Silver the Hedgehog/History and appearances

Past
Silver has three conflicting backstories for Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). On the game website, it states he came from a happy future that was never destroyed and ended up in the past where he learned his future would be destroyed and tries to prevent it from changing for the worse. In the game guide, it is implied that Silver is from the present and ends up in the future; where he learns that it was destroyed during the events in Sonic the Hedgehog and goes to seek what would destroy the future when he returns to the past (though it is mentioned in a cutscene that he is from the future; see below). The actual story is in the game, Silver lives in a destroyed future and goes to the past to change the future for the better.

Silver is from at least two hundred or more years in the future of Sonic's world. In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), while Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are exploring the city in which he lives, Knuckles says, "How could this be our future?" The second and third times the player discovers that Silver's world is the future of Sonic's world is in Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rivals 2 respectively. Right before Eggman Nega turns Sonic’s world into a card, Silver clearly states “What?! But that will mean my future will be destroyed too!” In Sonic Rivals 2, he says to Espio and Knuckles, "I have to save your world or else my world will be destroyed as well!"

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Silver first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). In a distant, post-apocalyptic future, Silver was flying through a ruined city until his best friend and partner, Blaze, showed up and informed him that Iblis had appeared again. Silver flew off, with Blaze following behind on foot. Once they reached their destination, they found Iblis had risen from the lava. The two defeated Iblis, but Silver became frustrated that they were unable to completely destroy him. He and Blaze then notice Mephiles standing up on the remains of a building, who tells them that, if they want to change the future, they must go back in time to kill the Iblis Trigger, the individual responsible for Iblis' resurrection. Mephiles states the Iblis Trigger is Sonic, and sends himself, Blaze, and Silver back in time to when Sonic was still alive, although the trio was separated from each other in the process. Silver found Sonic after his failed attempt to save Princess Elise from Dr. Eggman during the Festival of the Sun. Before he could act, Silver was distracted by Amy when she mistook him for Sonic. Amy offers to help him find the person he is looking for, but Silver was unwilling to accept her help. Eventually, he decided to help Amy in exchange for her help, though neither of them knew they were both looking for the same person: Sonic. Soon afterward, Silver encountered Sonic and attacked him. Sonic initially had the upper hand, but Silver used his psychokinesis to take Sonic by surprise and throw him into a wall, incapacitating him. Silver wondered if Mephiles was joking, wondering how someone as weak as Sonic could possibly be the Iblis Trigger. Sonic attempted to run after Silver when Dr. Eggman captured Elise again, but Silver stopped him in his tracks and was about to deliver the final blow when Amy intervened, allowing Sonic to escape. Silver told Amy the world would be devastated due to Sonic's actions, but Amy refused to believe Sonic would do such a thing, then she left Silver in a huff. Disheartened, Silver went off to ponder whether killing Sonic to save the future was truly the right thing to do.

Blaze found Silver at the docks and, after some conversation, she convinced him that they need to save the future by any means necessary. After failing to track Sonic down at Eggman's base in White Acropolis (though they acquire Elise's blue Chaos Emerald there), they encountered Mephiles, who told them that Sonic was at the terminal station. After tracking him down, Silver attacked Sonic with his psychokinesis once more, allowing Eggman to capture Elise once again in the confusion. Again, Silver was about to deliver the final blow when Shadow (whom Silver at first mistook for Mephiles) intervened, again allowing Sonic to escape. The two fought to a standstill, and Shadow used Chaos Control to evade Silver's intended punch and kicked Silver in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Refusing to be defeated and desperate to save his world, Silver pulled out his Chaos Emerald and copied Shadow in performing a Chaos Control, causing the two of them to accidentally open up a time portal. Shadow was impressed Silver induced Chaos Control, but suspected Mephiles may have darker intentions for the orders he had given Silver. He asked Silver to follow him back to the day that the Solaris Project went haywire so they could discover what really happened.

Once they arrived, Shadow and Silver witnessed the project's failure first hand, with a machine exploding and the Duke of Soleanna badly injured while protecting a younger Elise. The hedgehog duo decided to split up; Shadow pursued Mephiles while Silver pursued Iblis. Silver tracked down Iblis and paralyzed it with his psychokinesis and the dying Duke (despite Silver's insistence that he run) seized this opportunity to use a Chaos Emerald to seal Iblis within the unconscious body of Elise, entrusting Silver to escort her to a safe place. Silver carried Elise out of the lab and met up with Shadow who had successfully captured Mephiles. Silver set Elise down by a nearby tree while Shadow left the Scepter of Darkness with her, knowing what becomes of it in the future. Together they opened up a time portal to the present, which Shadow immediately jumping through. Silver was just about to follow when he hears Elise call for her father in her sleep. Feeling sorry for her, Silver gave Elise his blue Chaos Emerald and then followed Shadow through the portal.

