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1[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonic_2006.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:349:''[[{{Tagline}} This time, speed won't be enough...]]'']]
3
4->''"In this world... where life is strong.\
5In this world... life's an open book.\
6In this world... where compromise does not exist.\
7In his world of worlds, every step meets the rest!"''
8-->-- '''His World''', theme of Sonic The Hedgehog
9
10''If you're looking for the original 1991 Genesis game, go [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 here]].''
11
12''Sonic the Hedgehog'', sometimes shortened to ''Sonic (2006)'' but most commonly ''Sonic '06'' to differentiate it from the series and its first game, was released on November 14 for the Platform/Xbox360 and Platform/PlayStation3. The game was made to commemorate the 15th anniversary of [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog the titular franchise]].
13
14Dr. Eggman is at it again, trying to kidnap the Princess of Soleanna and combine her mystical power with (you guessed it) the seven Chaos Emeralds in order to rule over all spacetime. Sonic the Hedgehog once again stumbles onto one of Eggman's plots during his travels. Meanwhile, a [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] hedgehog from the future named Silver appears on the scene. His goal is to prevent his BadFuture from coming to pass by destroying the "Iblis Trigger", which he mistakenly believes to be Sonic. A third character, series anti-hero Shadow, must contend with his mysterious {{doppelganger}} "Mephiles the Dark" who seeks to activate the Iblis Trigger and plunge the future into despair.
15
16Similar to its predecessors, the game had multiple campaigns following different characters with their own playstyles.
17* Sonic has the type of levels you'd expect: high speed action with platforming with minor combat elements. He also has special on-rails sections in levels where he goes at maximum speed. In certain levels, he carries Princess Elise, who can combine their powers to form an energy field that damages enemies and can protect them from otherwise-fatal environmental hazards for a short time.
18* Shadow plays similarly to Sonic, though his speed has been toned down slightly and his gameplay is somewhat more focused on combat. He occasionally also makes use of vehicles, just like in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. No weapons outside of what you get on said vehicles, though.
19* Silver is far slower than Sonic or Shadow, but his psychokinetic powers allow him to interact with the environment and obstacles in different ways thanks to the game's physics engine. His levels often have puzzle-solving elements utilizing said physics.
20
21Other characters (e.g. Tails, Knuckles, E-123 Omega) are also playable, though in a less prominent capacity. They are typically reserved for parts of certain levels or their own, smaller levels. Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge control similarly to how they did in the ''Sonic Adventure'' games, while Blaze plays like Sonic and Omega is reminiscent of Gamma from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''.
22
23As the 15th anniversary title and the first ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game made for HD consoles, expectations for ''Sonic '06'' were quite high. Unfortunately, the one-two punch of an already TroubledProduction chafing under [[ChristmasRushed an attempt to reach the anniversary deadline]] meant that what was eventually released was an ugly, [[GameBreakingBug buggy]], and clearly unfinished mess that colossally failed to live up to any of them. The stress of the production also convinced series co-creator Creator/YujiNaka and his strung-out staff at Creator/SonicTeam to ditch Creator/{{Sega}} and go [[StartMyOwn indie]].
24----
25!!This game exhibits examples of:
26
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:A-M]]
30* AbandonedLaboratory: Aquatic Base is Soleanna's underwater research facility where the Solaris Project happened, which resulted in Solaris splitting into Iblis and Mephiles. After the disaster, the lab was abandoned and left untouched for ten years.
31* AbortedArc: The introductory cutscene has Sonic saving Elise from Eggman. During a split second, Elise mistakes Sonic for Silver and says "you... no, it can't be". Despite the two occasions in which Silver attacks Sonic, this is never brought up again. While in Silver's story it would be revealed Silver gave Elise the Blue Chaos Emerald, he did so when she was asleep, and nothing similar to what the introduction suggest happens between the two characters.
32* AimForTheHorn: How Sonic defeats the Egg Cerberus and Egg Wyvern. Once Sonic starts hanging on to the glowing horns, the machines move at full speed, where somehow Sonic can steer them into walls and falling debris. Once he's done this a few times to the Egg Wyvern, however, the canopy breaks off, removing this means of attack.
33* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The Egg Carrier mkII, which looks more like a scaled-up fighter-style vehicle in this than the bulky flying base from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''.
34* AllTheWorldsAreAStage:
35** The final stage, End of the World, is split into seven parts, one for each stage in the game (with the exceptions of Radical Train and Aquatic Base).
36** The DLC Team Attack Amigo mode has the player race through every stage in the game (except for Wave Ocean and Flame Core) as Tails, Blaze and Omega before concluding with another fight against the Egg Genesis.
37* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Two gender-inverted examples.
38** Amy delivers this line to Silver following his attempt at killing Sonic:
39--->'''Amy:''' If I had to choose between the world and Sonic, ''I would choose Sonic!''
40** Elise [[spoiler:debates whether or not to destroy the time-destroying evil sun god Solaris if it means she'll never meet Sonic, and admits to him that she doesn't care what happens to the world. Thankfully, Sonic assures her that the world's more important.]]
41* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Blaze at the end of Silver's story becomes victim to one — while the dialogue implies that she is sealed into another dimension, she is absent from the final story entirely (despite Eggman's claim that Solaris is capable of affecting dimensions too), meaning she may have died in some way or another, [[TakingYouWithMe taking Iblis with her]].]]
42* AnimalMotifs: The eagle is representing in various points of the game.
43** Princess Elise has hair ornaments with eagle feathers and feather-like trim on her dress.
44** Soleanna is represented by a symbol of an eagle, which can also be seen on the gold and silver medals found throughout the game.
45** Kingdom Valley has wind switches adorned with an eagles statue that allows players to grind across a trail of wind.
46** There are giant eagles that can carry players to their destination in Kingdom Valley and the Forest area of Soleanna.
47** [[spoiler:In the End of the World, there are orbs with an eagle on top of them that can temporarily slow down the space-time deterioration and clear away the Eyes of Iblis from the area.]]
48** [[spoiler:Solaris's first form has a shell protecting its chest and core, and on the top of the shell has a figurehead resembling an eagle's with six antlers.]]
49* AnimationBump: The opening cutscene and a few of the eye candy-reaping scenes have an insultingly better amount of quality than most of the game's flat and roughly outlined environments. Things as simple as Elise's stockings look more realistic in the bumped cutscenes, going from Tropicana orange to a light tint of peach.
50* AnotherSideAnotherStory: The three stories — Sonic, Shadow, and Silver.
51* AntagonistInMourning: [[spoiler:Eggman finds himself in mourning when he sees his blue arch-nemesis dead.]]
52* ApocalypseHow:
53** In the future, Iblis pulls a Class 4 on the world, reducing it to lava-filled ruins.
54** [[spoiler:At its revival, Solaris pulls a Class X-5, and intended to pull a Class Z.]]
55* ArbitrarilySerializedSimultaneousAdventures: The game has three campaigns (Sonic/Tails/Knuckles, Shadow/Rouge/Omega, & Silver/Blaze/Amy) and a final segment that is unlocked when completing all three.
56* ArcWords:
57** "Don't cry, no matter what happens."
58** "Just smile!"
59* TheArtifact:
60** Eggman's entire character philosophy in ''2006''. His nickname comes from the fact that he comically resembles an egg in both the classic games and since his redesign in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', but ''2006'' redesigns him so he fits with the realistic humans of Soleanna, and doesn't resemble a human egg anymore.
61** Despite the claim that he is a main character, the truth is that Knuckles is largely irrelevant in the game, only being playable due to his association with [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes Team Sonic]]. ''2006'' can be considered a sequel to the ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Adventure]]'' [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 games]], where the Master Emerald is an important plot point, but since neither the Master Emerald nor Angel Island are mentioned, it makes you wonder what Knuckles is doing in Soleanna.
62* ArtificialStupidity: The partners tend to constantly fall into pits and die.
63* AskAStupidQuestion: This exchange between Shadow and Rouge as they enter into a base:
64-->'''Shadow:''' Why does Eggman's base lead to an odd place like this?\
65'''Rouge:''' How should I know? I just followed my orders and retrieved the item.
66* AttackItsWeakPoint: A series standard.
67* AttackOfTheTownFestival: How Sonic's part of the game begins.
68* AutoSave: Infamously, averted. The game prompts you to save after a level is completed, but not quests, mandatory or otherwise. Hope you remember to save after [[spoiler:[[ThatOneLevel the three trials]]]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5orzCJcBtM&t=19m25s you'll find out why.]] It's almost a RiteOfPassage for people doing LetsPlays of the game to be screwed by this at some point.
69* AwardBaitSong: ''Sweet Sweet Sweet 06'' and ''My Destiny''. And to a lesser extent, ''Dreams of an Absolution''.
70* BadFuture: Silver's future has been devastated by Iblis [[spoiler:who was released due to the death of Elise in the present]].
71* TheBadGuyWins: Although previous ''Sonic'' games, starting with ''Sonic Adventure'', have the last story being a final boss fight with the main villain due to implied success in the villain's goals, Mephiles takes the cake, as he [[spoiler:murdered Sonic to make Elise cry, and then merges with the newly released Iblis alongside the Chaos Emeralds. Mephiles, as Solaris, manages to destroy the entire planet and severely damage the entire timestream shortly after merging with Iblis, with the timestream also dying shortly thereafter. It was only after Sonic was revived and Sonic, alongside Shadow and Silver in super forms, that Mephiles was stopped, and even then it was a BittersweetEnding, as they had to also reset the timeline so that Solaris, and by extension Mephiles and Iblis, never existed, and thus Elise and Sonic never met]].
72* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Sonic, after Elise revived him using the Chaos Emeralds and a kiss in the climax of the game's Last Episode.]]
73* BadassInDistress: Rouge is trapped in White Acropolis after acquiring the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow arrives to rescue her in the second act of the stage.
74* BaldOfEvil: The removal of Eggman's goggles played up his chrome-dome.
75* BarrierMaiden: [[spoiler:Elise and Blaze take turns being Iblis' living seal.]]
76* BeehiveBarrier: Some of the enemies can occasionally shield themselves this way from attacks that would otherwise stun them.
77* BehindTheBlack: A cutscene has Eggman literally hiding Elise there, pulling her on-camera from just off to the side after a wide shot showing only him, and nothing she could be hiding behind.
