As many fans are wondering with any new game release, will Sonic Frontiers be canon to the current timeline? The Blue Blur and his pals have foiled Dr. Eggman’s plans time and time again, making a lot of new friends along the way to help them out. Over the years, some of these events have had some kind of impact. We can explain all we know.
Is Sonic Frontiers Canon?
In short, yes, Sonic Frontiers is canon to the timeline of the franchise. While we have seen the same scenario of Eggman plotting world domination or trying to defeat Sonic, those aren’t distant memories of alternate timelines. So, how exactly do we prove that the story of Frontiers is a continuation of the timeline in general? Tread carefully because there are some mild spoilers regarding the references below.
Throughout the story, the characters will make callbacks to previous endeavors in their journeys. Such references to previous games include the following titles:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
When talking to Knuckles, he has a flashback to a time when he was on Angel Island. There’s a brief moment where you see him and the Chaos Emeralds in a 16-bit image.
Sonic Adventure
In a few Egg Memos, Dr. Eggman recalls events when Sonic was giving him trouble in Station Square. He further talks about Chaos, the god of destruction, who originated from the first Sonic Adventure game.
Sonic Adventure 2
Once again in a few Egg Memos, Dr. Eggman talks about Tails and how his aiding of Sonic was a nuisance when he was on the ARK. This is the space colony where Shadow the Hedgehog was created. Eggman also mentions his cousin, Maria, who was a prominent character in the game.
Shadow the Hedgehog
There’s a reference to the Black Arms, the extraterrestrial race of enemies who are the main bad guys in Shadow’s standalone spinoff game.
Sonic Heroes
Sonic and his pals talk about a time when Metal Sonic because Neo Metal Sonic in this game. Neo Metal Sonic was the true final boss upon collecting all the Chaos Emeralds.
Sonic Colors
In another Egg Memo, Dr. Eggman talks about how he embraced the Eggman moniker given by Sonic. In Colors, Sonic called Eggman “Baldy McNosehair”, a name that he will not adopt because his “dignity has limits.”
Team Sonic Racing
This is somehow tied to the canonical Sonic universe. There is mention of “Planet Donpa Kingdom race data”, clearly referring to the area ruled by Dodon Pa.
Sonic Riders
The Babylonians were a type of race mostly mentioned in the Sonic Riders games.
Sonic Forces
Tails and Sonic have a heart-to-heart where he tells Sonic that he almost gave up when taking on Infinite. This conversation does imply the future of Sonic games moving forward.
Sonic Boom
Sticks the Badger was mentioned in passing by Amy, meaning that the events in that series are also somewhat canon. Despite character designs being far different, it counts.
The references made calls back to some kind of event, enemy faction, or the origin of a character from these respective games. There are more out there, further fleshing out the timeline of Sonic the Hedgehog entirely. As more of these references are discovered, it only further proves that Sonic Frontiers is indeed canon to the main storyline.
Sonic Frontiers is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