Upon their return, Silver revealed to Blaze that Mephiles had lied about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger and realized that Eggman may intend to release Iblis. Silver and Blaze assisted Sonic to save Elise from Eggman to which Sonic accepted their help. However, they witnessed the Egg Carrier crashing into a mountain and exploding, killing both Elise and Eggman. After a moment of grieving, Sonic and Silver used Chaos Control to allow Sonic to travel back in time before the Egg Carrier left Eggman's base in order to save her, and Sonic gave Silver his Chaos Emerald in order for Silver and Blaze to return to their own time, which they do.

Silver and Blaze then defeated Iblis once more and he attempted to use himself as Iblis's vessel. Although he was not accepted, Blaze was. She sealed Iblis within herself and used Chaos Control to teleport herself into another dimension, much to Silver's dismay and sadness.

In the past, when Mephiles merged with Iblis, Silver was among the characters who were transported to Solaris's dimension, where they all worked together to gather the Chaos Emeralds in order to resurrect Sonic and defeat Solaris. In the end, Sonic, Shadow, and Silver successfully destroyed Solaris, and Sonic and Elise traveled back in time to when Solaris was just a flame and extinguish him, erasing the game's events from history, and thus, resetting the timeline. What became of Silver's world after this is unknown.

Sonic Rivals
Silver is another one of Sonic's rivals, backed by his confirmed playable appearance in Sonic Rivals. He was responding to a distress signal, though he doesn't know its source. He later discovered that Dr. Eggman Nega is linked to this distress signal and was using a strange camera to turn people and/or objects into cards. Silver states that he will bring Eggman Nega back to the future where he belongs. He is also given three alternate costumes. As the events of Sonic the Hedgehog never happened, Silver and Sonic are introduced to each other for the first time, and it seems that Sonic has truly forgotten the events of the previous game (though it is implied at the end that he and Elise retain their memories of the events to some extent), as he does not seem to recognize Silver.

Sonic Rivals 2
Silver reappeared in the sequel, Sonic Rivals 2. He comes from the future once again to save both the past and his own time, by hiding Chao from Eggman Nega so that a powerful beast is known as the "Ifrit" cannot reach its full power. Espio, on orders from Vector, followed after Silver and eventually the two work together. Silver runs into Knuckles in which the latter mocks of Silver's craziness believing that the Chao could save the world, provoke both to a fight. On the next zone, Silver becomes extremely exhausted as he had used too much of his ESP power and needs Rings, so Espio went to collect Rings to re-energize him.

After defeating Eggman Nega's Egg Bull, Eggman Nega claimed that he acquired more than enough Chao to feed to the Ifrit and tells the duo that he has hidden the Chao inside a mysterious mansion. Without wasting time, Silver and Espio frantically searched thoroughly through the mansion but the secret room could not be found. When confronting Eggman Nega again, the mad doctor realized that the Chao somehow disappeared from his secret room, much to his disgrace. The portal to the Ifrit's dimension then opened up. However, he claimed that the Ifrit's might is still powerful enough to destroy the world and sent his copy of Metal Sonic to wake the beast up. Silver, more determined than ever to stop the Ifrit from its awakening raced with the robot and was victorious. However, Eggman Nega had already woke the Ifrit up, using the race as a distraction to do so. Despite the Ifrit's might, Silver and Espio proved victorious and defeated the beast and returned back into the portal, leaving Eggman Nega behind.

Sonic Colors (DS)
Silver appears in Sonic Colors, but only in the DS version. He finds Sonic and Tails in Sweet Mountain when Tails reads a sign in the Sweet Mountain written that the place is the "future," Silver laughs and says that the future is nothing like Sweet Mountain, but is in fact even happier. Silver then asks Sonic to destroy 20 Eggman robots. When Sonic beats all of them, Silver asks if he needs further help, Sonic tells him that he can handle it on his own. Silver then decides to go in a ride with Blaze, until both are stopped by Orbot and Cubot. They scare the robots away with their fire and psychic powers. Then, they ask Sonic to test out a ride for his mission, which is arbitrarily timed. They thank Sonic for testing it out and then Sonic leaves. He points out that he feels like he paired up with Blaze sometime before.

Sonic Generations
In Sonic Generations, Silver found himself in the White Space created by the Time Eater. During this time, he once again crossed paths with Sonic, the latter of whom was on a journey with his younger self from another dimension to restore this shattered world. Believing Sonic to be an imposter, Silver challenged the hero to a fight which he ultimately lost and handed over the Chaos Emerald he had to him. Afterward, Silver reappeared along with the rest of the heroes to cheer on the two Sonics in defeating the Time Eater. Upon the monster's defeat, Silver ended up back in the present with everybody else, where he stuck around for the remainder of Sonic's birthday party before waving goodbye to the younger Sonic and Tails as they returned to their original timeline.

