Sonic Generations Continuity Nods and References

[Your Vest Friend]

Vector's entire co-op gimmick is basically playing Yoshi's Island, except the playable one is the egg.

Come to think of it, Yoshi had fixed point latching powers in Yoshi's Story, so Espio isn't that far off either.

[Pawn]

I wonder what triggers various S-rank animations. I almost always get the lying down at the end animation for S-rank out of both characters. I've never even seen the animation where Classic Sonic takes a bow and does the Sonic 3 finger pose before now.

Yeah, only the lying down poses are for S-Ranks. That video is dated August 2011, so the various A-D rank animations (and Modern Sonic's presence in general) must be a result of tinkering around with the files in June's Classic demo.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Pawnkin

[Marcello]

- When Sonic remarks on how familar Green Hill Zone is, Tails states that he isn't familar with it. This is a pretty sharp observation as canonically, Tails has never actually set foot in Green Hill Zone

I would've preferred they make fun of how similar beginning levels often are. Like Tails could say "I feel like I'vebeen here before, but also haven't..."

[Sarah Jane Smith]

I would've preferred they make fun of how similar beginning levels often are. Like Tails could say "I feel like I'vebeen here before, but also haven't..."

Yeah. I mean, if you've been in one grassy level trope, you've basically been in them all. And Emerald/Green Hill are REALLY similar. Not to mention Sunset Hill in Sonic Advance 3 (that's canon, right?)

[Semi-colon e]

Speaking of which, the sunset Green Hill missions are pretty similar to Sunset Hill, but whether that's an intentional reference or not is unknown. Another coincidence is the cave sections which are similar to the Master System's Act 2, but iirc that was debunked.

Green Hill has the Emerald Hill corkscrews too, but that's obvious. And the cool tube after the waterfall in Act 2 may be a reference to that Adabat DLC I never played (or any other).

GHZ in the original Sonic 1 tends to end with a hill with a shallow incline going down to a flat area - both acts in Generations have this too.

I've not played the Unleashed DLC (any of it, as I said before) but the Rooftop Run mission with the Endless Boost has the same sunset look as one of the extra acts. The main level (Act 2) also ends with Sonic going up to the goal ring in the same way as one of them. Act 2 also has pretty much all the major set pieces of the original, but in a different order, right down to the first 2D section being similar to the last one in Unleashed's version, and the second being akin to Unleashed's second, optional, dickish act.

Classic Rooftop Run has the Hill Top esque section with the baskets that go down the zipline, and there are also sections with hallway traps which are pretty much the same as the ones in Marble Zone and Marble Garden.

Classic Planet Wisp has a little section at the start with two springs facing each other that's a trap, which appears in all the classic games.

Most of the City Escape nods to the original and whatnot are very obvious, but the skateboard is essentially the board from Triple Trouble. It even has an item box for it!

Edited November 1, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[JezMM]

Classic Planet Wisp has a little section at the start with two springs facing each other that's a trap, which appears in all the classic games.

Oh, here's the one little reference the 3DS version DID manage to include! Such a trap can be found in one of the Water Palace acts.

[JaidynReiman]

The bombs Rouge uses during her City Escape Mission is based on the ones she used in 06

And the bombs she used in '06 are actually from Sonic Battle.

[batson]

One thing i would have loved was if the game also contained references to other media adpations of Sonic. Not to the degree of merging continuities or anything, but im talking about little stuff like for instance what i believe is the only actuall such reference in the game; namely the mission titled "Way Past Fast".

If they had done more stuff like that, then the game woudlnt just have been a celebration of 20 years of the franchises main continuity, but of the franchise as a whole, sorta like what that wonderfull "Turtles Forever" special was to the TMNT franchise.

It's not that im not gratefull for what we got because i totally am, but great can still always be greater.

[Rexeljet]

I didn't realise this before but the sound that plays when you activate an electric shield in the console version of Generations is an unused sound from Sonic 3 & Knuckles:

(At 0:44)

[Semi-colon e]

Classic Sonic's jump sound is closer to CD's than it is the Mega Drive games.

The buzzsaws in Planet Wisp may be a reference to both Scrap Brain and Metallic Madness. The sandworms are from Sandopolis Zone (though they behave much differently) - they were never in the original Colours Planet Wisp. Kind of an unusual coincidence really, considering Generations Planet Wisp is often likened to Sandopolis for being lengthy and tedious.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Takkun]

This was so interesting to read thanks for your time!!

[Anti Alias]

I'm pretty sure there is a robot in Planet Wisp ACT 2 that is just a freaking reincarnation of the fucking sllicer.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Anti Alias

[Pawn]

I don't think I've seen these ones mentioned here yet:

I'm pretty sure there is a robot in Planet Wisp ACT 2 that is just a freaking reincarnation of the fucking sllicer.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Pawn

[#EndyGate]

Nod to the whale from Sonic Adventure?:

By extension it is, but it's more based on how the whales hopped out of the water in Heroes

And the bombs she used in '06 are actually from Sonic Battle.

Actually, the bombs Rouge used in Sonic Battle were adorable chibi Rouge bombs, not the ones we see here.