78* BelatedInjuryRealization: Sonic doesn't notice that his arm is wounded (and, indeed, neither will the audience, because the texture for the wound doesn't exist) until Elise points it out, and even when she does, he dismisses it as nothing before she tends to his injury.
79* BigBadEnsemble: Dr. Eggman for Sonic, Mephiles for Shadow, Iblis for Silver, [[spoiler:and Solaris (the complete combined form of Mephiles and Iblis) for the Last Episode]].
80* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:Despite his efforts, Eggman is this in the full story. Solaris is the true BigBad.]]
81* BigDamnHeroes:
82** Sonic's entry in the beginning of his story is by destroying Eggman's robots and carrying Elise away from Eggman.
83** In his first two confrontations with Silver, Sonic is ultimately incapacitated and at Silver's mercy, only for one of his allies (first Amy, then Shadow) to arrive just in time and distract Silver long enough for Sonic to get away.
84** Later in the story, Silver would turn from attacker to rescuer as he jumps in to save Sonic from an army of robots, after he learned that Sonic isn't responsible for his future's destruction.
85* BigNo: Shadow and Silver exclaim this whenever they fall down a {{Bottomless Pit|s}} during gameplay.
86** A smaller "No" is delivered by Knuckles, Sonic, Blaze, and Shadow when they die in levels by running out of rings. Other variations of this exist too. "Not now..." is said by Silver, "Not like this!" by Rouge, and "Oh no!" by Amy.
87** Elise also delivers one as a SkywardScream during a cutscene in the Last Episode when [[spoiler:Mephiles kills Sonic]].
88** Solaris can be heard wailing this upon defeat.
89* BlackoutBasement: Lighting up purple gems help provide light in Flame Core.
90* BloodlessCarnage: [[spoiler:When Mephiles stabs Sonic through the abdomen from behind, there's not one speck of blood to be seen during or after.]]
91* BolivianArmyEnding: Shadow's story ends [[spoiler:with him removing the Inhibitor Rings from his wrists and boosting his way through the horde of the clones of Mephiles]].
92* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The game begins and ends with Soleanna's Festival of Light.]]
93* BoringButPractical: Silver's Psycho Shock is very useful for dealing with crowds of enemies; it can be done fairly quickly, has an area of effect that stuns weaker enemies (which allows them to be turned into projectiles), and has a more reliable range than the basic melee attack.
94* BossRemix: Eggman and Mephiles' boss themes remix their respective {{Leitmotif}}s.
95* BossSubtitles: These, unlike other video games, ''Sonic'' or otherwise, require their own [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading inhumane loading screen]].
96* BottomlessPits: A number in the game, some in very inconvenient and/or inexplicable places.
97* BridalCarry: Sonic is frequently shown carrying Elise in this manner, even doing so in-gameplay in Dusty Desert and Tropical Jungle. Shadow also does this for Rouge catching her and carrying her on the ground after being knocked down by Eggman's Egg Mechs while in flight.
98* BullfightBoss: Egg Cerberus, the first boss in both Sonic's and Shadow's story.
99* CameBackStrong: Since she was also using the Chaos Emeralds, the kiss from Princess Elise [[spoiler:not only revives Sonic from dead-but-not-really-death, but also]] transforms him into Super Sonic for the final boss.
100* CosmicRetcon: In the final story, [[spoiler:after the defeat of Solaris by our trio of Super Golden hedgehogs, Sonic and Elise are sent back to the past, where the flame of Solaris is. Elise questions whatever to snuff the flame in order to save the world, as it would mean that she meeting Sonic never happened. She cries, saying she doesn't care about the world, but Sonic calms her down by telling her to [[ArcWords just smile]]. Elise then snuffs the flame, rewriting reality to mean Solaris never existed, and none of the events of the game happened. The final scene of the game has Elise during the Sun Festival, smiling as she feels a familiar feeling by sensing Sonic's wind, while Sonic watches from the distance - with the game implying he does remember.]]
101* CaptainObvious: Downright full of them — at points, the script may as well have been written in tribute to ''WesternAnimation/{{Rejected}}.'' The examples that tend to get quoted the most are "The whole city's on fire!" at the beginning of Sonic's Crisis City stage, and "That tornado's carrying a car!" during his Super Speed section from the same level.
102* CharacterTitle: Same as the first game.
103* CentralTheme:
104** A question often asked in this game is whether or not one person should suffer for the good of the world. Since Elise is used as [[BarrierMaiden a living seal for Iblis]], the world is safe from destruction, but she obviously suffers from it and has to force herself not to cry so as to not release the god through her tears. After being confronted about it by Amy, Silver wonders whether or not it's right to kill Sonic to save the future and later on in the story [[spoiler:Silver is reluctant to seal Iblis inside of Blaze, thus sending her into another dimension and out of his life]], even though doing so will keep the world safe. At the end of the game, [[spoiler:when Elise has to blow out the Iblis Flame to stop it from ever existing, she is hesitant to do so since that will erase the meeting between her and Sonic. She even cries, "I don't care what happens to the world!" She has to choose between herself and everyone else]].
105** Along with the rest of the franchise, there is a theme of the misuse of technology against nature, with the entire plot starting because the former king of Soleanna wanted to use the power of Solaris for the benefit of mankind, only to inspire the deity (through Mephiles and Iblis) to destroy life as we know it.
106* CheckPointStarvation: The End of the World, which only provides them after each individual character segment. But if you game over, it's back to start.
107* CherryBlossoms: They foreshadow [[spoiler:Sonic's death in the Last Episode]].
108* CompleteImmortality: Iblis literally ''cannot'' die, as he instantly regenerates from any wounds he suffers. [[spoiler:The only way to completely destroy him is is to make it so ''he never even existed''.]]
109* ComplexityAddiction: Mephiles' entire scheme [[spoiler:to become Solaris again]] becomes especially jarring when you see what he ''really'' needed to do: either torture Elise himself (which ''might'' be counterproductive, not that the game is willing to confirm this), or failing that, just kick back and let Sonic [[SaveThePrincess do all the work]] [[spoiler:and then [[YankTheDogsChain shoot Sonic]]]]. Nothing he does with Shadow or Silver really seems to matter, since he really was just ''one simple task'' away from [[spoiler:making Elise cry and releasing Iblis]].
110* ConformingOOCMoment: When Elise [[spoiler:kisses Sonic to [[BackFromTheDead resurrect him]],]] everyone else just quietly looks on, including Amy, who is known to [[ClingyJealousGirl react violently whenever anyone makes a move on Sonic]]. Possibly justified, as Amy was most likely [[spoiler:too happy about her crush coming back to life to be angry.]]
111* ContinuingIsPainful: Similarly to ''Sonic Adventure 2'', losing a life during an action stage or a boss battle also means losing your score and having it reset back to 0. Losing a life mid-way through the game's stages can end up punishing the player's overall score and rank, which can be a problem for a game that is prone [[FakeDifficulty to work against the player]].
112* ContinuityNod: Several in regards to the past 3D ''Sonic'' games.
113** Parts of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure's'' whale chase and snowboard level are replicated in Wave Ocean and White Acropolis, respectively.
114** [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Green Forest's slingshot-esque vine]] makes a reappearance in Sonic's Tropical Jungle.
115** The Egg Carrier in this game is essentially a fancier, redder upgrade to the ''Adventure'' Egg Carrier. Similarly, [[spoiler:the Egg Wyvern seems to take a few cues from the Egg Viper in terms of battle strategy]].
116** Notably the last game in the series to continue the [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Chao]] [[RecycledInSpace In Space]] billboard RunningGag, at least until ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''.
117** Tails' line of "Whoa! My head's spinning!" when he's running a large loop returns from ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes.''
118** Silver being tricked by [[BigBad Mephiles]] into thinking that Sonic was the bad guy is similar to how Knuckles got tricked by Dr. Eggman several times in the series since his first appearance in ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles''.
119** Eggman pulling a gambit against Sonic in exchange for a Chaos Emerald much like in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''.
120* ContinuitySnarl: We've got a double whammy here.
121** Firstly, Blaze the Cat. In ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' (and several games afterward), she is firmly established as a princess from another dimension and guardian of the Sol Emeralds. In this game, however, she is instead from the future of Sonic's world, with nary a Sol Emerald in sight or word. The fact that Blaze [[spoiler:seals herself in another dimension at the end of Silver's story could be seen as an "origin" for the dimension plotline, though this [[VoodooShark raises further questions]] (how she became princess, how the ResetButton didn't affect her, how Iblis has never been relevant, et cetera)]]. The fact that the game's manual and official website used her ''Rush'' origin regardless of what the game itself showed did ''NOT'' help, and neither did various nods to Blaze's '06 appearance in games where the princess backstory was otherwise her given one.
122*** [[WordOfGod Takashi Iizuka]] confirmed that the "other dimension" backstory is her origin, and her 2006 counterpart [[CanonDiscontinuity should be ignored]].
123*** The scenario writer, Creator/ShiroMaekawa, states he wanted to add a sense of connection with ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' written by Akinori Nishiyama, and he purposefully wrote Blaze's as originally coming from the future but then appearing in "another dimension".
124** The blue Chaos Emerald. First of all, it lies in a StableTimeLoop, specifically the "object paradox" flavor. It starts with Elise having it at the start, throwing it to Sonic, Eggman obtaining it, Silver finding it, then giving it to a young Elise ten years in the past where she has it until the present day. This is enough of a headscratcher on its own, but you could HandWave it with [[AWizardDidIt "Chaos energy"]] if you really had to. The second problem is, this is supposedly the same blue Emerald that exists in the overall ''Sonic'' canon; the Emerald is never shown to have entered or exited the loop at any point, meaning that, logically, the finalés of several past ''Sonic'' games could not have happened. If the blue emerald remained with Elise and never left her at any point, how would Sonic and friends have [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles gotten the Master Emerald back from Eggman]]? Or stopped the likes of [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Perfect Chaos (who also wouldn't have been able to become Perfect to begin with)]]? Or [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 the Finalhazard]], [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes Metal Overlord]], or [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog Devil Doom]]?
125* CosmicRetcon: [[spoiler:The entire game's plot is eliminated with the time paradox created by killing Solaris.]]
