Unless I missed something, it's never stated that Black Doom only helped with Shadow's creation, correct? I mean, it IS black and red like Shadow and seems like it would fit right along with Black Bull and the like.
Well, it's a prototype for a reason right? Gerald probably had already started on the Ultimate Life project and when the Biolizard ended up not really lining up with whatever results he was hoping for, it was possibly at that point that he enlisted the help of Black Doom. That's the way I see it anyway.
It's not particularly difficult to see that the Black Bull and Black Devil were SEGA's attempts to recreate the aesthetic of the Biolizard without actually paying attention to how the fights played, just like the Blue Falcon and Heavy Dog were borne from the same place Sonic's first fight in SA2 was. It's basically the same faux-dedication to fanwank that they seem to direct to Classic Sonic these days, Mania excepting.
Faux or no, all the SA2 throwbacks in ShTH made me grin like an idiot :specialed: I think Jimmy Hedgehog is probably on the money, here.
The Biolizard does indeed look the part for a potential Black Arms/lizard hybrid. It's a wonder that Shadow didn't turn out just as monstrous as the prototype with the same sample of Black Arms DNA, though we can't assume Professor Gerald contacted Black Doom before or after the Biolizard was deemed a failure. It's either an insane coincidence that the Biolizard looks like a Black Arms creature due to the power of genetic engineering, or it's what tipped off the government that something was amiss with the project and placed its intentions under scrutiny. Either way, I prefer to see it as an extraneous nugget of story that, while interesting to consider in retrospect, creates new problems when applied to the older games in the same continuity.
Pretty much my thoughts. The fact that Shadow was so refined after only one 'revision' seems to support this.
Well, could it be a Jurassic Park-type deal? They say they left the ruins on the planet 5000 years ago, was it? Perhaps they recovered some DNA from some source and managed to create a being from it, that being the Biolizard. And if the Archie comics are anything to go by, I'm willing to accept details that don't directly oppose canon, the Black Arms have a hivemind that can be felt across the galaxy. A sudden new being popping up over on that backwater planet that has the Chaos Emeralds you covet so much? Better check that out. So yeah, perhaps the Biolizard is a Black Arms born creature, but with DNA found, not given, thus Gerald had no idea how to properly utilize it. But it was enough to establish a connection to the hivemind, and the Black Arms decided to pay a visit and see about a deal.
