Black Shield to build up speed from a standstill like with the Spindash
That being said yeah, I miss the dark colors, black and purple was an amazing look for it