126* ConvectionSchmonvection: Flame Core, Crisis City, and the final scene where [[spoiler:Sonic and Elise unsuccessfully escape an exploding Egg Carrier only for a particularly large explosion to end up shooting him and Elise up to safety]].
127* CrateExpectations: In addition to the star-labeled wooden and metal boxes from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' onward, [[ExplodingBarrels combustible and shockwave-inducing crates]] are also available for [[DieChairDie abuse]]. Even in the ruined world of the future there are crates.
128* CurbStompBattle: The fight between Sonic and Silver manages to be ridiculously one-sided in Silver's favor regardless of which side you're playing it from. In either case, Sonic ultimately loses because that's how the story goes, but in his story, [[CutsceneIncompetence it happens in a cutscene]].
129* CutAndPasteEnvironments: A notorious abuse of this trope. In addition to repeatedly going through the same levels as different characters, the levels themselves often have copies of prior rooms or segments (sometimes so egregious as to have a copy ''immediately after'' the original).
130* CueTheSun: After Iblis' defeat at the end of Silver's story.
131* CutscenePowerToTheMax: All of the hedgehogs' intros are guilty of this.
132** Sonic's intro shows him running so fast that he can create tornados. In game, his running speed is pretty abysmal and he has to buy an item that allows him to create the tornados.
133** Silver's intro shows him flying for a long period of time and being able to move really fast. In gameplay, he has the slowest running speed next to Amy, he can only fly for about 5 seconds (without using exploits, but even that only gets you about 7 extra seconds), and the closest thing to going fast is an item that you have to buy and even then Silver can only teleport [[FlashStep up to about 5 feet]].
134*** Even in normal cutscenes, the game depicts Silver as capable of flying for as long and fast as he wants, firing energy balls, and instantly telekinetically grabbing and throwing his foes. When you play him, you find that he flies very slowly for a short amount of time, must have something to grab to attack opponents, and even the smallest of Mooks require stunning before being grabbed.
135** As for Shadow's intro, it depicts him running really fast (fast enough to cause robots to explode) and being able to teleport without Chaos Control. Gameplay wise, Shadow doesn't run as fast, can't teleport, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking can't cause enemies to explode by running into them]].
136* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
137** Silver's hovering is a big offender here. Unlike gliding, flying, or double jump abilities from other games (or indeed other characters in the same game) which recharge instantly upon landing on solid ground, Silver's requires you to stay on the ground while a glide meter gradually recharges. You'll probably forget this, and die many times because of it.
138** Those who are accustomed to playing the ''Adventure'' games using the bottom shoulder buttons/triggers to move the camera left or right will find that they have been moved to the top shoulder buttons in the Xbox 360 version while Left Trigger is used to snap the camera behind the player and Right Trigger is used to perform special actions. The [=PlayStation=] 3 version, however, have the camera controls on L2 and R2 while the other functions are on the top shoulder buttons instead.
139* DamselInDistress: Eggman kidnaps Princess Elise as part of his plot. Then she gets rescued, only to be kidnapped again. Over the course of the game Elise is kidnapped by Eggman no less than five times.
140* DarkerAndEdgier: Given the fact that the main villain, Mephiles, is a demonic psychopath who is trying to eradicate time itself [[spoiler:(who came exceptionally closer to succeeding in his goal than any of the other villains by severely damaging the time stream)]], one of the main characters comes from a post-apocalyptic future, and [[spoiler:Sonic actually dies in this game]], it's evident that this title is [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog among]] the darkest in the series.
141* DeadHandShot: [[spoiler:When Sonic dies.]]
142* DeathIsCheap: [[spoiler:Sonic's death; he gets revived one level later.]]
143* DecapitatedArmy: Certain groups of {{Mooks}} may be tied to a bulkier member; if Sonic kills it, everyone else dies instantly, presumably due to a spontaneous lethal power vacuum.
144* DecoyProtagonist: Sonic himself; despite being the title character, he amounts to little more than a PinballProtagonist who doesn't even meet the BigBad of the game, Mephiles. It's Shadow and Silver who get the plot-relevant stuff done.
145* DeusExMachina:
146** [[spoiler:Elise feeling "Sonic's presence in the wind" ends up saving reality.]]
147** In Silver's story, [[spoiler:Blaze (and apparently Silver, if her dialogue is any indication) suddenly gains the power to ''seal beings in alternate dimensions''. This apparent ability never came up before, nor does it come up again in the final story]].
148* {{Deuteragonist}}: Shadow and Silver spend most of their time respectively fighting against the other two antagonists [[spoiler:whom are two halves of the main villain]] — Mephiles and Iblis.
149* DevilInPlainSight: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mephiles the Dark.]]
150* DiabolusExMachina: The cause of the Egg Carrier malfunction that (initially) kills Elise and frees Iblis is not explained at any point.
151* DiscardAndDraw: During the two or so levels where Sonic is carrying Elise, he loses the ability to bounce, spin dash or use gems. In exchange, he can use her mystic power to form a shield that damages enemies and lets him move on non-solid surfaces like water or sand.
152* DispenseWithThePleasantries: Rouge asks Shadow if he wants to know the object she's holding (the Scepter of Darkness). Shadow tells her that G.U.N. sent him to rescue her and nothing else. Rouge then lampshades that it's always business with Shadow.
153* DividedDeity: Two of the game's main villains -- Iblis, a mindlessly destructive fire demon, and Mephiles, a cunning, manipulative creature of darkness -- are split aspects of Solaris, a god of light and time. They eventually recombine for the TrueFinalBoss of the game.
154* DontTouchItYouIdiot: Said by Shadow (minus the "You Idiot" bit) when Rouge tries to retrieve the Chaos Emerald in Flame Core.
155* DownloadableContent: Very Hard missions for each zone (most of which are vastly different, such as doing Dusty Desert sans Elise), a Boss Rush for each team, and a [[MarathonLevel Team Attack Amigo stage that spans short snippets from each stage]] (played with Tails, Blaze, and Omega).
156* DrivenToSuicide: After getting captured by Eggman yet again, Elise declares that she would rather die than be his prisoner again and promptly throws herself off the Egg Mobile. Luckily for her, Sonic just happens to be running by at that precise moment.
157* DuelingPlayerCharacters: The game has Sonic & Shadow fight Silver at least once. Again, you can play either side of the same fight, according to which character's story mode you're playing. Oddly enough, while being arch rivals, Sonic and Shadow ''don't'' fight each other in this game.
158* TheDulcineaEffect: Hits this game pretty hard.
159** Sonic saves Elise at the very start of his story for, in his own words, "No special reason." Not ten minutes after Sonic whisks Elise away from Eggman's onslaught, she gets captured again and Sonic decides to rescue her for the duration of his story. Even after they just barely met without even exchanging a real conversation with one another.
160** In Silver's story, during his pursuit of the Iblis Trigger, Amy Rose runs up to him mistaking him for Sonic. After sorting out the misunderstanding and introducing themselves, Amy immediately drags Silver off to help look for Sonic (who Silver doesn't know is the Iblis Trigger). It doesn't take much for Amy to convince Silver to drop his mission of ''saving his timeline'' for a while to help her out first. Especially since, again, they ''just'' met. Silver tries to play it off to himself as trading favors (even as a tourist, Amy knows Soleanna better than Silver does), but it really sounds flimsy.
161* DullSurprise:
162** The range of expressions in the human characters is non-existent, and the full extent of the non-human characters' emotional expression is to slightly lower the eyelids to convey something resembling dismay.
163** Rouge's voice acting stands out as being bereft of evident effort; the sound of her falling to her death is equivalent to that of someone mildly burning themselves on coffee.
164* EasilyForgiven: Upon their third meeting, Sonic is naturally suspicious of Silver since Silver had previously nearly killed him twice, but as soon as he discovers that Silver intends to help him save Elise, Sonic promptly gives him a slap on the wrist and accepts his aid. Note a stoic [[TheUnapologetic "Circumstances have changed"]] is the nearest he gets to an apology for trying to murder him in cold blood twice.
165* EasterEgg: During Silver's story, once the player completes the town mission "Protect the Barrels in the Warehouse District!", a [[FurryConfusion non-anthromorphic]] pigeon named [[http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Hatsun Hatsun]] will appear in the warehouse district, and can be talked to until the player progresses with anything else, at which point he will disappear for good. He plays no role in the story whatsoever and doesn't appear anywhere else in the game.
166-->'''Hatsun:''' Coo?
167* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Aquatic Base, which in itself doubles as AbandonedLaboratory and a ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline: Episode II.''
168%%* EldritchAbomination: Iblis, Mephiles, and [[spoiler:Solaris]].
169* EnemyMine: After [[spoiler:Solaris comes into being and almost devours the universe]], Eggman helps the rest of the heroes by advising them what to do as well as pinpointing the locations of the scattered Chaos Emeralds [[spoiler:so that they can revive Sonic]]. Makes sense, as Eggman won't [[TakeOverTheWorld have much to rule]] if [[spoiler:the universe is destroyed]].
170* EscortMission: Several short and almost random ones, some of which are required for the player to move on to the next level. All of them are simple enough; the people in question don't run towards the enemies, and instead cower and hide until the next section has been cleared.
171* EternalEngine: Aquatic Base.
172* EveryCarIsAPinto: Any vehicle that Shadow drives. The Armed Buggies respond to flipping over by exploding, taking the Hovercraft over a ramp may cause it to explode upon landing (potentially leading to an entirely unpredictable death), and the Bike spontaneously explodes immediately after its fuel runs out.
173* EverythingTryingToKillYou: There are far, far more things in the environment that will damage you than things that won't. Enemies can spawn at any given area, random elements of the levels may crash down on you without any warning, and sometimes it seems the level geometry itself is trying to throw you into the perpetual bottomless pits. This is exemplified in Sonic's Super Speed sections, where brushing up against ''anything'' — the side of the road, environmental objects that would otherwise be perfectly harmless, robots that spawn right in front of you with barely any time to react — will send Sonic spiraling along the ground.
174* EvilLaugh: Mephiles has a big one when he [[spoiler:kills Sonic]].
175* ExplosionPropulsion: Happens at the ending cinematic of Sonic's part of the story.
176* ExtremeOmnivore: [[spoiler:Solaris.]] Lampshaded for Eggman.
177-->'''Eggman:''' [[spoiler:He eats dimensions for lunch!]]
