Ian’s said several times that he didn’t like the characters having official ages, and that the official ages they did have didn’t always make sense. He’s glad they’re gone now.
I can understand that position on the matter, but I dislike what they did. Now there's nothing stopping people from claiming years pass throughout the adventures and the characters have been aging as they go. I never liked that. To me the gameverse shouldn't canonize EVERY freaking game under the sun, it never made sense to me. Hence I saying before that it's become a nightmare and that the fandom may never reach common ground...
But they are going to change parts of their plots presented in the manuals so that they "fit". The only games I did not want them to be canon were Spinball and Fighters.
You didn't get my point. There's way too many games, little and big, console and portable. Just too many. I've never considered all those as part of one single continuity nor will I ever do so. Personal bias, I know. SEGA trying now to do that to please a portion of the fandom may end up doing more harm than good...
Nope, there are many games with little relevant stuff to add to the overall narrative of the continuity. I usually ignore those or deem them part of a timeline parallel to the mainline continuity.
That's the nature of fandom, would happen whether Sega made declarations about canon or not, and it's completely fine.
Change parts of the plot, rewrite the entire thing so very little remains like Sonic Origins, same difference. But they're not: they're skipping Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood! Hello there.
I can understand that, I think it’s nice to have for the people who do care about it but I really dislike the retroactive decanonization of things that have been accepted for YEARS. Longer than I’ve been a conscious human being. It borderline feels like a hijacking of the series vs actually building on what’s already there, established, and accepted. My other biggest pet peeve lately is the “Ian Flynn said” despite people saying bumblekast isn’t official his word is being taken as gospel and it makes it really hard to engage with anything continuity related. Lots of other people work on the games and I hope they can untangle this mess they’ve found themselves in.
In Sonic Origins itself. When you play through 'Story Mode', you go through the games in the following order: 1 -> CD -> 2 -> 3K
Context is important. When Ian says "This is how I interpret it" or "This is how I would like it to be", most people understand that that's just his opinion and not official. But when Ian says "Sonic Team told me it works this way" or "It's been decided internally at Sega that ___ is canon", then that carries much more weight, especially now that he's on the newly established lore team. The same goes for Evan Stanley.
Sonic the Hedgehog CD was a funny one that has good reasoning for both sides of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive). You have that Tails image saying "see you next game", which is not a reference to Sonic Drift as some portray. Of Tails, he is not involved, which is counted as evidence to being before they meet. You have a lot of elements making a comeback from Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive), and a lot missing from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive). Some characterise the more clunky spindash as lack of experience regarding it. On the other hand, you have Metal Sonic who appears to be the final outcome of the Mecha Sonic line, though people also try and use that as evidence it's after Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as well. Even the creators of the game are unsure where it actually goes. I know Ohshima said it was after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive) due to release order and Metal Sonic, but other developers think it was pre.
Indeed, you can easily argue both ways. For instance, I could argue Metal Sonic as less advanced than the Mecha line (he needs shields and doesn't really do much in Sonic the Hedgehog CD), plus Mecha Sonic Model no. 29, Rocket Metal, suggests even after getting his 'perfect' Sonic robot, he kept on building more, countering the idea that he was building up to Metal Sonic. I prefer it as an interquel, the one thing I agree with Sonic Origins, but arguments can be made for either side.
Not only do you play the games in that order in story mode, but Sonic takes off in the Tornado to head to Westside Island in an animated cutscene.
When you race him, he throws up barriers. This is pretty much his only trick. All his other abilities came later on. Not really. He'll throw up a barrier and charge forward, but does that when Sonic's ahead, not when he's in the way. It just means he's getting ahead.
