Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II Prototypes Found with Unused Ending

When will the people learn that Sonic is Sonic?!

 

It's no need to do that anyway because, according to the Official Japanese Sonic Channel timeline, the Sonic 4 series is now after Sonic Superstars and right before Sonic Adventure. That might mean this game could see a remake at some point. The only problem with that is Metal Sonic appeared in Sonic Mania already lol. I'll leave that up to Sonic Team to make that make sense.

 

I mean, Metal Sonic can be rebuilt again and again I assume. He does show up in Eggman's Mystic Ruins base in Adventure, as does the Sonic 2 metal sonic.

 

True, but currently Classic Sonic is the past and Modern Sonic is the present/future. So a Sonic 5 with Classic Sonic would mean that it happens before 4.

Why is that a problem? I didn't get that.

 

Have you played Episode Metal?

 

Yeah, Metal Sonic was in Little Planet and came back flying and all after Eggman somehow gave him some energy.

 

“Somehow Palpatine returned”

It really isn’t a jump to suggest there’s a ton of different versions of Metal Sonic anyway, we have precedent for this with Sonic Heroes/Adventure/Etc.

 

I think he's talking about how Sonic 4 starts with Metal Sonic broken in Stardust Speedway following his battle with Sonic in CD, making any appearances of his between the two games hard to reconcile.

Though IIRC they've tried to address it by saying that there had been another confrontation with Metal Sonic in Little Planet offscreen at some point before 4.

Not according to Sega. There is only one Metal Sonic, as he's supposed to be a character rather than a line of robots.

That's why S4E2 shows Eggy sending a machine to Little Planet to reactivate Metal, rather than building another.

 

Sonic has had two separate time-space warping confrontations with Metal there at this point, just say it's one of those.

 

Sega’s games, comics and films all contradict each other constantly (and not just on this point).

Getting bogged down in the canon of any single character in the Sonic franchise is, I suggest, a bit fruitless as different dev teams will come up with different solutions and explanations.

Best example - Sonic Battle (GBA) following Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (when Shadow has “died”).

 

"There is only one Metal Sonic" is literally a mandate imposed by Sega. In Archie's early years there had been originally two Metal Sonics, with the second replacing the first at some point. Ian wanted to bring back the original Metal but Sega said that there can't be more than one, so he had to redesign, rename him and change his personality to make him a separate character.

 

Must be a pretty strong mandate to have approved the scene of multiple Metal Sonics in Sonic 3 then: https://soniccinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Sonics

Look, it may be intended to be “the same character” over and over but as we’ve seen with stuff like Generations and basically every Sonic tv and films all contradict tie in ever, canon is flexible and there’s multiple versions of the same character and multiple interpretations of that character.

 

I mean, that's partly a case of the release order not matching the intended chronology - Rouge also makes a brief reference to being reminded of Omega in Battle, so although it released not long before Heroes it's clearly intended by the developers to be set afterwards.

Of course, that still raises the issue that Shadow appears to have his memories back in Battle, meaning it logically must be set after Shadow the Hedgehog at the very earliest. I doubt that SEGA was planning that far ahead at the time - especially as early concept art for that game shown in Shadow Generations seems to show a very different idea for the game, with no sign of the Black Arms, Gerald Robotnik Alice with cyborg enhancements, and Metal Sonic involved somhow. At the same time, I'm guessing they always intended for Shadow's memories to be restored eventually, so probably felt safe letting the Battle team run with that idea and worrying about filling in how it happened in a later game.

 

The movie gets more flexibility than standard Sonic media. That's why we got stuff like different voice actors from the games.

Old adaptations got plenty of flexibility too, as the franchise was in its infancy and there weren't many ground rules, besides most of them were supervised by SoA rather than SoJ. Naka has explicitly stated that he didn't approve of some of the stuff DiC did, and Iizuka said that Sonic Team didn't have as much control over Sonic Boom as he would have liked.

The games and standard modern adaptations are a different matter. Ian has gone over the many rules and guidelines Sega established in modern comics to keep consistency with the games.

Some things are let up to the writers, like how exaggerated the characters' personalities and quirks are. Hence characterizations varying from the noughties to the Pontac/Graff era to Frontiers. Other things are strongly enforced for brand consistency, like the aforementioned mandates. The Metal Sonic rule is one of then.

Anyway, there has never been an implication that there were multiple Metal Sonics in the games. In fact, whenever he appeared, the plot treated him as a returning character as opposed to a new incarnation.

 

Yeah I think for anyone looking for an answer on this one that has to be it, especially since it's obviously based on the encounter in Generations more than CD -- and Generations by nature has two answers for where it happens on the timeline anyway

 

I mean, yeah, there's nothing preventing Sonic and Metal Sonic to face each other again in Little Planet after CD. In fact, that happened in Mania (assuming that battle happened at all and it was not an illusion).

 

Technically Sonic has fought Metal in Stardust Speedway at least thrice. CD, Generations and Mania.

 

Oh yeah, I guess when I said "two separate time-space warping confrontations" I forgot that CD already was one to begin with.

Nevertheless, with this having been a moment we've relived multiple times, you can easily slot whichever one precedes Sonic 4 wherever you like (it doesn't fix the design thing, but who cares really)

 

I mean Sonic Team obviously cares if they went out their way to change the placement of Sonic 4 itself on their official timeline on their website. It might be flawed but still shows they care in some type of way. lol

 

Only one Metal is a mandate? Fleetway must not’ve gotten the memo!

By the way, Sonic Adventure 1 is the true Sonic 4 much like how Metal Gear Solid 1 is for all intents and purposes Metal Gear 3.