TIL Sonic Frontiers
could've been the end of Sonic if it wasn't well-received; it was essentially their last chance at a high-budget Sonic game.
I question which games actually happened, because I was under the impression that Sonic and the Secret Rings was a mere forgotten spin-off until it was briefly mentioned in Sonic Generations in one cutscene.
I think what gets people tripped up is that things not being important in the real world doesn't mean they don't matter to the characters in-universe.
Most of the spin-off games are canon. Riders, the storybook games, Team Sonic Racing. The only one that never got an explicit mention in the modern day was Shuffle, I think.
I swear nobody ever once checked to see if Shadow asking "what Chaos Control is" was more sensible than expressing surprise that the Biolizard could use it. Or questioning why Tails would cheerfully say "All's well that ends well" after Perfect Chaos destroyed Station Square...instead of him expressing relief that Perfect Chaos was stopped before the rest of the world was destroyed.
Edited by wooden-ladybug93 on Apr 8th 2024 at 1:26:26 PM
Isn't it true that it's only the English dub of Forces where Classic Sonic is bizarrely (and I think fortunately non-canonically now) referred to as from an alternate universe?
If that's the case, then it makes an already forced inclusion feel even more hamfisted by way of Dub-Induced Plot Hole.
"That we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another."The thing about Classic Sonic being from another world was something that confused Japanese fans as well. Yes, "sekai" can be used figuratively like saying "the future world", but if you say someone is from "another sekai" it's literally the exact same as if you hear someone is from "another world" in English, you're going to assume that they mean an alternative dimension or something and not time travel. Additionally, there are places where Clasic Sonic is referred to as from "another dimension" (betsu jigen) which adds to that.
It wasn't something made by the English dub in this case, both sides were being weird about what Classic Sonic was supposed to be and fans on both sides were confused and annoyed by it.
I just love how, if it was genuinely meant to be a retcon, how out of nowhere it comes. Tails just straight up says it to Classic Sonic as if that was what everyone knew all the time, and the wording of the dialogue makes it sound like he's talking to the audience (it's the equivalent of seeing a person you know and saying out loud "Oh, you're the person from that village 5 miles away"). Especially since the whole plot of Sonic Generations kind of requires Classic sonic to be past sonic, and the fact that making him from another universe just sort of smashes the series in two without a clear sign of when Classic Sonic universe ends and modern Sonic universe starts (especially since the latter references the former a lot).
I'm just being hyperbolic really, the English translators translated that line poorly, yes, but it is understandable given that the line in Japanese was somewhat ambigous. And, though I don't know Japanese so can't really say, I imagine that line of dialogue makes sense in the Japanese version (even if it is still ambiguous enough to create a bit of confusion) so I'm not blaming those writers either. It's just sort of funny that the entire lore of the franchise briefly completely changed out of nowhere (with no proper explanation or real acknowledgement) due to ambiguous writing leading to a translation error. That's funny.
Edited by king15 on Apr 8th 2024 at 11:21:28 AM
Yeah, how I've generally heard it previously is that the Japanese line was already obtuse and confusing - likely owing to Sonic Team really not wanting to push Classic Sonic as Sonic's actual past at the time - and that the dub just ran with what was there.
Depending on how it was originally meant - this is very unclear given Sonic Team's tendencies at the time - I'm not sure it would even be considered a mistranslation.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Apr 8th 2024 at 4:40:02 AM
The "different dimension" stuff is generally taken to mean that Generations caused a Future Trunks-like timeline split. Thus while the classic games happened in both, the Modern universe then goes to Sonic 4, then Adventure, etc. Meanwhile the Classic Universe instead goes to Mania.
EDIT: Should clarify that all of that is unrelated to the now-non-canon "two worlds" idea, which was just born out of Sega trying to panic dump everything that made 06 what it was out of the series, including humans besides Eggman living in the Sonic world.
Edited by Sid-Starkiller on Apr 8th 2024 at 7:49:59 AM
Here's what Tails says in English
Right, right, right, that makes sense, I think. Do you know how you got here?
Maybe the power that Eggman is using is somehow affecting other dimensions.
And here's what he says in Japanese, with a really direct translation that isn't trying to sound natural.
なーんだ、そういうコトかぁ…って、でもアレ?どうやってこっちに?
もしかしたら、エッグマンのあのナゾの力が次元の境界をおかしくしているのかも…?
Whaaat, so that's how it is... But, huh? How did [you come] here?
Perhaps, that mysterious power of Eggman's is making the dimensional boundaries strange...?
Take it as you will. But also it should be remembered that Forces has a weird double localization thing going on where it was written in Japanese first, rewritten and animated in English, and then rewritten in Japanese again for the Japanese version. So these English lines aren't translated from the Japanese lines, the Japanese lines were translated from the English lines which were translated and rewritten from the first Japanese script that we don't publicly have access to to know what exactly it said originally.
Edited by KuroBaraHime on Apr 8th 2024 at 8:35:08 AM

I found myself thinking about how fun it was exploring the islands in Sonic Frontiers for the Action Chain Challenges or hunting music, especially the E3 His World one in the water on Rhea Island.
But have they still not added the ability to actually take photos in the photo mode, though?
Jokes about Red Pillar's name are still funny.