Damn Sega's Storylines to Hell

[fakersinc]

Ok the topic thread sounds harsh, but I'm just being silly.

I think it's resonable to say that every Sonic game that comes out, unless it is in a sensible succession (such as Sonic Adventure > Sonic Adventure 2) has a completely different "universe" apart from the others.

For instance... theres no way in hell you can make sense of the information given to you between Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes. Or Sonic 1 to Sonic Adventure.

Half these games dont even make any sense. Not that they have to as long as theyre fun (youtube Gitaroo Man or Parappa the Rapper). I think that, generally speaking, when a new Sonic games come out we should try our best to ignore the other games storylines and consider it a new story in and of itself (unless like stated before, it is CLEARLY a sequel).

I say this because there was another post about the moon being blown up then in Sonic Unleashed its there and turns him into a werehog. This clearly isn't possible when looked at just going with the games' storylines... you'd have to take bits and pieces from both the games and TV series for it to work. Which we all know is terribly difficult and pointless to do.

For example.... Zelda games all take place in increments of around 700 years apart, with Link being reincarnated over and over again. Sure, there are constants like, who is involved and what theyre after. But there are things that are different... like the world they live in and the types of magic and stuff. The only Zelda game I know of, for a fact, that was a direct sequel of another game was Zelda OoT and Majora's mask, which takes place just as Link leaves Hyrule and recieves a badass shield from the Princess Zelda after saving everyone from Gannondorf.

So, does this seem like a reasonable explanation?

[RedPenguin]

Is it reasonable? Yeah, sure.

Is it logical? Don't see much contradiction here and it does flow.

But is it acceptable? Nope, sorry but I just can't live with that answer.

Alright, but seriously, there are many ways to look at that thin line which is "continuity" and Sonic games aren't the best source for it. I myself would rather see one where each game's story actually, well ya' know makes sense.

There are other ways to try and connect the game's storylines without needing other forms of medium for answers (it's a good place to check, and can work under a few instances and actually has a couple times in fact). Manuals, albeit do show out dated rubbish when you look back at them now, are official source material whether you like it or not and can uncover a few things as well.

Besides the interconnected continuity that I would pretty much always vouch for when it comes to a long series such as this one, there are other ways they can be looked at. The Zelda one is a great idea, but that has always been the creator's intention. In fact, more games can be put together. Like Zelda I and II for the NES are two stories that are canon to each other but not other Zeldas'. ALttP (abbreviated for A Link to the Past, just to clarify) for the SNES and Link's Awakening for GB and the Zelda Oracle games for GBC are also one linked storyline. The same can be done with Sonic if your put things together.

You can put all of the Genesis games together, all the Game Gear games together, all the recent portables together but separated by platform, and all consoles together without much hassle. Each set of these "series" almost all share a similar playstyle, story telling, characters, and settings for them to be related with each other, but not compared with any of the other "series." It's another way of looking at the continuity, and it does seem to work pretty well too.

I can get into how much, and what exactly came first, and which game happens after the last one if anybody would like to hear it just to show that besides how loose the stories are, can be connected logically just to illustrate my point*; as I would rather have all the games under one umbrella of continuity rather than separate ones.

*Yeah, there is the whole "Blaze, Silver and Eggman Nega shenanigans" that pretty much started all this are the exception, but I do have a few theories of my own that just might work out.

[Quacker Duk]

Meh, I agree the story isn't always easy to follow, but I think there is a definite Sonic Chronology. The problem is that Sonic Team, for marketing reason, does not reference previous events unless they absolutely have to. That's why we get so confused when Sonic only mentions having met Blaze before if it's in a direct sequel to another game with her in it. I can understand their goal -- it makes the games easier to understand. Shadow the Hedgehog was nearly incomprehensible to the non-Sonic fans, as it required the player to know who Maria was, who Gerald was, what GUN is, how old Shadow is, what the Eclipse Cannon is, what happened at Prison Island, and even who/what Cheese is. It's a tall order.

Thus we get this Timeline based on the implicit references in the games.

Sonic 1 and 2 (Directly referenced by the character's relationships)
Sonic CD (Metal Sonic from this game was referenced in Sonic Adventure and Heros)
Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Sonic infers that Knuckles has been tricked by Eggman before, and knows Angel Island)
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Heroes (The plot directly referenced the events of the two previous games. Without them, the game could not have taken place.)
Shadow the Hedgehog (The plot directly referenced the events of the three previous games. Without them, the game could not have taken place.)
Sonic 2006 (The references to Shadow and Omega place it after the events of Shadow the Hedgehog)

Outside of this, there are games we can lump together. These can be easily wedged into the timeline, as they often reference elements of the main continuity, but do not actually state when they take place.

Sonic Advance Series (Events can happen anywhere, so long as Sonic Advance 3 comes after Sonic Battle)

Sonic Battle (Must come before Sonic Chronicles do to the the Gizoid plot)

Sonic Rush/Sonic Rush Adventure (Must come after Cream was introduced and Sonic 2006, but before Rivals)

Sonic Rivals 1&2 (Must come after Sonic 2006, thanks to the Silver Paradox. Also it must come AFTER Rush, due to the plot reveal about Eggman Nega.)

Sonic Riders and Zero Gravity (Can go anywhere, though the references to GUN arguably place it post-Sonic Adventure 2.)

Finally, We have a few stand-alone games that are impossible to place, but contains enough references that they do not exist in a void.

Sonic Chronicles (We know it takes place AFTER Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Battle, but we don't know exactly how long. It also infers a massive time jump at some point that is tough to retcon with the main continuity.)

Sonic Storybook Series (These spin offs could happen nearly anytime in the series. Heck, as far as I can tell, Black Knight could even take place BEFORE Secret Rings without making too many plot holes.)

Sonic Unleashed could literally take place anywhere in the continuity after Sonic Adventure, as there are no references to anything other then Amy, Tails, Knuckles and the Chao.
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As a final note, dates are impossible to figure in the series thanks to the characters never aging. Sonic Heroes states it's been a full year since it's events of the previous game, as does Sonic Chronicles. Just on those explicit references alone, Sonic should be seventeen. Also it would infer that Black Doom helped create Shadow over a year AFTER the events on the Ark. We just have to assume this is a fairy tale world, and the passage of time is not as important as the order of events.