Edited November 7, 2012 by That Bastard Cero

[Kareemadeem]

TV Tropes Continuity Nod: Sonic Generations

• This game's version of Green Hill Zone has an expansive, flooded underground area, similar to the Master System/Game Gear version of the first Sonic game.
• Some characters appear in stages that they were in previously. To list:
  • Knuckles in Sky Sanctuary
    The original version has Knuckles help Sonic & Tails get to the Death Egg from there. It was also the location of Knuckles' Final Boss.
  • Amy's case is unexpected: While she is featured in Chemical Plant, the boss race against Metal Sonic in Stardust Speedway follows after that level, and Amy originally needed to be rescued from there.
  • Rouge in City Escape
    While Rouge isn't playable in the original City Escape, the level's debut, Sonic Adventure 2, is also still her debut.
  • Cream & Cheese's appearance in Speed Highway is unusual as well: Cream makes a cameo appearance in Sonic Adventure DX, which was released near the time of Sonic Advance 2, her first appearance in the franchise.
    However, Cheese is a Chao and the first debut the Chao made were in Sonic Adventure.
  • Espio in Seaside Hill
    Espio and his comrades were brought back and reimagined for Sonic Heroes. Team Chaotix were also responsible for discovering who that game's Man Behind the Man was.
  • Blaze in Crisis City
    Whether going by Sonic or Silver's episode in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Blaze's first appearance in this game was in Crisis City.
  • Charmy in Planet Wisp
    Team Chaotix makes cameos on the Nintendo DS version of Colors in Planet Wisp's side missions, but are absent from the Wii version.
• In Sonic Unleashed, Dr. Eggman mentioned that the Egg Dragoon you fight with the Werehog was a prototype. You fight the final version in Generations with Modern Sonic.
  • It bloody shows.
• At the end of the game, it is revealed that Generations is the direct sequel to Sonic Colors. To be more precise, Eggman explains that he found the Time Eater immediately after The Stinger of Colors.
• Remember in Sonic Adventure where Sonic says, after every boss fight (even Perfect Chaos), "Hey, I'll play with you some other time."? Well guess who's the boss for the Dreamcast era.
• Modern Sonic first gets a tutorial on Light Dashing in Speed Highway — Sonic Adventure was the first game to give Sonic that ability. On the same note, the first tutorial on walljumping is in Seaside Hill, which gave the 'speed' member of each team*
  except Team Rose
  a walljumping ability — including Sonic.
  • In the 3DS version, Classic Sonic first learns how to Homing Attack in Emerald Coast — Sonic Adventure.
• The final boss is revealed to be a creature having turned manned machine by the combined efforts of Classic and Modern Eggman, which makes sense when you remember all the classic Mooks Eggman built were powered by animals he captured.
• After the credits, Classic Eggman and Modern Eggman are arguing when Classic Eggman asks "Do we ever win?", Modern Eggman responds "That depends on your definition of 'win'". As Eggman did win in Sonic Riders, but he only won a carpet.
  • This is followed up by Classic Eggman considering going for a teaching degree, a possible nod to Sonic's Schoolhouse, in which he appears.
• A subtle one occurs within the levels. The springboard from Sonic The Hedgehog 2 appears in this game, in Classic Sonic's stages. What should be noticed is that Green Hill (the level from Sonic 1) is the only level that doesn't seem to have them, while it was introduced in Chemical Plant (the level from Sonic The Hedgehog 2).
• There's also a small one in the cutscene where Sonic finds Knuckles — who immediately preforms a watered-down version of the Spiral Upper upon being unfrozen.
• Upon being rescued, Blaze jump up through the scenery of Crisis City, resting at it's peak before returning to Sonic. Clearly a reference to Silver's introductory movie in Sonic 2K6 where she is seen rooftop hopping in a similar fashion.
• Noticeably, while the level design is new, the levels reuse some elements from the original levels. Levels from the Genesis levels start exactly the same way as they did in the original games before straying for a new level design when playing as Classic Sonic, while the Dreamcast and Modern levels do the same when playing as Modern Sonic.*
  Crisis City is the only level that doesn't do this, however.
• The game even goes out of its way and lampshades the series' Nightmare Fuel as well, when Tails notes that Chemical Plant's purple water "makes him nervous for some reason". This is because in the original, said water would start rising at some point, and unless Sonic outran it, he would eventually drown in it. The scariest part in this being, of course, the series' infamous Scare Chord-ish "drowning music" that signals whenever a playable character is running out of air.
• Crisis City spawned the "That tornado is carrying a car" meme and in the 2006 version, Sonic is running away from it. Generations sort of makes fun of this in two ways. In Act 1, Classic Sonic must hop through the floating platforms, some of which are cars. In Act 2, Modern Sonic is running towards the tornado. Three guesses as to what he's being attacked with, and the fist two don't count. The achievement for running towards it without being hit further lampshades this.

 

 

[Live-Hedgehog]

[Deleted]

[Blue Blood]

Has anyone mentioned that the classic era levels start the same for classic sonic?

 

Yep- in the post right above Welcome to the forums, matey.

 

• Noticeably, while the level design is new, the levels reuse some elements from the original levels. Levels from the Genesis levels start exactly the same way as they did in the original games before straying for a new level design when playing as Classic Sonic, while the Dreamcast and Modern levels do the same when playing as Modern Sonic.*

  Crisis City is the only level that doesn't do this, however.

Actually, I wanted to point out that Crisis City does do this. You'll have a hard time noticing it though. In '06, Silver's Crisis City starts out just in front of a steep slope in a street-level area with skyscrapers either side of the path  instead of being up on rooftops where most of the stage is set. In Crisis City Modern, Sonic starts at the top of a steep slope (albeit larger than before) and runs straight into one of very few street-level areas with skyscrapers along either side of the path. It's not as obvious as all the other levels, but it seems intentional all things considered. 

Edited July 14, 2013 by Blue Blood

[Semi-colon e]

I was gonna say actually how it seems like Modern's level overall references Silver's sections as much as it does Sonic's, especially the start and the tornado section where instead of being chased by it, it's sitting in the background throwing cars at you like in Silver's and Shadow's level. Despite playing out like the mach speed section in Sonic's.

[KHCast]

The goal ring area of Moderns Crisis City really reminds me of the Iblis boss arena for Silver.