Sonic the Hedgehog Timeline

Introduction

Sonic has a shaky canon in most other series due to how continuity is treated, basically very loosely. This page will intend to have a canon timeline of events. Do note this is not perfectly released in timeline order as some games don't have a direct timeline placement and are just acknowledged as canon. Do note that post-06 isn't an alternate timeline, it's a timeline reset. For games that have no reason for why they're placed in a certain area, the assumption is their release order is their timeline placement.

Addressing “Everything is Canon”

This comes not only from a Twitter post, a statement made by the dev team during Sonic Mania, and it’s plastered around the Sonic Encylospeedia. Now the first two parts are just a running joke from Aaron Webber answering YouTube chat questions, you'd have to be a fan of the official Sonic livestreams for quite some time to even catch that it's a reference. For the Enclyospeedia it makes an everything is canon statement but also directly states Chronicles is non-canon, so with this, it is either a reference to the running joke or that it means canon in terms of overall multiverse rather than a singular universe. Basically “Everything is Canon” isn’t proof of something being a part of the main timeline. It has been further extrapolated in the BumbleKast Q&A with Ian Flynn that "Everything is Canon" isn't an official statement or that it "canon", thus this statement isn't at all usable. Mania is canon and it’s an alternate timeline for instance. For further confirmation, Ian Flynn in a Q&A said that the Archie, Game, and Boom multiverse are completely separate and not canon/connected. Thus "Everything is Canon" is not in terms of everything being in one timeline.

It should also be noted that Ian himself is not the primary source when it comes to Sonic questions and is more of personal opinion, thus he is only a tertiary source when it comes to statements, he is merely for extra insight and context.

Classic Era

The original era that hosted the classic art style for Sonic.

Canon

The following games are considered canon to the Classic Era:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)

• Sonic CD: Sonic Origins has Sonic CD take place after Sonic 2.

• SegaSonic the Hedgehog: Introduces Mighty and Ray, and doesn’t have any real contradictions.

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2/Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure: Official sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog.

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles: Official sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

• Sonic 3D Blast: Both Knuckles and Tails show up in the game. With Knuckles being friendly, meaning it has to be after Sonic 3, where he was an adversary.

• Knuckles Chaotix: It has since been officially confirmed canon. Takashi in an interview notes the Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes are essentially recreated characters as they didn't work on Knuckles Chaotix.

• Sonic R: The game features Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Metal Sonic, Dr. Robotnik, and many more characters.

• Sonic the Fighters: The game features Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Espio, having it takes place after Knuckles Chaotix.

• Sonic Mania: Iizuka decided to put Mania as canon by noting Sonic Superstars placement, which comes after Mania but before Adventure and he notes this is within the Classic Timeline Is an official alternate timeline.

• Sonic Superstars: Takes place before Adventure but after Mania.

Unknown Placements

• Sonic the Hedgehog (8-Bit): With a lot of recent Q&As, spin-offs are now canon. The 8-bit games don't have a direct placement in the timeline, though.

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-Bit)

• Sonic Drift 1 & 2

• Sonic Blast

• Tails Skypatrol

• Tails Adventure

Alternative Timeline

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-Bit) Bad Ending: It heavily implies Tails is dead.

Non-Canon

• Sonic Spinball: Not only is it based on the SatAM series, but it also has 16 chaos emeralds, twice the established canon amount.

• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine: Based on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a non-canon cartoon.

• Sonic's Schoolhouse: An edutainment game that has not been referenced in any other games and lacks a reliable placement.

• Sonic Eraser: Puzzle game with no real plot.

Pre-Reset Era

Canon

• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Modern design for characters, foreshadows the events of Metal Sonic in Sonic Heroes, and is meant as a bridge between the Classic and Modern games.

• Sonic Adventure

• Sonic Advance

• Sonic Shuffle

• Sonic Adventure 2

• Sonic Advance 2

• Sonic Advance 3

• Sonic Prime: Directly noted that Sonic Prime takes place "sometime after Advance 3", being noted noted as canon. What David Jaffe notes in this interview is the series is "Part of the Canon", and that it "ties directly into the mythology, with Sega also directly being involved with this show through the entire step. Any lore inconsistency was due to the Sonic Prime team ignoring any of the inconsistencies Ian Flynn and his team told them.

• Sonic Heroes

• Shadow the Hedgehog (True Ending): We don’t know how he got all 7 chaos emeralds, every route done during the game is a non-canon route. For how the actual timeline route of this game goes, from here to here is the canon intro, the entire game then goes on non-canon filler until we reach here where it becomes canon again.

• Sonic Battle

• Sonic Riders

• Sonic 06

Non Canon

• Shadow the Hedgehog (All endings sans Last Story): Every ending is non-canon and has radically different Shadows. The journey he goes through during the game is also non-canon as it reaches different routes, with the true route not specifying what he did to gain all 7 chaos emeralds.

Post-Reset Era

Through Elise blowing out Solaris' flames it reset all of the events that happened in 06.

Canon

• Sonic Rivals

• Sonic Rivals 2

• Sonic Rush

• Sonic Rush Adventure

• Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity

• Sonic Riders: Free Riders

• Sonic and the Secret Rings

• Sonic Unleashed

• Sonic and the Black Knight

• Sonic Colors DS/Sonic Colors (Wii)/Sonic Colors Ultimate

• Sonic Generations/Sonic Generations DS

• Sonic Lost World

• Sonic Forces

• Team Sonic Racing

• Sonic Frontiers

• Sonic Dream Team: Directly noted as canon by Ian Flynn.

Alternate Timeline

• Sonic Boom: Directly confirmed a parallel universe.

Non-Canon

• Sonic Runners: The game's event-exclusive episodes are equally evident in being non-canon due to some companions being characters from certain games whose endings imply Sonic will never meet again, such as Chip, and Sonic not knowing who Merlina is, despite meeting her in Sonic and the Black Knight. Even more curiously, Sonic does not recognize Erazor Djinn or King Shahryar despite the characters implying that the events of Sonic and the Secret Rings have taken place. Along with this Ian Flynn has noted that Sonic Dream Team is the first mobile Sonic game to be canon.

• All Mario and Sonic the Olympic Games: Pretty much not considered canon to Mario nor Sonic.

• Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing/Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: Characters from not only other Sega games, but random Disney movies appear in it.