178* FakeDifficulty: The game would be quite easy if not for the overly sensitive controls, buggy camera, game-breaking glitches, and wonky physics. The first level becomes nearly impossible for many first-time players simply because it's so easy to do everything "right" but still fail because of the game actively working against you.
179** During the boss fight against Silver, he ''will'' catch and throw you if you get close when he's not lifting an object. He can pick you up even during your MercyInvincibility, which often results in him immediately throwing and killing you as you try to get up. Unless you're very lucky, being successfully caught once by Silver is often a loss.
180** Silver's psychokinesis throwing has no way to aim, just auto-aim that roughly locks onto a target where Silver is facing. Combined with the extremely sensitive and wonky controls, this leads to a lot of objects being hurled randomly around the level instead of at enemies.
181** In the last Rouge level, there's a structure far off in the distance that looks like you can go to it. You can, but you fall right through.
182** In the last Shadow level, almost all sand is quicksand, even in places where all logic suggests it would be harmless.
183** In Flame Core, there are meteors that can hit you and then hit you immediately after you got hurt, causing you to lose a life. They are also really fast, hard to avoid, and they come at random times in random numbers. [[http://youtu.be/92CI62IsdUk?t=5m51s They can even hit you during scripted sequences,]] and even [[https://www.twitch.tv/foxchaotica/v/1819292293?sr=a right after you respawn]]
184** Knuckles and Amy fight through melee attacks and don't have Sonic or Shadow's ability to dash into enemies first, requiring the player to get almost close enough to touch them first. As you take damage just from touching the enemy, it's very easy to accidentally run into them instead of attacking.
185** Many treadmills are misaligned, causing them to launch Sonic or Shadow in the wrong direction straight off a cliff or into spikes.
186** Sonic and Shadow automatically target enemies in the direction you dash, but there's little fine control or distinction in what you target. Aquatic Base is filled with floating magnetic spheres that can be targeted, which are used in some platforming puzzles but mostly seem to be placed in combat arenas to aggravate the player by forcing their auto-targeting to send them flying in the wrong direction.
187** The large worm-like enemies that come out of the ground erupt without warning and cause damage on impact. It's fairly common in a combat arena for them to suddenly emerge right under the player character, which can be unavoidable death if they have no rings.
188* FallingIntoHisArms: At one point, Elise jumps out of the Eggmobile and Sonic [[BigDamnHeroes catches her in the nick of time]].
189* FanRemake: ''VideoGame/SonicP06'' is an attempt at remaking ''Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)'' in the Unity engine for PC with more responsive controls, improved framerate, updated graphics, and visual effects, new character animations, and fixing the game's glitches.
190* {{Flashback}}: Most of them are about times when Elise was young and Duke was alive.
191* FlatCharacter:
192** The flaws and quirks that Blaze has in ''VideoGame/SonicRush'' are completely missing, in favor of her playing the role of a CoolBigSis to Silver.
193** Sonic spends most of his screentime as a straight-laced hero only concerned with Princess Elise.
194* FineYouCanJustWaitHereAlone: Knuckles says this to Rouge when she made a small complaint about capturing the Chaos Emerald inside the volcano. She eventually goes along with the group, though.
195* {{Fireballs}}: Iblis' minions like to fire these.
196* FireForgedFriends: Sonic and Silver after the latter found out the truth about Iblis. Also, to a lesser extent, Shadow and Silver.
197* FollowThePlottedLine: When characters get teleported through time, they'll always end up in proximity of where they need to go.
198* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the very first cutscene there's a close-up of Elise's eyes as she stares at the fire of the torch she holds. Notice how her eyes don't blink nor lacrimate: [[spoiler:it is later revealed that she's the host of Iblis, AKA the Flame of Disaster, and she knows that if she ever cries the beast will be released from her body]].
199* FourLinesAllWaiting: You have the main plot with Sonic trying to save the Princess and defeat Eggman, Silver the Hedgehog trying to prevent Iblis from being released in the past, and Shadow the Hedgehog dealing with both Eggman's machines and the threat of Mephiles the Dark, who has his own agenda in the grand scheme of things. All of these plots intertwine with each other at different points and have their own subplots to go with them. To say the least, the plot is very convoluted and hard to follow.
200* ForTheEvulz: As pointed out by Shadow, Mephiles' end goal is nothing but wanton mass destruction.
201* FriendshipMoment: Shadow and Rouge share one after Shadow learns that Omega would eventually be forced to imprison him in the future, due to Iblis being released.
202-->'''Rouge:''' Even if you believe that the whole world will be against you... know that I'll always remain by your side. Remember that.\
203'''Shadow:''' ...I will.
204* FungusHumongous: Seen in jungle levels.
205* FusionDance: [[spoiler:Solaris is reborn through the fusion of Mephiles and Iblis.]]
206* FutileHandReach: Sonic does this when he watches the Egg Carrier crash with Elise and Dr. Eggman on board, crying out [[SayMyName "ELIIIISE!"]]
207* GambitPileup: Eggman wants the Flames of Disaster (and probably Solaris in general), Silver wants to save the future, Mephiles wants to reunite with Iblis, and Shadow wants to stop Mephiles achieving his plan. Sonic is more of a SpannerInTheWorks for Eggman than anything else.
208* GameMod:
209** The game is written entirely in the Lua programming language, making the entire code accessible by hackers and the modding potential ''huge'' for a console-exclusive game. A few modders successfully swapped characters around and modified Sonic's running and jumping speed, for instance. See ''VideoGame/Sonic2006LegacyOfSolaris'', a full-scale mod imagining of what the game could be like in a finished state.
210** There are also some fan remakes in development, taking the audio and level layouts from the original game and using a new engine, such as Unreal Engine 4, and remaking them in higher quality and editing the controls and physics to be more in-line with other ''Sonic'' games, as well as to make the experience generally better than the original release. See ''VideoGame/SonicP06'' for the most complete and popular one.
211* GameBreakingBug:
212** Depending on their position beforehand, the hedgehogs can easily enter a scripted sequence only to end up flying off the expected route, often straight into a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}. This is especially prevelant during Sonic's Super Speed sections.
213** During the fight with Silver, he can fling you around telekinetically. If you hit a wall and one of your rings flies into it, every time he picks you up, you'll collect the ring. Which means, since he'll constantly pick you up before you can recover from the throw (it's how his AI is programmed to finish you off), [[CycleOfHurting the game becomes trapped in an inescapable loop]].
214** If you're caught by Silver in a certain spot, he'll fling you through the invisible wall and into an empty HubWorld with no way to get back in the fight. The only way out is to kill yourself, or even better, let Silver do it for you. Sometimes even that is not an option, seeing that you're ''[[http://youtu.be/_5njB_3qTyw?t=2m25s infinitely flying off into space]]''.
215** Playing as Sonic in Kingdom Valley, if you fall and try to hasten your death by bouncing, you can actually [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu6L93xTELA&t=15m32s get stuck]] on small overhangs near the bottoms of the towers, forcing you to quit or restart the level from the beginning instead of just going back to the last checkpoint.
216** Playing as Sonic, there is one level in Crisis City that begins with Sonic dropping out of the sky on a skateboard to land on a rail. That's where your control ''begins'', so you'd better hope he actually ''lands on the rail''. This is not guaranteed, and the alternative is a bottomless pit.
217** This trope is actually averted in one sense: The game is very difficult to actually get to crash, no matter how warped and glitchy the game becomes.
218* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Sonic vs Silver is a very hard fight, canonically being a fight Sonic loses anyways being subject to CutsceneIncompetence once it's finished. Silver vs Sonic, however, is a cakewalk.
219* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
220** The shops have equipment for Silver, despite the fact that he won't exist for another 200 years.
221** In cutscenes, Silver is capable of shooting energy blasts, flying at high speeds, and can grab enemies without needing to stun them. He can't do any of this while the player is controlling him.
222* GameplayGrading: Carrying over the score-driven gameplay elements from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', players are graded based on their performance determined by how many points they were able to rack up, how quickly they were able to clear the stage, and how many rings the player has in their possession.
223* GameplayRoulette: In a similar way to ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', the game rotates through playable characters within each story plus the final level.
224** Sonic-Tails-Knuckles-Silver
225** Shadow-Rouge-Omega-Silver
226** Silver-Blaze-Amy-Shadow-Sonic
227** In Team Attack Amigo, the order is Tails-Blaze-Omega.
228* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Shadow does this a couple of scenes. One example being the scene where he points to Sonic while objecting that it would be insufficient to use Chaos Control with one Emerald to return to the present.
229* GoThroughMe: Amy, defending Sonic from Silver.
230* GodIsEvil: Solaris is a "sun god" worshiped by the people of Soleanna. Turns out he's more the Lovecraftian sort of god. Whether anyone was aware of this in-universe before he's released into the mortal world is unclear.
231* GoneHorriblyWrong: The Solaris Project was an attempt to harness Solaris's power as an energy source or something. It went about as well as you'd expect.
232* GracefulLandingClumsyLanding: Dr. Eggman lures Sonic, Tails and Knuckles into a trap and flings them into the future, where the trio arrive in an abandoned building several feet above the ground. While Sonic lands gracefully, Tails lands on his butt and Knuckles lands on his head.
233* GraffitiTown: Crisis City shows signs it used to be one until Iblis destroyed it.
234* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Apparently, it's a better usage of the Soleanna city guards' time to concoct inane "figure out who our Captain is!" puzzles for Sonic to solve rather than, y'know, ''searching for the [[DamselInDistress captured princess]] they're supposed to protect.'' As far as Soleanna's police force is concerned, it's [[ItsUpToYou entirely up to Sonic]] to save their princess. [[spoiler:For extra idiocy, the Captain in the aforementioned puzzle? He's the one who gives you the mission in the first place; that is, ''the one you talk to first''.]] To make things even worse, [[spoiler:the final quest you must do to unlock the final mission in Sonic's story delays the story just enough for Sonic to be too late to save Elise and thus cause the end of the world]].
235* GuideDangIt: In some sections, there's no clear indication of what you're supposed to do or where to go. In some cases, not even the ''official game guide'' is much help. In particular, the game never tells you that Rouge can plant bombs on walls, and getting one of the keys in Shadow's Kingdom Valley requires bombing a stained glass window.
236* HamToHamCombat: Any conversation between Shadow and Mephiles. They get cheesy lines, but they act the hell out of them — and the bombastic orchestral music backing them makes ''everything'' dramatic.
237* HaveWeMetYet: When Shadow first meets Mephiles after the latter is released from the Scepter of Darkness, Mephiles is already familiar with him. Later on, [[spoiler:Shadow travels back in time to the Solaris Project disaster and finds himself sealing Mephiles into the Scepter, prompting Mephiles to memorize him]].
238* HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: Sonic vs. Silver, with the latter emerging victorious regardless of which character you play as.
239* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: Walking into the Hint Rings may prompt the player or supporting character to inform the player on how to use their abilities to advance through certain obstacles.
240* HellishPupils: Mephiles, especially in his crystalline form.
241%%* HeroAntagonist: Silver to Sonic.
242* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Sonic temporarily dies in the Last Episode.]]
243* HeroicSacrifice: A rare ''non''-death example. [[spoiler:Blaze seals Iblis inside herself, then seals herself in another world.]] Immediately before that, [[spoiler:Silver was trying to do the same thing, only to find that he wasn't an acceptable vessel]].
244* HubLevel: Soleanna.
245* ICantLookGesture: ''Shadow'' of all characters shuts his eyes and looks away silently when [[spoiler:he finds out Sonic had died]].
246* IdenticalStranger: Mephiles, who's very similar to Shadow in appearance, with grey streaks instead of red, and [[NoMouth no visible mouth]]. Knuckles even acknowledges this in one cutscene and when Shadow confronts Silver, Silver mistakes him for Mephiles. In Shadow's story we find out why, he based that form on Shadow's shadow.
247* IdiotBall: Both Mephiles and Eggman, despite presenting themselves as a manipulator and a genius with an IQ of 300, do questionable decisions over the course of the game:
248** A plot point from Sonic's story is that due to an unexpected malfunction in the Egg Carrier, both Eggman ([[JokerImmunity supposedly]]) and Elise perish due to the ship's crash. Sonic travels through time just to make sure he arrives on time... which leads to a boss battle with Eggman's Egg Wyvern. Unless there is a huge GameplayAndStorySegregation here, Eggman shouldn't have panicked to begin with and just grabbed Elise and escaped with either the Wyvern or the Egg Mobile. Boom! Crisis solved!
249*** On the same subject, [[BossArenaIdiocy Eggman just doesn't destroy the foothold while fighting Sonic aboard the Egg Wyvern.]]
250** Mephiles wants to rejoin with Iblis. This is despite the fact that Iblis is already unleashed in the future, [[HandWave unless the fan-theory that he needs to fuse with a newly awakened Iblis is true]], something never stated in the game. Despite having the power to do so via TimeTravel, Mephiles wastes his time by trying to kill Sonic via Silver just to make Elise cry, or to have Shadow the Hedgehog join his side. Wouldn't be easier to just cut some onions in front of her? Or torture her yourself? Why do you need to kill Sonic beyond [[ForTheEvulz for the kick of it?]]
251* IJustWantToBeNormal: Princess Elise admits as much in a cutscene late in Sonic's story, and expresses relief that Sonic's adventure has allowed her to be "just myself... a girl." [[spoiler:Considering she can't cry without destroying the world, we can't exactly blame her.]]
252* InSpiteOfANail: [[spoiler:The ResetButtonEnding erases Iblis from the timeline; even though Iblis's existence was a pretty pivotal part of Elise's past — to the point of killing her father — she apparently went through the same ten years of that past with no change.]]
253* IndyEscape: In Sonic's White Acropolis stage, you have to escape a giant snowball towards the end of the [[UnexpectedGameplayChange snowboarding section]]. Blaze has the same section in Silver's story, only she just runs.
254* InconvenientlyPlacedConveyorBelt: Found in Radical Train levels, which can switch directions on a whim.
255* InfernalBackground: Invoked. When Mephiles is manipulating Silver into thinking that Sonic is a dangerous madman, Mephiles gives Silver a vision of Sonic surrounded by flames.
256* InformedEquipment: The game has you buy equipment, but it never appears on the characters. For that matter, what the item even looks like is never shown in the stores. Game hacks might suggest that they were supposed to be there, but its unknown.
257* InformedFlaw: Blaze claims that Silver is insecure when he's alone, yet we never see him display any insecurities when he's without her. In fact, he was portrayed as being extremely determined to fulfilling his mission. The only implication of this is when he meets Amy and he's basically dragged around by her to help her look for Sonic despite the fact he's there to save the world, so he's strong and determined until he suddenly isn't.
258** However, Silver is ''very'' susceptible to just accepting whatever anyone told him most recently.
259* InstantDeathRadius: Silver's claim to infamy as a boss in Sonic and Shadow's stories. Approaching him while he's not holding anything will result in Silver grabbing you with his telekinesis and flinging you away, stripping you of rings in the process. If he has you trapped in a corner when he uses this attack, he'll immediately grab you again and cost you a life.
260* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Any bridge with a Soleanna guard standing in front of it is most likely going to be accompanied with an invisible wall earlier on in the game.
261** Additionally, there's a small opening in a wall near the beginning of the game that's accompanied by an InvisibleWall, which you need to buy the Antigravity skill to pass through. Not through using the skill itself, but through its purchase.
262*** Though the game's shoddy programming means you may be able to just clip right through the wall itself, ''completely'' bypassing the need for the Antigravity skill.
263* InterspeciesRomance: It's [[ImpliedTrope heavily implied]] that Sonic and Elise are in love. Elise is specifically treated as a distinct option in the Test of Love.
264* InvisibleWall: In Soleanna, especially during missions.
265* IrrelevantSidequest: Townsfolk have quite a lot sidequests to offer. However, each comes complete with its own set of [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading four ten-second-long loading screens]].
266* ItaliansTalkWithHands: Soleanna is based on Venice, and most of the townspeople gesticulate wildly.
267* ItsUpToYou: AI partners won't do anything more than follow you. They won't attack nearby enemies, they'll jump as little as possible (leading to several falls down bottomless pits, only to reappear a few seconds later), and they don't even have their animations when on the stage results screen.
268* JapaneseRanguage: The newspaper that Sonic picks up after escaping the future is the "Daily Soreana".
269* {{Jerkass}}: Mephiles. Crave to destroy everything until there is nothing left of existance, turns friends against each other to achieve his goals, and laughed sadistically at Elise crying over him [[spoiler: killing Sonic.]]
270* JumpPhysics: May become significantly altered depending on where the jump began, [[FakeDifficulty which doesn't always guarantee a safe landing]].
271* JungleJapes: Tropical Jungle.
272* JustInTime: When Silver was about to kill Sonic, both Amy and Shadow intervened and saved his life two separate times.
273* KeystoneArmy: Some of Dr. Eggman's enemies are grouped with a "commander" that issues orders to their allies. Destroy the commander and their allies goes with them while rewarding extra points.
274* KidnappedFromBehind: Elise gets kidnapped all the time. At least one time, she's kidnapped from behind while Sonic and Silver are fighting each other.
275* KnightInSourArmor: Shadow in the end of his story. Despite Mephiles' attempts to convince him that humanity will turn against him, Shadow declares to fight like he always has no matter what.
276* KnightOfCerebus: Mephiles, due to having no sympathetic excuse for his actions or any comedic quirks, and simply doing evil because it's ''fun'' for him. [[spoiler:He is also one of the first villains in the entire franchise to actually murder a canonical character.]]
277* KnightsAndKnaves: The [[ApatheticCitizens "find the captain" game]] you play early on; all the police officers will give you hints, but at least one is lying (hint: [[spoiler:It's the guy who tells you to find the captain in the first place, better known as "the captain, sending you on a wild goose chase"]]).
278* LampshadeHanging: The "Sonic Faceplanting" RunningGag gets averted when Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles arrive in the future. Sonic ends up this close to kissing the floor, but he corrects himself just in time. Knuckles, however, does not.
279%%* LargeHam: Creator/DanGreen as Mephiles, and Creator/JasonGriffith as Shadow.
280* LastDitchMove: After defeating it, the Egg Genesis pulls this in an attempt to land on the player.
281* {{Leitmotif}}: Sonic has "His World," Shadow has "All Hail Shadow," Silver has "Dreams of an Absolution", and Elise has "My Destiny". The {{Big Bad}}s have their own leitmotifs as well, with Eggman's being carried over to ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' and ''VideoGame/SonicColors''.
282* LeaveHimToMe:
283** Amy says this when she saves Sonic from Silver the first time.
284** Not said directly, but when [[TheRival Shadow]] [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou saves]] [[WorthyOpponent Sonic]] the second time, he glances back at Sonic, which does give him the message that he will take care of Silver.
285* LensFlare: Most notably seen when Elise jumps out of the Eggmobile.
286* LethalLavaLand: Flame Core. Crisis City to an extent, but the lava doesn't feature in the gameplay other than to be bottomless pits.
287* LightIsNotGood: [[spoiler:Solaris is supposed to be a god of light and time. It also happens to be an OmnicidalManiac.]]
288* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: The humans are rendered in a realistic style, while the animal cast are anthropomorphic, and their existence is treated as normal.
289* LiteralSplitPersonality: An accident ten years ago caused Solaris to split into two entities: [[spoiler:Mephiles and Iblis]]. In the Last Episode, they recombine for the TrueFinalBoss.
290* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: A good chunk of the game is spent waiting 10-20 seconds at a time staring at a blank loading screen. This was generally caused by the whole map being loaded rather than a section of it for cutscenes and missions; what happens is that the game will typically load just to have an NPC tell you what to do, then it'll load again into the actual mission. Once you finish the mission, it'll load again to have the NPC congratulate you and have you ranked. ''Then'' it loads back into the hub world where you came from.
291* LocomotiveLevel: Radical Train.
292* LostInTranslation: Blaze's surprise at hearing that the Iblis Trigger is a "blue hedgehog" stems from the fact that the Japanese word for blue, ''aoi'', can also mean naive or inexperienced—-like ''Silver''[[note]]The equivalent in English would be calling someone "green", as in "[[https://www.etymonline.com/word/greenhorn#etymonline_v_33795 greenhorn]]".[[/note]].
293* LoveInterests: In the Test of Love, Sonic chooses whether he loves [[StalkerWithACrush Amy Rose]] or [[NeutralFemale Elise]].