Sonic Jump (2012)
In Sonic Jump (2012), Silver and co. discovered that Eggman had begun kidnapping Animals again and taking them high into the sky, prompting the heroes to set out to stop Dr. Eggman's operations. Whenever they managed to corner Eggman in a Zone and defeat him however, the doctor would retreat to another Zone, although not before capturing more Animals. After Eggman's defeat in Mechanical Zone however, the doctor would crash down to Earth, ending his plans, thus allowing Silver to reunite with all the Animals.

Sonic Forces
In Sonic Forces, as a result of Eggman's world domination, Silver's time was once more thrown into chaos. With little historical records to explain what had happened, Silver went back to the past to prevent the catastrophe from happening. There, he met Knuckles on Angel Island, and tried to warn him about the coming disaster. At first, Knuckles dismissed Silver as a dream, only for Angel Island to be replaced by the village of Pachacamac. Almost immediately after, a suddenly aggressive Chaos appeared and attacked the two. Though they beat Chaos, the beast suddenly disappeared. After Silver explained to Knuckles his reason for being there, the two flew down to the surface to spread the word.

Silver's warning soon came true: after Dr. Eggman defeated (and seemingly killed) Sonic the Hedgehog, the doctor began conquering the world with his Eggman Army. To counter the Eggman Empire, Silver and his friends formed a rag-tag freedom fighting group called the Resistance. However, the group could not do much against the Eggman Empire, who eventually conquered over 99% of the planet.

After six months of warfare, the Resistance met up to discuss the low morale among the people. Not giving in, Silver urged his comrades to give the people hope and not despair. Not long after, Silver was introduced to the Resistance's newest recruit: the Avatar. After this, Silver learned from Knuckles that Sonic was not dead, but imprisoned onboard Eggman's newly rebuilt Death Egg. Needing a shuttle to reach Sonic, Silver and a squad of soldiers broke into the Spaceport and stole a shuttle. Silver soon learned from Rouge, however, that Eggman was moving Sonic's execution forward after catching wind of their rescue. Silver and his allies thus hurried to the Death Egg, only to be slowed down by the enemies onboard the space station. Luckily, the Avatar found Sonic and got him back home.

While in the Mystic Jungle, Silver met the masked menace who defeated Sonic. He engaged him in battle but was defeated and nearly killed. Luckily, Sonic arrived in time to block his final attack. The masked one introduced himself as Infinite and fought Sonic instead, leaving Silver be. Although Infinite left after beating Sonic, both hedgehog spent some time healing afterward. While recuperating, Silver observed the evacuation efforts of the City after Eggman's army invaded it. Later on, Rouge detected some readings in Mystic Jungle, to which Silver believed was just more of Eggman's robots. After his hunch got disproven and the Avatar went to investigate them, Silver feared that the Avatar was heading into danger.

The Avatar soon returned with Tails and Classic Sonic (who had been brought to Silver's dimension by Eggman's new power) in tow. There, Tails told Silver and the others that Eggman would execute a plan in three days to destroy them all. Vector then interrupted, saying that Shadow and an army of Death Egg Robot sentinels were attacking the City. While Silver thought that Shadow was siding with Eggman due to the influence of Infinite's strange power, Sonic went ahead to see what was going on. While there, Silver told Sonic via radio that they would keep the robot army in check while he looked for Shadow. In the meantime, Knuckles learned that Eggman was undermanned at Metropolis and planned a attack called Operation Big Wave to take the city. Silver himself joined the assault and although the plan was working at first, Infinite made them to retreat after casting the invasion army into chaos with his Phantom Ruby prototype's power.

In the aftermath, Silver and the Resistance learned from the real Shadow that the familiar faces in Eggman's army were replicas created by Infinite. Not long after, Silver and the Resistance launched a plan to destroy the Death Egg, the power supply for Eggman's Phantom Rubies, in order to shut these weapons down. When the Avatar later attacked Guardian Rock to distract the Eggman Army as a part of their plan, Silver urged the Avatar to focus on their task. As planned, the Avatar's distraction allowed the Resistance to destroy the Death Egg, whose destruction Silver observed from the Resistance HQ. However, the Resistance discovered while capturing Metropolis that Eggman had a backup reactor for his Phantom Rubies underneath the Eggman Empire Fortress.

