Trivia / Sonic Generations

• Acting for Two:
  • Mike Pollock plays both the Classic and Modern versions of Dr. Eggman.
  • Kate Higgins plays both Classic and Modern Tails.
  • Laura Bailey plays both Blaze the Cat and Omochao in this game.
• Christmas Rushed: The 3DS version, which was rushed out in about six months or so, compared to the console versions which were in concept since at least 2008. While the final product certainly wasn't a disaster by any stretch, it lacks content compared to the console versions and it's obvious that some corners were cut (including the rival races, which take place on improbable stages, and the lack of the GBA stages mentioned in pre-release interviews).
• Content Leak:
  • The demo released for the 20th anniversary was datamined not long after it was released, which led to the list of stages getting leaked several months early. Other assets were also discovered hidden in the demo, which lead to some other things getting leaked.
  • The existence of Sonic X Shadow Generations was revealed a day before it was formally announced in the January State of Play.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: When discussing working on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and creating the "Mega Man 4 Medley", Jun Senoue reminisced on creating the Super Smash Bros. Brawl remix of Angel Island Zone, and notes that it appeared in Generations. While the original version appeared, the remix did not.
• Development Gag: One of the stages Sonic goes through in the 3DS version is Radical Highway, which was likely a nod to it originally being a Sonic stage early on in Sonic Adventure 2's development before it was changed to a Shadow stage in the final game.
• Dummied Out:
  • The Time Break skill was supposed to be accompanied with a remix of Cyber Track from Sonic Advance 3, but this goes unused in the game. The music is present on the official soundtrack, however.
  • Modern Sonic's Green Hill is playable in the 20th anniversary demo, but was disabled. The only way to play in his stage was by hacking.
• Flip-Flop of God: A financial report confirmed that it would go to the Nintendo 3DS and PC... then it was disconfirmed in an update to said paper... only for the 3DS and PC versions to be reconfirmed later.
• God Never Said That: Some fans thought that Generations was non-canon due to Takashi Iizuka in the Sonic Boom 2013 Q&A calling it an anniversary game, possibly due to the previous anniversary game having a Reset Button Ending. It's been clarified that Generations is canon.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": As Sonic Rivals and its sequel were not released in Japan, the sound collection in this game is the first time Japan officially got some of their music, "Quick Trip to Paradise" and "Race to Wind". The Japanese Pre-Order bonus was a soundtrack with Quick Trip as one of the tracks.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • The first demo was made available on June 23, 2011, exactly 20 years after the first Sonic the Hedgehog was released. This is fitting, as it's a game about Sonic's history.
  • The second demo was released on October 19, 2011, which was the 17th anniversary of Sonic & Knuckles. When Sonic Generations was one of the Daily Deals for the Steam 2012 Summer Sale, it was discounted to $10.19.
• Milestone Celebration: Developed as part of the franchise's 20th anniversary.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Before the release of the game, Sega released three CGI trailers that showed Classic and Modern Sonic running through a white Green Hill Zone, City Escape, and Rooftop Run together. While the levels were a part of the game, none of the footage from said trailers are shown in game. One of the Boss Fight trailers specifically shows Modern Sonic, Classic Sonic, Tails, and Classic Tails about to fight the Time Eater in Green Hill Zone, only for the actual confrontation to be in a completely different location. Only the first trailer, which had Modern and Classic Sonic running alongside each other, is hidden away in the game's Attract Mode (and is thus entirely missable).
• No Export for You: The massive collector's edition set was exclusive to Europe and Australia. And it was later revealed that Japan got an exclusive special 20th Anniversary set as well.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: For a brief while, it was rumored that Classic Sonic is mute largely because they couldn't get Jaleel White to return to do his voice. It turns out that White was never approached by SEGA to voice Classic Sonic.
• Production Nickname: Modern Sonic's design was referred to as "Generic Sonic" in the coding for the demo.
• Role Reprise: In the French dub, all of the voice actors from Sonic X reprised their respective roles, with the exception of Vector. They've since continued to voice these characters in the subsequent games.
• Sequel Gap: Shadow's story in Sonic X Shadow Generations follows up his own game 19 years later.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: There was a rumour of DLC stages being released. Apart from the Casino Night pinball minigame, this was false, though Sega did mention that they did consider making a DLC stage based on Wacky Workbench.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to Word of God, they had hoped to make all acts playable by Classic and Modern Sonic alike. Indeed, it is possible to hack or glitch the game so that you can play Classic Sonic in Modern Levels, which is mostly functional; only a few tweaks needed to be made for a fully-playable mod to be released. Likewise, you can play as Modern Sonic in Classic levels, viewed from a 3D perspective — the Classic levels look very unfinished when viewed in this way, however. The HD version even has full functionality for Modern Sonic breaking an invincibility monitor, including special music — this can be heard through normal gameplay in the 3DS version.
  • Big's voice actor, Kyle Hebert, recorded lines of dialogue for Big's part of the game, but Big was later scrapped from the game's plot. It's currently unknown where in the game he would've been, as every stage already has a character associated with it, but Hebert's name remains in the credits, and Big's statue can be seen in the Statue Room.
  • Sega mentioned that they planned to make a stage based on Wacky Workbench, initially dropped to keep the "3 stages per era" set-up, and later dropped fully when they decided against full DLC stages.
  • Some digging through the very first (time-limited) demo of the game reveals an option to change the HUD's appearance. This can now only be achieved through mods.
  • Jun Senoue and Cash Cash did a remix of the North American Stardust Speedway Present theme, but decided against having it in the game since they already did a remix of the NA Bad Future theme. Instead, they included it on Sonic CD's 20th anniversary soundtrack; Senoue mentions in the liner notes that they wanted something extra for the album.
  • The Big Arm boss from the 3DS version originally had a remix of Doomsday Zone instead of Sonic 3's actual final boss theme. While the exact reason for its cut is unknown, it's most likely to stay true to the original fight.
  • Similar to the last anniversary game, there were originally plans for the game to have a Nintendo Wii version, but due to hardware constraints, the port was scrapped.
  • According to Aaron Webber, Sonic Team considered making the 3DS version a straight port from the console versions, before deciding to make it completely unique instead.
  • A port of the 3DS version for the Playstation Portable was planned at one point. However for unknown reasons, it was scrapped entirely.
  • An interview with Takashi Iizuka from E3 2011 had Iizuka mention that the 3DS version would contain levels from the GBA games and would act as a celebration of Sonic's portable history, but the final game lacks any zones from the Sonic Advance Trilogy, and any handheld-based zones in general outside of Water Palace from Sonic Rush (and technically Tropical Resort, since it's based off of the DS version of Sonic Colors as opposed to the Wii version). The presence of unlockable concept art from Sonic Advance 3, as well as how the Dreamcast and Modern eras only have two levels each in the 3DS version, suggest that more handheld-based levels were planned.
• Word of God: This game confirms that Sonic Heroes is considered part of the "Dreamcast" era, though the 3DS version oddly places it in the "Modern" era instead.
• Word of Saint Paul: Ian Flynn, head writer of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW), believes the Time Eater is what remains of Mephiles after the time reset from Sonic '06. This is not confirmed nor denied by Sega.
• Working Title: The game was originally titled Sonic Anniversary in early development.

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