294* LoveTriangle: A brief one between Sonic, Amy and Elise.
295** The main story is about Sonic saving Elise from Eggman, but the game acknowledges during a test the possibility of Amy being a love interest. The player can choose who Sonic is in love with, but this has no real effect on the story.
296** There is a scene in Silver's story that has Amy meet Elise, and they speak about Elise having feelings for a certain someone, and Amy cheers on her, unaware it's Sonic the princess is talking about.
297** The final story has [[KissOfLife Elise kissing Sonic to revive him from the death]], and Amy seems to be ok with it, even celebrating with Elise like a long friend once [[spoiler:Solaris]] is defeated. The story presents Amy in a surprisingly mature fashion, accepting someone else with Sonic despite [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes trying to force him into marriage in the past]]. (Comparison done due to both games being written by Creator/ShiroMaekawa.)
298* LuckBasedMission: The physics engine is ''not'' consistent. Randomly clipping through the ground, getting trapped on loop-de-loops, and all sorts of other bugs suddenly killing the player is extremely common, almost making the game PlatformHell.
299* MadeOfExplodium: Shadow's vehicles. After sustaining enough damage, they all explode.
300%%* ManipulativeBastard: Mephiles.
301* MarathonLevel:
302** The End of the World, featuring seven of the characters with [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoints]] (aside from transitioning from one character to another).
303** Kingdom Valley can suffer from this, too. It at least has checkpoints, but it's right up there with levels like [[VideoGame/SonicHeroes Hang Castle]] in terms of length.
304** The Team Attack Amigo mode has the player race through every level in the game (except for Wave Ocean and Flame Core) in one sitting.
305* {{Mephistopheles}}: Mephiles the Dark has his name derived from Mephistopheles. Like Mephistopheles, Mephiles is a demonic being (he and Iblis are the two halves of the EldritchAbomination Solaris) and quite the ManipulativeBastard. He tricks the heroic Silver into thinking that Sonic is his enemy and allows Sonic and Elise to get close so that, when he [[spoiler:kills Sonic, Elise will cry, releasing Iblis and allowing Mephiles to regain his full power]].
306* MercyInvincibility: The game does have it, but the implementation was one of the many aspects of the game that didn't get all the kinks worked out. One the one hand, sometimes it's so ludicrously generous that it will throw you an impromptu BreatherLevel. On the other hand, it's so short-lasting as to be essentially useless in the Super Speed sections and, most infamously, Silver's attacks override the invincibility that you're supposed to get after he damages you.
307* MetaphoricallyTrue: Mephiles is telling the truth about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger. [[spoiler:What he conveniently left out is that killing Sonic would ''cause'' Iblis' release, instead of preventing it.]]
308* MetropolisLevel: [[AfterTheEnd Crisis City]] combines this with LethalLavaLand to create a large, ruined city with buildings and roads twisted from the destruction to justify the usual loops and other such speed-platforming gimmicks like half-pipes. It's also implied to be what Soleanna becomes in Silver's BadFuture.
309* MilkingTheGiantCow: There is at least one talking animation with ridiculously over-the-top hand gestures.
310* MisbegottenMultiplayerMode: Is it ever. The game has two multiplayer modes, "tag" and "battle", the former being co-op and the latter being competitive. Not only are the levels hardly suited to having two people play them at once, there are several glaringly obvious problems, such as how Silver can easily push two switches on his own in the co-op mode or how he's completely unsuitable in the competitive mode due to how slow he is. Considering how troubled the development of the game was, it's surprising the multiplayer remained in the game at all.
311* MotifMerger: Mephiles has a sinister-sounding piano {{leitmotif}} (with a techno remix as his boss fight music). Iblis is accompanied by a bombastic, orchestral score. When the two fuse together to form the TrueFinalBoss Solaris, the phase 1 boss music is Mephiles' leitmotif, performed by Iblis' bombastic orchestra.
312* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Silver goes through this when he sees the Duke of Soleanna sealing Iblis inside Elise, realizing that Sonic isn't the Iblis Trigger.
313[[/folder]]
314
315[[folder:N-Z]]
316* TheNeedsOfTheMany: After Eggman threatens to destroy Soleanna, Elise surrenders herself to protect her people from harm.
317* {{Nerf}}: Due to the lack of development time, most of Sonic's abilities have been nerfed in comparison to the ''Adventure'' titles, and a good chunk of the characters also suffer from it.
318** Sonic can't damage enemies by jumping on them (which also applies to the rest of the cast), his homing attack has a noticeable cooldown animation that wasn't present before, he can't jump out of his spin dash and his top speed is greatly reduced overall (also noticeable with the rest of the cast).
319** Tails has lost his Tail Swipe from the ''Adventure'' games. He can throw his Dummy Ring Bombs, but if he's on the ground, he will lose all his momentum.
320** Knuckles' glide is less effective: he loses height faster and the glide can no longer deal damage.
321** Shadow's Chaos Blast has taken a huge hit in power and especially range, to the point that he has to essentially touch the enemies to damage them.
322** Rouge has lost almost all her techniques from ''Sonic Adventure 2'': like Knuckles, her glide can't deal damage to enemies anymore and she can no longer perform her diving attack or kick enemies, but only throw bombs, that like Tails' Dummy Ring Bombs on the ground, stop her in place.
323** Omega lacks the devastating melee attacks he had in ''Sonic Heroes'', being relegated to firing at enemies from afar with his charge shot and being completely helpless up close.
324** Amy has lost several of her old attacks from ''Sonic Adventure'', such as the Hammer Jump and Spin Hammer Attack, and her default hammer attack has decreased range and stops her dead in her tracks whenever she uses it.
325* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Characters use the Chaos Emeralds for purposes that are never seen again, including TimeTravel and [[spoiler:interdimensional transportation]]. Additionally, Amy's gameplay revolves around her [[StealthBasedMission turning invisible]] for no explained reason, and Blaze and/or (judging from the dialogue) Silver demonstrate the ability to [[spoiler:''seal others/themselves into different fuggin' dimensions'']].
326** Shadow's ability to tap into his full potential by taking off his [[PowerLimiter Inhibitor Rings]] was previously seen in ''Anime/SonicX'', but never so much as hinted at in the games.
327* NoEscapeButDown: Elise jumps off the Eggmobile to escape from Eggman.
328* NoMouth: Mephiles lacks a visible mouth, and his mouth movements sometimes involve his muzzle stretching and deflating.
329* NonPlayerCompanion: Subverted. At times, you will switch characters in the middle of a level, with the other character following you. They never actually attack enemies or get attacked by them and their pathfinding is so poor that they regularly fall to their deaths right behind you, only to pop back up at your side seconds later.
330* NonStandardGameOver: Some levels have ways to lose lives without actually dying:
331** Taking too long to close the gate during Tails' section of Sonic's Wave Ocean results in a short cutscene of the whale escaping while Sonic is stuck riding it.
332** The Radical Train level has two ways to fail that don't entail the playable character dying:
333*** As Sonic, you must hit switches to have a stack of bombs explode before the train crashes into it. Fail to do so and you get a short cutscene of the train exploding.
334*** As Shadow, you must hit switches to deploy a barrier in order to stop the train so Shadow can attack it. Failing to find the switch or not dealing enough damage to the train before it moves to the next section results in a short cutscene of the train escaping and Eggman mocking Shadow.
335* NotSoStoic: During the last story [[spoiler:when everyone finds out that Sonic was killed by Mephlies, Shadow can't look at Sonic's body, even unfolding his arms sadly in the process]].
336* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Mephiles sent Silver to the past, not to help him (Silver) stop Iblis from destroying the world, but to break Iblis's seal so that they (Mephiles and Iblis) can reform into Solaris and consume all the time in existence.
337* NumberOfTheBeast: [[spoiler:Solaris's initial form has 6 horns, 6 fingers, and 6 stones behind his back. Making 666.]]
338* ObviouslyEvil: ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mephiles the Dark.]]''
339* ObviousTrap: Tails says that it's most definitely a trap when Eggman wants to meet Sonic so he could give him a Chaos Emerald.
340* OffscreenTeleportation:
341** Blaze is a ''master'' of this, with one example being her joining Silver in going to Kingdom Valley, being absent in the cutscene following and the level itself, then suddenly ''appearing from nowhere'' just in time to see the Egg Carrier crash. There's also an earlier point where she seemingly accompanies Silver to Radical Train, only to disappear from both it and Aquatic Base, then reappearing back in Soleanna after Silver returns.
342** Humorously averted for the sections of the game where party members follow you around (e.g, some of the Soleanna hub levels). Regardless of how far away you get from them, your party never teleports to you, instead attempting to follow your path. However, their movement AI is both slow and bad, so in trying to do so, they often dive straight into bottomless pits that you easily avoided. (Soleanna has many canals: your partners don't understand how bridges work.) The game still plays their death sound clips when this occurs, regardless of how far away you are at the time. This often results in an anguished 'Noooo!' coming from offscreen as your partner's pathfinding leads them headfirst into a canal 100 yards behind you. ''Then'' they teleport right behind you in the form of a respawn.
343* OmnicidalManiac: Mephiles wants nothing more than ''all of existence to be vaporized''.
344* OnceMoreWithClarity: The game is divided into Sonic, Shadow, and Silver's perspectives and also involves extravagant amounts of time travel. You ''could'' just play through Sonic's story, because it ends with Sonic defeating Eggman and saving Elise for what appears to finally be the last time. But you'll still be left wondering who Silver is and why he was trying to kill you, or who that mysterious grayscale Shadow lookalike was, or what brought about the BadFuture you were briefly stuck in. The only way to find out is to play through Shadow and Silver's stories.
345* OneHitKill: Getting sucked into a time portal during End of the World spells instant death for your character regardless of how many rings you have.
346* OneWomanWail: Features prominently in the music for [[http://youtu.be/ZCldwJwf1Ss Kingdom Valley]].
347* OnlyOneSaveFile: Unlike the previous "''Adventure''"-era games which offers multiple save files, this game only uses one for each Xbox/[=PlayStation=] profile account.
348* OnlySixFaces: If you look closely at some of the townsfolk, a lot of them share the same face. It gets worse when you're in a group of people who all share the same face.