With less than an hour before Eggman put his endgame into effect, Silver and the Resistance launched one final attack on Eggman's tower at the fortress in hopes of stopping the Phantom Rubies. As they fought their way through the army of replicas, E-123 Omega came to their rescue when Infinite got ready to finish them off. It was then, however, that Infinite launched Eggman's endgame: using his Phantom Ruby, he got ready to drop a virtual sun on the Resistance and kill them all. Fortunately, the Avatar was able to neutralize Infinite's sun in the last second using a Phantom Ruby prototype. This allowed Silver and the rest to resume the fight on the battlefield while Sonic and the Avatar destroyed Infinite and the Phantom Rubies' reactor. Eggman, however, had foreseen this and his used his original Phantom Ruby in conjunction with his Death Egg Robot to create thousands of replicas to overwhelm Silver and the rest with. Fortunately, Sonic, the Avatar and Classic Sonic beat Eggman and destroyed his robot, which made the replica army vanish and left the Resistance as the victors.

After watching Classic Sonic return to his own dimension now that the Phantom Ruby was gone, Silver and his friends followed Sonic's example and set out to rid the world of all traces of Eggman's reign. At a last meeting in the HQ, Knuckles disbanded the Resistance as the Avatar announced their departure. Silver, however, reminded Knuckles that they still had a lot to do. The friends then agreed with Tails that even though they were going back to their old lives, they would be friends forever and keep working together to restore the world.

Sonic and the Secret Rings
In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Silver appears as a playable character in Party Mode. He can be played after collecting 87 Fire Souls.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Silver was originally intended to be playable in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games but was removed for some reason.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Silver, along with Metal Sonic, is one of the new characters who is playable in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. He is a Skill type character. His signature move in the Wii version is Levitate and Teleport Dash for the DS.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Silver reappears in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games once again as a Skill type playable character.

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
Silver appears once more in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, where he appears as a Skill type.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity
In Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Silver appears as a playable character. He can be unlocked after clearing the Babylon storyline. His default Extreme Gear in this game is the Psychic Wave. He also has his own unique attack that he can execute when obtaining an Attack.

Sonic Free Riders
In Sonic Free Riders, Silver appears once more as a playable character. He can be unlocked after clearing both Team Rose and Team Dark story mode. Like in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, his default Extreme Gear in this game is the Psychic Wave.

Sega Superstars Tennis
In Sega Superstars Tennis, Silver makes a brief cameo in the Green Hill Zone as a cheering audience member. Whacking him with a tennis ball nets the player an achievement.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Silver appears occasionally in the Green Hill Zone level as one of three characters (the others being Tails and Knuckles) running through the shuttle loop. He also appears as a Trophy (which is unlocked by beating Target Test level 3 with all characters, meaning that the player cannot have multiple copies of it) and a Sticker:

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U
Silver, along with Tails and Knuckles, reprised his role as a cameo in Green Hill Zone in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. He also appears as a Trophy in both versions of the game:

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Silver will once again make a cameo appearance in Green Hill Zone.

Sonic Unleashed
In Sonic Unleashed, though Silver doesn't appear in the game, he is referenced in the day stage of Empire City under the name of "Silver Beach", along with other places named after characters like "Blaze Road".

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Silver was indirectly referenced in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, in the Chaos Emerald part of the journey, where it states that Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and a variety of other people have been known to use the power of the Emeralds to achieve Super States.

Sonic Dash
In Sonic Dash, Silver makes an appearance as a playable character. In this game, he can be unlocked in the following ways: During the Festive Challenge, it was possible to unlock Silver as well.
 * Pay 65 Red Star Rings
 * Win him during the Daily Spin Jackpot after unlocking Amy/Blaze

Sonic Jump Fever
In Sonic Jump Fever, Silver appears as a playable character. In this game, he can be unlocked after either collecting fifty 250 Silver Character Tokens or paying 750 Red Star Rings for him. In gameplay, Silver generates a psychic energy field which attracts bonus items. The power-ups he can utilize in this game include the Shield, Ring Time, Stun and Detonate.

Silver also appears on the game's preset leaderboards, placing seventh in each Zone. When playing a Zone, a destructible monitor containing Silver's portrait will appear if his score has been passed.

Sonic Runners
In Sonic Runners, Silver is a playable Speed Type "Easy" character. In gameplay, he can perform a triple jump and lower the game's speed by 10%, although at the cost of cutting the score in half. There is also an alternate version of Silver, known as "ESP Silver", who is stated to have discovered his true power after splitting from Blaze. This version of Silver was a Fly Type "Future" character who reduced game speed by 5%, but got a 37% score bonus.

During the "Birthday on Windy Hill" event, Silver and Blaze were going to Sonic's birthday party when they got kidnapped by Dr. Eggman. Though the duo escaped, the were attacked by a Death Egg drone just as Team Sonic found them, who helped them destroy it. Silver and Blaze then offered their aid to Team Sonic and began helping them look for Eggman. After Eggman was stopped, Silver joined Sonic at the party, certain this beautiful day was a reward to Sonic for all he had done.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle
Silver is one of the playable characters in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle who was added to the game's roster in the version 1.0.1 update. He has the following gameplay characteristics: