Hey guys, happy new 2019 for everyone I was recently watching a discussion on the Brazilian Sonic group on Facebook, about the recent happenings to the sonic timeline and how some things changed due to the storytelling on the newer games here's what people ended up agreeing with: Note: Sonic 3K happening after Generations makes more sense since Mania's manual makes it look like it there was no event between 3K an Mania. What do you guys think?
As silly as I think a Sonic timeline is at times, I'd like to point out that Sonic 4 episode two was marketed as a sequel to CD implying that it happened after Sonic 4 episode one. It could just be marketing BS though.
Can I ask what's the relevance of Advance & Advance 2? And yes, I think CD should also be included in the Modern Timeline.
There's a gray screen on Episode metal (that happens just at the same time as Sonic 4 EP 1) that states 'a long time has passed' between Metal Sonic being defeated and ressurected in Stardust Speedway to be used in EP 2. I call it just marketing BS, it's more like an indirect sequel than anything else. Advance 2 introduced Cream to the series. Advance 1 had to be included as 2 was really important. 3 was apparently retconned as Sonic Heroes happened after Advance 2 and it's story was never referenced. I actually forgot to include CD on the modern timeline as I was making the chart. Thanks for pointing it out . I've fixed the image.
The timeline doesn't make a lot of sense. The Adventure and Advance game placements seem wonky, and if you're gonna put the Advance/Rush games in at all it's bizarre to exclude Advance 3 and therefore Battle, even with the minor inconsistencies with the latter. There's some inconsistencies between other games, too, but that's just how modern Sonic is. Also Shadow and the Rivals games should be in there. And if gonna put 06 in, Shadow needs to be there. And why is 06 between the Rush games? Ultimately a definitive timeline is impossible to make, since there's not a lot of consistency in general and constant retconning. The story is fluid. There's one world until suddenly there's two. Characters are from another dimension until suddenly they're from the future.
Because theoretically 06 never happened, as Sonic apparently went to a festival and that's it. I was forced to include it as Blaze references Crisis City multiple times on other games (but that shouldn't have been possible).
The placement directly between the Rush games just seemed kinda arbitrary to me, especially because in 06 Blaze and Sonic never even acknowledge each other. I think Blaze only mentions Crisis City in Generations, so I guess if you want to stretch things you could consider the NPC dialogue as noncanon and it could work. Or just consider the main story of Generations as canon but not which specific stages are used. I think that whole situation shows my point of why a timeline can't work though, or at least why omitting some games like Battle seems odd. If Blaze can be from the future in 06 (even if the game erased itself, if it's on the timeline that would mean the pre-self-retcon events had to have happened beforehand) then Battle could happen after Heroes and/or Shadow. Btw if we add the Rivals games, they'd have to be after the Rush games (where Eggman and Nega work together) and before Colors (where Silver makes a cameo appearance in the DS version).
Don't we have a thing against "fan theories" - because you don't get more theoretical than a "timeline" in Sonic games Gee I wonder where Sonic Pocket Adventure fits in - modern design, classic levels? Oh my!
That's why people didn't try fitting the GG games or arcade games. Some manuals make references to other games themselves, which is what we were trying to make a chart of. Fitting every game in a timeline is basically impossible. I ended up editing the image to be more specific about that, as even thoguh Sonic CD, Sonic 4 and 06 are a bit tricky to be placed it doesn't really matter much.
Definitely agree with this. Even though Eggman's had no problem teaming up with enemies before, it would be a bit daft for him to work with (Rush) Nega shortly after (Rivals) Nega tried to kill him. (Not even going into the 'are Rush/Rivals Nega even the same dude' territory today :v: )
If you're making a chart of which games are directly referenced by manuals (or even each other) your timeline should be way smaller than in the OP.
Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3&K were referenced by Mania Sonic 4 stays, as it has episode metal that kinds of bridges the gap between Sonic CD and it's storyline. Adventure and Adventure 2 were referenced by Generations Advance was referenced by Advance 2 Advance 2 stays, as it was the introduction of Cream to the series which appeared in numerous games after it Heroes and '06 were referenced by Generations Rush was referenced by Colors DS and Generations 3DS Rush Adventure was referenced by Colors DS (they even talk about Marine!) Unleashed and Colors were also referenced by Generations Lost World was referenced by Forces
Can Fighters be an alternative classic timeline version of Sonic 4? The plot is kind of the same in a way just told out differently. It would also establish bean, bark, and fang in said universe. Also SegaSonic arcade would have to exist in the classic universe to account for Mighty and Ray. Chaotix should also exist for similar reasons.
@Master Emerald, as far as I know the handheld games tend to make up a timeline of it's own, parallel to the main console games. This franchise has that quite bothersome element, the fact that you have many games that could connect to each other, but still have loose knots hard to tie.
The problem is that Colors DS was referenced in Lost World (console) and Forces as its exclusive wisps are now common (Void and Burst). And starting with Mania and Sonic Forces, the timeline from handheld/console was unified. Those 3 games could be placed, yes, but their storyline doesn't make any sense. And yes, you know what I mean. Chaotix and Sonic the Fighters Specially. It almost seems like an alternate dimension or something. Placing Sonic CD on a timeline is alredy painful due to the timestones0. But, admitting Sonic deafeated enemies through boxing just before taking Eggman's Death Egg 2 is just too much to handle :/ I would actually like to know where would you place SegaSonic as Ray and Mighty went unreferenced for a long time.
Hence the second line of my previous post. It also kinda pisses me off whenever Iizuka simply evades any question about a possible timeline of the games.
I don't think he evades questions about the timeline so much as gives vague answers because Sega only has a vague concept of a timeline. I think he also doesn't want to ruin things for the fans who have fun making theories and fanon.
SegaSonic I would consider being either soon before or soon after Sonic 1. Tails wasnt around yet so he wouldn't be able to help Sonic out and Eggman was temporarily able to catch Sonic which somewhat implies that Sonic isnt at his best yet. After they all got freed from Eggmans grasps they may have just gone their separate ways. The only reason they came back to Mania was because Eggman caught them again. Alternatively one could argue though that Mighty and Ray don't actually exist because they could be phantom ruby illusions like the hooligans. But that's no fun :v: I actually think Archie lore placed a very, VERY loose connection to the game as very early in Sonic's lore too.
My sig has excellent StF fodder in it, which I keep for satire, but I don't think any version of a timeline should include StF. Why the Death Egg II existed and why it was set to explode in 15 seconds when you defeat Metal is odd enough. Perhaps in an AU, Sonic got to the Death Egg II, but did not defeat the final mech Eggman, and both perished.
Considering the damage Sonic did to the last Death Egg (and this one, if we take Sonic 4 to be a prequel to Sonic the Fighters), it might be Robotnik just being pragmatic and detonating the place as it's getting destroyed either way and this way might take Sonic with it. Regardless, I still take the timeline to be one long one, regardless of managerial decisions.