Time, Space, Flow in the Canon of Sonic

[Faseeh]

The purpose of this topic is to examine the flow,regarding time and space, in canon Sonic games (going as of Generations, just with the inclusion of Shadow), as of themselves.

 

I'll do the Classic Console Era in this post. Will do the rest in another time.

 

 

Let's start with Sonic 1. This game seems to have the easiest flow to figure out.

 

From Green Hill to Final Zone all seems like a day. Green Hill would be in the morning, Marble Zone would be in the afternoon, Spring Yard in the evening, Labyrinth in the night, Starlight Zone around midnight, Scrap Brain happening in the wee hours and Final Zone happening just before early morning and when Sonic runs in Green Hill again, it's the next day.

 

An extra thing to note would be that Sonic needs 8-10 hours of sleep per day, according to a Sonic Team USA interview, which happened during the Sonic Heroes hype time.

 

So Sonic would have had about 16-20 hours sleep before and after Sonic 1. 

 

Sonic CD next.

 

The whole adventure can technically happen on a day or anything due to time travel. So there's not much to talk about that. Unless someone can take up the challenge and impress everyone

 

Sonic 2 up next.

 

 

Oh god this game happens to take over quite a number of days....seeing how Sonic needs 8-10 hours a sleep a day... I'm almost very convinced that was pull right of Sonic Team USA's butt.

 

Emerald Hill and Chemical Plant cover one day. Aquatic Ruin and Casino Night the next. Hill Top and Mystic Cave the next. And the next day suddenly has no morning... Very jarring, this kinda ruins the flow. Oil Ocean in the evening, Metropolis presumably in the night. Next day, Sky Chase all the way to Death Egg.

 

5 days. Probably up to 50 hours of rest before and after... wow.

 

BUT WAIT.

 

 

Remember this game? I'm sure you do. It continues right after Sonic 2. Still no sleep. And he's gone through 5 days. 

 

Angel Island to Carnival Night would cover one day, Ice Cap and Launch Base happening in the next day till the early evening seeing how the Launch Base boss in Sonic 3 & Knuckles happens in that time. 

 

and then you Mushroom Hill in the morning or afternoon.

 

As you can tell here, this just shows that they really should have kept the Sonic 3 boss or they were trying to but memory limits. 

 

We'll take it that Big Arm is what really happened. 

 

So Mushroom Hill to Hidden Palace in one day and Sky Sanctuary to Doomsday being the next. 

 

So altogether... he could have missed up to 90 HOURS of sleep and he managed to go strong through out this. 

 

Dear god.

 

and now for Sonic 4.

 

 

So there's a break in between 3&K and Sonic 4. Finally.

 

Anyways, Splash Hill to Casino Night take up a day, Lost Labyrinth to EGG Station take up the next. 2 days. Up to 20 hours of sleep, not a huge deal.

 

BUT WAIT.

 

 

This happens right after S4EP1. Slyvania Castle to White Park, taking one day. Oil Desert (I'll think the pink sky was caused by the pollution which Sonic had almost finished clearing by Act 3, resulting in the blue sky) to Death Egg MK II, taking another.

 

So it's 40 hours. Still not as bad as Sonic 2 - Sonic 3&K but hey.

 

So thoughts? Anything wrong here so far? Discuss away!

[Salamander]

The time of day is just there for decoration.  They pick whatever works best for the colours or the atmosphere of the stage.

[Faseeh]

The time of day is just there for decoration.  They pick whatever works best for the colours or the atmosphere of the stage.

 

Well, I agree. It'd be boring if we always have to go by this, I sure would like them to go out and go with what they prefer. But sometimes it's nice to look at the flow.

 

However, the art style is also kinda just there for decoration but it is important. Similarly, this is kinda like the same thing.

 

or maybe we have really nothing to discuss

[Emmett L. Brown]

I like this topic, but Sonic 3 definitely doesn't take place immediatelly after Sonic 2. Not just because the story specifically says it's been a while, but also because ya gotta give Eggman some time to build bases, vandalise ruins, dig some mines, repair the Death Egg, sucker Knuckles, shove animals into robots, and all the rest. Animal-powered robot Rome was not built in a day, my lad!

 

But anyway I like this topic because the continuous transition from day to night to day again across Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of my favourite background details, tying in with the cool way they tied every level together like one long adventure - which it totally was.

 

Between obviously non-linked levels in games I would generally figure some time was spent just travelling from the previous zone to the next with no opposition or hazards worth showing. From Mystic Mansion to Egg Fleet was taking it a bit too far, though. I can't have been the only person who started the final levels of Sonic Heroes with a sense of "how the hell did we get here?" For some reason I'll accept "we travelled across land" easily, but not "we acquired transport to low orbit". Tails has a plane, but I don't see him lending it to three other suspicious trios for charitable convenience.

 

Having digressed, 5 days seems a fair count for Sonic 2. I'm down with that.