349* PaletteSwap:
350** Several different ones for the more dangerous versions of Eggman's robots, while stronger Iblis monsters all keep a dark purple skin as opposed to their regular orange bodies.
351** Mephiles' first form resembles a monochrome Shadow. Justified as Mephiles obtained said form by absorbing Shadow's shadow.
352* PalmtreePanic: Wave Ocean, which features elements of Emerald Coast seen in ''Sonic Adventure''.
353* PassThroughTheRings: An early time trial level features an objective where Sonic must pass through various orange rings to succeed.
354* PerpetualMolt: Eagles in Kingdom Valley seem to scatter feathers constantly.
355* PimpedOutDress: Elise's dress, with the [[FluffyFashionFeathers feather trim]].
356* PinballProtagonist: Sonic. He has his own storyline, but it's Silver and Shadow that actually do the plot related stuff, whereas Sonic doesn't even ''meet'' [[BigBad Mephiles]] directly. Sonic has more relevance in the Last Story, however.
357* PlotHole:
358** This game is practically Swiss cheese with the amount of plot holes it has, but just one example involves Blaze asking Silver what he saw after returning from the past with Shadow. The problem? Blaze wasn't around to see Silver going back in time with Shadow, as she suddenly disappears shortly before Silver begins Radical Train!
359** Another glaring one; ''what's stopping Mephiles from remerging with Iblis in the future?'' There's literally ''no'' reason given as to why Mephiles can't merge with Iblis then, and it'd be much easier than the complicated plot he actually used.
360* PlotlineDeath: [[spoiler:Sonic the Hedgehog himself, in the Last Episode.]]
361* PoseOfSupplication: After witnessing Elise's death, Sonic drops to his knees in despair [[spoiler:[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong (before he goes back in time to the point before the Egg Carrier's takeoff)]]]].
362* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Amy can inexplicably [[{{Invisibility}} turn invisible]] in this game.
363* PowerLimiter: As with ''Anime/SonicX'', the rings around Shadow's wrists — [[spoiler:he removes them in his episode's ending in order to take on the army of Mephiles clones]].
364* PowerTrio: Team Sonic (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles), Team Silver (Silver, Blaze, and Amy), and Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega). Also, [[spoiler:Sonic, Shadow, and Silver when they go super to stop Solaris]].
365* PreRenderedGraphics: The opening cutscene at the start of the game, the flashback of the Solaris Experiment, the ending cutscenes of each campaign, and half the cutscenes in the Last Story are pre-rendered.
366* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
367** In certain levels, Shadow says this: "Let's. Get. MOVING!"
368** Amy's line as she defends Sonic from Silver's assassination attempt, punctuated by a camera zoom-in with each syllable: "Abso-lutely not!" In the Japanese script, this was done with each word spoken by Amy: "No. I. Won't!"
369* PurpleIsPowerful: The higher tier variants of Iblis' minions, Stalkers, Tricksters, Gazers, and Titans all have a dark purple color scheme and have more HP than their fire red-colored kin. Stalkers are also capable of firing a laser beam from their mouth, Gazers are more resilient to being paralyzed, Tricksters are more aggressive and their dive bombing attacks can stun the player, and Titans have stronger molten armor that can resist Silver's psychokinetic powers.
370* PuzzleBoss: Silver, in Sonic and Shadow's stories. If you try to attack him head-on, you'll be [[InstantDeathRadius caught and flung into a wall]]. To actually damage Silver, you have to wait until he picks up some of the objects scattered around the area, at which point he'll be vulnerable to attack.
371* QuicksandSucks: One entire desert level has nearly every sand area as a giant [[BottomlessPits bottomless sand pit]], most notably in the beginning of Shadow's [[AlliterativeName Dusty Desert]] which requires you to navigate tricky terrain in a hovercraft with little room for error.
372* RankInflation: Each of the game's action stages, town missions, and boss battles are graded based on the player's performance, which ranges from D to S and determines how many rings players can earn to spend at the shops.
373* RashomonStyle: The game is ''trying'' to stick to a straight OnceMoreWithClarity style of storytelling, but whenever two of the playable characters' stories intersect, things get fuzzy. Notably, both Sonic and Shadow confront Silver, but whoever's being controlled by the player has to win before the story can advance (averting HopelessBossFight). And when Sonic and Shadow encounter Iblis, whichever one you're playing as does the fighting while the other stays in the background.
374* RealIsBrown: Most of the time, the graphics are dominated by the game's "realistic" look, although it's still pretty colorful at least.
375* RecurringRiff: "His World" motifs in various songs.
376* RecycledTitle: As this was intended as a rebirth of the series.
377* RedOniBlueOni: Iblis is destructive and completely mindless. Mephiles is calm, cunning, and manipulative. [[spoiler:They are two halves of the EldritchAbomination known as Solaris.]]
378* ResetButtonEnding: The Last Episode ends with [[spoiler:the entire game's storyline being undone and the ceremony from the opening cutscene going down without a hitch.]]
379* RetGone: [[spoiler:When Elise blows out the flame that would become Solaris, the sun god is erased from existence altogether. As a result, the events of the game never happened.]]
380* TheRival: Mephiles, to Shadow.
381* RivalsTeamUp: Shadow and Silver in the Aquatic Base level. Then Sonic and Silver in Kingdom Valley. A more minor example then most times, but Sonic and Shadow are still rivals and they team up to locate chaos emeralds in the future, so this also counts.
382* RoarBeforeBeating: Iblis and Egg Cerberus.
383* RobotDog: Egg-Cerberus is a giant mechanical guard dog constructed by Dr. Eggman that serves as the game's first boss for Sonic and Shadow's stories. To defeat it, Sonic[=/=]Shadow must grab on its head antenna and [[BullfightBoss charge it against the wall to damage it]]. Oh, and [[IronicName despite being named after a three-headed dog, it has only one head]].
384* RuinsForRuinsSake: Kingdom Valley. While the presence of the ruins is explained in-story (they're the old castle, abandoned after the Solaris Incident ten years ago), they still don't make any sense as buildings that the royal family would live or hold court in.
385* SanDimasTime: Sort of. The characters treat Chaos Control — specifically, using Chaos Control to jump through centuries — as if it will jump them a fixed amount of time, rather than to whatever time they want. Nevermind that Chaos Control does not have this problem in the rest of the series. Beyond that, Mephiles is the closest thing to a proverbial San Dimas, since he's slowly but steadily getting more powerful as the three stories unfold.
386* SandIsWater: Dusty Desert, complete with [[SuperDrowningSkills the same effect]].
387* SatelliteCharacter: Notably, Blaze is downgraded to being one to Silver, ostensibly as a sister figure of sorts. In fact, no one else (not even Mephiles or Sonic) ever acknowledges her presence, directly or otherwise! So little attention is paid to Blaze that, combined with her [[OffscreenTeleportation repeated vanishing]], you could conclude that she is a figment of Silver's imagination and her presence would make just as much sense as ever.
388* SayMyName:
389** Sonic calls out Elise's name [[spoiler:after the Egg Carrier explodes]].
390** Then [[spoiler:Knuckles shouts Sonic's name when he sees him dead before his and the others' eyes. Amy does this too, but with more emotion]].
391** Tails also calls out for Sonic when he dies with no rings, a CallBack to ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2''
392* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to CutAndPasteEnvironments, most of the stages in each route don't seem to follow any consistent pattern in difficulty.
393* ScoringPoints: Players can earn points by defeating enemies and collecting rings, but they can also earn bonus points for performing feats such as taking down a group of enemies in succession, destroying the commander of an enemy group to take the group down, and passing through Trick Rings. At the end of each stage, players can earn extra points based on how quickly the stage was cleared and how many rings were collected (if any), which gets added to the player's overall score and rank.
394* ScratchDamage: Vulcan Cannon fire will only take away one ring at a time and won't cause knockback, while missiles or actively touching an enemy makes you lose all your rings. This becomes deadlier because taking damage from the Vulcan Cannon does not render you temporarily invincible, and if you don't have enough rings to survive the round...
395* SealedEvilInACan: Iblis. He can be released by killing his host, [[spoiler:or making the host cry]].
396** Mephiles as well: he was sealed into the Scepter of Darkness [[spoiler:by Shadow the Hedgehog himself]].
397* SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan: Iblis is sealed inside Elise [[spoiler:and later Blaze]].
398* SendInTheClones: Shadow's story ends with [[spoiler:Shadow, Rouge, and Omega surrounded by Mephiles clones. The intro to the Last Episode reveals Shadow made short work of them]].
399* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Both Sonic and Silver are trying to set the present right and avert Silver's BadFuture. Silver, UnwittingPawn that he is, nearly ends up ''causing'' this future instead.
400* SequenceBreaking: If thrown correctly, the Sky Gem lets you bypass a lot of the stage, as well as fly over {{invisible wall}}s. The Purple Gem is also incredibly helpful — it shrinks Sonic's model, but doesn't change how it calculates his jumps, giving him an infinite jump that can allow him to bypass huge chunks of the level. There are also some more traditional exploits, including a glitch that can be used fairly early on in Sonic's and Silver's stories to skip right to the credits (although doing that for Sonic too early means you'll never unlock Shadow).
401* ShaggyDogStory: Several levels don't actually have much point to them other than simply forcing the characters to go through every one. Generally, if the characters return to Soleanna after completing a level, they haven't accomplished much unless that was their goal in the first place (i.e., traveling back in time from the future). For example, Sonic doesn't even catch up to the Egg Carrier after Wave Ocean; Tails simply tells him "We've lost it. Let's go back to town and get some more information!"
402* ShiftingSandLand: Dusty Desert.
403* ShipTease: Other than Sonic and Elise, we also get some couples that have been made popular by this game. Silver/Blaze and Silver/Amy come to mind. Shadow/Rouge gets some good attention too, especially with this exchange.
404-->'''Rouge:''' ''(after hearing that Omega seals Shadow away in the future)'' It's... it's so unfair. Shadow's always here to defend the world.
405-->''(Later...)''
406-->'''Rouge:''' ''(as Shadow starts walking off)'' Shadow.... Even if you believe that the whole world will turn against you... know that I'll always remain by your side. ''(she looks away somewhat shyly)'' Remember that.
407-->'''Shadow:''' ''(stops walking)'' ...I will.
