The Sonic Canon, as it was until recently

[Your Vest Friend]

Technically neither is a prototype to the other going by the real world situation, so I'd just lump them as two lines that co-existed (which is somewhat supported by them both cameoing in Adventure), with Metal Sonic winning out in the end.

[BaronSFel001]

The problem with fitting Sonic 2 8-bit between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 is that Sonic & Tails are in possession of the (now known to be seven) chaos emeralds the whole time, whereas in Sonic 2 8-bit Sonic must collect the (still thought to be only six) chaos emeralds for Eggman in exchange for Tails' freedom.

 

I love Sonic 2 8-bit and would want it to be canon, but it can't come before Sonic 2 and can't really come after either.  In fact all the Game Gear games kind of don't fit in due to the 6 emeralds, the only place they could fit in is before it is discovered there are seven emeralds in Sonic 2.

 

Unless you want to headcanon it that there were always seven emeralds even in these games and only 6 appear because gameplay/early installment weirdness.

Up to Shadow the Hedgehog, all this was so much simpler by comparison *sigh*.  Maybe it still can be, though Iizuka does seem to really be throwing his weight around as the one in charge of Sonic Team now for longer than anyone other than Yuji Naka.  There are worse out there, such as Disney having to appoint some sort of committee project to sort out the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

 

One of my oldest theories may still stand on this particular point: South Island (where 8-bit Sonic 2 is set as well as Chaos which was clearly a direct sequel and also featured only 6 Emeralds) has a unique set of 6 Chaos Emeralds specific to it, as opposed to Angel Island's original 7.  Here is the key difference: even in other places with 7 Emeralds (i.e. Flicky Island) only Angel Island's set seems tied closest to the fabric of the planet (as shown in Sonic Unleashed) and space-time itself (strongly-implied in Sonic Generations), and is the only set of 7 allowing wielders to assume a Super form.  The Angel Island 7, confirmed to have disappeared from their altar during the Perfect Chaos incident, split into 14 total, half thrown into the sky (remaining on the now-flying Angel Island) and half thrown down to the earth (ending up on Westside Island).  Sonic gathered the Westside Island 7 in Sonic 2, brought them to Angel Island in Sonic 3, and they were reunited in a single "Super Emerald" set that apparently stayed in the Angel Island shrine for a time until they ended up out in the world being the only 7 Chaos Emeralds that truly mattered since.

 

South Island's 6, meanwhile, were targeted by Eggman several times for the same reason he went after them in Sonic 1: though not the most essential ones out there they still possess properties powerful enough for his purposes.  Not ruling anything out, and acknowledging the fact that Sonic first meets Tails in Sonic 2 16-bit with the story proceeding non-stop from there until Sonic & Knuckles ends, I cannot see anything explicitly-against Sonic 2 8-bit taking place after Sonic & Knuckles.  Keeping Chaos Emeralds as key lends perspective here; factors such as character age and appearance have become so hopelessly-inconsistent that if we placed too much importance on such nitpicky details we may just drive ourselves crazy.

[Salamander]

(According to Ian Flynn, a deleted scene from Generations would reveal that Time Eater was born from a piece of Mephiles that "slipped through a crack in time".)

[Shining]

On 3/22/2015 at 5:16 PM, Forte-Metallix said:

According to Iizuka (this information comes from multiple Summer of Sonic interviews):

 

 1) Sonic '06 was meant to be a reboot- Like Boom, the world of '06 takes place in a separate universe from the main continuity- even before Elise reset the timeline. That's why Blaze's backstory is different: she's not the same Blaze from Sonic Rush. As for why Crisis City came back in Generations: Time Eater messed up time and space so much that part of the '06 universe "leaked" into the main continuity.

(According to Ian Flynn, a deleted scene from Generations would reveal that Time Eater was born from a piece of Mephiles that "slipped through a crack in time".)

Do you have the link to the interview which stated that 06 happened in a different universe ? please ?

[Moose the Cat]

That post was from 5 years ago. But I guess to answer you--- Sonic 06 itself says it's in a different universe, in the game; it's reset in the end. You can find interviews from the creators by looking on the game's wikipedia page (look in the development section) and google. Hope this helps.

[BadBehavior]

This is a throback. I wonder how Mania and Forces screwed up the timeline further. "Classic Sonic is in the past but it's also another dimension but Sonic & co. act like they always knew him and and always knew he was from another dimension despite an entire game's evidence to the contrary."

[Moose the Cat]

8 hours ago, BadBehavior said:

This is a throback. I wonder how Mania and Forces screwed up the timeline further. "Classic Sonic is in the past but it's also another dimension but Sonic & co. act like they always knew him and and always knew he was from another dimension despite an entire game's evidence to the contrary."

You can check out my thread -- One True Blue Canon (Everything Happened theory) -- for I think the easiest / most fun view of the timeline, which is basically -- Eggman has been screwing with time so much, in so many stories in different games/comics/cartoons, that every Sonic story actually literally happened, but the characters aren't fully aware of all of those memories. 

Basically, Super Genesis Wave from Archie into Phantom Ruby/Forces/Mania into IDW means that now there's just one thread continuing, at the moment; all timelines and so forth have merged into one timeline that has a lot of holes / chutes/ ladders in it.

With only a few exceptions, the story is in the chronological order of release. Exceptions being things like Mania, Sonic 4, Sonic 2020 Movie, Sonic Underground coming earlier in the timeline, and Sonic Boom (show/cartoon/games - this is 10 Years Later), and Mobius 25-30 YL being the bookends.

Otherwise it's all happened to Sonic / Eggman in generally the same order as we've experienced it.