Thread:FredCat100/@comment-4166811-20180722120604/@comment-4166811-20180722150613

I made the edit to be consistent with the SNN Wiki's current stance on the issue.

In all honesty though, it's not a stance I agree with. Having two separate articles for "Ray the Flying Squirrel" and "Ray the Flying Squirrel (Classic Sonic's World)" is silly, since there is no "Modern series" version of Ray.

At San Diego Comic Con a few days ago, Iizuka said that Ray, Mighty, Fang, Bark and Bean are "Classic Sonic series" characters that don't belong to the Modern world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux3SLV-LjUI&t=15m57s

Last year, Iizuka gave a similar answer when asked about Mighty in an interview: https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/06/10/more-burning-questions-about-the-sonic-the-hedgehog-franchise-answered.aspx

''Has anybody noticed that Mighty the Armadillo is missing?

Iizuka: Mighty is a part of the Classic world and the Classic group of characters, and some of the Chaotix did get interpreted for the Modern vision of the games. However, Mighty still exists in the Classic world, so maybe we'll see him in the future in some Classic iteration.''

Notice that he also said that the modern Team Chaotix were interpretations of the previous versions, which follows on from what he said about them just before the release of Sonic Heroes: http://info.sonicretro.org/Takashi_Iizuka_interview_by_EGM_(February_3,_2004)

'EGM: Team Chaotix's gameplay is quite different than the other three teams'. Why did you decide to bring back these characters and give them fun, silly goals like rounding up hermit crabs?'''

Takashi Iizuka: In my mind, I didn't bring back the Team Chaotix characters from the past -- instead, they're new characters who happen to fit into the game. I wanted to create at least one team that was totally different from how Team Sonic talks and acts. Those three characters, Charmy, Espio, and Vector... they're so unique in their actions, personalities, and goals. They add a lot of flavor and variety to the overall picture. There's also the fact that those characters have never been used by Sonic Team -- we weren't involved with Knuckles Chaotix; some other internal sega Development team did that. So it's not a matter of bringing up old characters... we recreated those characters from the ground up. We want Sonic to be Sonic, and for the others to be supporting characters. I'm very happy with the way Team Chaotix turned out, so I hope they'll be brought back to another title in the future. You'll see more of them!''

As of Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces and Iizuka's statements, I think it would be best to treat all the "black eyed Sonic" games as "Classic Sonic series" and all the "green eyed Sonic" games as "Modern Sonic series".

There's still some overlap - Modern Sonic games have referenced Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles and CD. So it's not perfect. I kind of think of it like whenever DC Comics reboots its continuity but keeps bits and pieces of previous continuity. So Sonic Adventure would be the reboot, but it brought some elements of Sonic 1/2/3&K/CD along with it, whilst changing other elements (Amy going from age 8 to age 12).