408* ShoutOut: The music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEHzaHO7U9Y "Town Mission 4"]] sounds strikingly similar to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsW3oYwD2oM "Flashman's Theme"]] from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''.
409* ShutUpHannibal: Shadow uses this twice against Mephiles.
410** When Omega confronts Mephiles, the latter brings up Shadow's fate in the BadFuture, and claims that it was [[EtTuBrute actually by Omega's hand that Shadow was imprisoned]]. Omega's only response is a [[GatlingGood salvo of minigun bullets]].
411** A couple levels later, Mephiles tries once again to draw Shadow to his side:
412--->'''Mephiles the Dark:''' It's futile. The world will betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?\
413'''Shadow the Hedgehog:''' If the world chooses to become my enemy... I will fight like I always have!
414* SlippySlideyIceWorld: White Acropolis, one of Dr. Eggman's bases hidden in a snowy peak.
415* SlowMotionFall: Sonic gets one at the beginning of the final story.
416* TheSlowPath: Rouge tells Omega, in the present, to help Shadow, in the future, [[spoiler:against Mephiles]] this way and gives him a Chaos Emerald to help him. Omega gets written back into the story when he travels ''back'' to the present with Shadow, along with the Chaos Emerald.
417* SomeoneHasToDie: [[spoiler:The end of Silver's story has Blaze becoming the new vessel for Iblis and sealed away in another dimension.]]
418* SpacetimeEater: [[spoiler:Mephiles, as part of Solaris, plans to devour all of existence.]]
419* SpaceWhaleAesop: Be a strong leader who never cries in the face of adversity and trials... because otherwise, [[spoiler:you'll release a [[EldritchAbomination demonic monstrosity]] that was sealed within you and tear apart the space-time continuum]]... wait, what?
420* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure''.
421%%* StrawNihilist: Mephiles.
422* StockSoundEffects: That "t'hhh!" sound that a lot of cartoons use as a non-diegetic effect shows up when you hit an invulnerable enemy.
423* TheStoryThatNeverWas: [[spoiler:The final cutscene involves one last bit of time travel, in which where Sonic and Elise extinguish the flame of Solaris, thereby preventing the lab accident that set the entire plot in motion. Despite this, during the festival, Elise was able to recall a familar wind she felt as Sonic sped by through the crowd.]]
424* SuperDrowningSkills: Of the {{Bottomless Pit|s}} variety. In fact, water is so lethal in this game, it only takes depths up to the characters' waists to do them in.
425* TacticalSuicideBoss:
426** Egg Genesis's weak spot is directly on top of it, which is far too high off the ground for Sonic to reach. However, it also spawns chains of enemies that let Sonic climb atop the machine using Homing Attack.
427** Silver only becomes vulnerable to attack when he jumps or when he grabs things to throw at you; at any other time, [[CharacterCatchphrase it's no use]] trying to get close.
428* TechDemoGame: Sega attempted to shove every "next gen" feature they could think of into the game, such as motion blur[[note]]even though the game is designed to run at 60 frames per second, so you usually can't even see it[[/note]], real-time shadows[[note]]an important step towards having a day-night cycle, though Sega abandoned that[[/note]], and a physics engine. Unfortunately, people weren't impressed so much as annoyed by the primitive lighting, broken physics, and the massive slowdowns in Soleanna.
429** Silver was created specifically to make use of the physics engine. It didn't work out well.
430* TempleOfDoom: Dusty Desert.
431* TemporalParadox: The game's rather liberal use of time travel ends up bringing up some of these, both in its self-contained story, and in the series narrative.
432** The most glaring example is, well...the entire plot with Silver. Silver travels back in time (alongside Blaze) to kill the Iblis Trigger...but surely he must have realized at some point that killing the Iblis Trigger before the event happens will cause the ''cessation of their existence'', as they would be changing future events.
433* TennisBoss: Silver's battles with Iblis and the Egg Genesis.
434* ThemeAndVariationsSoundtrack: Many pieces from this game's soundtrack are variations of "His World", the main theme, though there is still plenty of original music as well.
435* ThereWasADoor: Shadow breaks into Eggman's train through the ceiling. Eggman, without turning around, tells him, "Wouldn't the door have been easier?"
436* ThreePointLanding: Generally when coming out of a portal when travelling through time. A notable example is when Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles go to the future. Sonic does a three point landing gracefully, while Tails and Knuckles are much less graceful.
437* TimeTravel: Central to the plot.
438* TimeyWimeyBall: Shadow's story depends on a YouAlreadyChangedThePast StableTimeLoop (Mephiles breaking out of the Scepter of Darkness in the present is the direct cause of Shadow traveling to the past and [[SealedEvilInACan sealing Mephiles in the first place]]). MeanwhileInTheFuture, Sonic directly contradicts this by traveling from the BadFuture to the present and successfully SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong (by preventing the death that was a direct cause of the Bad Future). And due to his interactions with both Shadow and Sonic, Silver's story uses ''both'' sets of time-travel rules, depending on the scene. If there hadn't been a ResetButtonEnding, the {{temporal paradox}}es probably would have caused the whole plot to erase itself anyway.
439* TitleDrop: Sonic drops the game's title in his story's opening cutscene:
440-->'''Sonic:''' I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!
441* TrueCompanions: Team Dark showcases this in the Wave Ocean scene. Rouge, for the most part, tells Shadow she will stand by his side no matter what.
442* TrueFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Solaris. He's fought in two phases by [[PowerTrio Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver]].]]
443* TrueLovesKiss: [[spoiler:From Elise to Sonic, towards the end of the game.]]
444* UnexpectedGameplayChange: More abundant than in most other ''Sonic'' games, in that the player will frequently be switching characters (and thus playstyles) mid-level, while Sonic and Shadow have different gameplay styles ''to themselves,'' namely Sonic having Princess-carrying and Super Speed variants, while Shadow makes frequent use of different vehicles.
445* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can hurt the citizens of Soleanna, forcing them to stumble around briefly.
446* VideoGameLives: As per tradition with the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series.
447* VillainBall: Mephiles clutches onto this '''with white knuckles'''. His ultimate goal is to fuse with Iblis, yet despite his ability to time travel at will and nothing in the game claiming he can't fuse with Iblis in the future, the idea seemingly never comes up in his head as he instead decides to go down the "make Elise cry" path. Yet despite the ''many'' ways Mephiles could pull that off with his powers ([[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking torture her, push her down stairs, cutting up some onions under her eyes]]), he elects to trick a hedgehog from the future into killing someone Elise bonds with over the course of a few days. He also manually searches for the Chaos Emeralds, when the Last Story shows [[spoiler:that he can warp them all to him at will as long as he has even one… which he gave to Silver when in the future and ''right next to Iblis,'' giving up a chance to just merge right then without any input by the heroes whatsoever. Even when all is said and done and he finally becomes Solaris, he scatters the Chaos Emeralds instead of keeping them, allowing the heroes to find them and revive Sonic, ultimately leading to him being RetGone]]!
448* WeCanRuleTogether: Mephiles to Shadow.
449* WeirdCurrency: Rings can be used to buy stuff, like equipment for a hedgehog that won't even exist for two hundred years. GameplayAndStorySegregation, but still.
450* WellIntentionedExtremist: Silver in the beginning of the game. He legitimately wants to help the world have a better future that doesn't contain Iblis, but he goes about it the wrong way by trying to kill Sonic.
451** Also, Princess Elise's father. Like Eggman, he was trying to harness the power of a god (Solaris) for his own purposes. That being the case, a flashback implies that his main goal was simply to go back in time and save his deceased wife, as well as to give other people the chance to undo their mistakes. There's no indication that he had any malicious intentions.
452* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Mephiles kills Sonic, causing Elise to cry and unleash Solaris, thus resulting in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]
453* WhamLine: Omega's confession to Shadow after clearing Wave Ocean:
454-->'''Omega:''' Shadow. The one who defeats and seals you into the future... is me.
455* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The ending doesn't elaborate on what Silver's future that isn't ruined by Iblis turned out to be, or if the characters whom reside in the future [[InSpiteOfANail continue to exist in the future unchanged.]]]]
456* WhatTheHellHero: Amy calls out Silver for attacking the "Iblis Trigger" (aka Sonic), convinced that he wouldn't do anything like what Silver suggests.
457* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[spoiler:When Mephiles's plot to have Silver kill Sonic fails, he decides to do it himself. It takes him all of about five seconds.]]
458** The first time, Silver failed because he insisted on smacking Sonic around first while giving a lengthy cursing speech rather than just crushing him [[CurbstompBattle when he clearly had the upper hand]], giving Amy time to intervene. He tries to act more quickly the second time, but still gets a bit too showy, leading to Shadow getting in the way. Then again, the latter's [[SuperSpeed speed]] does match up to Sonic's.
459* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: In Wave Ocean and Kingdom Valley, Shadow has to fly a hang glider while being attacked. The MercyInvincibility is so generous and the sections so short that it's entirely possible to get through without touching the controller. The hang glider section in Crisis City actually does require you to do something, though.
460* WreakingHavok: Many examples, showing how wonky the physics engine was implemented. The most ostentatious display of such being Sonic's Super Speed section in Crisis City, where you're being chased by a [[IncendiaryExponent fire tornado]] as it flings cars in front of you, smacking into the concrete and spinning wildly into the sky in ways [[ArtisticLicensePhysics not physically possible]].
461* YouDidntAsk: Amy did not know for a long time that both Elise and Silver were actually following Sonic: She didn't ask Silver what the Iblis Trigger looked like and, while she ''did'' ask Elise what the person she was talking about looked like, she didn't give Elise enough time to answer her.
462* YouExclamation: Silver angrily exclaims "You!" after Shadow kicks him in the back of his head.
463* YourSizeMayVary: In-game, even the children of Soleanna are visibly taller than Sonic, but in cutscenes, he stands only slightly shorter than Princess Elise, who herself seems of average height for a young lady her age.
464* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Tails paraphrases the trope name after Sonic's Wave Ocean: "It looks like the Princess was moved to another location." And it happens again several times throughout the game.
465[[/folder]]
466----
467->'''[[Blog/SonicTheHedgehogTwitter Eggman]]:''' @Imquitegood asks, [[https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/746407871273807872 "Has Sonic '06 finished loading yet?"]]\
468'''Sonic:''' Heh, some people say it's still [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading loading]] to this very day.\

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