Contradictions/Lack of Continuity in Sonic games.

Um, because they've been destroyed?

 

See, the way I see it, references to previous games (like Mystical Ninja was talking about a few posts ago) aren't the same as true continuity. The only consecutive Sonic games that displayed what could be considered true continuity, as far as I can tell, were Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, involving everything with the Death Egg. Everything after that has been either totally ignored or retconned with practically each following game, as Metal_Man88 has already elaborated upon. Characters are introduced and promptly forgotten about with reletive regularity. Here's Nack the Weasel, enjoy, you'll never see him again. Mighty the Armadillo, a Chaotix member, you say? Never heard of him. That's not continuity.

 

They got rid of Mighty because he was way too similar to Sonic, and they used Mighty instead of Sonic in Chaotix because they didn't want to give Sonic a new ability (wall clinging/jumping).

 

That's an interesting theory, Mr. Shadow. But do you have any evidence?

 

They gave Sonic wall clinging/jumping anyways, in Heroes: the Triangle Jump(or whatever the fuck it's called.) It's just a different form.

 

That doesn't make one ounce of sense. Look at Sonic Adventure. Sonic got scads of new abilities there - the homing attack, the light dash, and so forth. And even more new abilities have been introduced in the games since then. I don't see how "not wanting to give Sonic a new ability" could have had anything to do with it. On top of that, if they wanted to get rid of Mighty because he was "too similar to Sonic," how do you justify Shadow? In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, he had all the same abilities and statistics as Sonic - Shadow was really nothing more than an alternate skin.

 

They made Shadow for the dark story speed levels.

...why they didn't use Good 'ol Metal Sonic is beyond me.

 

...because he was irrelevant to the storyline?

You guys have to realize that the use of characters in these games is based entirely on context. Characters like Mighty or Fang have ALWAYS been specific to those games they were featured in, and only exist for the purpose of serving as cheap fillers. They're NOT major characters, and don't fit in the current storyline of the series, and, as a result, won't be used, as it would only introduce FURTHER inconsistency. The character lineup that exists today ties in with a common bond - the current plot. THAT's why they're in every game and the others aren't.

 

S1 - S3K had a strong continuity, SA and SA2 had a strong continuity to each other and a loose continuity to the Genesis games, and SH had a loose continuity to SA2. I regard the GG games as side adventures (they don't really conflict with the Genesis games unless you look at them as being the same game), as well as SCD and KC.

Currently each game seems somewhat self-contained with loose elements of continuity. One way or another, though, there is really no reason to stress over recent continuity.

Personally, I always had plotlines going in my own head with the Genesis games (including S2K), and prefer it that way. The active plot takes something away from the newer games that the older games had, while adding something the older games did not have. If the equation is balanced remains a matter of opinion.

 

If you take away the manual then the Genny games don't have a plot. lol
Except maybe Sonic 3D.

 

Not really; ShtH seems like it started where SA2 left off (with an obvious gap where nothing interesting happened). Although, the one big problem I have with it is... why the hell is Maria alive in ShtH? Wasn't she killed 50 years before SA2? Or maybe Shadow is just hallucinating? :\