Although I'm just playing devil's advocate here, since I don't really believe Sonic has a proper main line (seeing as SEGA couldn't have one, especially during 3D Blast and X-Treme's era), I can't help but point out that we can't work with what-ifs here because the very fact that Xtreme wasn't released affects the resource allocation that was given to 3D Blast and the view of what a 3D Sonic could look like for a good 4 years (between 3D Blast and Adventure). Much like CD became mainline, or at least more explicitly so after SEGA decided to invest in and recover it as an integral part of the classic series, 3D Blast could become more or less mainline because of what happened after it was released. The most similar situation I can think of, mutatis mutandis, is Skyward Sword: released very late into the Wii shelf life, re-released for the WiiU once they decided BotW wouldn't be ready to be released for the WiiU. Had BotW been cancelled or something, it wouldn't change SS's status as mainline, but it would affect the notion of what would become of Zelda next.
My answer is “kinda”. I mean you play as Sonic, collect rings and destroy Eggman’s robots, and collect Chaos Emeralds in Special Stages. It’s not like he’s doing kart race tournaments, or exploring medieval worlds by getting sucked into a book, or playing pinball. But when I think of “what comes after S3&K” I think of Sonic Adventure, not Sonic 3D Blast. So I place it on the same tier as the Sonic Advance games in that the gameplay is clearly a derivative from Sonic 1/2/3, and the story feels like it could be a canonical Sonic event, but it also feels inconsequential to the series overall.
That's a lot of spinoffs! Seems a bit harsh to chuck all the handheld 2d platformers in there with the kart games and party games. Maybe 'console mainline' and 'handheld mainline' just to muddy the waters a bit more... :-D
No opinion on 3DB, but Shadow the Hedgehog is not ambiguous. The press-release from March 2005, which is remarkably still online, calls it "an exciting new spinoff".
Now the funny thing is, Sonic Generations 3DS could have done just that in a way, celebrating specifically the handheld heritage of the franchise and establishing its own separate status as "not-mainline-but-not-spinoff-either", especially considering how influential Sonic Rush was. But they couldn't, they didn't, and now we're left with only what we have.
Iizuka has confirmed Sonic Colors is mainline, in case there was any doubt. (In this article he’s also quoted as designating Secret Rings and Black Knight as spin-offs.) There’s an interview where he confirms Rush is mainline as well but I need to do a bit of digging to find it.
Yeah, anyone who's leaving Colours and CD off a mainline list is only doing it because they don't like the respective game, that's ridiculous. I don't like SA2 or 06 at all but I'd not dispute either being mainline.
One thing to keep in mind is that the original plan for Sonic 3 was to make a 3D isometric game (using the SVP chip). I believe 3D Blast is the follow through of that idea, with another team since Sonic Team was busy with other stuff, though with their involvement as discussed previously. I know it was mentioned up front, but I think filling the X-Treme gap at least gives it merit, as far as a marketing perspective. And as others have pointed out, it added to the lore and game mechanics that have stuck around. I think it checks all the boxes, personally.
Eh, I like both games but I can see the rationale for CD, but not as much for Colors. Though I think there are way more arguments against their inclusion than there are for SA2 and 06, so I don't know if it's a good comparison. Maybe if you said Mania or something. I stand by my earlier list of 1, 2, 3, K, A, A2, H, Sh, 06, U, C, G, LW, F, M, Fr. Shadow and Mania are definitely skirting the edge though.
Not to mention Takashi Iizuka and other Sonic Team staff are credited as 3D Blast’s designers. In fact, the entire design side was handled by Sonic Team. Traveller’s Tales was responsible for programming and implementation. I’m almost certain they would’ve handled it internally if it wasn’t for Nights into Dreams.
It feels like it's almost a mainline Sonic game, but I suppose it's not. The series does owe quite a bit to it, however: it's the birth of not only the single-button Spin Dash, but the Homing Attack. That's a pretty big deal. That, and it's Jun Senoue's first leading role. If Xtreme never existed and Sonic Team / Traveler's Tales made this exclusively for Saturn, it probably would be seen as a mainline title today. But Xtreme was always supposed to be The One, and 3D Blast (back when it was just "Sonic Blast") was just a novelty spin-off for Genesis players who weren't buying a Saturn yet. Doomed basically from the start to be second banana to a game that doesn't exist.
06 can be removed from the main timeline because the game removed itself from the main timeline. Seriously the games conclusion is “We made it so it didn’t happen.”
I assume most people aren't looking for games that are canon when they ask what is mainline. Mario barely has any continuity and yet some games are still considered mainline. Even if canon had anything to do with it, 06 has to happen for it not to happen, as contradictory as that sounds. Solaris being erased simply means that everything caused by him (The actual story) didn't happen, but every other element from the game still exists as part of Sonic's world, such as Silver, Elise, Soleanna, the shoemaker and, our true hero, Sonicman
Agreed. I feel like the thread has already been around this a few times in 3 pages somehow, but "mainline" and "canon" aren't necessarily the same. A game can be one but not the other.
Colors is one of my favorite games in the franchise and I made an argument for it possibly not being on the list (shout out to Joe for the clarifying article). Most of my ambiguity came from the context of the time, since Sonic 4 was seemingly more aggressively marketed at the time (not that Sonic 4 isn't a spinoff with a name more prominent than its station, mind you). It also doesn't help that it wasn't fully multi-platform, and doesn't have the same level of scale and budget as Unleashed and Generations. As for Sonic CD, regardless of my feelings about that game, I still stand by my point. I do not believe that Sonic CD was ever considered a legitimate follow-up to Sonic 2, and it was even released on a peripheral console that was certainly in need of that Sonic brand power. CD also doesn't appear in Sonic Jam, or even Mega Collection. Sure, CD became prominent and popular later, but this is likely because of both Gems collection (where many people likely played it for the first time), and then-recent reoccurrences of characters like Metal Sonic. SEGA reinforced it's importance with the remake and the whole S4: Episode II plot, but it feels odd to think that CD was ever intended to be a flagship title from it's inception.
Although I do remember Colors being a lot more marketed than Sonic 4 by far, the fact that Sonic Colors was the first exclusive 3D platforming (or high-speed action, if you're so inclined) Sonic game in a long while, and for the Wii instead of the PS3 or the the X360, did raise eyebrows. Mind you, the "Unwiished" was seen as a lesser version back then (being handled by Dimps and all), and we knew Colors couldn't possibly be the anniversary title that absolutely had to be in development. So there are some unusual circumstances to its develpment and launch that justify a little ambiguity. It's mainline for sure, but it didn't come the way we were used to expect at the time.
